Thomas Buckley
MSA SC 3520-18218
Biography:
Thomas Buckley enlisted as a private in Maryland's Fourth Independent Company on January 24, 1776 under Captain James Hindman. Hindman’s company originally played a role in the Maryland Council of Safety's plan to protect the Chesapeake Bay from potential British invasions. At first stationed at Oxford in Talbot County, Hindman's company travelled to New York to reinforce the Continental Army in preparation for a British invasion. The Fourth Independent Company arrived in New York by mid-August 1776. [1]
On the morning of August 27, 1776, American forces faced British troops at the Battle of Brooklyn (otherwise known as the Battle of Long Island). While several companies engaged the British Army on the Gowanus Road and the nearby Gowanus Creek, taking severe losses in the process, the Fourth Independent Company suffered only three casualties. Hindman defended his actions during the battle to the Council of Safety, arguing that rumors referring to the Fourth Independent Company’s “very ill” behavior were unfounded. Hindman instead declared that “the company [he] had the honor to command...behaved themselves as well as in the service, notwithstanding the dark insinuations...thrown out to their prejudice.” [2]
The Fourth Independent Company later fought at the Battle of White Plains in October 1776. Buckley survived the Battle of White Plains, despite heavy American losses. One Hessian volley alone wounded and killed ninety-two soldiers during the battle, and forty soldiers of the Maryland Line were killed, captured, or wounded in total. Despite a string of defeats in 1776, American victories at Trenton and Princeton revitalized the morale of the Continental Army and the Marylanders who served in the Fourth Independent Company. [3]
Buckley's enlistment in the Fourth Independent Company ended in the winter of 1776-1777. He returned to his home in Bolingbroke, located on the southern tip of Talbot County, Maryland. Buckley did not reenlist in the army in 1777, but his former lieutenant, Archibald Anderson, accused him of deserting in April of 1777. Anderson posted $20 reward for the "nineteen years of age...country-born man." Although he did not serve in the Maryland Line in 1777, Buckley still felt the war's effects. Along with other locals organized under James Woolford, Buckley participated in guard duty at Cook's Point in Dorchester County for seven days, watching for British warships. [4]
Buckley returned to the service in 1778, enlisting in Captain John Eccleston's company in the Second Maryland Regiment. Buckley's superiors often assigned him to guard duty and served in General William Smallwood's personal guard in September of 1778. Due to his consistently exemplary service, Buckley received a promotion to the rank of sergeant on February 1, 1780. He enlisted for the remainder of the war at this point, fully committed to his military service. [5]
Buckley survived the disastrous Battle of Camden in August of 1780, where the Maryland Line lost around one-third of its troops. He unfortunately fell ill during the winter of 1780-1781. His wife, Elizabeth Buckley, requested and received "rations during her Husband's illness" from the state. Buckley recovered later in 1781 and returned to duty. [6]
While Thomas Buckley continued to serve in the war effort, Elizabeth Buckley fell into a "truly deplorable state." The wives and families of soliders sometimes journeyed with the army, performing various tasks including cooking and washing laundry. As Colonel Josias Carvil Hall explained, "a Soldiers Pay [did not] enable him to maintain a Family at Home which compels him to bring them to his Regiment, where they may share his Rations." Elizabeth Buckley instead remained at their home in Talbot County, choosing not to "live in Barracks" because she was a " sober, well disposed" person. Although not much else is known about the women who traveled with the army, Buckley's opinion suggests that she considered them to be beneath her social status, to the point where she would have preferred financial ruin to living amongst the soldiers. Along with two other wives of Maryland soldiers named Mary Connelly and Mary Fullfurt, Elizabeth Buckley petitioned the Council of Maryland and Governor William Paca. The trio pleaded for financial assistance in the winter of 1782-1783. [7]
Thomas Buckley continued to serve in the military until the war's end. After his discharge, Buckley returned to Talbot County, where he owned four horses and eleven cattle but no land. He lived in the area until at least 1810. Buckley identified as a Quaker for at least part of his life, appearing in Quaker records dating from 1784 to 1793. Thomas Buckley may have been the son of a woman named Elizabeth Buckley, who had two other sons named Henry and Arnold Buckley. Arnold Buckley lived in Bolingbroke, while Henry Buckley lived the Third Haven area in central Talbot County. This Elizabeth Buckley died in spring of 1802, and gave each of her sons money from "their father's property left in [her] hands." [8]
-James Schmitt, Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution Research Fellow, 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), pp. 33-34, 44-45.
[2] Tacyn, pp. 52-67; Journal and Correspondence of the Maryland Council of Safety, July 7, 1776 to December 31, 1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 12, pp. 345-346.
[3] Tacyn, pp. 120-126; David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 111.
[4] General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment Record, 1783, Talbot County, Bolingbroke Hundred, p. 1 [MSA S1161-10-5, 1/4/5/53]; "Deserted," Maryland Gazette (Annapolis, MD), 29 May 1777; Thomas Buckley, 4 October 1777, oath certifying military service at Cook's Point, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 19970-02-05/10 [MSA S997-2-643, 1/7/3/8]; Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, April 1, 1778 through October 26, 1779, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 21, p. 248. Buckley received rations for five of the days he participated in guard duty. The Council of Maryland later paid James Woolford for his services at Cook's Point in 1778.
[5] Thomas Buckley to State, n.d., Enlistment into the Company of Foot, 2nd Regt., Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 19970-16-18 [MSA S997-16-2080, 1/7/3/14]; Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 293; Compiled Service Records, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[6] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 355; Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Maryland, November 13, 1780 through November 13, 1781, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 45, p. 321.
[7] Elizabeth Buckley, Mary Connelly, and Mary Fullfurt to Governor William Paca, December 3, 1782, request for financial assistance, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, MdHR 6636-38-73 [MSA S1004-51-16449, 1/7/3/49]; Holly A. Mayer, Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1999); Josias Carvil Hall to Gov. Thomas Johnson, 15 September 1779, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 22, no. 57 [MSA S989-33, 1/6/4/21].
[8] Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 523; Assessment Record, 1783, Talbot County, Bolingbroke Hundred, p. 1 [MSA S1161-10-5, 1/4/5/53]; General Assembly, House of Delegates, Assessment Record, 1783, Talbot County, Third Haven Hundred, p. 5 [MSA S1161-10-5, 1/4/5/53]; Church Records, Society of Friends, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Minutes 1771-1797 [MSA SC 2394-1-6, 00/08/07/30]; U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Talbot County; U.S. Federal Census, 1810, Talbot County. Buckley's family consisted of seven people by 1810.
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