Thomas Simpson
MSA SC 3520-16775
Biography:
Thomas Simpson enlisted as a corporal in the First Company of the First Maryland Regiment in January 1776, when he was about 20 years old. Simpson was a native of Charles County, as were most of the men from his company. The regiment was Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional troops, and distinguished itself that summer, gaining fame as the "Maryland 400." As a non-commissioned officer, Simpson had responsibility for keeping the soldiers of the company properly aligned during marches and in battle, and ensuring order among the men in camp. [1]
In July, the regiment received orders to march to New York, in order to defend the city from an impending British attack. The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August, where they joined with the rest of the Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington. On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. 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. Half the regiment, including Simpson, was able to cross the creek, and escape the battle. However, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, this group of soldiers, today called the "Maryland 400," mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. They took enormous causalities, with some companies losing losing nearly 80 percent of their men, but their actions delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. In all, the First Maryland lost 256 men, killed or taken prisoner. [2]
Simpson likely stayed with the army through the rest of the difficult fall of 1776, a series of defeats that saw the Americans pushed out of New York, followed by revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. It is likely that he left the army at some point in late 1776 and returned home. He did not stay in Maryland for very long, reenlisting in May 1777 in the First Maryland Regiment for a three-year term, initially as a private, but resuming his old rank soon after. During that period, he saw likely saw combat at major battles like Brandywine (September 1777), Germantown (October 1777), and Monmouth (June 1778), as well as the harsh 1777-1778 winter encampment at Valley Forge. Simpson was discharged in January 1780, just as the army was preparing to march south to counter the British advances in the Carolinas. [3]
After his military service, Simpson returned to Maryland. He married a woman named Mary, and they had at least one child, Catherine, born around 1807. In 1813, he was granted a veteran's pension by the Maryland General Assembly of $44 per year. He collected that pension until the middle of 1814, when he and his family relocated to Muskingum County, Ohio, and established a farm. Simpson was subsequently awarded a pension by the Federal Government of $8 per month. He likely died sometime after 1835, but no further information is known.
Owen Lourie, 2016
Notes:
[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 5; Pension of Thomas Simpson. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 40436, from Fold3.com; Frederick Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, Part I. (Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1792), 137-140. In his pension application, Simpson said that he enlisted in John Allen Thomas's Fifth Independent Company in 1776. He was probably mistaken, although the Fifth Independent was raised in Charles County, and was present at the Battle of Brooklyn.
[2] 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. 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.
[3] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 160; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[4] There were a number of Thomas Simpsons living in Southern Maryland at the time, but it is not possible to determine which was the Revolutionary veteran. Simpson Federal pension; Laws of 1812, Resolution no. 62, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 618, p. 249; Treasurer of the Western Shore, Pension Roll, Military, 1811-1843, p. 22, MdHR 4534-4 [MSA S613-1, 2/63/10/33], which incorrectly says that Simpson had stopped collecting his pension because he was dead; Murtie Jane Clark, comp., The Pension Roll of 1835, Vol. IV (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992), 207.
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