Benjamin Worthington
MSA SC 3520-18188
Biography:
Benjamin Worthington enlisted as a private in the Fourth Independent Company on January 22, 1776. The company, commanded by James Hindman, was one of seven independent companies that the Maryland Council of Safety formed across the state in early 1776, which were stationed throughout Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore to guard the vast shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay. To help with this mission, the Fourth Independent Company was stationed in Oxford, Talbot County, in March 1776. Hindman outfitted his company in striking uniforms, purple hunting shirts with red capes and cuffs, which distinguished them from the rest of the Marylanders. [1]
Although the Council of Safety originally intended to use the independent companies for the defense of Maryland, the Council was sympathetic to the collective needs of the colonies and answered the Continental Congress’ request for more soldiers early in the summer of 1776. On July 7, 1776 the Council ordered the Fourth Independent Company, along with the nine companies that made up Colonel William Smallwood’s First Maryland Regiment and two other independent companies, to march to Philadelphia and then to New York to reinforce the Continental Army under the command of General George Washington. [2]
The Marylanders arrived in New York in early August. A few weeks later, on August 27, 1776, the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. The battle was a rout: the British were able to sneak around the American lines, and the outflanked Americans fled in disarray. During the retreat, the Maryland troops fought their way towards the American fortifications, but were blocked by the swampy Gowanus Creek. While half the regiment was able to cross the creek, the rest were unable to do so before they were attacked by the British. Facing down a much larger, better-trained force, the Marylanders mounted a series of daring charges, which held the British at bay for some time, at the cost of many lives, before being overrun. The Marylanders earned themselves the moniker "Maryland 400," and lost 256 men killed or captured, probably about a third of their total strength. [3]
Worthington's company was spared the worst of the fighting, losing only three men, a fact which drew scorn from other companies. James Hindman was forced to write to the Council of Safety to clear his name, denying the "report [being] spread among Capt. [John Hoskins] Stone's friends that my company the day we were engaged at Long Island, behaved very ill." To the contrary, wrote Captain Hindman, "I have had the vanity to think the company I have had the honor to command have behaved themselves as well as [any] 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]
Worthington survived the battle, and fought with the Marylanders through the rest of 1776. They fought a series of battles in New York: Harlem Heights in September, White Plains in October, and Fort Washington in November. While the Americans had some tactical successes at these engagements, by November they had been pushed out of New York entirely, though they secured key revitalizing victories at Trenton and Princeton late that winter. [5]
When Worthington's enlistment expired at the end of 1776, he signed on again, for a three-year term. In the spring of 1777, Worthington was involved in an enlistment controversy, as two officers--both formerly members of the Fourth Independent Company--traded accusations about enlisting each other's recruits. Officers were required to meet a quota of soldiers, and with Maryland raising dozens of companies in early 1777, competition was fierce. Captain Archibald Anderson, of the Second Maryland Regiment, and Captain William Frazier, of the Fifth Maryland, were both recruiting from the middle of the Eastern Shore, the same area where the Fourth Independent's troops had hailed from. Worthington and William Pitts, also a veteran of the Fourth Independent, were working as recruiting sergeants, supposedly under Frazier. However, there were claims that they were actually finding soldiers for Anderson instead. Indeed, Worthington himself seems to have been a member of both companies for a brief time, before being finally transferred to Anderson. The situation was ultimately resolved by sending most of the disputed recruits to the Second Maryland, under Anderson. Worthington was demoted to private at some point in 1777, but when he lost his rank is not known exactly. [6]
Over the next three years, Worthington saw a great deal of combat. The Marylanders fought in the disastrous raid on Staten Island in August 1777, and the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign, Brandywine (September 1777) and Germantown (October 1777), both significant defeats. The Marylanders also fought at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. The next year, 1779, saw little major combat as the war slowed to a stalemate. [7]
Worthington's conduct during these years was not spotless. In late 1778, he "deserted from the guard with [some other] troops," apparently returning home to Talbot County. However, Worthington's departure was not a permanent one, as he returned to the army in March 1779. In fact, he did the same thing the next winter, leaving the Marylanders' camp in December 1779, and rejoining his unit in March 1780. It was not unheard of for soldiers to return home without permission to attend to their family or personal affairs, then resume their military service. Worthington may simply have wished to spend the winter at home, escaping the awful conditions in the American encampments. His repeated absences did not signal a lack of enthusiasm for military service: Worthington reenlisted in early 1779, agreeing to serve for the remainder of the war. [8]
In April 1780, Worthington and the Marylanders joined the American army sent to the Carolinas to counter the new front that the British had opened in the south. Over the next two years, the Maryland troops fought in the Revolutionary War's fiercest battles. On August 16, 1780, at the first battle of the campaign, the Americans suffered a terrible defeat at the Battle of Camden. The battle ended in a chaotic American retreat, and the Marylanders took particularly heavy casualties, losing some 600 men--about one-third of their troops. Worthington was among the men who got lost during the retreat, and initially declared missing. However, he eventually was reunited with his unit, and went on the serve until the war's end in 1783. [9]
Unfortunately, nothing is known about Worthington's life after he left the army.
Owen Lourie, 2019
Notes:
1. Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 24; Mark Andrew Tacyn “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 33; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, August 29, 1775 to July 6, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 11, p. 223. For Fourth Independent Company uniforms, see Pennsylvania Journal, 14 August 1776.
3. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12, p. 9; Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com; Tacyn, 48-73. For more on the experience of the Marylanders at the Battle of Brooklyn, see "In Their Own Words," on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the Maryland 400.
5. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 24.
6. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 174, 292; Affidavit of Edward Hindman, 12 May 1777, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 16, no. 114, MdHR 4580 [MSA S989-24, 1/6/4/11]; Affidavit of William Frazier, 13 May 1777, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 16, no. 150, MdHR 4580 [MSA S989-24, 1/6/4/11]; Journal and Correspondence of the State Council, 1777-1778, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 16, p. 257; Compiled Service Record of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, National Archives, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
7. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 174; Compiled Service Record.
8. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 174; Compiled Service Record; John Steward to Council of Safety, List of Men Deserted from the 2nd Maryland Regiment, 22 February 1779, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 25, no. 68-2, MdHR 4593 [MSA S989-37, 1/6/4/25].
9. Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, pps. 174, 468, 505; Tacyn, 216-225.
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