James Ray
MSA SC 3520-18129
Biography:
James Ray enlisted as a private in Maryland's Fourth Independent Company on January 23, 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 travelled 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 suffered 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. James Ray 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 1776-1777, Ray enlisted in Maryland's Second Regiment as a sergeant under Captain Archibald Anderson. Ray once again served alongside many of the same soldiers from the Fourth Independent Company, including Anderson, who had previously been Ray's first lieutenant in Hindman's company. Despite having his rank decreased to private on November 30, 1777, Ray continued to serve in the Second Regiment. Ray's regiment remained in the war's northern theater between 1777 and 1780, participating in battles at Staten Island, Brandywine, and Germantown. Ray's service in the war ended with his discharge on June 10, 1780. [3]
Because multiple people living in Maryland and other states shared his name in the late 1700s and early 1800s, James Ray's post-war life cannot be conclusively determined. [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. 156; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[4] Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, November 13, 1780 to November 13, 1781, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 45, pp. 477-478. Although many individuals named James Ray lived in Maryland during and after the war, one particular incident in 1781 stands out. On June 16, 1781, Captain Alexander Trueman brought Robert Boyd of Queen Anne's County, then serving on the state barge Revenge, to David Johnson's shop in Annapolis, Maryland, accusing Boyd of stealing a watch from a soldier. Boyd in turn accused Trueman of stealing the watch, causing Trueman to strike Boyd with a cane. Boyd returned to the Revenge. Trueman, along with several soldiers, followed Boyd, and demanded that Boyd point to who he stole the watch from before beating Boyd once more. James Ray, the lieutenant of the Revenge, intervened in the scuffle and exchanged "many blows" with Trueman before Major John Steward arrived. Steward ordered Boyd, Ray, and a third man, George Cox, to be put under guard on shore. After keeping Ray and Boyd handcuffed for a brief period of time, Trueman removed the handcuffs from Boyd, demanded that Boyd strip, and proceeded to whip him "very severely with a Cow-skin." Although all three men were subsequently released, Steward and Trueman faced an inquiry for their actions. As James Ray's discharge occurred in 1780, this James Ray may have been the same as the Fourth Independent Company's James Ray.
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