Henry Martin
MSA SC 3520-18169
Biography:
On January 20, 1776, Henry Martin enlisted in the Fourth Independent Company of Maryland troops. He enlisted as a corporal, but was demoted to the rank of private at some point in the spring or summer of 1776.[1] For the first few months of his service, Martin and the Fourth Independent were stationed at Oxford in Talbot county.[2] In July of 1776, however, the Fourth was one of many companies sent to join the Continental Army in New York in preparation for a major British attack. On August 27, 1776, this attack, later known as the Battle of Brooklyn, arrived.
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 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 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 in the process.
Martin survived the rout at Brooklyn and risked his life for his country again at the battles of White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton. Despite witnessing four gruesome battles and experiencing the hardships of an ill-supplied army, Martin decided to re-enlist in the Fifth Maryland Regiment on January 4, 1777.[3] Just a month later, on February 14, Martin died of unknown causes.[4] Nothing else is known about his life.
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] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 285.
[4] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 285.
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