Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

James Simms, Sr.
MSA SC 3520-17920

Biography:

James Simms, Sr., enlisted as a corporal in the First Company of the First Maryland Regiment in January 1776. The company was raised in Charles County, Maryland, and was led by Captain John Hoskins Stone. It was part of Maryland's first contingent of full-time, professional troops. Its men distinguished themselves that summer, gaining fame as the "Maryland 400." [1]

In July, the regiment received orders to march to New York to defend the city from an impending British attack. The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August, where they joined with the rest of the Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington. 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. Half the regiment, including the First Company, was able to cross the creek, and escape the battle. However, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, this group of soldiers, today called the "Maryland 400," mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. They took enormous causalities, with some companies losing losing nearly 80 percent of their men, but their actions delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. In all, the First Maryland lost 256 men, killed or taken prisoner. [2]

Simms survived the battle, and stayed with the army through the rest of the difficult fall of 1776, a series of defeats that saw the Americans pushed out of New York, followed by revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. When the Maryland troops were reorganized and expanded at the end of the year, Simms secured a commission as an officer, becoming an ensign in the First Maryland Regiment. Within a few months, he was promoted again, to second lieutenant, as other men left the still-forming regiment. Simms's rise to lieutenant from lowly corporal was a remarkable ascent, and was the result of the army's desperate need for experienced soldiers while it was expanding from just one regiment to seven. As a veteran of the 1776 campaign, Simms was such an experienced soldier. [3]

Over the next few years, Simms and the Marylanders saw a great deal of combat. They fought in the disastrous raid on Staten Island in August 1777, and the major battles of the campaign to protect Philadelphia from the British, Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777), both significant defeats. The Marylanders also fought at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. A few months later, in mid-September 1778, Simms was captured by the British near Phillipsburg, New York, just north of New York City. As no battle was fought at time, Simms was perhaps captured during a smaller skirmish or while on patrol, or possibly while traveling through the area. [4]

Simms was held as a captive in the New York City area, probably on Long Island. Many captured American officers were allowed to stay in private houses there, which let them avoid the horrible prison conditions that regular soldiers were forced to endure while in British captivity. Eventually, Simms was released as part of a prisoner exchange in either 1780 or 1781; the exact date is not known, but he had returned to duty (if not to his old regiment) by the spring of 1781. [5]

Little is known about Simms's life after the war, as there were many other people with the same name. Indeed, there was another James Simms in the First Company when he first joined the army in 1776, and even another Lieutenant James Simms, who served in the Fourth Maryland Regiment 1778-1782. One of the lieutenants was granted a pension by the state of Maryland in 1812, paying him $160 per year until 1829. That man was a resident of Charles County, where the First Company had been raised, so there is a strong possibility that he was James Simms, Sr., but that cannot be determined constructively. [6]

Owen Lourie, 2018

Notes:

[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 5.

[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, 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), 48-73. 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] Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com;

[4] Compiled Service Record.

[5] Compiled Service Record; Arthur St. Clair to George Washington, 26 March 1780, Founders Online, National Archives; Order to pay Lt. James Simms, 9 May 1781, Maryland State Papers, Series A, box 32, no. 97-2, MdHR 6636-32-97/2 [MSA S1004-42-417, 1/7/3/46]; Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, 1780-1781, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 45, p. 428.

[6] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 380, 518; Maryland General Assembly, Session Laws of 1812, Resolution 59, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 618, p. 249; Treasurer of the Western Shore, Pension Roll, Military, 1811-1843, pps. 22, 40, MdHR 4534-4 [MSA S613-1, 2/63/10/33].

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