John O'Neal
MSA SC 3520-17139
Biography:
John O'Neal enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment in January, 1776, one of the earliest Marylanders to volunteer to fight in the Revolutionary War. He was part of the famed "Maryland 400" who gained renown at the Battle of Brooklyn. O'Neal's company formed in early 1776, consisting mostly of men from Harford County, and spent several months training in Baltimore, until it departed for New York in July. At the time, the British were threatening New York, and preparing to capture the city. [1]
On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn. The battle was a rout: the British were able to sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray. During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest, O'Neal's company among them, were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, the Marylanders mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. [2] One of the other Fourth Company sergeants, William McMillan, described what happened:
My captain was killed, first lieutenant was killed, second lieutenant shot through the hand, two sergeants was killed; one in front of me…my bayonet was shot off my gun...My brother [Sergeant Samuel McMillan] and I and 50 or 60 of us was taken…The Hessians broke the butts of our guns over their cannon and robbed us of everything we had, lit their pipes with our money…gave us nothing to eat for five days, and then [only] moldy biscuits…blue, moldy, full of bugs and rotten. [3]
All told, the company lost 80 percent of its men, killed or captured like McMillan. Only the company's drummer, a dozen privates, and a sergeant made it back to the American lines. The Marylanders took enormous causalities, with other companies losing nearly as many men as the Fourth, but their action had delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, earning themselves the moniker "Maryland 400." [4]
What O'Neal's fate was at the battle is uncertain, as is the rest of his military career, owing to his relatively common name. It is likely that he survived the battle, and reenlisted in the First Maryland Regiment in December, 1776. He may have deserted not long after, in May, 1777. In addition, there was a soldier named John O'Neal serving the First Maryland by the middle of 1778, who was in the army at least into 1779. Several other men with the same name also served at other times in various units, and it is hard to determine exactly who was the man who enlisted at the very beginning of the war and was one of the Maryland 400. [5]
Owen Lourie, 2015
[2] 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. Mark Andrew Tacyn “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73.
[4] Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com.
[5] The service record of the John O'Neal who enlisted in January 1776 and reenlisted that December comes from Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 12 and 148 and Tacyn, Appendex A. For the John O'Neal in the First Maryland during 1778-1779, see Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com; this could be the same man who served in 1776. For the service of various John O'Neals during the Revolution, who are probably not the same as the John O'Neal(s) who were in the First Maryland, see Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 59, 401, 411, 653.
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