James Garner
MSA SC 3520-16805
Biography:
James Garner enlisted in the Fifth Company of the First Maryland Regiment in early 1776. The company was part of Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional troops, raised to fulfill the state's quota of soldiers for the Continental Army, and was commanded by Captain Nathaniel Ramsey. The company was recruited in Baltimore and nearby parts of northern Maryland in the first months of the year, then stayed in the city for several months of training. [1]
In July, the regiment received orders to march to New York to defend the city from an impending British attack. The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August, where they joined with the rest of the Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington. On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. The battle was a rout: the British were able to sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray.
During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. Half the regiment, including the Fifth Company, was able to cross the creek, and escape the battle. However, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, this group of soldiers, today called the "Maryland 400," mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. They took enormous causalities, with some companies losing losing nearly 80 percent of their men, but their actions delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. In all, the First Maryland lost 256 men, killed or taken prisoner. [2]
Garner survived the battle, and his company lost only a handful of men. However, while he is known to have fought at the battle, the rest of his military career is not well documented. By his own account, he left the Maryland Regiment sometime after Brooklyn--probably when his enlistment ended at the end of 1776. After that, Garner joined the Fourth New Jersey Regiment, which he served in for a short time. However in July 1777 he was discharged because he was "afflicted with...fits." Garner saw no combat during his time with the New Jersey troops. [3]
After the war, Garner lived in New Jersey, eventually settling in Burlington County. By 1818, when he was close to sixty years old, he was in a precarious financial situation: "I have no property of any description and am supported by public charity," he wrote. He applied for a pension from the federal government as a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and was granted an allowance of eight dollars per month. Garner probably died a few years later, in July 1820. [4]
Owen Lourie, 2019
Notes:
[1] Pension of James Garner, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S 34363, from Fold3.com. Garner is not listed on the muster roll of the Fifth Company, of which only a portion has survived. The only documentation of his service with the Marylanders is from his pension application.
[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com; Mark Andrew Tacyn "'To the End:' The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution" (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73. For more on the experience of the Marylanders at the Battle of Brooklyn, see "In Their Own Words," on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the Maryland 400.
[3] Garner pension; New Jersey service records show a James Gardner (a variant spelling of Garner) of the Fourth Regiment who enlisted in the summer of 1777, and who spent most of the next two years in the hospital. This may have been the same person, but that cannot be determined for certain. See Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[4] Garner pension.
Return to James Garner's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|