Henry Walworth
MSA SC 3520-18082
Biography:
Henry Walworth enlisted as a drummer in Captain John Hoskins Stone's First Company of the First Maryland Regiment on March 16, 1776. [1] Since Walworth was a drummer, he was a non-combatant member of the troops, but still participated in the military engagements and received the same pay as corporals. [2] For the Continental Army, the standard musical unit consisted of at least one fifer and one drummer, although shortages often plagued the Army, including Maryland's troops. [3] Drummers and fifers worked together to regulate marches, and often played popular tunes for company morale. Walworth therefore worked closely with the First Company's fifer, Dennis Broderick.
The First Company primarily recruited its soldiers from Charles County, Maryland, but trained in Annapolis. That summer, the regiment received orders to march to New York to reinforce the Continental Army for a British invasion.
On August 27, 1776, American forces faced British troops at the Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. Under heavy fire, the American troops attempted to retreat through Gowanus Creek, suffering severe losses in the process. To hold the British at bay, the remaining Marylanders who hadn’t crossed the creek yet mounted a series of charges. The Maryland troops delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. Despite the loss of 256 men who were killed or captured, the bravery and sacrifice of the Maryland troops earned them the title of the "Maryland 400." [4]
Nothing else is known about Walworth. He was not present in the company after the battle, but there is no information indicating whether he was killed, wounded, or captured during the fighting, or if he left the unit in August or September for another reason. [5]
Cassy Sottile, 2019
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] William Carter White, A History of Military Music in America (New York: Exposition Press, 1924), 26.
[3] Charles Patrick Neimeyer, The Revolutionary War (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007), 137; Donald E. Mattson and Louis D. Walz, Old Fort Snelling Instruction Book for Fife: With Music of Early America (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1974), 6.
[4] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com.
[5]
Return of officers & soldiers, etc. of Smallwood’s Regiment, 20 July 1776, Maryland Historical Society, Smallwood Papers, MS 1875;
Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 94, from Fold3.com; Pay Abstract, First Maryland Regiment, September 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 5, MdHR 19970-6-5 [MSA S997-6-6, 1/7/3/11]; Pay Abstract, First Maryland Regiment, October-December 1776, Maryland State Papers, Series A, box 1, no. 108, MdHR 6636-1-108 [MSA S1004-1-87, 1/7/3/25].
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