Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

John Sweeney
MSA SC 3520-18168

Biography:

John Sweeney enlisted in the Fourth Independent Company of Maryland troops on February 2, 1776.[1] This group of soldiers was raised in an effort to protect Maryland from any attacks the British might launch. 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 key commercial centers. Sweeney and the Fourth Independent were placed at Oxford in Talbot County under the command of Captain James Hindman.[2] 

In July of 1776, Sweeney and his company were ordered to leave Oxford and march to New York to aid the Continental Army in their impending clash with the British.[3] A few weeks after they arrived, on August 27, 1776, they faced the British in the first major engagement of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Brooklyn.

The battle was a disaster for the Continental Army. It was quickly outflanked in the course of the battle and soldiers were forced to retreat by swimming through Gowanus Creek under enemy fire. The entire Continental Army and George Washington himself faced imminent destruction as a result. They were saved, 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 daring 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 courage. 

Sweeney was present at the Battle of Brooklyn, but the Fourth Independent Company saw relatively little combat there. The company was even chastised 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”.[4]

Sweeney saw combat again at the Battle of White Plains, where the Maryland troops continued to cover the Continental Army’s retreat. Sweeney was most likely present at the battles of Trenton and Princeton as well.

At the beginning of 1777, the issue of expiring enlistments came to call. After witnessing four gruesome battles and suffering the privations of an ill-supplied army, Sweeney decided that he had seen enough of war. He chose not to reenlist in the Continental Army.

Sweeney’s life after leaving the army is a mystery. No record of him can be found after his service in 1776.

Jillian Curran, Explore America Research Intern, 2019

Notes:

[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 25.

[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] Tacyn, 44.

[4] Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July 7: December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12,  p. 346.

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