Henry Lanham
MSA SC 3520-17520
Biography:
Henry 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 April 28, 1751, the eldest child of Josias and Mary Lanham. His brother Solomon was born in 1753 or 1754. Not long afterward, however, Mary Lanham died, and Josias married a woman named Elizabeth. They had at least five children together: John Downs (1758-1801); 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's fate at the battle is unknown, and no further information about his life can be determined. A Henry Lanham died in Prince George's County around 1778, but it is not known if that was the same person. [4]
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. A number of sources list Henry Lanham of the Second Company as being born in 1761 in Prince George's County to Shadrick Lanham, and dying in Indiana in 1849. For several reasons, Henry Lanham (b. 1751) is more likely to be the right person: he was from the same part of Prince George's County as many other members of the company; his brother John D. Lanham was in the same company, and it was not uncommon for siblings to serve together; and his age is more consistent with ages in the regiment. The average age of Maryland's recruits in 1776 was twenty-four, the exact age of Henry (b. 1751). Henry (1761-1849), by contrast, was no more than fifteen in early 1776.
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. Final Account of Henry Lanham, 1778, Prince George's County Register of Wills, Administration Accounts, Liber ST 1, p. 40 [MSA C1144-4, 1/25/10/15]; Inventory of Henry Lanham, 1778, Inventories, Liber ST 1, p. 91 [MSA C1228-8, 1/25/8/45]. The only property listed is a single, unnamed male slave.
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