Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Michael Hahn (1748-1844)
MSA SC 3520-16815 

Biography:

Michael Hahn (also Haun) was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on August 15, 1748. He moved to Frederick County, Maryland, and enlisted at the town of Frederick into Col. William Smallwood's Maryland Battalion of the Continental Army in 1776. Hahn became a member of Capt. George Stricker's Ninth Company, the Light Infantry, and traveled with them to Annapolis "for the purpose of being disciplined." Although he claimed to have enlisted in 1775 and to have marched to New York by that winter, he likely did not leave Maryland until July of 1776. George Stricker received a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel for the newly formed German Battalion on July 17, and Benjamin Ford took over as Captain. [1]

 

Hahn and his company traveled from Annapolis to Philadelphia and from there to New York, stopping at Trenton, Princeton, and Morristown, New Jersey on the way. Arriving at New York, the Maryland Brigade was placed under Lord Stirling's command and fought at the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776. Ford's company did not fare well in the battle; "of the company to which [Hahn] belonged, consisting of seventy-four, only fifteen escaped." A payroll recorded by Ford shows ten men who were taken in the battle that had been returned and needed pay, including Valentine Lynn, Isaac Rice, Philip Kern, Samuel Denny, John Good, Frederick Myre, and Jacob Greenwald. Hahn made it out of the battle, and he retreated from New York with the American forces after the loss. He was involved in a skirmish with the British in Kingsbridge, New York, while traveling to White Plains. After the Battle of White Plains was fought, Hahn returned to Princeton, New Jersey with his regiment, and was traveling from there to Trenton when "the Battalion was dismissed by the Colonel verbally, and no discharge was given." This likely occurred in early December 1776, as the Continental Army was reformed at that time. [2]

 

Although Hahn did not reenlist with the Maryland troops or the Continental Army, he joined the Pennsylvania militia in the summer of 1777 as a substitute for his father. He served under a Captain Read, scouting in "expeditions against the Indians and guarding the frontiers- but was in no battle," for the three months he served. Hahn likely settled in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania at this time, for he joined the Pennsylvania militia as a member of the same company one year later, in 1778; this time he had been drafted into service. He remained with this company for two months, and fulfilled the same duties as he had in his first term with them. [3]

After living in Northumberland for a time, he married a woman named Nancy near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the late summer of 1801. Hahn moved to Jefferson County, Ohio around 1820, and then moved to Wayne County, where he lived for about six years. He eventually settled in Tuscarawas Township in Stark County, Ohio, before his death in 1844. No mention was made of children. He died in West Lebanon, Wayne County, Ohio in 1844. His wife, Nancy, later applied for a widow's pension in 1853. Although she was "very deaf" and had "for many years lived in the company of neighbors," Nancy's application was rejected because she did not marry Michael prior to 1794. [4]

Jeff Truitt, 2013

Notes:

[1] Pension of Michael Hahn and Widow's Pension of Nancy Hahn, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, R 5109, from Fold3.com; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pp. 20, 181; 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] Michael Hahn Pension; Tacyn, pp. 48-73; Pay Role of Prisoners taken on Long Island from 27th August to the 10th Dec. 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers. MdHR 19970-19-01 [MSA S997-19-1 01/07/03/15].

[3] Michael Hahn Pension; "Third Battalion Northumberland County Militia," Pennsylvania Archives, series 5, vol. 8, p. 654, from Fold3.com.

[4] Michael Hahn Pension; Pennsylvania Septennial Census, Mahontongo, Northumberland County, 1800; U.S. Federal Census, 1840, Stark County, Ohio.

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