John Marr
MSA SC 3520-17315
Biography:
In early 1776, John Marr enlisted as a private in Edward Veazey's Seventh Independent Company. [1] Many of those in the Seventh Independent Company were recruited from Kent, Cecil, and Queen Anne counties, and were in their twenties. [2] The average age was about twenty-five, but soldiers born in the thirteen colonies were slightly younger than those from foreign countries. [3]
The independent companies, early in the war, had a different role than William Smallwood's First Maryland Regiment. They had the role of securing the Chesapeake Bay's shoreline from British attack. Smallwood's men, on the other hand, were raised as full-time Maryland soldiers as part of the Continental Army, and were divided between Annapolis and Baltimore. The Seventh Independent Company was stationed in Kent County's Chestertown and on Kent Island in Queen Anne County. [4] During this time, Veazey was uneasy that his company did not receive "arms nor ammunition" until June. [5]
While the independent companies were originally intended to defend Maryland, three of them accompanied the First Maryland Regiment when it marched to New York in July 1776. The transfer of the independent companies to the Continental Army showed that Maryland was more than willing to do its part to recruit the men needed for the revolutionary cause. [6] The independent companies and the First Maryland Regiment arrived in New York in early August, with the Battle of Brooklyn set between the Continental Army and the British Army, joined by their Hessian allies.
Marr served with his company at the Battle of Brooklyn in late August 1776. Along with the companies of Daniel Bowie and Peter Adams, which suffered heavy casualties, sixty-eight percent of Veazey's company were killed or captured. Specifically, Captain Veazey was killed while Second Lieutenant Samuel Turbett Wright and Third Lieutenant Edward De Coursey were captured. [7] As a result of Veazey's death, First Lieutenant William Harrison took charge of the company. After the battle, only 36 men remained out of the original force of over 100. [8] The loss of life confirmed the assessment of the British Parliament's Annual Register which described how "almost a whole regiment from Maryland…of young men from the best families in the country was cut to pieces" even as the battle brought the men of the Maryland 400 together. [9]
The Battle of Brooklyn, the first large-scale battle of the war, fits into the larger context of the Revolutionary War. 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 been decimated, resulting in the end of the Revolutionary War. This heroic stand gave the regiment the nickname of the Old Line and those who made the stand in the battle are remembered as the Maryland 400.
Marr survived the Battle of Brooklyn and was not taken prisoner. By the spring of 1777, the command of the Seventh Independent Company was uncertain since Wright and De Coursey were prisoners, Veazey had been killed, and Harrison had resigned. [10] As a result, the company, among with the other independent companies, became part of the Second Maryland Regiment.
Marr may have reenlisted in the Second Maryland Regiment. If he did, he would have served with Maryland 400 veterans such as Hezekiah Foard, William Dawson, Humphrey Pugh, and Isaac Sterling. [11] His military service, in the rest of the Revolutionary War, cannot be determined.
Many years later, on November 12, 1794, John Marr received a pension as an invalid from the federal government. [12] He may have lived in Cecil County later in his life. [13]
- Burkely Hermann, Maryland Society of the Sons of American Revolution Research Fellow, 2016.
Notes
[1] A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875, American State Papers, Senate, 11th Congress, 3rd Session, Claims: Vol. 1 (Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1834), 404, 406; Mark Andrew Tacyn, “'To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 34; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 18, 640. He may have been the same person as the John Marr who was discharged from the Fifth Company of the First Maryland Regiment, but this cannot be confirmed.
[2] Tacyn, 24-25, 97; Descriptions of men in Capt. Edward Veazey’s Independent Comp, 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 19970-15-36/01 [MSA S997-15-36, 1/7/3/13].
[3] For more information, see "Demographics in the First Maryland Regiment" on the Finding the Maryland 400 research blog.
[4] Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July 7-December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 12, 4; Tacyn, 33-34.
[5] Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, August 29, 1775 to July 6, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online Vol. 11, 318, 468; Tacyn, 37, 39.
[6] Arthur Alexander, "How Maryland Tried to Raise Her Continental Quotas." Maryland Historical Magazine 42, no. 3 (1947), 187-188, 196.
[7] "Mortuary Notice," Salem Gazette, Salem, Massachusetts, March 1, 1833, Vol. XI, issue 18, p. 3.
[8] Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, p. 92, From Fold3.com; Tacyn, 98.
[9] Tacyn, 4.
[10] List of Regular Officers by Chamberlaine, December 1776, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, MdHR 4573, Liber 12, p. 66 [MSA S989-17, 1/6/4/5].
[11] Muster roll of the Second Maryland Regiment, August 25, 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 19970-07-01 [MSA S997-7-1530, 1/6/2/42]. The muster roll also listed five drummers in the regiment.
[12] A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875, American State Papers, Senate, 11th Congress, 3rd Session, Claims: Vol. 1 (Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1834), 404, 406. His claim was allowed under a 1792 law which suspended claims of members of the late Continental Army for a period of two years. Since the date that the interest on the pension "commenced" on January 1, 1777, this indicates that he left the Continental Army after this point.
[13] Census for Election District 1, Cecil, Maryland, 1820, Fourth Census of the United States, 1820, National Archives, NARA M33, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, roll M33_40, page 190. Courtesy of Ancestry.com.
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