Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

James Hogg (1755-1835)
MSA SC 3520-17209

Biography:

James Hogg, sometimes spelled Hog or Hoge, was born in 1755, possibly in Cecil County. [1] In 1776, at the age of 21, he enlisted in Captain Nathaniel Ramsey's Fifth Company, part of the First Maryland Regiment. [2] The First Maryland Regiment were the first troops Maryland raised at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Maryland was more than willing to do its part to recruit the men needed to fill the Continental Army's depleted ranks. [3] A few days after independence was declared, the First Maryland Regiment was ordered to New York so it could join the forces of General George Washington. The regiment arrived there in early August, with the Battle of Brooklyn set between the Continental Army and the British Army, joined by their Hessian allies.

Hogg and the rest of the Fifth Company served at the Battle of Brooklyn in late August 1776. [4] In the beginning of the battle, Ramsey's company was placed at the front of the lines. Fortunately, "hardly a man [in the company] fell," even though they took the first line of fire from the British. [5] Other companies of the Maryland Line did not fare so well. Years later, Captain Enoch Anderson of the Delaware Regiment wrote about the Battle of Brooklyn, saying

"A little after daylight our Regiment and Colonel Smallwood's Regiment from Maryland, in front of the enemy took possession of a high commanding ground,--our right to the harbour. Cannonading now began in both armies...Colonel Smallwood's Regiment took another course,--they were surrounded but they fought hard. They lost about two hundred men...A hard day this, for us poor Yankees! Superior discipline and numbers had overcome us. A gloomy time it was, but we solaced ourselves that at some other time we should do better." [6]

If the Maryland Line had not stood and fought the British, enabling the rest of the Continental Army to escape, then the Continental Army would have been decimated, resulting in the end of the war. This heroic stand is likely the root of the regiment's nickname the "Old Line," and those who made the stand in the battle are remembered as the Maryland 400.

Hogg enlisted for three years in Alexander Roxburgh's Eighth Company while the Maryland Line was being reorganized in late 1776. [7] During that term of service, Hogg took part in the defense of Philadelphia, as the Americans sought to protect their capital from the British, likely fighting at the battles of Brandywide and Germantown in 1777. He probably also saw combat at the Battle of Monmouth (1778), and untold smaller skirmishes and engagements. The Americans had severe supply problems during this period, and the soldiers of the Continental Army suffered greatly from starvation and illness. 

Like many of the survivors of the campaign of 1776, Hogg was discharged on December 27, 1779. [8] For the regiment, this was a sad moment and a passing of a torch since these soldiers had formed the main character of the regiment. It became the responsibility of recruits mainly from 1777 and 1778 to sustain the regiment for the rest of the war.

Hogg began receiving a Federal veteran'spension in 1818, while he was living in York County, Pennsylvania, and was married to a "sickly woman." [9] They had no children living with them at the time, but had at least one married daughter named Ann Hogeland, and had friends or relatives to assist him if needed. [10] He died on May 21, 1835 at the age of 80. His daughter, Ann, outlived him, and survived until at least 1855. [11]

- Burkely Hermann, Maryland Society of the Sons of American Revolution Research Fellow, 2016

Notes

[1] James Hogg Pension. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. National Archives. Record Group 15. NARA M804. Roll 1300. Pension number S. 39,715. Courtesy of Fold3.com.

[2] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution Archives of Maryland Online vol. 18, 640. This could have been the same person who enlisted in the First Company in January 1776 but he doesn't mention this in his pension, making it unlikely.

[3] Arthur Alexander, "How Maryland Tried to Raise Her Continential Quotas." Maryland Historical Magazine 42, no. 3 (1947), 187-188, 196.

[4] "Extract of a letter from New York: Account of the battle on Long Island." American Archives S5 V2 107-108.

[5] Mark Andrew Tacyn, "'To The End:' The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution" (PhD Diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 4.

[6] Enoch Anderson, Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson: Eyewitness Accounts of the American Revolution (New York: New York Times & Arno Press, 1971), 21-22.

[7] James Hogg Pension.

[8] Ibid; Tacyn, 210; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution Archives of Maryland Online vol. 18, 117

[9] James Hogg Pension; Tacyn, 317.

[10] James Hogg Pension.

[11] Ibid.

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