Benjamin Gray
MSA SC 3520-17841
Biography:
Benjamin Gray 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 1, 1776. [1]
The First Company primarily recruited their soldiers from Charles County, Maryland. 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 Benjamin Gray. [5]
After being exposed to war for the first time, Gray continued to fight with the Maryland line. He fired his musket in the losing battles of White Plains and Fort Washington in the fall of 1776, and retreated with the Continental forces into New Jersey. On December 10, 1776, he reenlisted in the First Maryland Regiment. That same winter, he probably fought in the Continental victories at Trenton and Princeton. [6]
Gray stuck with the Maryland Line through the losses at Brandywine and Germantown in the fall of 1777. Between 1778 and 1779, he fought at the battle of Monmouth, an engagement with no conclusive victory. At the end of his enlistment, on December 27, 1779, Gray was discharged from the army. However, he had no interest in leaving the Maryland line and reenlisted as a private in January of 1780 to serve until the end of the war. Therefore, he fought in the Southern Campaign with the rest of the Marylanders after his reenlistment. In April of 1780, 2,000 Marylanders received orders to travel south to help the Southern Army remove the British threat in the southern states. In 1780, the Marylanders fought at Camden, a detrimental loss for the Continental Army, which resulted in a complete reorganization of the Continental forces. Sometime following the Battle of Camden, Gray was promoted to sergeant. [7]
After the reorganization, the Marylanders continued to fight throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia until the end of the war. Gray was discharged in November 1783, but unfortunately nothing else can be determined about his life. [8]
-Elizabeth Cassibry, Washington College Explore America Research Intern, 2018
Notes:
[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] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 111; John Dwight Kilbourne, “A Short History of the Maryland Line in the Continental Army,” (Baltimore: The Sons of the American Revolution, 1992), 1-11.
[7] Kilbourne, 11-35; Tacyn, 285; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 535.
[8] Kilbourne, 35-55; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 535.
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