Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Patrick Ivory
MSA SC 3520-17248

Biography:

As a drummer in the Revolutionary War, Patrick Ivory served a vital role in his regiment. Drummers were responsible for communicating orders to the men in camp and on the battlefield, as well as disciplining soldiers, and other administrative duties. In the three-and-a-half years he served with the First Maryland Regiment, Ivory no doubt carried out these duties well, as evidenced by his promotion to regimental drum major, but his military career was marked by a string disciplinary of actions and desertion.

Each company of Maryland soldiers was supposed to have a fifer and a drummer, although it appears that they seldom had both. Indeed, Ivory's company likely did not have a fifer. While fifes were used to boost morale on long marches and transmit orders in camp, drums were far more vital to the army. Audible even in the midst of battle, drums were used to signal troop movements and maneuvers, and drummers were stationed alongside the soldiers during battles. In recognition of their importance, drummers and fifers were considered non-commissioned officers equivalent to corporals, and paid more than privates. [1]

Ivory joined the Fourth Company of the First Maryland Regiment on January 23, 1776, at the outset of the American Revolution. The company was largely drawn from Harford County, and was part of Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional soldiers raised to be part of the Continental Army. Ivory and his company were initially stationed in Baltimore, where it trained until early July. On July 9, 1776, the First Maryland Regiment was ordered to march north to New York, to protect the city from invasion by the British. Just days before it left, the company was assigned a new commander, Captain Daniel Bowie, and had only 58 men, instead of the 74 soldiers in a full strength company. [2]

On August 27, a month after arriving in New York, the Americans clashed with the British at the Battle of Brooklyn (also called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale encounter of the American Revolution. 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, Ivory'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. One of the Fourth Company's sergeants, William McMillan, described what happened:

We were surrounded by Healanders [Scottish Highlanders] [on] one side, Hessians on the other...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 like Bowie, or captured like McMillan. Ivory made it back to the American lines, along with a sergeant and a dozen privates. 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]

Ivory 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.

Ivory reenlisted for a three-year term with the First Maryland Regiment in December 1776, and was named as the regiment's drum major, responsible for overseeing and training the drummers in the unit. He did not hold that position for very long, however. In August 1777, Ivory and Edward Cosgrove, who had fought at the Battle of Brooklyn in the Fourth Company together, were convicted by a court martial of stealing. Cosgrove received 300 lashes for the offence, while Ivory was sentenced "to be Reduced to A Private Drum[mer] & Receive 100 Lashes." [5]

During 1777, Ivory and the Marylanders fought to protect Philadelphia from capture by the British, likely fighting at the battles of Brandywine (September) and Germantown (October). The First Maryland Regiment also fought a battle on Staten Island in August 1777. He probably also saw combat at the Battle of Monmouth (1778), and untold smaller skirmishes and engagements. In early 1779, Ivory was part of a detachment of troops sent to Monmouth County, New Jersey for operations against the British, but he deserted that February. He evidently made his way to Philadelphia, where he and a group of other deserters were arrested for theft. The seven men were released after returning the stolen goods and paying fines on April 20. Ivory, however, was turned over to the military authorities, who tried him for desertion on May 8, 1779, sentencing him to 100 lashes. [6]

After receiving his punishment, Ivory may have rejoined his unit, although records are ambiguous. Nothing is known of him outside of his military career. [7]

Owen Lourie, 2016

Notes:

[1] Account for payment of soldiers, September 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 5, MdHR 19970-6-5 [MSA S997-6-6, 1/7/3/11]; Robert K. Wright, The Continental Army (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center for Military History, 1983), 38; Return of Ramsey's, Smith's, and Bowie's companies, 9 July 1776, Maryland Historical Society, Revolutionary War Collection, MS 1814; "Regulations adopted for Raising, Clothing, and Victualling the Forces to be raised in the Province." American Archives series 4, vol. 4, p. 744.

[2] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 11; Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 1774-1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 78, p. 198; Return of Ramsey's, Smith's, and Bowie's companies.

[3] The experience of the Fourth Company is described in the pension of William McMillan, one of the company's sergeants. See Pension of William MaCmillan, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S 2806, p. 33-35, from Fold3.com.

[4] 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.

[5] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 125; Rev. Joseph Brown Turner, ed., "The Journal and Order Book of Captain Robert Kirkwood of the Delaware Regiment of the Continental Line," Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware 56 (1910), 133-134; Wright, 38.

[6] Minutes of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council, 20 April 1779, vol. XI, p. 753; “General Orders, 14 May 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives.

[7] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 125.

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