Andrew Hughes
MSA SC 3520-18124
Biography:
Andrew Hughes enlisted as a private in Maryland's Fourth Independent Company on January 20, 1776 under Captain James Hindman. Hindman’s company was part of an effort spearheaded by Maryland’s Council of Safety designed to protect the Chesapeake Bay from potential British invasions. Originally stationed at Oxford in Talbot County, Hindman's company was sent to New York to reinforce the Continental Army in preparation for a British invasion. The Fourth Independent Company arrived in New York by mid-August 1776. [1]
On the morning of August 27, 1776, American forces faced British troops at the Battle of Brooklyn (otherwise known as the Battle of Long Island). While several companies engaged the British Army on the Gowanus Road and the nearby Gowanus Creek, taking severe losses in the process, the Fourth Independent Company was largely spared, suffering only three casualties. Hindman defended his actions during the battle to the Council of Safety, arguing that rumors referring to the Fourth Independent Company’s “very ill” behavior were unfounded. Hindman instead declared that “the company [he] had the honor to command...behaved themselves as well as in the service, notwithstanding the dark insinuations...thrown out to their prejudice.” The Fourth Independent Company later fought at the Battle of White Plains in October 1776. Andrew Hughes survived the Battle of White Plains, despite heavy American losses. One Hessian volley alone wounded and killed ninety-two soldiers during the battle, and forty soldiers of the Maryland Line were killed, captured, or wounded in total. [2]
Although his enlistment ended in winter of 1776, Andrew Hughes enlisted once more on April 7, 1777, joining Maryland's Second Regiment under Captain Archibald Anderson. Hughes once again fought alongside many of the same people from the Fourth Independent Company, including Anderson, who had previously been Hughes's first lieutenant in Hindman's company. Hughes's regiment remained in the war's northern theater throughout 1777 and 1778, participating in battles at Staten Island, Brandywine, and Germantown. [3]
Andrew Hughes fell ill during the winter of 1777, but returned to duty by January of 1778. Hughes eventually became sick again in November 1778, and did not recover, dying on January 16, 1779. [4]
-James Schmitt, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 2019
Notes:
[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 24; Mark Andrew Tacyn, “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), pp. 33-34, 44-45.
[2] Tacyn, pp. 52-67; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety July 7, 1776 to December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12, pp. 345-346; David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 111.
[3] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 118.
[4] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 118; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
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