Clement Edelen
MSA SC 3520-17824
Biography:
Clement Edelen 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 January 24, 1776. Born in June of 1753, he was merely 23 years old on his enlistment date, the average age of a native born Maryland soldier. He would live well into the next century and witness the colonies he once knew develop into a young, sometimes thriving, nation. [1]
Edelen was from Prince George’s County, Maryland, close to 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 Clement Edelen. [5]
Following the Battle of Brooklyn, Edelen found himself firing his musket again at the Battle of White Plains, and possibly at Fort Washington. Following these Continental losses, survivors retreated with Washington south to New Jersey. Toward the end of his first enlistment, Edelen remained loyal to Washington’s army. He reenlisted on December 10, 1776 and was promoted to sergeant. That same winter, Edelen most likely partook in the Continental victories at Trenton and Princeton, followed by the upsetting losses at Brandywine and Germantown in the fall of 1777. The loss at Germantown would be the last time he fought with his fellow Marylanders. His term in Washington’s army ended on December 27, 1779 when he was discharged. [6]
After he left the Continental Line, Edelen returned to Prince George’s County and continued to live his life as a farmer. He married Ann Simpson on November 6, 1780. Together, they eventually had one daughter named Ann and, at some point after 1790, they traveled west to Breckenridge County, Kentucky. While living in Kentucky, Edelen acquired 200 acres of “poor land.” In 1819, he sold his land for 400 dollars to a man named Thomas Gregory. Gregory would pay for this land with two installments of 156 dollars and the rest in goods, like "bed and furniture" and a "rifle." Clearly, Edelen was a generous man because he loaned Gregory an additional 80 dollars. Ultimately, Edelen only paid back about 94 dollars in goods and 60 dollars in cash before he left town without notice. Edelen was never able to collect the rest of his money, and no longer had land to his name. Both Edelen and his wife moved in with their daughter and son-in-law. Together, they survived off the support of their family and lived "on the charity of [his] neighbors" until he applied for and received a pension for his service during the Revolutionary War in 1823. [7]
Sometime between 1823 and 1827, Edelen relocated to White County, Illinois, located on the border of Kentucky, near Breckenridge County. Around the years mentioned, his Ann also died. He remarried a woman much younger than himself named Lucy on November 14, 1827. Together, they lived there until Clement Edelen passed away on May 25, 1839 at the great age of eighty-six. Lucy eventually applied for and received her late husband’s pension in 1862 when she was only fifty-six years old. [8]
-Elizabeth Cassibry, Washington College Explore America Research Intern, 2018
Notes:
[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 Clement Edelen, National Archives, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land- Warrant Application Files, S300022, 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; Edelen pension.
[7] Prince George’s County Court, Marriage Licenses, 1777-1787, p. 15, MdHR 6191-1 [MSA C1260-1, 01/21/09/005]; Edelen pension.
[8] Edelen pension.
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