Francis Kilsimere
MSA SC 3520-17763
Biography:
Francis Kilsimere enlisted as a private in the Eighth Company of the First Maryland Regiment on January 13, 1776. The regiment, commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, was Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional soldiers raised to be part of the Continental Army. The Eighth Company, led 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. [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 lost only about six men. [2]
Kilsimere 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. In December, Kilsimere's enlistment expired, but like many of his comrades, he opted to stay in the army, signing on for a three-year term in the First Maryland Regiment. [3]
During his second tour of duty, Kilsimere and the Marylanders fought in the disastrous raid on Staten Island (August 1777), and the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777), both significant defeats. The Marylanders also fought at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. The next year, 1779, saw little major combat as the war slowed to a stalemate. In December 1779, Kilsimere's enlistment came to an end, and he left the army. [4]
Leaving the army, Kilsimere settled in Baltimore. For a time he worked as a carman, similar to a carter or teamster, reprising a job he held with he was in the army. Later, he was a shopkeeper, with a store located on Saratoga Street, near Howard Street. By the 1790s, Kilsimere married a woman named Margaret, and they had two sons, named John and Francis. The family had a strong financial position, although they were certainly not among Baltimore's gentry. Instead, they were probably part of the city's well-off working class. They were able to purchase two lots in Baltimore, and inherited some money in the 1790s from Jacob Brown, the husband of Margaret's sister Catharina. While Kilsimere and his family appear to have been in a stable position in Baltimore in the late 1790s and early 1800s, they did not stay in the city for very long after that time. They left Baltimore, probably around 1807 or 1808, and headed west to Ohio. [5]
In 1818, Kilsimere, by then seventy-four years old and a widower, lived in Butler County, Ohio. He he owned a fifty-acre tract of land, including a log cabin, although he lived with his grandchildren instead. That year, he applied for a pension from the Federal government as Revolutionary War veteran, and was granted eight dollars per month. By 1823, when Kilsimere updated his pension application, his economic situation had declined. He was now unable to collect any money from his farm, while he had previously received twenty-five dollars a year in rent. Despite his advanced age, however, Kilsimere still remembered his first battle as the most important, recalling that he was "in the battles of Long Island and several affairs of less consequence," a testament to the enduring legacy of the service of the Maryland 400. He received his pension until his death on December 18, 1826, in Hamilton County, Ohio, when he was about eighty-two. [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. 640; 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]. Kilsmiere's name appears in records with many different spellings, including Keltrimer, Kelshimer, Kielsheimer, and Kiltzheimer. Many of his military service records spell his name with an "H" rather than a "K": Hiltrhimer, Hiltzhimer, etc. The spelling used in this biography is the name under which he applied for a Federal Revolutionary War veteran's pension.
[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] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 116, 129; Compiled Service Record; Pension of Francis Kilsimere. National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land-Warrant Application Files, S 41,716, from Fold3.com;
[4] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 116, 129; Compiled Service Record; List of receipts of soldiers who were paid upon discharge, 27 December 1779, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 3, no. 7-21, MdHR 19970-3-7/21 [MSA S997-3-94, 1/7/3/9].
[5] U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Baltimore Town, Baltimore County, Maryland; William Thompson and James L. Walker, The Baltimore Town and Fell's Point Directory (Baltimore, 1796), 42; Compiled Service Record; Cornelius Williams, et al., The Baltimore Directory, 1803, 75. Kilsimere's land holdings are recorded in the following deeds: Lease, John Eager Howard to Francis Kiltzheimer, 1791, Baltimore County Court, Land Records, Liber GG, p. 163 [MSA CE66-82]; Deed, William Corbit to Philip Littig and Francis Kiltzheimer, 1797, Liber WG 52, p. 567 [MSA CE66-102]; Deed, Andrew Scott to Francis Kilshimer, 1799, Liber WG 60, p. 232 [MSA CE66-110]; Assignment, Francis Kiltzheimer to Philip Littig, 1800, Liber WG 63, p. 588 [MSA CE66-113]; Deed, Francis Kiltzheimer to Philip Littig, 1801, Liber WG 67, p. 529 [MSA CE66-117]; Francis Keiltzheimer to Philip Littig, 1808, Liber WG 97, p. 216 [MSA CE66-147]. Will of Jacob Brown, 1792, Baltimore County Register of Wills, Wills, Liber 5, p. 35 [MSA C453-6, 2/28/12/5]; Account of Jacob Brown, 1794, Baltimore County Register of Wills, Administration Accounts, Liber 11, p. 388 [MSA C261-12, 2/30/7/17].
[6] Kilsimere pension. He also recalled that he had "lost his clothing, and with it his discharge, at General Gates' defeat at Camden," in August 1780. This was clearly not true, since Kilsimere had left the army eight months earlier; even if he had been a soldier at Camden, he couldn't have lost his discharge certificate there, since he would not have received it until he left the army.
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