John Markell
MSA SC 3520-17754
Biography:
John Markell enlisted as a corporal in the Eighth Company of the First Maryland Regiment on January 23, 1776, during the early days of the Revolutionary War. He was the son of Conrad and Christiana Markell. He had a sister named Catherine and a younger brother named William (1760-1816). The family was prosperous, and lived in Frederick Town, Maryland. Conrad owned property in Baltimore Town and Prince George's County as well. [1]
The regiment that Markell joined was the state's first contingent of full-time, professional soldiers raised to be part of the Continental Army. As a corporal, Markell was responsible for keeping the soldiers of the company properly aligned during marches and in battle, and ensuring order among the men in camp, as well as other administrative duties. The Eighth Company, commanded by Captain Samuel Smith, formed in Baltimore in early 1776, and it 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 long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, at the cost of many lives. The Marylanders lost a total of 256 men killed or captured. Because the Eighth was able to escape the battle early, it lost only about six men. [3]
Markell survived the battle, and stayed with the army through the rest of the difficult fall of 1776, a series of defeats that saw the Americans pushed out of New York, followed by revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. By the end of the year, Markell had been promoted to sergeant, and when the Maryland troops were reorganized and expanded, he secured a commission as an officer, becoming an ensign in the newly-created Sixth Maryland Regiment in late 1776 or early 1777. Within a few months, he was promoted again, to second lieutenant, as other men left the still-forming regiment. [4]
Markell's rise to lieutenant from lowly corporal was a remarkable ascent, and was the result of the army's desperate need for experienced soldiers while it was expanding from just one regiment to seven. As a veteran of the 1776 campaign, Markell was such an experienced soldier. However, he served as a lieutenant for only four months, before resigning his commission and leaving the army on August 1, 1777, before he and his men ever saw any combat. [5]
He returned to Baltimore, where he worked as a baker. Markell was likely moderately well-off. He inherited some land in Baltimore when his father Conrad died in 1782, which probably bolstered his finances significantly. On March 26, 1778, not long after leaving the army, Markell married a woman named Sarah Bender. Their relationship was troubled, at least at times. In May 1786, Markell published a notice in the Maryland Journal newspaper that he and Sarah were estranged, and he would not take responsibility for any debts she incurred, complaining that she had been "led by the persuasions of her Father and other people, who I think [should] mind their own business, and look [to their own] home, and they will have enough to do." [6]
In the spring of 1788, Markell became "afflicted with sickness." He died that August, leaving all of his property to his wife, with whom he had evidentially reconciled. He and Sarah did not have any children. John's estate was valued at an unremarkable £24. He had sold some of the land inherited from his father to his brother William, but Sarah took possession of the rest, which she sold in 1790. [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; Will of Conrad Markell, 1782, Frederick County Register of Wills, Wills, Liber GM 1, p. 268 [MSA C898-2, 1/51/9/10]; Inventory of Conrad Markell, 1782, Frederick County Register of Wills, Inventories, Liber GM 1, p. 371 [MSA C807-4, 1/50/11/36]; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland (Philadelphia: Louis Everts, 1882), 524.
2. Frederick Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, Part I. (Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1792), 148-151; "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. List of Regular Officers for Promotion, January 1777, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 12, no. 66, MdHR 4573-66 [MSA S989-17, 1/6/4/5]; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 229; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 111; Compiled Service Record; List of Officers of the Maryland Line, c. December 1776, Maryland State Archives, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 12, MdHR 19,970-6-12 [MSA S997-6-18, 1/7/3/11].
5. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 229; Compiled Service Record; Steuart, 111.
6. Baltimore County Court, Marriage Licenses, 1777-1798, p. 85 [MSA C376-1, 2/14/14/11]; Conrad Markell will; Maryland Journal (Baltimore), 30 May 1786.
7. Will of John Markell, 1788, Baltimore County Register of Wills, Wills, Liber 4, p. 305 [MSA C453-5, 2/28/12/4]; Inventory of John Markell, 1789, Baltimore County Register of Wills, Wills, Liber 15, p. 430 [MSA C340-16, 2/26/9/16]; Deed, John Markell to William Markell, 1786, Baltimore County Court, Land Records, Liber Y, p. 461 [MSA CE66-74]; Deed, William Markell and Sarah Markell to Roe and Usher, 1790, Liber EE, p. 654 [MSA CE66-80]; Deed, William Markell and Sarah Markell to Alexander McConnell, 1790, Liber EE, p. 632 [MSA CE66-80].
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