Richard Whelan
MSA SC 3520-16807
Biography:
Richard Whelan enlisted in the First Maryland Regiment’s Fourth Company on January 20, 1776. Whelan and the other Maryland soldiers spent the first half of the year training in Baltimore. In July of 1776, the entire First Maryland Regiment received orders to travel to New York. George Washington feared an imminent British attack and desperately needed reinforcements. The Marylanders arrived in New York later that month. [1]
On August 27, 1776, the Fourth Company participated in the Battle of Brooklyn. British soldiers outflanked the Marylanders in a surprise attack. The Marylanders retreated, fighting their way toward the Gowanus Creek. Although some companies successfully escaped the battle by crossing the swampy creek, several other companies, including the Fourth Company, remained trapped. The remaining Marylanders charged British lines several times, suffering heavily in the process. William McMillan, a sergeant in the Fourth Company, described how:
We were surrounded by Healanders [Scottish Highlanders] [on] one side, Hessians on the other...My captain was killed, first lieutenant was killed, second lieutenant shot through the hand, two sergeants was killed; one in front of me… two corporals killed. All belonged to our Company.”
The Fourth Company lost eighty percent of its soldiers that day. Like William McMillan and his brother, Samuel McMillan, Hessians took Whelan prisoner. [2]
According to William McMillan, the Hessians “robbed [the American prisoners] of everything,” going so far as to taunt the prisoners by lighting their pipes with stolen money. After having nothing to eat for five days, Whelan and the other prisoners finally received “moldy biscuits…blue, moldy, full [of] bugs, and rotten.” Although the McMillan brothers traveled to Halifax aboard prison ships, Whelan’s life during imprisonment is largely unknown. He may have remained on a prison ship stationed near New York, as Whelan’s incarceration ended much sooner than that of the McMillans. Almost a year after he had been captured, American officials took part in a prisoner exchange which included Whelan on June 3, 1777. [3]
Having gained his freedom, Whelan decided to return to the army, joining Nathaniel Smith's Independent Company of Artillery from Baltimore. Fighting at battles like Brandywine and Germantown secured the Marylanders’ legacy as one of the most effective fighting forces in the Revolution. After serving in the artillery company for several years, Whelan left the army for good in 1779. [4]
Following the war, Whelan moved to North Carolina, where he married his wife, Margaret, who sometimes went by the nickname Peggy. The two lived in North Carolina for about eight years before moving to Anderson County, Tennessee. Richard and Margaret Whelan had at least five children together: Margaret (also known as Polly), Bideow (also known as Biddy), John, Peggy, and Catherine. Whelan first received a federal pension on May 17, 1819, earning $96 annually for his wartime service. [5]
Whelan died in March of 1836, leaving behind his wife and several adult children. Richard Whelan willed one dollar each to John, Polly, and his two son-in-laws, leaving his remaining money and property to his wife, Margaret. His wife applied for a pension in 1842, but mistakenly stated that Whelan served in North Carolina rather than Maryland. Margaret “died without claiming the benefits” of her husband’s service the following year. [6]
-James Schmitt, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 2019
Notes:
[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 12; Mark Andrew Tacyn, “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), pp. 44-45.
[2] Tacyn, pp. 48-73; Pension of Richard Whelan, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, R. 11,374, from Fold3.com; William McMillan to Secretary of Treasury, ca. October 1828. Pension of William McMillan, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S 2806, pp. 33-35, from Fold3.com.
[3] McMillan Pension; Whelan Pension; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 173.
[4] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 573; Whelan Pension.
[5] Whelan Pension; The Pension Roll of 1835, p. 514, from Ancestry.com.
[6] U.S. Revolutionary War Pensioners, 1801-1815, 1818-1872, East Tennessee, p. 128, from Ancestry.com; Anderson County Court, Tennessee, Probate Records, 1830-1923, pp. 143-144, from Ancestry.com; Whelan Pension.
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