Andrew Ross Lindsay
MSA SC 3520-18086
Biography:
Andrew Ross Lindsay enlisted as a private in the First Company of the First Maryland Regiment on January 24, 1776. [1] Under the command of Captain John Hoskins Stone, the Charles County-based company trained in Annapolis until receiving orders in July 1776 to march to New York to reinforce the Continental Army for a British invasion.
On August 27, 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. Led by major Mordecai Gist, the Maryland troops were positioned on the far right of the battlefield. 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 had not 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 Marylanders earned them the title of the "Maryland 400." [2]
While the First Company was able to escape the battle early in the fighting, and only lost a few men, Lindsay's fate after the battle is unknown. He most likely was present with his company in the fall of 1776 at the Battles of White Plains and Fort Washington, both American losses. [3]
At the beginning of 1777, the issue of expiring enlistments came to call. After suffering the privations of an ill-supplied army, Lindsay did not reenlist. Nothing else is known about his life.
Cassy Sottile, 2019
Notes:
[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com.
[3] John Dwight Kilbourne, A Short History of the Maryland Line in the Continental Army, (Baltimore: The Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland, 1992), 11-25.
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