John Williams
MSA SC 3520-18215

Biography:

John Williams enlisted as a fifer in the Fourth Independent Company under Captain James Hindman. [1] Since Williams was a fifer, he was a non-combatant member of the troops, but still participated in the military engagement and received the same pay as corporals. [2] For the Continental Army, the standard musical unit consisted of at least one fifer and one drummer, although shortages often plagued the Army, including Maryland's troops. [3]

As fifer, it was Williams’s responsibility to boost morale, create an easier form of communication between the companies and their commander, and improve troop maneuvers and marching through the music. [4] Williams therefore worked closely with the Fourth Independent's drummer, James Mead.

Hindman’s company originally played a role in the Maryland Council of Safety’s plan to protect the Chesapeake Bay from potential British invasions. Colonel William Smallwood’s Maryland battalion of nine companies were stationed in Baltimore and Annapolis while the independent companies were divided between the Eastern and Western shores. While centered at Oxford in Talbot County in the summer of 1776, Hindman’s company received orders to march to New York to reinforce the Continental Army for a British invasion. The independent companies, including the Fourth Independent, arrived by mid-August 1776. [5]

On August 27, 1776, American forces faced British troops at the Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island), the first full-scale engagement of the war. Under heavy fire, the American troops attempted to retreat through Gowanus Creek, suffering severe losses in the process. To hold the British at bay, the remaining Marylanders who hadn’t crossed the creek yet mounted a series of charges. The Maryland troops delayed the British long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape. Despite the loss of 256 men who were killed or captured, the bravery and sacrifice of the Maryland troops earned them the title of the "Maryland 400." [6]

In the aftermath of the Battle of Brooklyn, Williams remained with the Fourth Independent, but Mead fell sick. [7] Hindman would not have both his company drummer and his fifer until October 11, 1776. [8]

Following the Battle of Brooklyn, the Fourth Independent fought at the Battle of White Plains, a continuation of the retreat from New York and an American loss. Williams also witnessed victories at the battles of Trenton and Princeton in the winter of 1776-1777. 

At the beginning of 1777, the issue of expiring enlistments came to call. After seeing combat in four battles and suffering the privations of an ill-supplied army, Williams did not reenlist. [9] No further information is known about Williams’s life. Because he had such a common name, it is not possible to determine any other information about his life.  

Cassy Sottile, 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. 23.

[2] William Carter White, A History of Military Music in America (New York: Exposition Press, 1924), 26.

[3] Charles Patrick Neimeyer, The Revolutionary War (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007), 137; Donald E. Mattson and Louis D. Walz, Old Fort Snelling Instruction Book for Fife: With Music of Early America (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1974), 6.

[4] "Fife, Drum, and Bugle During the Revolutionary War," U.S. Army, 14 June 2018.

[5] Mark Andrew Tacyn, "To the End: The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution," (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 34-45.

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