Samuel Vermillion
MSA SC 3520-17819
Biography:
Samuel Vermillion enlisted in the First Maryland Regiment’s First Company and entered the ranks as a private underneath the leadership of Captain John Hoskins Stone on February 6, 1776. Born on April 6, 1755, he was 20 years old on his enlistment date. [1]
Vermillion was from in Charles County, Maryland, where the First Company primarily recruited their soldiers. Although the company originated in Charles County, they relocated to Annapolis to train their troops until the summer of 1776. That July, Maryland’s First Regiment marched north to rendezvous with the Continental Army outside of New York. There, the Maryland Line experienced the bitter taste of war for the first time. [2]
The Battle of Brooklyn (or the Battle of Long Island) erupted on August 27, 1776, and was the first major battle that followed the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The British troops, totaling nearly 15,000 men, and the British Royal Navy arrived with the intention of ending the war with this single battle. Meanwhile, General George Washington was determined to defend New York. Ultimately, between Washington’s inferior army and the poor intelligence he referenced, the Battle of Brooklyn ended in a Continental retreat and a crippling loss. [3]
The Maryland 400 earned their heroic title during the peak of the conflict at Brooklyn. The First Maryland Regiment split into two separate wings, stretching in a continuous line from the Gowanus Road to the Continental artillery stationed upon a ridge. Under the command of Major Mordecai Gist, the Marylanders fought off the first wave of advancing British troops. The British eventually retreated a few hundred feet, giving the impression that the Continental Army had successfully stopped the invasion. After the first wave of British troops receded, the Marylanders were in a state of disarray as another larger group of British soldiers snuck up on their rear and threatened to surround them. Quickly, the Continental Army’s confidence culminated into fear, their line broke, and the companies retreated. [4]
During the retreat, the Marylanders found themselves unfortunately positioned between enemy fire and the Gowanus Creek. About half of the Marylanders, counting the First Company, attempted to cross the creek and reach their allies. The other half of the Maryland regiment had no other option but to turn back and face the enemy, allowing their fellow countrymen to reach safety. That day, 256 of the First Marylanders who stood on the Gowanus Road were killed or made prisoners. Fortunately, the majority of the men in Stone’s company made it to the Gowanus Creek and successfully swam across. After the retreat, 77 percent of the First Company was accounted for, including Samuel Vermillion. [5]
Following the retreat from Long Island, Vermillion fought in the Battle of White Plains on October 28, 1776. By November, he fell ill and was hospitalized. At some point during his hospitalization and journey to Philadelphia, where the Continental Army’s hospitals are located, Vermillion contracted smallpox. Due to the severity of his sickness, the Army sent him home on furlough.
On November 6, 1777, a year after he returned home, Captain Joseph Ford placed a notice in the Maryland Gazette calling for Vermillion to return to service. [6]
He was still recovering from his sickness, but attempted to reach headquarters in Philadelphia. Since he was too weak to travel by land, Vermillion opted to travel by sea. Unfortunately, while in route to Philadelphia, he was captured by a British ship. He was held as a prisoner of war nearly one and a half years while British slowly moved him from the Chesapeake Bay region down to the south. [7]
The British ultimately wanted to transport Vermillion to Georgia. However, he managed to escape the hands of the enemy in South Carolina. There, he found himself in the center of the Southern Campaign that began in 1780 after Washington realized the importance of protecting the Carolinas. In 1781, Vermillion became a South Carolinian “militia man” and fought in a skirmish at Bluford’s Bridge, located on the Cape Fear River. Later that year, he fought at the Battle of Legat’s Bridge in North Carolina, a quick battle that resulted in a Continental retreat. In 1782, Vermillion and other militia men went back to South Carolina to meet up with the Continental Army and help protect Bacon’s Bridge, which was considered a key strategic location. There, Vermillion was reunited with the First Maryland Regiment. He remained with the Maryland Line until 1783, once peace was achieved. [8]
Between 1783 and 1810, there isn’t any information that connects him to a specific place, but it is likely that he returned home to Charles County. However, by 1810 he relocated from Maryland to Rutherford County, North Carolina. In 1830, he lived in Buncombe County, and by 1833, he resided in Macon County. Each of these three counties were close in proximity and existed on the mountainous southwestern corner of North Carolina.
He filed for and received his military pension in 1833. He had children, but their identities are not known. It is possible that James Vermillion, the administrator of Samuel’s estate after his death, was one of his children. At the age of 82, Samuel Vermillion, a defender of the Continental Line at the Battle of Brooklyn, died on February 8, 1837 having witnessed and participated in the Revolutionary War from beginning to end. [9]
-Elizabeth Cassibry, Washington College Explore America Research Intern, 2018Notes:
[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p.6; Pension of Samuel Vermillion, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, S. 7790, from Fold3.com.
[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn, “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 21.
[3] Tacyn, 23-30.
[4] Tacyn, 30-60.
[5] Tacyn, 30-60; Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com.
[6] John Dwight Kilbourne, “A Short History of the Maryland Line in the Continental Army,” (Baltimore: The Sons of the American Revolution, 1992), 10-30; Samuel Vermillion pension.
[7] The Maryland Gazette (Annapolis, MD), 6 November 1777; Samuel Vermillion pension.
[8] Samuel Vermillion pension.
[9] Samuel Vermillion pension.
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