Isaac Sterling
MSA SC 3520-17311
Biography:
Isaac Sterling enlisted as a private in Captain Edward Veazey's Seventh Independent Company in 1776, volunteering in the early days of the American Revolution to defend Maryland from a feared British invasion. Sterling was 23 when he joined, a typical age for new soldiers. [1]
Maryland's independent companies were formed in early 1776, and differed from the nine companies that made up Colonel William Smallwood’s First Maryland Regiment. While the Council of Safety, Maryland's Revolutionary executive body, used the nine companies of regular troops to fulfill the state's quota for the Continental Army, it dispatched seven independent companies throughout Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore to guard the vast shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay. Half of the Seventh Independent Company was stationed on Kent Island, while the rest, including Sterling, were sent to Chestertown. In these first months, the company had great difficulty obtaining supplies, including uniforms and weapons. In the summer of 1776, Congress requested additional troops from Maryland to help reinforce the Continental Army, and the state agreed to shift the independent companies to that duty. When the First Maryland Regiment marched for New York in early July, it was accompanied by the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh independent companies; the rest followed later that fall. [2]
The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August, and prepared to protect the city from attack by the British. On August 27, 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. Half the regiment was able to cross the creek to safety. The rest, Sterling's company among them, were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, these men, now known as the "Maryland 400," mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. [3]
Sterling's company suffered greatly during the battle. Its commander Captain Veazey was killed early in the fighting and two of the company's lieutenants were captured. First Lieutenant William Harrison was the sole officer in the company to escape, and only 36 men avoided death or captivity, just a third of the company. Sterling was likely among the lucky ones, although his exact fate at the battle is uncertain, so it is not clear if he fought with the Marylanders during 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. [4]
Sterling's enlistment expired at the end of 1776, and in January 1777 he enlisted as a private in the newly-formed Second Maryland Regiment, largely composed of the disbanded independent companies. During his three-year term, he and the Marylanders fought at the American defeat at the Battle of Staten Island in August 1777, before traveling south to defend Philadelphia, fighting at the battles of Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777). The Maryland Line fought with notable bravery and skill at these engagements, as well as at the Battle of Monmouth (June 1778). In January 1780, Sterling's term of service ended, and he left the army. [5]
After the war, Sterling's fate is unclear. It is possible that he resided in Cecil County, Maryland, where a significant number of men from the Seventh Independent Company hailed from. A Cecil resident named Isaac Sterling married a woman named Mary Crow (possibly not his first wife) on December 6, 1803. That man died in 1821, but it is not clear if he was the same man who survived the Battle of Brooklyn as part of the Maryland 400 in 1776. [6]
Owen Lourie, 2016
Notes:
[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 33-34, 43; Journal of the Maryland Convention and Council of Safety 1775-1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 11, pps. 318, 468; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July-December, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12, p. 4.
[3] Tacyn, 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] Extract of a letter from an officer in the Maryland Battalion, 28 August 1776, American Archives, series 5, vol. 1, p. 1195; Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com; Sterling is not included on any known list of prisoners, but may still have been a captive.
[5] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 162; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[6] Cecil County Court, Marriage Licenses, 1777-1841, MdHR 9435 [MSA C632-1, 1/11/6/38]; U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Back Creek Hundred, Cecil County, Maryland; U.S. Federal Census, 1820, District 1, Cecil County, Maryland; Cecil County Register of Wills, Administration Accounts, 1821, Liber 13, pps. 179, 699 [MSA C586-12, 1/11/13/16], Estate Notice, Baltimore American & Commercial Daily Advertiser, 25 September 1821.
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