Paul Hagarty
MSA SC 3520-17527
Biography:
Paul Hagarty enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment's Second Company, commanded by Captain Patrick Sim, in February 1776. After enlisting, Hagarty 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]
Hagarty was the son of John and Sarah Hagarty, and was born on February 23, 1752. They lived in the Piscataway area of Prince George's County, where many other men in the Second Company came from. [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 causalities, 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]
Hagarty 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, Hagarty's enlistment expired, and he signed on for another three years. [4]
During his second term in the army, Hagarty probably took part in the disastrous raid on Staten Island (August 1777), and then traveled to Pennsylvania, where the British were threatening the American capital at Philadelphia. The Continental Army was defeated at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, and Philadelphia was taken by the British soon afterwards. During the battle, Hagarty was seriously wounded. While he remained in the army for his whole term, he likely never fought again, and it is possible that he spent the next two-and-a-half years on furlough, recuperating at home. Hagarty was formally discharged on December 27, 1779. [5]
The extent of Hagarty's injuries is not clear, but any wounded veteran faced a daunting future in the Revolutionary era. To help offset these hardships, Maryland granted pensions to disabled veterans, equal to half their regular pay. Hagarty began receiving his money in late 1784, and got his last payment in November 1789. [6]
There is little definite information about Hagarty's life in the years after the Revolution. He lived in Frederick County, Maryland in the 1780s, and may have been active in the Methodist church. A man named Paul Hagarty was imprisoned for debt in Washington County, Maryland in 1785, possibly the same Paul Hagarty. After he received his last pension payment in 1789, however, there is no trace of him in Maryland records. [7]
Owen Lourie, 2017
Notes:
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. 117. Note that the years given are incorrect.
5. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 630; Compiled Service Record of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, National Archives, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
6. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 630; Frederick County Register of Wills, Orphans Court Proceedings, 1784-1786, Liber GM 2, p. 75, MdHR 12291-1 [MSA C884-2, 1/50/7/46]; Orphans Court Proceedings, 1784-1786, Liber GM 2, pps. 96, 110, 115, 122, 133, 143, 149, 155, 158, MdHR 12291-2 [MSA C844-3, 1/50/7/47].
7. Orphans Court Proceedings; Sale of Household Goods, Thomas Hagarty to Paul Hagarty, 1783, Frederick County Court, Land Records, Liber WR 4, p. 141 [MSA CE108-24]; John Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Everts, 1882), 902, 941; Paul Hagarty to Governor William Smallwood, 13 July 1785, Maryland State Papers, Series A, box 54, no. 85, MdHR 6636-54-86 [MSA S1004-76-16959, 1/7/3/61].
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