Hugh McClain
MSA SC 3520-17671
Biography:
Hugh McClain enlisted as a private in the Sixth Company of the First Maryland Regiment, led by Captain Peter Adams, on February 24, 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 58 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. Unlike many of his companions, McClain appears to have survived the battle and was not captured. He was one of just sixteen officers and men from the Sixth Company to come out of the battle unscathed. [3]
Hugh McClain re-enlisted on December 10, 1776, when the Maryland Line was reorganized. He likely fought in the revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton in the winter of 1776-1777. However, the Continental Army’s luck soon ran out when they fought at the Battle of Staten Island, and the bloody battles of Brandywine and Germantown, part of the campaign to defend Philadelphia from British capture. All were British victories, although John Adams considered the Battle of Germantown to be the “most decisive proof that America would finally succeed.” [4]
McClain left the army on furlough by February 1779 and was discharged just a few months later, on April 25. He was likely suffering from an injury that rendered him unable to fight, as this was eight months before his enlistment should have ended. The change in his discharge date seems to have affected McClain’s pay, and he was not given the money he was owed. [5]
In the years following the war, McClain struggled financially, and attempted to provide for his family in a few different ways. Although he was anxious to be with his family after three years of military service and a difficult transition back to civilian life, he left home likely in search for work, but it seems he was not very successful. In 1783, he wrote to the governor, pleading that he "be so kind as to enable him with as much subsistence as would make him capable of returning to his family.” Although the outcome of his petition to the governor is unclear, he began to receive a state disability pension in 1785. The last definite record of his life was in 1791, when he was accidentally taken off the pension list, but added back on in April. [6]
-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. 137.
[5] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 137; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[6] Request for Financial Assistance, Maryland State Papers, Series A, 1783, MdHR 6636-47-73 [MSA S1004-66-8909, 01/07/03/056]; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 632; Invalid Pensions, Maryland State Papers, Brown Books, 1791, MdHR 4611-73 [MSA S991-4-1, 01/06/05/005].
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