William Holmes
MSA SC 3520-16795
Biography:
William Holmes enlisted as a private in the Sixth Company of the First Maryland Regiment, led by Captain Peter Adams, on February 15, 1776. [1]
The Sixth Company was recruited primarily from the Eastern Shore, but traveled to Annapolis in the spring of 1776 to complete six months of training. The company then moved north, making it to Philadelphia by mid-July 1776 and to New York by August 14. It was positioned with the rest of the First Maryland Regiment about one mile outside of New York, with orders to prepare for battle.
The Marylanders met the British at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island) on August 27, 1776, where the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, fought to defend New York. The American troops were severely outnumbered and surrounded when they were ordered to retreat. Half the regiment was able to escape the battle, however the other half, including most of the Sixth Company, was trapped by the swampy Gowanus Creek. They turned back to face the British, holding their position long enough for the rest of the Marylanders to return to safety. This heroic stand earned them the honorable name of the “Maryland 400.” [2]
The First Maryland Regiment suffered major losses. By the end of the battle, Maryland losses totalled 256 men killed or captured. Despite the heroic actions of the Maryland 400, the battle was a defeat for the Americans. [3]
William Holmes was taken prisoner, along with at least ten other men from the Sixth Company. Only sixteen men and officers from the company were not killed or taken prisoner. Although Holmes did not leave an account of his imprisonment, Thomas McKeel, a sergeant in the Sixth Company, did. McKeel and the other prisoners “remained...on board of a Prison Ship until the British troops got possession of New York," when they were “then taken ashore and imprisoned.”
When Holmes was released, he reenlisted in the First Maryland Regiment. He likely fought with the rest of the Maryland Line at the bloody battles of Staten Island, Brandywine, and Germantown, all of which took place between August and October of 1777. All were British victories, however John Adams considered the Battle of Germantown to be the “most decisive proof that America would finally succeed." The Marylanders then fought in the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. [4]
The war came to a stalemate in 1779, and the Maryland Line did not fight in any major battles. Holmes was discharged in December 1779, when his three-year enlistment came to an end. Several men named William Holmes lived in Maryland at the time, and it is unfortunately not clear if any of them are the man who fought with the Sixth Company. [5]
-Natalie Miller, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 2018
Notes:
[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn, "To the End: The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution," (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73; Extract of a letter from New-York: Account of the battle on Long-Island, 1 September 1776, American Archives Online, series 5, vol. 2, p. 107.
[3] Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com.
[4] Pay Roll of Prisoners Taken on Long Island, 14 February 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 19, no. 2, MdHR 19970-19-2 [MSA S997-19-2, 01/07/03/015]; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 117.
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