Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Zachariah Gray (1730-1777)
MSA SC 3520-17135

Biography: Son of Zachariah Gray (d. ~1746), and mother Rebecca Bowen. Brother of half-sister Anne (b. March 27, 1724), Absalom (b. Oct. 20, 1733), Ephraim, Elizabeth, John, and William (b. ~1747). Married Mary Linch on June 3, 1754. Married Comfort by 1771. Father of Ann (b. Dec. 1, 1772), and Zachariah. Died in 1777.

Gray was born in Baltimore County on June 30, 1730, the eldest child of Zachariah and Rebecca Gray.[1] Gray’s father was a planter in the county and bequeathed some of his lands to his son in his will proved in March 1747.[2] On December 22, 1748 Gray married Mary Lynch at St. Paul’s Parish in Baltimore.[3] His wife Mary died sometime after 1748 and by 1771 he had married his second wife Comfort.[4] Zachariah and Comfort had five children at the time of his death in 1777.[5]

On February 3, 1776 Gray enlisted as a corporal in Captain Barton Lucas’ Third Company, First Maryland Regiment.[6] Gray’s motivations for enlisting are unknown, but his old age at the time of enlistment was atypical; in Captain Edward Veazey’s Seventh Independent Company, the average age of a soldier was twenty-four. At the age of forty-six, Zachariah Gray was one of the oldest enlisted soldiers in the First Maryland Regiment. Gray left Maryland in July 1776 when the regiment marched to New York to reinforce the Continental Army under General George Washington.      

Fought on August 27, 1776, the Battle of Brooklyn was the first combat experience for the men of the First Maryland Regiment. While the Marylander’s performed remarkably well, other regiments did not and the battle resulted in a major defeat for the Continental Army. The British Army under the command of General William Howe secretly outflanked the Americans and easily drove them from the field, forcing them to retreat to their defensive fortifications at Brooklyn Heights.[7]

Howe’s flanking maneuver cut off the Marylander’s avenue of retreat and forced them to charge the numerically superior British force. The regiment suffered extremely high casualties as a result of the assault, but they also slowed the British advance, enabling the rest of the army to retreat to Brooklyn Heights and later withdraw to Manhattan. The First Maryland Regiment’s sacrifice helped save the Continental Army from complete destruction and earned the regiment the name “Maryland 400.”

The Third Company sustained high losses during the battle; out of a force of seventy four men, only twenty nine appear on a list of troop strength on September 27, 1776.[8] Only one officer from the company, ensign Peter Brown, made it back to the safety of the defensive fortifications at Brooklyn Heights. Captain Lucas was sick and missed the battle and near destruction of his company, a fact that haunted him.

As a corporal, Gray would have been responsible for helping lead his squad during the battle. At some point during the engagement the British captured Gray and made him a prisoner of war.[9] British treatment of enlisted prisoners was infamously poor, but Gray did not remain in captivity long and returned to Maryland by the end of the year.

After his return to Maryland, Gray sought to settle his personal affairs and arrange for the care of his family by selling some of his land and writing a will. It is probable that the Gray family was struggling financially due to the absence of the patriarch of the family. This fact, coupled with the low and sporadic pay received by enlisted soldiers, compelled Gray to sell some his remaining lands upon his return to Maryland. Most likely motivated by witnessing the horrors of war and the near destruction of his company, Gray composed a short will on January 29, 1777. Gray left all his property to his “dear wife Comfort,” and upon her death, to his son Zachariah.[10]

At some point after writing his will Gray left his family and returned to the regiment. Depending on when he returned to the regiment, Gray may have participated in the Forage War during the winter of 1777. The First Maryland Regiment did not engage in any major battles in the spring and summer of 1777, but General Washington often employed the regiment as a harassing unit which made frequent contact with the enemy and protected the main body of the Continental Army.[11] Sometime in 1777, most likely the spring or summer, Gray was killed during a skirmish near present day New Brunswick, New Jersey.[12] On September 18, 1777 the Council of Maryland ordered that a treasurer pay Comfort Gray, "the widow of Zachariah Gray who was lately killed in the Service," twelve pounds for the subsistence of her and her five small children.[13] 

Sean Baker, 2015

Notes: 

[1] St. Paul's Church, St. Paul's Parish, Protestant Episcopal, Baltimore City, Parish Register, vol. I, 16 [SCM 994-1].

[2] Baltimore County, Register of Wills, Wills, 1666-1759, 403 [MSA C 435-1].

[3] St. Paul's Church, St. Paul's Parish, Protestant Episcopal, Baltimore City, Parish Register, vol. I, 107 [SCM 994-1].

[4] Baltimore County, Court, Land Records, Liber AL C, 265 [MSA C 352-41].

[5] Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, January 1-March 20, 1777, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 16, p. 379.

[6] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 9.

[7] Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: 1878, reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1971), 191.

[8] Revolutionary War Rolls. NARA M246, 92, from Fold3.com.

[9] Payroll and return certification of Long Island Prisoners, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, Box 19, no. 3, MdHR 19970-19-03 [MSA S 997-19-3, 01/07/03/15].

[10] Will of Zachariah Gray, Baltimore County, Register of Wills, Wills, Original, Box 16, Folder 10 [MSA C 437-19].

[11] Mark Andrew Tacyn, “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 133.

[12] Baltimore County, Register of Wills, Orphans Court Proceedings, 1777-1787, vol. 1, 13 [MSA C 396-1].

[13] Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, January 1-March 20, 1777, Archives of Maryland Online vol. 16, 379

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