George Bennett
MSA SC 3520-17712
Biography:
George Bennett enlisted as a private in the Eighth Company of the First Maryland Regiment on January 24, 1776. The regiment was Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional soldiers raised to be part of the Continental Army. Bennett was a native of Ireland, and was about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old when he enlisted. [1]
The Eighth Company, commanded by Captain Samuel Smith, was raised in Baltimore in early 1776, and trained there that spring and summer. Two other companies from the regiment were located in Baltimore as well, while the rest were stationed in Annapolis. In July, the regiment was ordered to march north to New York, to protect the city from invasion by the British. The Eighth Company lost four men who deserted along the march, a problem which plagued the regiment that summer. [2]
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 Eighth, 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, losing 256 men killed or captured. Because the Eighth was able to escape the battle early, it only lost approximately six men. [3]
Bennett survived the battle, and fought on with the Marylanders through the rest of 1776. While the Maryland troops demonstrated their skill and bravery at Harlem Heights in September and White Plains in October, 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. Bennett's enlistment expired at the end of 1776, and he reenlisted. He was promoted to corporal, a reflection of the experience he had gained during his first term of service. [4]
In 1777, Bennett and the rest of the Marylanders fought at the disastrous Battle of Staten Island, then traveled south towards Philadelphia, where the American capital was being threatened by the British. On September 11, the Continental Army was routed by the British at the Battle of Brandywine, near Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania. As the battle began, Bennett tried to leave the battle and desert. As one of his officers described, "Bennett attempted to make his escape immediately as the action began at Brandywine, but was detected, and made his escape during the retreat" instead. [5]
Bennett reportedly made his way back to Baltimore afterward, but evidently was never located by the army. Nothing is known about his life after 1777. [6]
Owen Lourie, 2018
Notes:
1. Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 641; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com; "Seventy Dollars Reward." Maryland Journal (Baltimore), 16 December 1777.
2. "Eight Pounds Reward." Philadelphia Evening Post, 10 August 1776; William Sands to John and Ann Sands, 14 August 1776, Maryland State Archives, Special Collections, Dowsett Collection of Sands Family Papers [MSA SC 2095-1-18, 00/20/05/28].
3. Mark Andrew Tacyn “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73; Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com. 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. 80.
5. "Seventy Dollars Reward."
6. "Seventy Dollars Reward."
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