Nathan Peak
MSA SC 3520-16828
Biography:
Nathan Peak was a private in the Maryland Line, one of the earliest men in the state to take arms against the British. He served for virtually the entire war, and was part of the unit that fought so bravely, now remembered as the "Maryland 400."
Maryland raised two companies of riflemen from the western part of the state in the summer of 1775, lead by captains Thomas Price and Michael Cresup. The troops were requested by Congress to help bolster the American forces besieging the British army in Boston. Peak was a private in Cresup's company, saying "that he entered into the service of the army of the United Colonies raised for the defense of American Liberty and Independence and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof." The riflemen departed Frederick, Maryland in July 1775 and arrived in Boston just twenty two days later, on August 9, an astounding pace of twenty five miles per day. The soldiers were renowned for their accurate shooting and for their "backwoods" appearance. One observer described them as being "painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, and dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins." [1]
Details about Peak's service with the rifle company are sparse. The Marylanders largely performed guard duty around Boston, although they took part in several small skirmishes. How long Peak was a member of the unit is not clear. In theory, his enlistment was to end in June 1776, after one year of service. He later recalled serving about nine months, which would have put him back in Maryland in the late winter or early spring of 1776, about the same time that he enlisted as a private in another unit, the Third Company of the First Maryland Regiment. When or why Peak left the rifle company is not clear. [2]
Peak's new regiment was Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional troops, raised to fulfill the state's quota of soldiers for the Continental Army (the rifle companies were not raised to be a permanent part of the army). His company was commanded by Captain Barton Lucas, a veteran of the French and Indian War. Peak and Lucas were two of the few men in the regiment with any previous military experience; the others were Major Thomas Price, a captain in the French and Indian War and the captain of one of the rifle companies in 1775, and Lieutenant Colonel Francis Ware, another veteran of the French and Indian War.
The Third Company was raised in Bladensburg, in Prince George's County in the winter months of 1776, and in March the men traveled to Annapolis, where they joined most of the other companies of the regiment (the rest were in Baltimore). The soldiers trained with their fellow recruits and helped to guard the city. They remained there until July, when the regiment received orders to march to New York 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. [3]
During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. Half the regiment was able to cross the creek, and escape the battle. However, the rest of the men, including the Third Company, 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 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. [4]
Peak, however, probably did not fight in the battle. When he applied for a Federal veteran’s pension, he crossed out the Battle of Long Island [Brooklyn] from the list of places at which he fought. The most likely explanation is that Peak was sick--a large number of Americans were ill at the time of the battle, many victims of poor sanitation in the Continental Army's camp. Nevertheless, Peak fought with the Marylanders during the rest of the difficult campaign around New York in the fall and winter of 1776, seeing combat at the Battle of White Plains in October, and at Trenton and Princeton. [5]
At the end of 1776, Peak's term expired, and he reenlisted for a three-year term. In 1777 and 1778, the Marylanders took part in the disastrous raid on Staten Island (August 1777), and the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine (September 1777), Germantown (October 1777), and Monmouth (June 1778). At the end of 1779, Peak's enlistment ended, and he returned home. However, in February 1780, about the time that he reached Maryland, Peak once again rejoined the army, this time agreeing to serve for the rest of the war. [6]
Peak spent about three months in Maryland in early 1780, until April, when he joined the rest of the Marylanders as they traveled south, to help counter British operations in that region. They arrived in South Carolina that summer, and in August, they took catastrophic casualties at the Battle of Camden, losing some 600 men--about one-third of their troops. The next year, however, the Americans rebuilt and gained new momentum with a victory at Cowpens in January 1781. Peak was promoted to sergeant sometime in early 1781, and was transferred to the commissary department of the First Maryland Regiment, helping to administer and secure supplies for the troops. [7]
However, at the Battle of Guilford Court House, on March 15, 1781, Peak was wounded and taken prisoner by the British. Like most Americans captured during the Southern Campaign, Peak was held in Charleston, South Carolina. Not until the waning days of the war, long after the surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, were those prisoners released. Peak was not paroled until November 1782, after more than a year-and-a-half as a prisoner of war. [8]
Peak's activities in the years after leaving the army are not known. He presumably returned to Maryland initially, but he eventually left the state. Peak settled first in Kentucky, before taking up residence in Jefferson Township, in Switzerland County, Indiana. He and his wife Catherine had at least one child, a son named Samuel, and owned a small farm. [9]
In 1818, when he was in his mid-sixties, Peak applied for a pension from the federal government as a Revolutionary War veteran. He was awarded eight dollars per month, which he received until his death on November 24, 1824. In his will, Peak split his property between his son Samuel and his wife Catherine. [10]
Owen Lourie, 2019
Notes:
1. Pension of Nathan Peak. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 35550, from Fold3.com; the rhetoric in the quote, which is from Peak's application for a veteran's pension in 1818, reflects the sentiments of that time period. Tucker F. Hentz, "Unit History of the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment (1776-1781): Insights from the Service Record of Capt. Adamson Tannehill" (Virginia Historical Society, 2007), 2-3; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland (Philadelphia: Everts, 1882), 130-131.
2. Peak pension; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 10. Unfortunately, no muster roll of Cresup's company can be located to document Peak's service.
3. Pension of John Hughes. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 5954, from Fold3.com.
4. Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, 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.
5. Peak pension; David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 86-88.
6. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 149; List of receipts of soldiers who were paid upon discharge, 27 December 1779, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 3, no. 7-21, p. 1, MdHR 19970-3-7/21 [MSA S997-3-94, 1/7/3/9]; Peak pension; Muster Roll, First Company, Maryland Battalion [formerly First Maryland Regiment], 1 November 1780, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 15, no. 31, MdHR 19970-15-31 [MSA S997-15-38, 1/16/1/36].
7. Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, 1779-1780, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 43, pps. 78, 102, 140; Muster Roll, 1 November 1780; Peak pension; Auditor General, Ledger, 1778-1797, p. 116 [MSA S151-9, 1/1/4/7].
8. Peak pension; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 149.
9. Peak pension; U.S. Federal Census, 1820, Jefferson Township, Switzerland County, Indiana; Will of Nathan Peak, 1825, Switzerland County Circuit Court, Will Record, vol. 1, p. 4, from Ancestry.com.
10. Peak pension; Peak will.
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