William Sterrett
MSA SC 3520-16728
Biography: Born ca. 1757. Son of James Sterett (1721-1796), his mother's first name is unknown, last name McClure. Stepmother Mary Sterett (?-ca. 1794). Brother of John (1750/51-1787), Samuel (1758-1833), David (1765-1791), Joseph, George, and Mary (?-1792) who married Mordecai Gist. Died August, 1782 in Baltimore.
William Sterrett was a merchant and soldier who rose to the rank of major during the Revolutionary War. Sterrett joined with the revolutionary cause at the very beginning of the war and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Brooklyn, where the Maryland troops transformed a devastating loss into an example of self sacrifice and heroism in the face of certain destruction. His service during this engagement places him among the ranks of the Maryland 400.
William Sterrett was born around 1757.1 His grandfather, John Sterett, had immigrated to Pennsylvania from what is now Northern Ireland and his father, James Sterrett, left Lancaster to move to Baltimore around 1761. The Sterretts thrived in Baltimore Town, where James invested in land and was a successful merchant. William's brothers also became merchants; David, Samuel, and John Sterrett formed the firm of John Sterrett & Company, which sold goods such as cloth and salt, and had an interest in ships in the Americas and Europe. The Sterretts supported the Revolution, and John Sterett, William's older brother, also became a soldier. He was the captain of the Baltimore County Militia in 1776, and he was taken prisoner at Eutaw Springs in 1781.2
William Sterrett was around eighteen years old when he joined Captain Barton Lucas' Third Company in the Maryland Battalion as a First Lieutenant in January of 1776.3 On August 27, 1776 the Third Company fought at the Battle of Brooklyn, although Captain Barton Lucas was ill that day. It is probable that as the highest ranking officer in the Third Company present, William Sterrett led his men in battle. Whatever the events of August 27, William Sterrett managed to make an impression on the men of his company. Decades later, John Hughes, one of the privates in the Third Company, would correctly remember William Sterrett's name and rank in his pension application. William Sterrett, along with much of his company, was listed as missing in the aftermath of the battle.4 The losses the Third Company suffered were so severe that Captain Barton Lucas "became deranged in consequence of losing his company... all of whom except seven were killed or taken prisoner."5 Although it is likely that seven is a low estimate of the number of survivors of the battle, Barton Lucas was so affected by the massacre of his troops that he had to leave the service, and he resigned on October 11, 1776.
In the days following the battle, Sterrett's family and friends in Baltimore and Annapolis anxiously waited for the news from New York, and his brother, Samuel, wrote that "it would be a task too arduous for my weak abilities to attempt to convey an adequate idea of the distressed condition of our family whilst in suspense." They came to believe that he had died in battle, after hearing the accounts of several "gentlemen of credit." Samuel wrote that his brother's death was "lamented at home and abroad. His loss was much regretted at Annapolis and someone of his companions expressed his sorrow in verses that were published."6 That poem, "On the death of Mr. William Steret, who was killed in the engagement on Long-Island," was published anonymously in the Maryland Gazette on September 12.7
Sometime before September 15, 1776, Mordecai Gist wrote from New York to the family to tell them that William was alive. After the battle, once the prisoners had been tallied, the imprisoned officers had the chance to ask for their possessions in camp and money to be sent to them. After the Battle of Brooklyn, a list of officers sending for the cash and baggage was drawn up on September 5; it is possible that Gist saw Sterrett's name on that list. 8 Samuel Sterrett's reply to Gist communicates the relief the family felt upon receiving the news, "permit a friend and a partaker of the distresses of a much dejected family to offer his most sincere thanks for the agreeable intelligence and expresable [sic] consolation you were so kind as to communicate by letter.”9 William Sterrett's sister, Mary "Polly" Sterrett, enclosed a copy of the anonymous poem from the Maryland Gazette so that Gist could pass it on to William in prison and he would have the singular opportunity to read the outpouring of grief that his "death" had caused. She also sent along her compliments to Mordecai Gist-- the two would marry the following year.
William Sterrett was taken prisoner with Second Lieutenant William Ridgely, who was also in the Third Company under Barton Lucas. He and the men who were taken with him lost their hats, shoes, buckles, and any other items of value they had with them to their captors. The looters especially targeted the wounded, who were "stripped almost naked." Despite this, he described the Hessian officers as "somewhat kind and polite; and the Hessian soldiers after committing robberies on the prisoners were obliging."10 It is possible that Sterrett's experience of the Hessians was softened by his status as an officer, as well as by the luck of falling into the hands of that particular unit. Many Americans were not allowed to surrender. A Hessian colonel observed that "the English did not give much quarter, and constantly urged our people to do the like... the riflemen were mostly spitted to the trees with bayonets."11
Sterrett and Ridgely were confined in a house with other soldiers captured that day, where they were visited by the British commissary general of military prisoners, Joshua Loring. Loring was a loyalist from Boston who was notorious for his cruel neglect of prisoners. Under his authority thousands of Americans died of disease and starvation on prison ships and on land. Loring told the officers that they had been granted parole, thus releasing them from close confinement, but they could not take advantage of it until they swore an oath of loyalty to the Crown. Both men refused. According to Sterret, in reply Loring "said I should continue in confinement and be subject to the distresses which were about to threaten us." While imprisoned, the men were given two-thirds of a British ration each day, although the rations were often spoiled. However, the wounded suffered most in the prisons, and even those who had non life-threatening injuries frequently died from infection.
Sterrett and Ridgely were sent to a prison ship, where they remained for two days, after which time Loring returned again and removed them from the prison ship, depositing them at a boat landing and urging them to take the oath of allegiance as soon as they could find a magistrate. Sterrett arrived in Manhattan at the beginning of October. When an application was made for Sterrett's exchange as a prisoner at the end of the month, Loring claimed that Sterrett was not on the books as a prisoner, which would mean that he had taken an oath of allegiance to the Crown-- something that Sterrett insisted he had never done. Upon finding this, Sterrett acquired a passport to travel to South Asbury, where he made his escape from captivity.12
In April of 1777, William Sterrett reassumed his place in the Maryland Line, where he was promoted to Major. He resigned in December of 1777.13 After serving in the war, William Sterrett remained a friend of his brother-in-law, Mordecai Gist, and his letters appear many times in Gist's personal papers.
On a summer night in August of 1782, William Sterrett died around the age of 25, as his obituary stated, "in the prime of life." He was in his father's house in Baltimore. The obituary continued, "the bravery of this young gentleman in the field of battle, his steadiness as a patriot, his probity as a merchant, and his amiable deportment as a citizen and a private gentleman, render his death a heavy loss to his country, as well as to his family and friends." This time there would be no letter to relieve his friends and family and they buried him in the Presbyterian church cemetery in Baltimore.14 During William Sterrett's short life his death had already been postponed once, and he had left behind a legacy larger than the sum of his years.
Notes:
[1] Sterrett was nineteen years old in January of 1777 when he testified in a statement on the treatment of Americans captured by the British. "Maryland, Baltimore Town, January 29, 1777," Norwich Packet, May 26-June 2, 1777.
[5] Pension of John Hughes. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 5954, from Fold3.com.
[6] General Mordecai Gist’s Correspondence. 1772-1779. No. 7 Mordecai Gist and others correspondence, including “Polly” letters, 1772-1779. Baltimore and Elsewhere. Copy.
[7] Maryland Gazette, 12 September 1776. Maryland Gazette Collection MSA SC 2731.
[9] General Mordecai Gist’s Correspondence, No. 7.
[10] "Maryland, Baltimore Town, January 29, 1777" Norwich Packet, May 26-June 2 1777.
[11] David Hackett Fisher, Washington's Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 97; Col. Heinrich von Heeringen in E.J. Lowell, The Hessians and other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War (New York: 1884), 65-67.
[12] William Sterrett to James McHenry, 2 April 1778. Maryland Historical Society, MS 1814.
[14] "Baltimore, August 20," Pennsylvania Packet, 25 August 1782.
Return to William Sterrett's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|
