James Bell
MSA SC 3520-17610
Biography:
James Bell enlisted as a private in the Sixth Company of the First Maryland Regiment, led by Captain Peter Adams, on January 30, 1776. [1]
The Sixth Company was recruited primarily from the Eastern Shore, but traveled to Annapolis in the spring of 1776 to complete six months of training. The company then moved north, making it to Philadelphia by mid-July 1776 and to New York by August 14. It was positioned with the rest of the First Maryland Regiment about one mile outside of New York, with orders to prepare for battle.
The Marylanders met the British at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island) on August 27, 1776, where the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, fought to defend New York. The American troops were severely outnumbered and surrounded when they were ordered to retreat. Half the regiment was able to escape the battle, however the other half, including most of the Sixth Company, was trapped by the swampy Gowanus Creek. They turned back to face the British, holding their position long enough for the rest of the Marylanders to return to safety. This heroic stand earned them the honorable name of the “Maryland 400.” [2]
The First Maryland Regiment suffered major losses. The Sixth Company alone lost fifty eight of its men, or 80 percent. By the end of the battle, Maryland losses totalled 256 men killed or captured. Despite the heroic actions of the Maryland 400, the battle was a defeat for the Americans. [3]
James Bell’s fate at the battle is unknown, and there is no record that he completed his enlistment. There were, however, several men with the same name who lived on the Eastern Shore after the war, and a man named James Bell who served as a private in the Maryland line from 1782 until 1783. Unfortunately, it is unknown if any of them were the same man who fought at the Battle of Brooklyn. [4]
-Natalie Miller, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 2018
Notes:
[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn, "To the End: The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution," (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73; Extract of a letter from New-York: Account of the battle on Long-Island, 1 September 1776, American Archives Online, series 5, vol. 2, p. 107.
[3] Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com.
[4] Archives of Maryland Online, vol 18, p. 466, 526.
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