Middleton Marlow
MSA SC 3520-17510
Biography:
Middleton Marlow enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment's Second Company, commanded by Captain Patrick Sim, in February 1776. After enlisting, Marlow 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]
Marlow was twenty-nine years old when he joined the army, about five years older than the typical soldier in the regiment. He was born on September 21, 1746, the eldest child of John and Lydia Marlow. They had two children afterwards, Smallwood Cogil (b. 1749), and Ann (b. 1752). Lydia Marlow died between 1752 and 1754, and John married a woman named Eleanor. John and Eleanor had four children together: Thomas Dorset (b. 1755); John (b. 1757); William (b. 1759); and Amey Ann (b. 1761). The family lived in the Piscataway area of Prince George's County, Maryland. A number of men from the area served with Middleton in the Second Company in 1776. [2]
In July, the regiment received orders to march to New York, in order to defend the city from an impending British attack. The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August, where they joined with 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.
During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by 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, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. They took enormous casualties, with some companies losing nearly 80 percent of their men, but their actions delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. In all, the First Maryland lost 256 men, killed or taken prisoner. [3]
Marlow survived the battle, and continued to serve with the Marylanders through the rest of the difficult fall and winter of 1776. While the Maryland troops demonstrated their skill and bravery, 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. Two of Middleton's siblings, Thomas Dorset and John, also fought in 1776. They both in enlisted in John Hawkins Lowe's company of the Flying Camp in July, and fought in the battles around New York that fall. Their enlistments ended in December, and they returned home. [4]
Unlike his brothers, Marlow stayed in the army when his enlistment expired in December. He reenlisted in the First Maryland Regiment as a sergeant for a three-year term. A number of the soldiers who had fought in the 1776 campaign received similar promotions, a reflection of the veteran leadership that they could contribute to the army. During his second term in the army, Marlow 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). He was discharged in late December 1779. [5]
Marlow returned home to Prince George's County after he left the army. Little is known about his activities or his position in the community. In 1781, he and two cousins sold a 100 acre tract of land they owned in Montgomery County which they had inherited from Ann Marlow, their grandmother (and John's father). Marlow owned no other property. There is no record that he ever married or had children, nor is it known when he died. [6]
Owen Lourie, 2017
Notes:
2. St. John's Church, King George Parish, Broad Creek, Parish Register 1689-1801, 277, 291, 337 [MSA SC2227-1-2, SCM 229]; Maryland Council of Safety, Census of 1776, Prince George's County, Prince George's and St. John's Parishes, box 2, folder 18, p. 44, MdHR 4646-18 [MSA S961-19, 1/1/4/30].
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. 34-35. A William Marlow served as a private in the Second Maryland Regiment from 1777 to 1779, but it is not certain that he was the same person as Middleton's brother. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 145.
5. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 136; 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]; Compiled Service Record of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, National Archives, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
6. Deed, John Hawkins, William Luckett, Charity Luckett, and Middleton Marlow to William Davis, 1781, Montgomery County Court, Land Records, Liber B, p. 30 [MSA CE148-2].
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