Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Walter Brooke Cox
MSA SC 3520-17160

Biography:

When Maryland needed to raise its quota of soldiers for the Continental Army in early 1776, Walter Brooke Cox was among those who answered the call, and became part of the state's first group of full-time soldiers. In his time in the army, Cox saw combat a number of times, and was part of the celebrated "Maryland 400."

He joined the First Maryland Regiment in January 1776, initially signing on as a cadet. Cadets were typically young men of the gentry who were awaiting openings as officers. Cox received his opportunity in July, when he was commissioned as an ensign, the lowest officer's rank. Ensigns were responsible, most notably, for carrying their unit's flags in battle. Cox was made an ensign just days before the Marylanders departed, marching north to New York to protect the city from capture by the British. [1]

The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August, where they joined with the rest of the Continental Army. A few weeks later, 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. 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 were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. [2]

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. Cox's company was among those able to escape across the Gowanus, and they lost only a handful of men in the battle. The five companies who could not escape, and made the desperate stand, took heavy causalities, each losing 60 to 80 percent of their men, killed or captured, and earned themselves the moniker "Maryland 400." [3]

Cox stayed with the army through the rest of the difficult fall of 1776, a series of defeats that saw the Americans pushed out of New York, followed by revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. When the Maryland troops were reorganized and expanded in late 1776, he was offered a promotion as a lieutenant, which he declined. It is likely that he did so because he had already been offered a position as a captain in a newly-formed regiment organized by Col. Thomas Hartley. Hartley's Regiment was one of several units formed in early 1777 which were independent of the state lines, and their commanders had free reign to pick their officers. While Cox did not receive his commission as a captain until February 1777, he had likely been approached by Hartley before then. In the months before he was promoted, Cox served temporarily as a Brigade Major for the Maryland Line, an administrative position. [4]

While serving in Hartley's Regiment, Cox and his men were part of the American efforts to defend their capital of Philadelphia. He fought at the American defeats at Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777). In October 1777, not long after the Battle of Germantown, Gen. William Smallwood noted that

Capt. Cox's and Bailey's companys have obtained liberty to return. They are intitled to this Indulgence from their situation (being mostly Tradesmen) having served their Time out faithfully. These men and Murdock's Regiment have behaved better than any corps of Militia from Maryland, and have had far less desertion among them. [5]

Hartley's Regiment disbanded in 1778, absorbed into a Pennsylvania unit, and it not clear whether Cox continued to serve after that. By the end of that year, he had certainly returned to civilian life in Maryland, marrying Ann Hollyday, the daughter of James Hollyday, a wealthy planter from Prince George's County, on November 19. [6]

Over the next few years, Cox seems to have settled into the life of a planter, purchasing large tracts of land to augment his wife's sizable dower holdings. However, by the early 1780s, he began to struggle with debt, and began to try to sell some of his property. These debts stemmed at least in part from the settlement of the estate of Leonard Hollyday, the grandfather of Cox's wife Ann, of which Cox was the administrator. However, the 1780s was a period of great economic turmoil, and even the wealthy found themselves in cycles of debt which were hard to escape. Only after Cox died in 1801 was his widow able to finally settle the family's finances. Cox had no children. [7]

Owen Lourie, 2017

Notes:

[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 7; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 69; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety from July 7 to December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12, p. 16.

[2] 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] Tacyn; Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com.

[4] Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com; Col. Thomas Hartley to George Washington, 12 February 1777, Founders Online, National Archives; Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army, (Washington, D.C.: United States Army, 1983), 99-101, 322-323; Walter B. Cox, Payment due as an acting brigade major, 16 June 1780, Maryland State Papers, Series A, MdHR 6636-18-151 [MSA S1004-23-1590, 1/7/3/35].

[5] William Smallwood to Gov., 14 October 1777, Maryland State Papers, Brown Books, no. 2, p 82, MdHR 4609-82 [MSA S991-2, 1/6/5/3], printed in Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, from March 20, 1777 - March 28, 1778, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 16, p. 397-398.

[6] Prince George's County Court, Marriage Licenses, 1777-1797, 19 November 1778, p. 6 [MSA CM783-1, CR 50,230].

[7] See newspaper Cox's advertisements trying to sell land and personal property, all of which ran for long periods: Maryland Journal, 7 September 1783; Maryland Gazette, 15 July 1785; Maryland Gazette, 9 January 1794; Centinel of Liberty, 26 April 1799; Washington Federalist, 11 March 1802. See also Mackall, et al. v. Cox, et al., 1797, Chancery Court, Chancery Papers, MdHR 17,898-3616 [MSA S512-3733, 1/36/3/66]; Johns, et al. v. Cox, et al., 1799, Chancery Court, Chancery Papers, MdHR 17,898-2888 [MSA S512-2971, 1/36/2/95]; Will of Ann Bordley Cox, 1802, Prince George's County Register of Wills, Wills, Liber T1, p. 510 [MSA C1326-4, 1/25/7/5].  

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