John Gassaway (1754-1820)
MSA SC 3520-16923

Biography:

A devout supporter of American independence, John Gassaway served the entirety of the Revolutionary War, receiving a commission just after his twenty-second birthday in 1776 and serving until the conclusion of the war in 1783. As a Gassaway, John was born into a prominent family of Anne Arundel County . Born to Henry and Dinah (Battee) Gassaway on June 18, 1754, John Gassaway was the second of Henry and Dinah’s ten children, nine of whom made it to adulthood.[1] John also had an older half-brother, Thomas, from his father’s first marriage.[2]  

When it became evident that the colonists were going to war against the British for American independence Gassaway immediately applied for a commission. When his application was “passed over unnoticed,” Gassaway enlisted as a sergeant in Captain Nathaniel Ramsey’s Company of Regulars.[3] Not to be dissuaded, Gassaway applied once again for a commission in May of 1776, stating he was “[d]etermined to participate in our present just struggle.”[4] Gassaway’s persistence was rewarded and he received a commission as an ensign in Colonel Thomas Ewing’s Third Battalion of the Flying Camp upon its organization in June of 1776.[5] As the lowest level commissioned officer, ensigns were often among the youngest members of a company and their primary duty was as a flag-barer and rallying point for the company. Unsurprisingly, ensigns endured high fatality and capture rates. Within a month, Gassaway resigned from his position in the Flying Camp and transferred to the Fifth Company of Colonel William Smallwood’s First Maryland Regiment, where he had wanted to be from the beginning, and would serve there during the Battle of Brooklyn.[6]  

At the Battle of Brooklyn, the first major engagement of the war, the British launched a frontal assault on the Continental Army in the early morning of August 27, 1776. This assault created a diversion which allowed the British Army to use an unprotected pass to circle the American left and attack their rear. Badly routed, American General Lord Stirling ordered a retreat guarded by Colonel Smallwood’s First Maryland Regiment and Colonel John Haslet’s Delaware Continentals who stood “coolly and resolutely,” while sustaining heavy cannon and mortar fire.[7] 

Upon retreating themselves, the Fifth Company was ambushed by an advanced company of British troops who pretended to surrender. Fighting “with more than Roman courage,” the Fifth Company fought the British back to the swampy Gowanus Creek, at the rear of the battlefield.[8] There the British were temporarily forced back, and the Marylanders divided. The First, Second, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Companies waded through the swamp while the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, and Seventh Independent Companies skirted the edge.[9] The Fifth Company suffered minimal casualties while crossing the swamp, before reconnecting with the main body of the Continental Army. Those companies who skirted the swamp however, were not so lucky. The British returned and the remaining Marylanders were forced to take a last stand at the Old Stone House where they suffered severe casualties.[10] 

Following the Battle of Brooklyn, Gassaway continued to serve in the Continental Army, participating in American attempts to regain control of New York, the unsuccessful defense of the American Capital at Philadelphia, and the first half of the Southern Campaign. Meanwhile, Gassaway steadily climbed the ranks. On December 10, 1776, Gassaway was promoted to Second Lieutenant in the newly created Second Maryland Regiment, made First Lieutenant the following year on April 17, 1777, Captain Lieutenant on July 1, 1779, and less than a year later in April 2, 1780, he achieved the rank of Captain.[11] 

While campaigning in the Southern theater, Gassaway fought at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780. At the Battle of Camden, Horatio Gates, American general and hero of Saratoga, suffered a major defeat at the hands of British General Charles Cornwallis. Just as happened at the Battle of Brooklyn, the left flank of Gate’s army collapsed almost immediately upon the British attack. Gates himself fled, along with the entirety of the Virginians and North Carolinians who made up the left flank, leaving the Marylanders under Major General Baron Johann de Kalb to hold the line.[12] Under de Kalb’s command were the First and Second Maryland regiments, who once again proved their courage by maintaining their position. This courage however, came at a high cost. De Kalb was shot multiple times while rallying his troops, dying as a result three days later, and the Maryland line sustained severe casualties and numerous captures.[13] Captain John Gassaway was among those captured and taken prisoner at the Battle of Camden. From his capture until the end of the Revolutionary War, Gassaway was on parole in Charleston, South Carolina. In September 1780, Gassaway was given temporary leave from Charleston to return to Annapolis. While in Annapolis, Gassaway collected funds from the friends and family of his fellow officers who were being held in South Carolina.[14] 

After the conclusion of the war, Gassaway returned to Maryland and for a time worked under his half-brother Thomas Gassaway who was the Register of Wills in Anne Arundel County. Upon Thomas’s death in 1787, Gassaway petitioned the House of Delegates for appointment as Register of Wills. Gassaway was not a resident of Anne Arundel County at the time and therefore should have been ineligible for the appointment. In his petition, Gassaway stated that he had “more powerful motives” than simply promoting his own interests. Thomas Gassaway had left behind a widow and six children with no means of support and John Gassaway’s “intention was to use a great part of the [income] of the office to their maintenance.” Gassaway even went so far as stating, “[t]he bread of the widows and orphans depend on your [the House of Delegates] decision.”[15] Whether for this reason or others, John Gassaway was approved for appointment as Register of Wills in Anne Arundel County and would hold the position from 1787 to 1820. 

In addition to being Register of Wills in Anne Arundel County, Gassaway was appointed Adjutant General of Maryland. Gassaway served one six year term in this position from 1811 to 1817. As Adjutant General during the War of 1812, Gassaway was responsible for overseeing Maryland’s militia and recruitment of Maryland troops.[16] Politically influential in Annapolis, Gassaway presided over a commemorative and celebratory march in honor of George Washington in July 1816.[17] 

Shortly after his appointment as Register of Wills, Gassaway married Mary Quynn, daughter of Allen Quynn, a prominent political and revolutionary leader in Annapolis, on February 5, 1788. John and Mary Gassaway had four children: Mary, Eliza, John, and Louisa. Their youngest daughter Louisa died in infancy, and John’s wife Mary passed away January 11, 1795. Four years after the death of his first wife, John Gassaway married Elizabeth Lane Price, daughter of Bennett Price of St. Mary’s County, on October 1, 1799. At the time of their marriage, John Gassaway was 45 and Elizabeth was around 17 or 18 years old. Gassaway had two children with his second wife: Thomas Jefferson and Louisa Emily.  

At the end of his life, Gassaway suffered from rheumatism, which made working difficult and painful. [18] Gassaway took advantage of the passage of the Congressional Act of 1818 and applied for a federal pension citing his Revolutionary War service, which he was awarded. John Gassaway died on June 25, 1820, just days after his sixty-sixth birthday. With the help of their daughter Louisa, Elizabeth Gassaway applied for and received a widow’s pension in 1848.[19] Elizabeth remained in Anne Arundel County until her death in the late 1850’s.

-Taira Sullivan, 2014.

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