William Kenney
MSA SC 3520-18175
Biography:
William Kenney enlisted as a private in the Fourth Independent Company of Maryland troops on January 26, 1776.[1] The force was raised in order to protect Maryland in the event of a British attack.[2] The nine companies of Colonel William Smallwood’s battalion were stationed in the major cities of Baltimore and Annapolis while the independent companies were split between the Eastern and Western shores to protect key commercial centers. Kenney and the Fourth Independent were placed at Oxford in Talbot County under the command of Captain James Hindman. [3]
In the summer of 1776, the concerns of these troops broadened to include not only Maryland, but all of the colonies. On July 6, Maryland was asked to come to the aid of the Continental Army in New York in anticipation of a British attack. Smallwood’s battalion and three of the independent companies, including the Fourth, were sent. The independent companies arrived in New York near the end of July.[4] Just a few weeks later, on August 27, 1776, the Americans and British clashed 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 heavy fire. The Continental Army and George Washington himself faced total elimination as a result. They were saved, however, by the courage of a group of soldiers who came to be known as the Maryland 400. In the midst of the frenzied retreat, the Maryland 400 launched a daring counterattack and held off the British long enough for Washington and his army to escape. Two hundred and fifty-six Maryland soldiers were either killed or captured as a result of their bravery.
Kenney survived the rout at Brooklyn and faced the British again at the battles of White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton. At the beginning of 1777, the issue of expiring enlistments came to call. After witnessing four major battles and suffering the conditions of an ill-supplied army, Kenney decided not to re-enlist.
He didn’t stay away from the army for long, however. Three years later, on January 22, 1780, Kenney enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of Maryland troops as a private.[5] Kenney fought in some skirmishes of the Southern Campaign but managed to avoid the major battles by deserting on July 9, 1780.[6]
The details regarding Kenney’s desertion and his life after the war are unknown. No record of him can be found after his desertion in 1780.
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] Tacyn, 43.
[4] Tacyn, 44.
[5] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 222.
[6] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 222.
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