Valentine Smith
MSA SC 3520-17121
Biography:
Valentine Smith enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment in January 1776, and served throughout the American Revolution. He took part in one of the most famous actions of the war as part of the "Maryland 400," and later sustained siginicant injuries. [1]
On August 27, 1776, he and his fellow soldiers faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), seeking to resist the British attempt to take New York. 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, Smith and the rest of the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest, Smith's company among them, were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, the Marylanders mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. One of Smith's sergeants, William McMillan, described what happened:
My captain was killed, first lieutenant was killed, second lieutenant shot through the hand, two sergeants was killed; one in front of me…my bayonet was shot off my gun...My brother [Sergeant Samuel McMillan] and I and 50 or 60 of us was taken…The Hessians broke the butts of our guns over their cannon and robbed us of everything we had, lit their pipes with our money…gave us nothing to eat for five days, and then [only] moldy biscuits…blue, moldy, full of bugs and rotten. [2]
All told, Smith's company lost 80 percent of its men, killed or captured like McMillan. Only the company's drummer, a sergeant, and a dozen privates, including Smith, made it back to the American lines. The Marylanders took enormous causalities, with other companies losing nearly as many men as the Fourth, but their action had delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, earning themselves the moniker "Maryland 400." [3]
In the wake of the battle, Smith apparently stayed with the regiment through the difficult fall of 1776, a series of defeats that saw the American pushed out of New York. He even reenlisted that December. While the Americans secured revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter, Smith was probably took no parts in them. At some point in December, he was sent to the hospital at Annapolis to recuperate from illness. Eventually returning to his unit, Smith was with the army until 1780, when he was transferred to the Invalid Corps, which was composed of wounded soldiers "who shall be found capable of doing guard or garrison duty." [4] Smith stayed with the Invalid Corps until the end of the war, likely helping to guard the American fort at West Point, New York. [5]
After the war, Smith was eligible for a pension as an injured veteran, equal to half his monthly salary of $6.66. How much he ultimately received is unclear, owing to spotty record-keeping, but he did collect some money in the 1780s and 1790s. [6] He married Margaret Campbell in 1786 or 1787, and lived in Harford County, Maryland for a time. [7] After the 1790s, however, their whereabouts are unknown. There were several Valentine Smiths living in nearby in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s, but it is unclear which, if any, were the man who served so bravely with the Maryland 400 in 1776.
Owen Lourie, 2015
Notes:
[2] Pension of William McMillan, National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S 2806, 33, from Fold3.com.
[3] Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776. 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.
[4] The nature of his illness--or wounds--are not known. Dr. E. Johnson's return of the sick, 7 January 1777, Maryland State Papers, Series A, box 2, no. 125, MdHR 6636-2-125 [MSA S1004-2, 1/7/3/25]. Johnson was a physician and member of the Calvert County Committee of Observation. Proceedings of the Council of Safety, 3 January 1777, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 16, p. 9; Laws of October 1778, Chap. 14, sect. 8, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 203, p. 201. Smith's service records comes from Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 12, 160, 562, 623; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War. NARA M881, from Fold3.com; List of men transferred to the Invalid Corps from the Maryland Line, 1777-1783, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 14, no. 36-3, MdHR 19970-14-36/3 [MSA S997-14-71, 1/7/3/13]; Account of money paid sundry soldiers by Gen. Smallwood, 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 7-3, MdHR 19970-6-7/3 [MSA S997-6, 1/7/3/11]; Return of the soldiers inlisting in the First Maryland Regiment during the war since 7 February 1779, from Fold3.com.
[5] Robert K. Wright, The Continental Army (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center for Military History, 1983), 136.
[6] Anne Arundel County Register of Wills, Orphan's Court Proceedings, 16 August 1783 [MSA C125-2, 1/3/11/29]; Intendant of the Revenue, Letterbook, Valentine Smith to Intendant, 22 February 1784, re: pension, liber 12, p. 32 [MSA S166-3, 1/1/4/21]; Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, 1789-1793, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 72, p. 215.
[7] U. S. Federal Census, 1790. Harford County, Maryland. Smith moved to claim the land that Margaret's late husband James Campbell had began patent proceedings on before his death in late 1785 or early 1786. Smith was entitled to the land, a 114 acre tract in northern Harford County, by his marriage to Margaret, but he never completed the process, perhaps for lack of money to pay the many fees associated with obtaining a land patent. Harford County Land Office, Certificates, Unpatented, Valentine's Delight, 1788, unpatented certificate no. 494 [MSA S1222-501, 1/25/5/22]; Harford County Register of Wills, Estate Docket, Liber JA 1, p. 24 [MSA CM 563-1, CR 10962-1].
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