Washington's Immortals

by Patrick K. O'Donnell

  The men needed shoes, buckles, stockings, shirts, overalls, a hat, a comb, a blanket, a knife, tents, a camp kettle, and other related items in addition to weapons. In the beginning, they supplied many of these needs themselves. Housing and tents were also in short supply. One officer noted that his company was so poorly equipped that the men had to “encamp out among the pines without Blankets or Tents.” He complained, “We stand here exposed and remain in a most Defenceless state.” Over time, they needed replacements for their clothing and equipment. Sometimes Congress or the states provided these for the troops, but more often, the men went without.

  The new troops also needed food. Officers exchanged many letters on the subject of acquiring meat and bread to fill the battalion’s stomachs. Congress fixed rations at a pound of beef, three-quarters of a pound of pork, or a pound of fish per day. Provisions also included peas, beans, vegetables, “cyder,” and molasses. But like the uniforms and equipment, the rations were more hope than reality. As the war progressed, many Marylanders starved, wore rags, and went barefoot.

  Informally, the Marylanders referred to these companies collectively as Smallwood’s Battalion, as the colony placed the bulk of the existing independent companies, including Gist’s, under the leadership of Colonel William Smallwood. Born in Charles County, Maryland, and educated at Eton College in England, Smallwood came from a family of politicians. After serving in the French and Indian War, he was elected as a representative in the Maryland provincial assembly, the local government for the colony. At the time of his appointment, he was a portly forty-three-year-old planter who was highly respected in Maryland but who also possessed a pettiness that didn’t endear him to many of his men.

  Being placed under Smallwood’s command did not sit well with Gist, who sent a letter to the Maryland government demanding that he be allowed to continue as commander of his company. It stated that Gist, on his own time and at his own risk, recruited the company that had twice elected him as commander. Gist imbued a winning tradition in the troops, teaching them that “Success alone is merit.” Finally, he concluded, “If appointed to an office (not beneath what my former rank entitled me to) I shall endeavor to acquit myself with honour to those who are pleased to appoint me.” He signed the missive, rather ironically, as “Your most obedient, humble servant, Mordecai Gist.”

  The convention not only acceded to Gist’s request, but promoted him, making him a second major of the entire regiment under Smallwood. Gist’s former company retained something of its independence although it was now under Smallwood’s command. In addition, many of the men from his company were given high positions in the newly established battalion. Former members of the Baltimore Independent Company made up a quarter of the commissioned and noncommissioned officers in Smallwood’s Battalion.

  Many of the officers in Smallwood’s companies possessed strong leader­ship qualities. Those characteristics allowed many to attain prominent positions in politics after the war. Several became congressmen or state senators, and Smallwood himself eventually became governor. The original slate of officers in the battalion included Nathaniel Ramsay, a lawyer from Cecil County, who was a captain in the unit. Educated at the College of New Jersey (today Princeton University), Ramsay was thirty-four when the Maryland Battalion formed, and so was one of the older men in the regiment. Ramsay’s family included several notable figures. His brother David Ramsay became a prominent early historian of the American Revolution, and his brother-in-law was the famous artist Charles Willson Peale, who served with the Pennsylvania militia. Peale painted several portraits of America’s founders, including nearly sixty portraits of George Washington.

  Charles Willson Peale’s younger brother James was also a renowned artist, although not as highly regarded as Charles Willson. The two lived and worked together for a time, with James focusing on miniatures. In January 1776 James accepted a commission as an ensign in Smallwood’s Battalion at the age of twenty-six. The ensigns, junior officers, had a special place in a company or regiment, as they took turns carrying the colors. After about two years of service, Peale was promoted to captain.

  Finding enough officers with natural leadership qualities proved challenging, as was the case for any fledging military unit formed from scratch. One Baltimorean wrote to the Maryland authorities, “There are a good many more vacancies in the 8th Battalion as soon as they can be collected together a list will be laid before you in order that they may be filled up.” He added, “The men are undisciplined they therefore more especially require to be full officer’d. But as we may want time to do that. I am determined to march with what we have.”

  Another of those new officers was Edward Veazey, a fourth-­generation American from Cecil County who was named captain of the 7th Independent Company under Smallwood. Like many of the young officers, Veazey was from one of Maryland’s leading families. His relatives were wealthy, slaveholding plantation owners, and many of them held public office in Maryland during and after the Revolution. Also from a prominent family was Bryan Philpot Jr., a twenty-year-old who obtained a commission as an ensign. Philpot’s father was very influential in Baltimore as a successful merchant and landowner. Later, the city named a street, bridge, point, and hill after the family.

  Many of the Maryland officers were quite young when they assumed their ranks. William Sterrett was only eighteen years old when he became a first lieutenant in the Maryland Battalion in January 1776. Descended from Irish immigrants, the Sterrett family ran a very successful store in Baltimore, John Sterrett & Company, which sold imported goods like cloth and salt; the Sterretts also owned shipping interests and land in the area. The family ardently supported the Revolution, and William’s brother John served as a captain in the Baltimore County Militia. His sister Mary, known as Polly, later married Mordecai Gist. A large number of the men in the battalion were bound together by friendship or family ties.

  These young officers were often promoted through the ranks quickly. James Fernandis originally entered Smallwood’s Battalion as an enlisted soldier on January 30, 1776. Of Spanish ancestry, the Fernandis family had immigrated to Maryland more than 120 years before the Revolution broke out. Within six months of enlistment, Fernandis had received a commission as a lieutenant. Six months later, he was a second lieutenant, and by April 1777 he had become a first lieutenant. Another, John Bantham, a twenty-year-old from Kent County, enlisted as a private but became a sergeant within just a few days, likely because of his innate ability to lead men.

  As the acid test of leadership, the officers were required to recruit their own men, who commonly included people from their hometowns. Each company quickly filled up. The Marylanders spanned the spectrum of socioeconomic classes but were largely farmers (and their sons) and some artisans, like ship’s carpenters, brewers, bakers, and blacksmiths. One officer stated when writing to Smallwood that he hoped to “have a very Respectable Company of farmers sons as I am determined I will take very few, if any, out of this Town.”

  The muster rolls from 1775 to 1776 are fragmentary. Based on information about one company, the average age of the recruits, who hailed from all of Maryland’s counties, was just under twenty-five years, and the average height was around five-foot-seven. A variety of factors motivated the men to join: For many, it was patriotism; for ­others it may have been a chance to improve their standard of living. Still others, green and unaccustomed to the horrors of war, may have been seduced by dreams of glory and honor.

  In all wars, the privates do most of the fighting; Smallwood’s Bat­talion was no different. The enlisted ranks were filled with men who signed up for one year of service, such as John Hughes, a twenty-six-year-old Marylander from Frederick County. Some, like John Boudy, a young teenager who lived with his parents at Bald Friar’s Ferry on the Susquehanna River in northern Maryland, served through the entire war. Many sets of brothers also joined Smallwood’s Battalion, including the Scottish-born McMillan brothers, who were l
ikely poor tenant farmers raising tobacco in the eastern portion of Harford County in the Chesapeake region. Both men started out in the militia, enlisted in the battalion in the spring, and were quickly promoted to sergeant in a few months.

  Free African Americans also joined the ranks of Smallwood’s Battalion. While the exact number who served the unit through the course of the war is impossible to determine, estimates say around five thousand African Americans served in the entire Continental Army and twice as many fought for the British. This was not only America’s first army, but America’s first integrated army, the likes of which wouldn’t be seen again until after World War II. In a cruel irony, thousands of black men fought for the values of liberty and freedom while tens of thousands of their brothers remained enslaved.

  Indentured servants were not eligible for service unless they had permission from their master or mistress. Indentured service and slavery were both fairly common in Maryland at the time: a 1752 census of Baltimore County listed 11,345 free whites; 1,501 white indentured servants and convicts; 4,143 black and mulatto slaves; and 204 free blacks and mulattoes. Sometimes servants signed up illegally. One such case was Daniel Brophy, who joined Smallwood’s Battalion in the spring of 1776. Brophy was later returned to his master after the man demanded restitution.

  The company’s noncommissioned officers helped with recruitment. Sergeants were specifically assigned this task. Twenty-three-year-old Gassaway Watkins began his career as one of those NCOs. Born and raised in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, he attained the rank of ensign the year he enlisted and later became a captain. A “man of magnificent physique, six-feet-two inches in height, well-proportioned and developed,” Watkins had statuesque height that made “him conspicuous in battle.”

  As the companies filled up with men, the next task was to provide training, equipment, and arms.

  Chapter 3

  Girding for War

  Arming Smallwood’s Battalion was a nightmare. Most of the firearms were personally owned by the soldiers who carried them, and this situation led to a hodgepodge of makes, models, and calibers. In the beginning, many of the newly minted soldiers didn’t have any weapons at all during their drill. As supplies came in, they received muskets, sometimes called firelocks.

  Operating this kind of weapon was a time-consuming chore. Troops like the Marylanders carried cartridge pouches that held twelve to thirty-six prepared cartridges. The cartridges were tubes of paper with the same diameter as the musket bore. Each contained a ball and a premeasured amount of black powder, and they were crimped on the end. To fire, the soldier would pull out a cartridge, rip off the top of the paper with his teeth, pour a small amount of powder into the priming pan, pour the rest of the powder into the musket barrel, and then insert the ball and paper into the barrel and ram them down. Only then was the musket ready to fire. Under the best possible conditions, a well-trained and well-supplied soldier could load and shoot four or five times per minute. In the heat of battle, distracted by the smoke and sounds of conflict and with adrenaline surging through his veins, a soldier often forgot or skipped essential steps in the intricate process, which could lead to misfires that had deadly consequences.

  Technology drove tactics. Because muskets were so inaccurate, troops practiced laying down concentrated fire in large numbers. Soldiers of the time lined up in rows, sometimes eight or ten ranks deep, and fired en masse, meaning that everyone in the front ranks who had a clear line of sight to the opposing side pulled his trigger at the same time. This massed fire improved the odds of hitting the enemy.

  As formidable as they sound, most of these volleys weren’t very successful. “It was just possible for a good marksman to hit a man at 100 yards; a volley could be fired with some chance of obtaining hits on a mass of troops at 200 yards; but at 300 yards fire was completely ineffective.” One trial in France showed just how inaccurately muskets performed: 60 percent hit the target at 82 yards, 40 percent hit at 164 yards, and a mere 23 percent at 300 yards. An observer wrote, “Powder is not as terrible as believed. Few men in these affairs are killed from in front while fighting. I have seen whole salvoes fail to kill four men.” The reality is that parade ground trials did not translate into battlefield actuality: men had adrenaline surging, smoke obscured lines of sight, misfires occurred with regularity (sometimes as high as 25 percent), and often the enemy was barreling down with fixed bayonets. In the chaos, men sometimes broke from fear, and even a well-trained soldier couldn’t get off as many well-aimed shots in combat as in a trial setting.

  All firearms of this era were made by hand—like everything else a soldier wore and carried—and some gunsmiths were better than ­others. The officers set about testing every gun provided to the regiment by Baltimore manufacturers. Evidently, some of the gun makers were cognizant that their wares weren’t up to the challenge; as one Marylander reported in February 1776, “Mr. Keener [a local gunsmith] after seeing the rest try’d refus’d to have his proved but upon my threatning him a good deal he comply’d.” In fact, more than half of the guns Keener supplied failed the test. A higher percentage of the guns from other makers passed, and the tester “stamp’d all that prov’d good.” In another message, one officer reported that only eight of twenty-nine muskets in his company were working. The rest were “vile trash” that couldn’t be made to function.

  Smallwood’s Battalion also requisitioned some “of the guns which were in the hands of the minute Company” that had formerly been defending the colony. Minute companies were made up of militia sometimes called minutemen, local civilians in the area who could answer the call to arms in an emergency. This wasn’t a good solution, however, as the minute company’s guns were “very indifferent, indeed so bad that twould be cruel to set me to work with them,” noted one officer. That insufficiency left the militia without the weapons it needed. “The militia are thro’ this county in a most defenceless state, and my Company if possible in a much worse one,” the officer added.

  Inequities in the supply of various units impacted the troops’ morale on several occasions. Captain Edward Veazey, stationed on the Eastern Shore, said the lack of arms and uniforms made him “very uneasy.” It became a problem because the officers “understood the troops on the W. Shore are generally well armed & provided with Cloaths.”

  In an effort to address the problem, William Smallwood sent Jack Steward to search for arms and gunpowder. Known for his sizable ego, Jack was the son of Stephen Steward, who owned a forty-three-acre shipyard south of Annapolis. Six feet tall, Jack Steward was a handsome man and well built. A former Quaker, he was courageous and lived by his personal motto, “You only live once.” Commissioned a first lieutenant on January 14, 1776, he quickly rose through the ranks and became a captain in charge of a company that same year.

  Likely accompanying Steward was his lifelong friend Benjamin Ford. The two men were neighbors, and Ford’s grandfather built Steward’s house. Like Steward, Ford was a strong and charismatic leader. Both proved practically fearless in battle.

  Steward’s quest for gunpowder was indicative of America’s need for military supplies. When the war began, the colonials had only about half a pound of gunpowder for each of their soldiers. Throughout the conflict, this was an Achilles’ heel of sorts for the Revolution. Powder enabled or curtailed success on the battlefield. As Americans manufactured only about 10 percent of what they used, 90 percent of it had to be imported.

  British military planners recognized the importance of gunpowder. In October 1774 the Crown advised its colonial governors to “take the most effectual measures to arresting, detaining and securing any Gunpowder, or any sort of Arms or Ammunitions which may be attempted to be imported into the province.” British troops soon began seizing or destroying stores of ammunition and gunpowder whenever they found any. The colonists scoured the earth for powder and saltpeter (potassium nitrate, one of the key ingredients in explosives) to replenish their stores. They sen
t agents to Canada and the Caribbean and brought in imports from France and the Netherlands. They also attempted to produce their own gunpowder from locally mined materials. These efforts were so ineffective that Benjamin Franklin thought they might as well revert to bows and arrows.

  The Marylanders received bayonets, which were unusual for colonial troops. A typical bayonet at the time was a triangle socket bayonet that was fitted on the end of the musket. These deadly blades were stabbing weapons that could impale a man’s guts, leaving mortal wounds. Proper training allowed the men not only to withstand a bayonet charge from an enemy force but also to make an attack of their own.

  Once the companies were formed and equipped, they were positioned in the spring of 1776 to defend Maryland’s most important economic centers. Six companies, the majority of Smallwood’s Battalion, were stationed in Annapolis, while the remaining three, commanded by Mordecai Gist, went to Baltimore. The independent companies were sprinkled throughout Maryland.

  Also sprinkled throughout Maryland were many families who remained loyal to the Crown. Exact figures on the number of American Loyalists are impossible to determine, but by the end of the war, more than eighty thousand Loyalist Americans would be banished from America. One of those men found his name in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser because Gist placed the following advertisement there:

  Deserted. From the Baltimore Independent Company on the night of the 24th instant, a certain Thomas Freshwater. He is an Englishmen, about 5 ft. 7 in. high, swarthy complexion, long black hair, much given to drink, and when drunk very impertinent; had on a sute of drummers clothes. It is suspected that some of the Tories in this place have been affiliated with his escape and forwarded him to Annapolis, where he has been since seen. Whoever apprehends said deserter and shall deliver him to me, shall receive a reward of forty shillings.