William Downs
MSA SC 3520-17738
Biography:
William Downs enlisted as a private in the Eighth Company of the First Maryland Regiment on February 14, 1776. The regiment was Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional soldiers raised to be part of the Continental Army. 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]
Downs 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. By the time of those battles, however, Downs was no longer present. He had been transferred to the Philadelphia Bettering House, suffering from an unknown illness or injury. How long he remained there is not recorded, although by mid-December he was reported to be once again "fit for duty." [3]
Downs likely left Philadelphia sometime in the winter or spring of 1777 and returned home, since his enlistment had expired while he was in the hospital. After a few months, he returned to the army, enlisting in the Fourth Maryland Regiment in August 1777 for a three-year term. During the next two years, Downs and the Marylanders fought a series of battles for control of Philadelphia, the American capital, first at Brandywine (September 1777), then at Germantown (October 1777), which were both significant defeats. Downs was likely also at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, a marginal American victory. In early 1779, long before his enlistment was due to end, Downs signed on to another new term, agreeing to serve until the end of the war. [4]
In the spring of 1780, the Marylanders were part of the American army that marched 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 was able to reform. While Downs survived the fighting, he was reported as missing. His whereabouts and activities for the next year and a half are not known, but did eventually return to the army. [5]
Downs does not appear in any army records again until early 1782, by which time he was serving once again in the Maryland Line. The Marylanders returned to South Carolina in 1782, where British forces lingered for most of the year. After returning to Maryland, Downs was discharged in September 1783, nearly eight years after he first joined the fight against the British. [6]
Very little is known about Downs after he left the army. He appears to have been awarded a disabled soldier's pension, which he received until his death in February 1842. While he lived in Maryland at that time, no other details of his life are known. [7]
Owen Lourie, 2018
Notes:
[1] 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] List of Sick Soldiers in Philadelphia, December 1776." Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, vol. I, 529.
[4] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 104; Compiled Service Record; Affidavit of military service and compensation received, William Downs, 22 August 1782, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 5, no. 24-1, MdHR 19970-5-24/1 [MSA S997-5-204, 1/7/3/11].
[5] Tacyn, 216-225; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 104.
[6] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pp. 415, 454, 509, 531; Affidavit of military service.
[7] Index to Final Pension Payment Vouchers, Maryland, William Down, National Archives, RG 217, from Fold3.com. No records from his pension appear to exist, only an index entry for when he died and payments ended. He was, however, the only soldier from Maryland named William Down(s) who fought during the Revolutionary War, so the pension was almost certainly his.
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