Samuel Giles
MSA SC 3520-18148
Biography:
On January 28, 1776, Samuel Giles enlisted in the Fourth Independent Company of Maryland Troops.[1] This force was raised in order to protect Maryland in the event of a British attack. The nine companies of Colonel William Smallwood’s battalion were stationed in Baltimore and Annapolis, while the independent companies were split between the Eastern and Western shores to protect vital commercial centers. The Fourth Independent was placed at Oxford in Talbot County under the command of Captain James Hindman.[2]
The Fourth Independent did not remain close to home for long, however. In July of 1776, it was one of many Maryland companies sent to New York to reinforce the Continental Army in the face of a looming British attack. Giles and his fellow soldiers arrived in New York near the end of July. A few weeks later, on August 27, 1776, the first major engagement of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Brooklyn, took place.
The battle was a disaster for the Continental Army. It was quickly outflanked by the British and soldiers were forced to retreat by swimming through Gowanus Creek under relentless enemy fire. The entire Continental Army and George Washington himself faced imminent destruction as a result. They were spared, however, by the bravery of a group of soldiers who came to be known as the Maryland 400. In the midst of the frantic retreat, the Maryland 400 launched a bold counterattack and held off the British long enough for Washington and his army to escape annihilation. Two hundred and fifty-six Maryland soldiers were either killed or captured as a result of their valor.
Giles was present at the Battle of Brooklyn, but the Fourth Independent Company saw relatively light combat there. The company was even chided for their alleged non-participation by other Americans. Captain Hindman defended his company, however, and insisted that they wanted to take a more active role, but their orders prevented them from doing so. He wrote in a letter to Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, “I have had the vanity to think the company I have had the honor to command have behaved themselves as well as in the service, notwithstanding the dark insinuations that have been thrown out to their prejudice, and will refer to Col Smallwood for their behaviour and conduct since they have been under his command”.[3]
Giles and the Fourth Independent Company continued to cover the retreat from New York at the Battle of White Plains. Giles also witnessed victory at the battles of Trenton and Princeton in the winter of 1776-1777.
Despite fighting in four gruesome battles and suffering the conditions of an ill-supplied army for a year, Giles decided to re-enlist on March 4, 1777. Around the time of his re-enlistment, he was promoted to corporal.[4]
A few months later, Giles fought at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in the Philadelphia campaign. Just after the Battle of Germantown, on October 6, 1777, Giles was given a furlough and most likely returned home to Maryland. He rejoined his regiment in the summer of 1778.[5]
The exact date of Giles’s return is unknown, so it is unclear whether or not he was present at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. If he was there, it was the last time he fought in a major battle. Giles was discharged from the Continental Army on April 14, 1779, a year before his term of enlistment was over.[6]
Giles’s life following the war is a mystery. No record of him can be found after his discharge in 1779.
Jillian Curran, Explore America Research Intern, 2019
Notes:
[2] Mark Andrew Tacyn, “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 34.
[3] Maryland State Papers, Red Books, Letter from Hindman to Jenifer, vol. 5, p. 54 [MSA S 989-7-59] published in Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July 7: December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12, p. 346.
[4]
Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 112.
[5] Muster Rolls of Samuel Giles, National Archives, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, p. 1-8, from fold3.com
[6] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 112.Return to Samuel Giles's Introductory Page
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