Edward Edwards
MSA SC 3520-17480
Biography:
Edward Edwards enlisted as a private in the Seventh Company of the First Maryland Regiment, led by John Day Scott, on March 8, 1776. [1]
The Seventh Company began its military career by training in Annapolis for several months before moving north, making it to Philadelphia by mid-July 1776, and to New York by August 14. It was then positioned, along with the rest of the First Maryland Regiment, about one mile outside of New York, with orders to prepare for battle. According to William Sands, a sergeant in the Seventh Company, they “had lost a great many...troops [who] deserted...and a great many [were] sick in the hospital,” so the regiment was weakened before even entering combat. [2]
The Seventh Company first met the British at the Battle of Brooklyn (Battle of Long Island) on August 27, 1776, where the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, fought to defend New York. The American troops were severely outnumbered and surrounded when they were ordered to retreat. While the Seventh Company was withdrawing, they were again ambushed by British troops. About half of the First Maryland Regiment became trapped by the swampy Gowanus Creek, and turned back to fight off the British long enough for the rest of the Americans to safely escape. Casualties were extreme, but so was the heroism that earned them the honorable name of the “Maryland 400.” Fortunately, the Seventh Company escaped without immense casualties, losing fewer than ten out of approximately 75 troops. Maryland losses totaled 256 men killed or captured, but without the Maryland 400, even more would have been lost. Despite their courageous actions, the battle was a defeat for the Americans. [3]
Edwards survived the battle and continued on with the Seventh Company. The Maryland Regiment helped secure America’s first victory at the Battle of Harlem Heights in September 1776 where they were praised for their “gallant behavior” and “splendid spirit and animation.” They fought again at the Battle of White Plains in October where, despite the Maryland troops’ immense improvement, there was no clear victory. Unfortunately, the First Maryland Regiment suffered greatly, including the loss of John Day Scott, the captain of the Seventh Company, and Second Lieutenant Thomas Goldsmith who was fatally shot while attempting to save a soldier's life. [4]
Edwards reenlisted on December 10, 1776 when the First Maryland Regiment was reorganized. In 1777 the First Maryland Regiment fought at the Battle of Staten Island, and the bloody battles of Brandywine and Germantown which were part of the campaign to defend Philadelphia from British capture. All were British victories, however John Adams considered the Battle of Germantown to be the “most decisive proof that America would finally succeed.” For part of his time in the army, Edwards was designated ot operate as a scout. [5]
On February 7, 1779, before his term was up, Edwards re-enlisted for the duration of the war. In the spring of 1780, surviving Maryland veterans were part of the American Army that was ordered to march south to defend the colonies after the southern army had been almost entirely captured by the British. The American troops had a continuous shortage of supplies, food, and clothing, and by this time, morale was extremely low. After reaching the south, the Marylanders fought in the Battle of Camden, the third instance of the war where the Maryland Line found themselves alone on the battlefield after the rest of the army fled. The battle was yet another British victory, and caused extreme casualties to the Americans. Edwards survived, and fought through the end of the war with the rest of the Marylanders in the Battles of Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, and Eutaw Springs in 1781. [6]
There is no record of Edward Edwards's life after 1781. [7]
-Natalie Miller, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 2017
Notes:
[3] Mark Andrew Tacyn, "To the End: The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution," (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73; Extract of a letter from New-York: Account of the battle on Long-Island, 1 September 1776, American Archives Online, series 5, vol. 2, p. 107.
[4] "Extract of a letter from Head-Quarters to a gentleman in Annapolis: Shall give the enemy a genteel drubbing in case the Yankees will fight," 17 September 1776, American Archives Online, series 5, vol. 2, p. 370-371; Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971), 256.
[5] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 106; Tacyn, 210, 284; “From John Adams to James Lovell, 26 July 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives.
[6] Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[7] Compiled Service Records. There were several other people named Edward Edwards from Anne Arundel County, where the Seventh Company was raised in 1776: Edward Edwards (d. 1786), and his son, also named Edward Edwards, an ensign in the Fourth Maryland Regiment, who died in 1777. See Henry Wright Newman, Anne Arundel Gentry, vol. 2 (1971), 221-224.
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