John Neary
MSA SC 3520-17860
Biography:
John Neary enlisted in the First Maryland Regiment’s First Company as a private on February 4, 1776, and served underneath the leadership of Captain John Hoskins Stone. [1]
The First Company primarily recruited its soldiers from Charles County. The men traveled to Annapolis to train their troops until the summer of 1776. That July, the 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 attack. 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 turned to 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 John Neary. [5]
During the fall of 1776, Neary and the rest of the Marylanders fought a series of battles in New York: Harlem Heights (September), White Plains (October), and Fort Washington (November). While the Americans had some tactical successes at these engagements, by the winter they had been pushed out of New York entirely, though they secured revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. When Neary's enlistment expired at the end of 1776, he reenlisted for another three years. [6]
In August 1777, Neary and the rest of the Marylanders fought at the disastrous Battle of Staten Island. The goal was to defeat a small Loyalist militia on the island, but the Americans instead found themselves facing a sizable force of British army regulars. In the ensuing American retreat, the Maryland Line was ordered to cover the rear, and took heavy casualties, just as they had at Brooklyn a year earlier. The Marylanders lost by some estimates about 200 men, including Neary, who was taken prisoner. He was held in captivity, enduring horrible conditions in British imprisonment, until he was lucky enough to be released in a prisoner exchange in September 1778. [7]
Neary rejoined his old unit, and served out the rest of his enlistment. By 1778--possibly as early as December 1776--he was promoted to sergeant, and he spent part of 1779 in Maryland recruiting new soldiers. On January 1, 1780, he was discharged, and he went back to Maryland. [8]
Within a few months, however, Neary returned to the army, reenlisting in March 1780. In April, he joined the rest of the Marylanders as they traveled south, to help counter new British threats in the Carolinas. The Marylanders arrived in South Carolina that summer. In August, they took catastrophic casualties at the Battle of Camden, losing some 600 men--about one-third of their troops. The next year, however, the Americans rebuilt, and earned a series of victories at Cowpens (January 1781), Guilford Court House (March 1781), Ninety-Six (May-June 1781), and Eutaw Springs (September 1781), pushing the British north out of the Carolinas towards Yorktown, where they surrendered in October. In the course of these battles, the Maryland soldiers gained a reputation as brave and dependable, and were a cornerstone of the army. Neary and the First Maryland Regiment spent 1782 back in South Carolina, where British forces lingered for most of the year. Neary marched north, probably in late 1782 or early 1783, back to Maryland, where he was discharged in March. [9]
No other information is known about Neary after he left the army.
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, 146; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
7. Compiled Service Record; Tacyn, 137; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 157.
8. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, 146; Compiled Service Record; John Hoskins Stone to Gov. Thomas Johnson, 12 July 1779, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 26, no. 56, MdHR 4593-56 [MSA S989-37, 1/6/4/25].
9. Tacyn, 216-225; Muster Roll, First Company, Maryland Battalion [formerly First Maryland Regiment], 1 November 1780, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 15, no. 31, MdHR 19970-15-31 [MSA S997-15-38, 1/7/3/13]; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, 549. One of Neary's former soldiers recalled that they marched back "in the Latter part of the Year 1783 (as [I] think)". Pension of John Frederick Iams, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, W 434, from Fold3.com.
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