Richard Sampson
MSA SC 3520-18165
Biography:
Richard Sampson enlisted as a private in Maryland's Fourth Independent Company on February 8, 1776 under Captain James Hindman. Hindman’s company originally played a role in the Maryland Council of Safety's plan to protect the Chesapeake Bay from potential British invasions. At first 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. Richard Sampson 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]
After his enlistment in the Fourth Independent Company ended in the winter of 1776, Sampson enlisted in Maryland's Fifth Regiment as a sergeant under Captain William Frazier, his former lieutenant, on December 10, 1776. Sampson remained in that regiment until June 11, 1777, when he transferred to the Second Maryland Regiment under Captain Archibald Anderson, another one of his former lieutenants. Several other former members of the Fourth Independent Company who enlisted in the Fifth Maryland Regiment were also transferred to the Second Regiment, including James Mead and Thomas Camper. [3]
Sampson kept his rank as sergeant in the Second Maryland Regiment. The Second Regiment remained in the war's northern theater between 1777 and 1780, participating in battles at Staten Island, Brandywine, and Germantown. Along with his duties as a sergeant, Sampson also performed guard duty on several occasions, including at Fish Kill, New York in September of 1778. Sampson served in the Second Maryland Regiment until his discharge on January 10, 1780. [4]
Information on individuals named Richard Sampson living in Maryland after the war cannot be conclusively linked to the Sampson who served in the Fourth Independent Company.
-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. 23; 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] "List of Bounty, Subsistence, and Pay due," 10 May 1777, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 16, no. 99 [MSA S989-24, 01/06/04/11]; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 289.
[4] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 161; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
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