Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Richard Lowe
MSA SC 3520-17512

Biography:

Richard Lowe enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment's Second Company, commanded by Captain Patrick Sim, in March 1776, leaving behind his wife and two young children. After enlisting, Lowe 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]

Lowe was about thirty years old when he enlisted, older than the typical soldier by about five years. He lived in the Piscataway area of Prince George's County, Maryland with his wife Sarah, who was ten years younger than him, and their children: Mary, born in March 1774, and George, born in November 1775. Many of the men in the Second Company came from the same area. [2]

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, 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]

Lowe 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. At the end of the year, Lowe's enlistment expired, and he left the army. [4]

Lowe returned to Prince George's County, Maryland. While he and his family were still living there in early 1778, there are no further records of them after that time. [5]

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.

2. St. John's Church, King George Parish, Broad Creek, Parish Register 1689-1801, p. 359-360 [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. 83, 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. Account of money paid sundry soldiers by Gen. Smallwood, paid to Richard Lowe, late 1776/early 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 7-2, MdHR 19970-6-7/2 [MSA S997-6, 1/7/3/11]. Lowe is listed as having reenlisted on December 10, 1776, but never joining his unit. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 132.

5. Governor and Council, Oaths of Fidelity, 1778, Prince George's County, box 4, folder 19, p. 3, MdHR 4648-19 [MSA S963-74, 1/1/4/29].

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