Christian Close
MSA SC 3520-17730
Biography:
Christian Close enlisted as a private in the Eighth Company of the First Maryland Regiment on January 11, 1776. 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. [1]
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. [2]
Close survived the battle, and went on to fight with the Marylanders through the rest of the difficult fall and winter 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. At the end of the year, Close reenlisted for a three-year term. [3]
A few months after reenlisting with the Marylanders, Close and soldier named Alexander Shaw, who had served together in Smith's Company in 1776, deserted their unit and signed on with the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment. Enlisting in two regiments was strictly prohibited--soldiers could never serve in two places as once--but men sometimes tried anyway, since they could potentially receive two enlistment bonuses; at least one other Marylander did it in 1777. Close and Shaw both secured promotions to sergeant when they joined the Pennsylvanians. That July, however, their scheme was discovered, and the two men were arrested. [4]
A court martial was held to try the two men, and at the trial it was revealed that they had not acted on their own. Robert Connolly, their captain in the Fourth Pennsylvania, was charged with recruiting soldiers away from the First Maryland Regiment. However, no verdict was ever rendered in the case. The trial occurred at the Continental Army's headquarters in New Jersey, but "the witnesses to prove the charge against the prisoners, being in the First Maryland Regiment, [had] gone to Peekskill [New York]," as the army began to mobilize. As a result, "the Court released the prisoners from confinement, to be tried when the witnesses can be procured," although there is no evidence that the trial was ever concluded. The summer and fall of 1777 was a time of intense campaigning, and the Maryland Line fought three battles, beginning with Staten Island in August, then marched to Philadelphia to defend it from the British, and took part in the battles of Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777). [5]
Eventually, Close returned to his Maryland unit, although it is not certain when. He was with the Marylanders in 1778, when they fought at the Battle of Monmouth, and in early 1779 Close reenlisted, agreeing to serve for the remainder of the war. [6]
In the spring of 1780, Close was with the Marylanders when they joined the American army sent to the Carolinas to counter the new front that the British had opened in the south. Over the next two years, the Maryland troops fought in the Revolutionary War's fiercest battles. In August 1780, the Americans suffered a terrible defeat at the Battle of Camden, where the Marylanders took particularly heavy casualties, losing some 600 men--about one-third of their troops. The battle ended in a chaotic American retreat. Many soldiers were separated from their units, and it was weeks before the army began to reform. Officially, Close was listed as deserting at the battle, but it is more likely that he was simply unable to find his way back to the army. [7]
After Camden, it is hard to say for certain what happened to Close. There was more than one person with that name in Maryland during and after the Revolutionary War, and it is difficult to differentiate between them. One Christian Close was a private in the Maryland Line in early 1782, until his death on March 1 of that year. Another was a flour merchant in Baltimore until sometime around 1804. There was also a Christian Close who lived near Emmitsburg, in Frederick County; he died in 1825. Were any of these people the same man who fought in 1776 as part of the Maryland 400? There is no way to know for certain. [8]
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. 18; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com; "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].
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; 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.
3. Compiled Service Record; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 92.
4. Compiled Service Record; "General Orders, 13 July 1777," Founders Online, National Archives.
5. "General Orders."
6. Compiled Service Record.
7. Tacyn, 216-225; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 92.
8. For the soldier who served in 1782, see Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 455, 530. For Christian Close of Baltimore, see U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Baltimore Town, Baltimore County, Maryland; U.S. Federal Census, 1800, Baltimore Town, Baltimore County, Maryland; Cornelius Williams, et al., The Baltimore Directory, 1803, 31; Baltimore City Archives, Baltimore City Property Tax Records, Baltimore City General Property Tax Books, 1799-1800, p. 47 [BRG4-1-2, BCA 81]; 1801-1803, p. 49 [BRG4-1-3, BCA 81]; 1804-1808, p. 62 [BRG4-1-4, BCA 82]. For Christian Close of Frederick County, see U.S. Federal Census, 1810, Frederick County, Maryland; U.S. Federal Census, 1820, Frederick County, Maryland; Frederick County Commissioners of the Tax, Assessment Record, 1825, Personal Property, District 5 [MSA C755-4, 1/54/10/16]; Real Property, District 5 [MSA C755-3, 1/54/10/15]; Christian Close on FindAGrave.
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