Jeremiah Tarlton (1755-1826)
MSA SC 3520-17874
Biography:
Jeremiah Tarlton enlisted as a private in the Fifth Independent Company, led by Captain John Allen Thomas, in early 1776. He was twenty-one when he joined, a little younger than average. The company was raised in St. Mary's County, and was one of seven independent companies that the Maryland Council of Safety formed across the state in early 1776, initially intended to guard the Chesapeake Bay's coastline from a feared British invasion. By that summer, however, the independent companies were dispatched to New York, to help reinforce the Continental Army as it prepared to defend the city from the British. In total, twelve companies of Maryland troops traveled to New York that July and August: nine companies that comprised the First Maryland Regiment, commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Independent companies, the only three that were ready to travel then. [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. During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, the Marylanders mounted a series of daring charges. These men, now known as the "Maryland 400," held the British at bay long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, at the cost of many lives. In all, 256 Marylanders were killed or captured by the British; some companies lost as much as 80 percent of their men. Tarlton and his company likely saw little combat. Instead, the Fifth Independent Company did not cross the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn until after fighting had begun, and did not venture into the field of battle. They did, however, perform valuable service assisting the Americans retreating through the Gowanus Marsh. [2]
During the fall of 1776, Tarlton 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 November they had been pushed out of New York entirely, though they secured key revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. At the end of the year, when the enlistments of the soldiers expired, the independent companies were disbanded. However, Tarlton and many of the other men in the independents reenlisted in the newly-formed Second Maryland Regiment. [3]
Tarlton signed on for a three-year term, and saw a great deal of combat during that time. The Marylanders fought in the disastrous raid on Staten Island in 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. Just days before that battle, Tarlton was promoted to corporal, a reflection of his status as an experienced soldier. The next year, 1779, saw little major combat as the war slowed to a stalemate. In January 1780, Tarlton's enlistment came to an end, and he left the army. [4]
After his discharge, Tarlton returned to Maryland, settling in St. Mary's County. He continued to contribute to the war effort, however. He helped to organize supplies of beef for the army in 1781, and at some point, he "was Engag[ed] on the [Chesapeake] Bay in trying to retake a Schooner and Provisions which had been taken by the British. [5]
Tarlton married Eleanor Medley in January 1782. They had twelve children together, although it is likely that at least two died in infancy: Ann (b. 1782); Elizabeth (b. 1785); James (b. 1788); James (b. 1789); Chloe (b. 1793); Leo (b. 1794); Cecelia (b. 1797); Ann Sevilla (b. 1798 or 1799); George; Matlida (b. 1804); Lande (b. 1808); George (b. 1809). Sometime around the turn of the nineteenth century, the family traveled west to Kentucky, settling in Scott County, in the north-central part of the state. The family was well-off: in 1810, they owned about twenty slaves. [6]
Jeremiah Tarlton died on July 6, 1826 at the age of seventy-one, and was buried in the cemetery at St. Francis Catholic Church in Georgetown, Kentucky. Thirteen years later, in 1839, Eleanor applied for a pension from the Federal government as the widow of a Revolutionary War veteran. She was awarded $86 per year, which she received until her death on May 5, 1846. She was buried next to her husband, and their graves still stand today. [7]
Owen Lourie, 2018
Sources:
[1] Pension of Jeremiah Tarlton, National Archives and Records Administration, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, NARA M804, W 604, from Fold3.com; Mark Andrew Tacyn "'To the End:' The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution" (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 33-45.
[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com; Tacyn, 48-73; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 154-155. 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] Tarlton pension; Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 169; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[4] Tarlton pension; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 169; Compiled Service Record. In her application for a pension, Tarlton's widow Eleanor reported that he had claimed to have also seen combat at Bunker Hill, Quebec, Stony Point, and the Battle of Quaker Hill (or Battle of Rhode Island), none of which was correct.
[5] Tarlton pension; Jeremiah Tarleton, account for beef, November 1781, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 3, no. 17-2, MdHR 19970-3-17/2 [MSA S997-3-221, 1/7/3/9]; Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, 1781-1784, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 48, p. 41.
[6] Tarlton pension; U.S. Federal Census, 1810, Scott County, Kentucky. There were two Jeremiah Tarltons in Scott County, both apparently from Maryland, and it is nearly impossible to distinguish between them. One owned seventeen slaves in 1810, the other owned twenty. See FindAGrave for Jeremiah Tarleton (1761-1833).
[7] Tarlton pension; FindAGrave for Jeremiah Tarlton (1755-1826); FindAGrave for Eleanor Tarlton; U.S. Federal Census, 1830, Scott County, Kentucky.
Return to Jeremiah Tarlton's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|