John Riley
MSA SC 3520-17138
Biography:
John Riley enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment in January, 1776, one of the earliest Marylanders to volunteer to fight in the Revolutionary War. He was part of the famed "Maryland 400" who gained renown at the Battle of Brooklyn.
Riley's company formed in early 1776, consisting mostly of men from Harford County, and spent several months training in Baltimore, until it departed for New York in July. At the time, the British were threatening New York, and preparing to capture the city. [1]
On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn. 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. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest, Riley's company among them, were unable to do so before they were attacked 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. [2] One of the other Fourth Company 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. [3]
All told, the company lost 80 percent of its men, killed or captured like McMillan. Only the company's drummer, a dozen privates, and a sergeant 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." It is likely that Riley was among the men who survived the battle, and apparently the rest of the fall of 1776, when the Americans suffered a series of defeats, as the British pushed them out of New York. However, Riley probably did not participate in the rejuvenating victories over the British at Trenton and Princeton during the late winter of 1776-1777. Instead, by early January, 1777, he was back in Maryland, recuperating in the military hospital in Annapolis. [4]
After his stint in the hospital, it is unknown what happened to John Riley. There were several men by that name who served in the Maryland Line during the war, but it is unclear which, if any, are the same man who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn.
Owen Lourie, 2015
Notes:
1. Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 12 [hereafter Archives of Maryland vol. 18].
2. 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. 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. Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com; Account of money paid sundry soldiers by Gen. Smallwood, paid to John Riley, 22 December 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 7-4, MdHR 19970-6-7/4 [MSA S997-6, 1/7/3/11]; 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.
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