Peter Smith
MSA SC 3520-17285
Biography:
Peter Smith enlisted as a private in the Fourth Company of the First Maryland Regiment on January 24, 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. Smith and the rest of the company was 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. [1]
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, Smith'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. [2]
All told, the company lost 80 percent of its men, killed like Bowie, 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 casualties, 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." [3]
Smith survived the Battle of Brooklyn (whether he escaped capture is unknown), and reenlisted in December 1776 for a three-year term. During this period, Smith probably took part in the disastrous raid on Staten Island (August 1777), and the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777). The Marylanders also fought at the Battle of Monmouth (June 1778). [4]
In February 1779, Smith reenlisted, this time pledging to serve for the rest of the war. He appears to have remained with the army until 1783, enduring some of the fiercest battles and harshest conditions of the war during the Southern Campaign. In 1782, after most combat had ended, the Marylanders continued to serve, countering the continued British presence in South Carolina. In March of that year, Smith was promoted to corporal, and made a sergeant that October. Peter Smith was formally discharged in November 1783, nearly eight years after he had enlisted. [5]
After his army service ended, Smith returned to Harford County, where he lived as a small farmer--a "yeoman," according to at least one description. In 1782, he purchased a 132 acre tract of land in Harford that had been owned by Henry Harford, the sixth Lord Baltimore and the last colonial Lord Proprietor of Maryland. Maryland's Revolutionary government seized the land of loyalists and high colonial officials, including Harford, and sold it to help defray the costs of the war. Although he owned land, he had little other property--just one horse and three head of cattle; Smith never owned slaves. Still, by 1790, Smith had increased his land holdings, adding 8 acres and taking out a land patent called "Smith's Still." He may have married during this time, but records are unclear. [6]
By the end of the decade, however, Smith's fortunes had changed. He incurred large debts, and in early 1798 his land was seized and sold at auction to pay the £1,500 debt he owed to Thomas Ayres, a blacksmith and one of Smith's neighbors. Smith stayed in Harford County for a few years afterwards, but seems to have left sometime after 1800, and nothing more is known of his fate. [7]
Owen Lourie, 2016
Notes:
[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 12; 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, 9 July 1776, Maryland Historical Society, Revolutionary War Collection, MS 1814.
[2] The experience of the Fourth Company is described in the pension of William McMillan, one of the company's sergeants. See Letter, William McMillan to Secretary of Treasury, ca. October 1828. Pension of William McMillan, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S 2806, p. 33-35, from Fold3.com.
[3] 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.
[4] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 159; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[5] When Smith left the army is not entirely clear. His military service record is clear through the end of 1780, and it is very likely that he continued to serve after that point. He was in Maryland by the fall of 1782, however, when he purchased land. Roster of First Maryland Regiment, 1 November 1780, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 15, no. 31 [MSA S997-15-38, 1/6/2/44]; Receipts for pay, Peter Smith, February 1779; 2 March 1779; 13 April 1779, Maryland State Papers, Series A [MSA S1004-27, 1/7/3/37]; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 357, 431.
[6] Although Smith applied to purchase the land in September 1782, he is shown owning no land on the 1783 assessment of Maryland. Evidently, the purchase was not finalized the purchase until sometime later; in 1785, he took out a loan from the state, conceivably to help finance his purchase. See Evaluation of Land Wanted by Peter Smith, 9 September 1782, Maryland State Papers, Confiscated British Property Papers [MSA S999-18-1045, 1/7/3/21]; General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment of 1783, Harford County, Bush River Upper Hundred and Eden Hundred, p. 22 [MS S1161-6-3, 1/4/5/49]; Bond, Peter Smith to State, 23 September 1785, Maryland State Papers, Scharf Collection, box 35, no. 28 [MSA S105-38-3927, 1/8/5/33]; "Smith's Still," Patented Certificate no. 767, 1797, Harford County Land Office, Certificates, Patented, Harford [MSA S1199-779, 1/25/5/16]; Deed, Robert Amos, Sheriff to Thomas Ayres, 1798, Harford County Court, Land Records, Liber JLG O, p. 60 [MSA CE113-14]. The 1783 assessment and the censuses of 1790 and 1800 show Smith in a household of two or three people, including one woman, who may have been his wife. There is no record of him every marrying, although that is not unusual. U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Harford County; U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Harford County, District 4.
7. Deed; Census of 1800.
Return to Peter Smith's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|