Samuel Wiltshire
MSA SC 3520-17122
Biography:
Samuel Wiltshire enlisted in the Fourth Company of the First Maryland Regiment in January, 1776, becoming an early volunteer in the American Revolution. He served among the men whose heroic stand at the Battle of Brooklyn in August, 1776, enabled the rest of the American army to escape, the fabled "Maryland 400." While he survived that battle, and several others that fall, he apparently ended his military career in less than honorable circumstances as a deserter in May of 1777. [1]
The Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), fought on August 27, 1776, was the first full-scale battle of the Revolutionary War, and was an attempt by the Americans to prevent the British from taking New York. The battle was complete disaster for the Americans, as the Continental Army was outflanked and surrounded by the British. A portion of the Maryland troops, including Wiltshire's company, sought to retreat to the American's fortified camp, but were blocked by the British. The Marylanders launched a series of attacks which delayed the British advance and allowed the bulk of the American troops to escape, at high cost. Some 80 percent of Wiltshire's company was killed or captured; he was one of only a dozen privates, along with a sergeant and a drummer, who survived the battle. [2]
Wiltshire stayed with the army through the rest of the difficult fall of 1776, a series of defeats that saw the American pushed out of New York, followed with revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. In December, 1776, he reenlisted in the First Maryland Regiment. However, the following May, he was reported as a deserter, and dropped off the historical record. Desertion had many causes during the American Revolution, ranging from cowardice to financial distress at home to administrative errors, and it is unknown what occurred in the case of Samuel Wiltshire.
-Owen Lourie
Notes:
1. Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18. pps. 12, 173.
2. Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776. From Fold3.com. 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.
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