Henry Weedon
MSA SC 3520-17559
Biography:
Henry Weedon enlisted as a private in the First Maryland Regiment's Seventh Company, commanded by Captain John Day Scott, in February 1776. Weedon signed on as a volunteer in Annapolis, along with his friend Francis Fairbrother. Their company was raised in the beginning of the year, and was stationed in Annapolis, along with five of the regiment's other companies; 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]
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 a month later and joined the rest of the Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington. One of the company’s sergeants, William Sands, described the scene in mid-August: “Our Maryland Battalion is encamped on a hill about one mile out of New York, where we lay in a very secure place…We are ordered to hold ourselves in readiness. We expect an attack hourly.” [2]
That attack finally came two weeks later, on August 27, 1776, 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 Seventh 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]
Weedon survived the battle, as did most of the men in his company, although William Sands was among those killed. In October, Weedon fought with the Marylanders at the Battle of White Plains, where they again took the brunt of the fighting. They were ordered to leave their defensive position on the top of a hill and charge at the British: “[New York colonel Rudolphus] Ritzema’s and Smallwood’s [regiments] suffered most, on this occasion, sustaining, with great patience and coolness, a long and heavy fire– and finally retreated with great sullenness, being obliged to give way to a superior force.” Weedon’s company lost its captain and one of its lieutenants, Thomas Goldsmith, both killed. By November, the Americans had been 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. [4]
In December 1776, Weedon’s enlistment came to an end, and he left the army. Nothing else is known of his life, except that he had a sister named Susannah (Weedon) Earle. There were multiple people with that name living in Maryland during and after the American Revolution, and there is no way to determine which, if any, were the man who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn. [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. 17; Pension of Francis Fairbrother. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, W8804, from Fold3.com.
[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.
[5] Account of money paid sundry soldiers by Gen. Smallwood, paid to Henry Weedon, late 1776/early 1777, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 7-6, MdHR 19970-6-7/6 [MSA S997-6-28, 1/7/3/11]; Fairbrother pension.
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