Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

John Booth (1744-1778)
MSA SC 3520-17147

Biography:

John Booth was an Irish immigrant in his early 30s when he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Company of the First Maryland Regiment in Annapolis, Maryland, on February 15, 1776. He joined an army which had a substancial number of other Irish soldiers. [1]

Booth trained with his company until early July, when the First Maryland Regiment marched for New York, seeking to prevent the British from occupying that city. On August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. Although the Marylanders withstood an initial assault, the battle ultimately was a rout. The early British attack was just a decoy, distracting the Americans while the British marched around the American lines. Outflanked, the 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. Half the regiment, including Booth's company, was able to cross the creek, but the rest 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. These companies lost as much as 80 percent of their men. However, their action delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, earning themselves the moniker "Maryland 400." [2]

Booth survived the Battle of Brooklyn, and stayed with the army for at least some of the fall and winter of 1776, even reenlisting in December. At some point, he was transferred to the Philadelphia Bettering House, one of the hospital facilities commandeered by the Continental Army, where he was listed as "walking about, but weak." [3] It is unknown when Booth returned to the army, but he likely participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in the fall of 1777, part of the unsuccessful American defense of Philadelphia, and he endured the legendary winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge. In late 1777, Booth was reported as a deserter, and newspaper ads were published with his description, but he appears to have eventually returned to his regiment. He continued to serve until his death in camp at Fishkill, N.Y., on September 8, 1778, after an illness of several weeks. He was survived by his wife Margaret, who he married in camp at some point during the war. [4]

Owen Lourie, 2015

Notes:

[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 16; Charles Patrick Neimeyer, America Goes to War: A Social History of the Continental Army (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 34-37.

[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com; Mark Andrew Tacyn “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73. 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.

[3] Account of money paid sundry soldiers by Gen. Smallwood, 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 7-3a, MdHR 19970-6-7/3a [MSA S997-6, 1/7/3/11]; "List of Sick Soldiers in Philadelphia, December 1776," in Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd ser., vol. 1, 532.

[4] Valley Forge Muster Roll; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com; Archives of Maryland, vol. 18, p. 81; "Seventy Dollars Reward," Maryland Journal (Baltimore), 9 December 1777; Affidavit of marriage of John and Margaret Booth, 11 September 1778, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 5, no. 20a, MdHR 19970-5-20/1 [MSA S997-5, 1/7/3/11].

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