Thomas Connor
MSA SC 3520-17434
Biography:
Thomas Connor (or O'Connor) enlisted into Second Company of the First Maryland Regiment, on March 6, 1776, in the early days of the Revolutionary War. He was about thirty years old, older than most soldier; the average age in the regiment was twenty-four, and only 15 percent were older than thirty. After enlisting, Connor and his company traveled to Annapolis, joining five other companies of the regiment that were stationed there; three additional companies were in Baltimore. Commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, the regiment was the first unit of full-time, professional soldiers raised in Maryland for service in the Continental Army. [1]
In July, the regiment received orders to march to New York to defend the city from an impending British attack. The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August and joined the rest of the Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington. 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.
As the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, they were forced to stop at the swampy Gowanus Creek. Half the regiment, including the Second Company, was able to cross the creek and escape the battle. However, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, this group of soldiers, today called the "Maryland 400," mounted a series of daring charges. They held the British at bay for some time before being overrun, at the cost of many lives. The Marylanders took enormous casualties, but their actions delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. [2]
In all, the First Maryland lost 256 men, killed or taken prisoner, and some companies lost nearly 80 percent of their men. Most soldiers in the Second Company successfully escaped and it lost fewer than ten men in total. Years later, Francis Osborn, a soldier in the company, recalled seeing his captain Patrick Sim "knocked down by the body of Thomas Connor whose head was shot off by a cannon." While Osborn undoubtedly saw many men killed during the battle, he was mistaken about Conner, who survived the battle, and went on to fight for years to come. [3]
Connor and the Marylanders fought the British through the rest of the difficult fall and winter of 1776. While the Maryland troops demonstrated their skill and bravery at Harlem Heights in September and White Plains in October, the Americans were nevertheless pushed out of New York, and put on the run through New Jersey. Not until late that winter did they secure revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton. Connor fought at all of these, except Harlem Heights and Princeton, and around the end of 1776, he reenlisted for another three years. [4]
During his second term in the army, Connor and his regiment fought at the disastrous raid on Staten Island (August 1777), and at Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777), the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign. He was also at the Battle of Monmouth (June 1778). He was discharged in late December 1779, after four hard years of service. [5]
Connor was discharged at Wilmington, Delaware, where the Marylanders made their winter camp, and probably returned to Maryland, but his activities in the decades after the war are not known. He married a woman Mary, and they had at least one child, a son named Thomas. By 1810, Connor had moved with his family to Nelson County, Kentucky, where they were farmers. In 1818, he applied for a Federal veteran's pension, and was awarded $80 per year, which he received until his death in early 1826. In his will, Connor left divided his property between his wife and son, and also left $10 "to the benefit of the Cathedral." Nelson County had a large Catholic population, many settlers from Maryland like Connor, and St. Joseph's Cathedral, located in Bardstown, the county seat, was completed in 1825, just as Connor wrote his will. [6]
- Taylor Blades and 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. 8; Pension of Thomas O'Connor. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 35541, from Fold3.com.
[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] Pension of Patrick Sim. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 35072, from Fold3.com.
[4] O'Connor pension; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 91.
[5] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 91; O'Connor pension; List of receipts of soldiers who were paid upon discharge, 27 December 1779, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 3, no. 7-21, MdHR 19970-3-7/21 [MSA S997-3-94, 1/7/3/9].
[6] U.S. Federal Census, 1810, Nelson County, Kentucky; U.S. Federal Census, 1820, Nelson County, Kentucky; O'Connor pension; Will of Thomas O'Conor, 1826, Nelson County, Kentucky. Special thanks to Mary Ellen Moore at the Nelson County Clerk's Office for providing an image of Connor's will.
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