John Miller
MSA SC 3520-18208
Biography:
John Miller was the son of Thomas and Jane Miller.[1] The Miller family was fairly successful, owning one hundred and fifty acres, a considerable amount of land, in Kent County. This land was part of a tract called Miller’s Purchase, which was shared between members of the extended Miller family.[2] When John Miller was very young, however, his father died. He and his two younger brothers were then raised by their mother, who eventually remarried and became Jane Davis.[3]
On January 22, 1776, Miller enlisted in the Fourth Independent Company of Maryland troops as a corporal.[4] In the summer of 1776, the Fourth Independent Company became one of many Maryland companies sent to New York to reinforce the Continental Army against an imminent British attack. Miller and his fellow soldiers arrived in New York at the end of July.[5] 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.
Miller survived the rout at Brooklyn and was promoted to sergeant by September.[6] He faced the British again at the battles of White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton in the winter of 1776-1777.
At the beginning of 1777, the issue of expiring enlistments came to call. Despite witnessing four major battles and suffering the privations of an ill-supplied army, Miller decided to reenlist in the Continental Army on March 4, 1777.[7] The independent companies then combined to form the Second Maryland Regiment. In this unit, Miller was classified as an “old soldier,” a mark of experience and esteem.[8]
As a sergeant in the Second Maryland Regiment, Miller fought in the American losses at Brandywine and Germantown in the summer of 1777. The following summer, he saw major combat for the final time at the Battle of Monmouth.
Miller was discharged on January 10, 1780 near Morristown, New Jersey. Just a few months later, on September 18, 1780, Miller died of unknown causes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was unmarried and had no children. Shortly after Miller’s death, his mother, Jane Davis, attempted to secure the back pay that her son had earned in the three years he spent in the service of his country.[9]
Jillian Curran, Explore America Research Intern, 2019
Notes:
[1] Invalid Pay Receipt of John Miller, 1780, Anne Arundel County Register of Wills, Invalids Pay Receipts, Box 2 Folder 3 [MSA C87-1, 1/4/8/30].
[2] Debt Book, 1760, Land Office, Kent County, Liber 32, p. 43 [S12-138, 1/24/2/34].
[3] Will of Thomas Miller, 1768, Kent County Register of Wills, Wills, Liber 37, p. 327 [MSA C1107-6, 1/15/1/27]; Miller Invalid Pay Receipt.
[5] Mark Andrew Tacyn, “‘To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 44.
[6] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 23.
[7] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 138.
[8] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 138.
[9] Miller Invalid Pay Receipt.
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