John Burgess, MSA SC 3520-16933

While John Burgess was born in England, he fought for American Independence during the Revolutionary War. Burgess enlisted in the Fifth Company of the First Maryland Regiment in 1776, earning him a place among the famed Maryland 400.

In early July, Private Burgess and the rest of the First Regiment began the march from Baltimore to Brooklyn in order to defend New York. In the early morning hours of August 26, the British issued a frontal attack, which distracted the Continental Army from the approaching British rout. Taken by surprise, the American line collapsed when struck by the British left flanking maneuver.

The First Maryland Regiment covered the retreat of the American Army before withdrawing themselves. Half of the First Regiment, including Burgess’s Fifth Company, escaped across the Gowanus Creek, while the remaining companies skirted the creek and were forced to take a last stand at the Old Stone House.[1]

Burgess saw action at the Battle of White Plains in October of 1776, before reenlisting for three years in the Seventh Maryland Regiment when his initial enlistment expired in December of 1776 or January of 1777. During this time, Burgess participated in American attempts to retake New York and the unsuccessful defense of the American Capital in Philadelphia. In April of 1780, Burgess was discharged from the Seventh Regiment, and it is likely he returned home to Baltimore before serving in Hartley’s Additional Continental Regiment from August of 1780 to January of 1781.[2]

Burgess returned to Maryland for a time before reenlisting as a corporal in the Maryland Line in June of 1782, after the British surrender at Yorktown, and remained there until the army was disbanded in November of 1783.[3] As a result of his discharge in 1780, Burgess was ineligible to receive bounty land in Western Maryland regardless of the fact that he enlisted for the duration of the war in 1782.

While little is known about Burgess following the war, his military service records from 1782 offer an unusual amount of detail on Burgess’s physical characteristics. Burgess was described as a slender, 42-year-old man, with light brown hair, a “swarthy” complexion, and a height of five feet eleven inches.

According to one of the best demographic records from the First Maryland Regiment in the early stages of the Revolutionary War, a muster roll of Edward Veazey’s Seventh Independent Company, the typical soldier was in his early 20s, under five feet eight inches, and born in America. Burgess, by contrast, was older, taller, and non-native born, which placed him among the minority of soldiers in the Continental Army.

While Burgess was atypical when compared to the average soldier, his demographics matched better with those of non-native born soldiers.[4] On average, foreign-born soldiers were several years older than their native-born counterparts, and were more likely to live in urban Baltimore. It is possible that foreign-born soldiers tended to be older because they had served terms as indentured servants or immigrated older adults to America. In addition, as a prosperous urban center, Baltimore would have been home to a number of immigrants due to increased job and housing availability.[5] As a 36-year-old man and a resident of Baltimore at the time of his enlistment, Burgess fit both of these standards typical of foreign-born soldiers in the First Maryland Regiment.

Notes:
[1] To read more about the experience of the Fifth Company at the Battle of Brooklyn see “The Fate of the Fifth Company,” on the Finding the Maryland 400 blog.

[2] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 189, 423, 466; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, 0399, from Fold3.com (hereafter cited as Service Records); Robert K. Wright, Jr, The Continental Army (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History United States Army, 1983), p. 322.

[3] Service Records.

[4] Service Records; MARYLAND STATE PAPERS, Revolutionary Papers, Descriptions of men in Captain F. Veazey’s Independent Company [MSA S997-15, 01/07/03/013] (hereafter cited as Veazey’s Independent Company); Edward C. Papenfuse and Gregory A. Stiverson, “General Smallwood’s Recruits: The Peacetime Career of the Revolutionary War Private,” The William and Mary Quarterly 30, no. 1 (1973): 120.

[5] Service Records; Veazey’s Independent Company; Papenfuse and Striverson, p. 120.