Thomas Collins
MSA SC 3520-18219
Biography:
Thomas Collins was the drum major for the First Maryland Regiment in 1776. It was a rank which placed him in authority over all of the regiment's drummers. Musicians were vital to the operations of the Continental Army, with fifers and drummers communicating orders during battle and in camp, and helping pass the time on long marches. Drums were particularly important, as they were audible even in the midst of combat, and drummers were stationed alongside the soldiers during battle. As drum major, Collins was responsible for overseeing the drummers, including instructing them in drumming. Since the regiment was composed almost entirely of men without military experience, Collins no doubt had much to teach his drummers. Drum majors occupied a status equivalent to sergeants major, between commissioned officers and ordinary non-commissioned officers. [1]
Commanded by Colonel William Smallwood, the First Maryland Regiment was raised in early 1776 as the state's contribution to the Continental Army. After about six months of training and garrison duty in Maryland, the troops were ordered to march north, to defend New York from attack by the British. That attack came on August 27, 1776, when the Americans faced the British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island), the first major 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 crossed 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. These men, now known as the "Maryland 400," held the British at bay long enough for the rest of the Continental Army to escape, at the cost of many lives. In all, 256 Marylanders were killed or captured by the British; some companies lost as much as 80 percent of their men. [2]
What part Collins played in the fighting is not known. The drum and fife majors were supposed to be positioned in the middle of the line when the regiment was arranged for battle, behind the troops. He did survive the battle, and went on to fight with the Marylanders for the rest of 1776. The regiment 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. [3]
Collins's enlistment expired at the end of 1776. Whether he reenlisted cannot be determined, although if he did he never served as a drummer or drum major again. Nothing else is known about his life, as there were many people with the same name, and it is not possible to distinguish between them.
Owen Lourie, 2019
Notes:
[1] Pay Abstract, First Maryland Regiment, September 1776, Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, box 6, no. 5, MdHR 19970-6-5 [MSA S997-6-6, 1/7/3/11]; Pay Abstract, First Maryland Regiment, October-December 1776, Maryland State Papers, Series A, box 1, no. 108, MdHR 6636-1-108 [MSA S1004-1-87, 1/7/3/25]; Frederick Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, Part I. (Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1792), 85-87; Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 1774-1776, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 78, pps. 92, 199. For more on the role of music in the army, see "'Marching to What Beat, Sir?' The Musicians of Washington's Army" on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the Maryland 400.
[2] Return of the Maryland troops, 13 September 1776, Revolutionary War Rolls, NARA M246, folder 35, p. 85, from Fold3.com; Tacyn, 48-73; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 154-155. 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.
[3] That was where drum and fife majors were positioned later in the war, at least. See Steuben, 8. Pay Abstract, September 1776; Pay Abstract, October-December 1776.
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