Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

John D. Lanham (1758-1801)
MSA SC 3520-17519

Biography:

John Downs Lanham enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment's Second Company, commanded by Captain Patrick Sim, in February 1776. After enlisting, Lanham and his company traveled to Annapolis, joining five of the regiment's other companies 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]

Lanham came from the Piscataway area of Prince George's County, and was born on August 13, 1758, the son of Josias and Elizabeth Lanham. John had two half brothers, Henry (b. 1751) and Solomon (b. 1753 or 1754), children of Josias and his first wife Mary. Josias and Elizabeth had at least four other children together: Anna Roby (b. 1772); Mary (b. 1773); Horatio; and Elizabeth Wilder. John and Henry enlisted in the Second Company together in 1776. [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]

Lanham 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 1776, Lanham's enlistment expired, and he signed on for another three years. During his second term in the army, Lanham probably took part in the disastrous raid on Staten Island (August 1777), and Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777), the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign. The Marylanders also fought at the Battle of Monmouth (June 1778). Lanham was discharged in late December 1779. [4]

In the years after his military service, Lanham lived in Prince George's and Charles counties, Maryland, and later in Virginia. He married Susanna Allen on February 27, 1791, and they had two children, named John and Elizabeth. John D. received an invalid pension--presumably for injuries related to his military service, but not known for certain--until his death in late 1801. Susanna later reported that she filed his estate in Charles County, but no record of that can be found. [5]

After her husband's death, Susanna lived in a number of different places, including Alexandria, District of Columbia (later Virginia), in the 1820s, before settling in Baltimore. She died there in May 1838. Her children applied for a Federal veteran's pension on her behalf after her death, but were ruled ineligible to receive it; such pensions were open only to soldiers or their widows. [6]

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, 265, 275, 283, 301, 350, 351, 365 [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. 57, MdHR 4646-18 [MSA S961-19, 1/1/4/30]. The 1776 census lists two (unnamed) people in the household, who may be children not recorded in the St. John's parish register.

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. 131; 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; Pension of John Lanham. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 25073, from Fold3.com.

5. St. John's register, p. 265; Pension of John Lanham.

6. "List of Letters," Alexandria Gazette, 2 February 1827; Pension of John Lanham.

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