Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Joseph Orme
MSA SC 3520-18220

Biography:

Joseph Orme was the quartermaster sergeant of the First Maryland Regiment.[1] This force was raised as the state's contribution to the newly formed Continental Army. Orme, as the quartermaster sergeant, was the assistant to the quartermaster, Joseph Marbury. The quartermaster was in charge of planning the layout of the regiment’s camp and, most importantly, managing its weaponry.[2] The quartermaster sergeant’s role was to set up the regimental camp properly and efficiently. Orme was to supervise the packing and unpacking of tents and the movement of baggage on the march.[3] 

The First Maryland Regiment spent early 1776 training in Annapolis and Baltimore. In July, they were sent to New York to reinforce the Continental Army against a looming British offensive. On August 27, 1776, just a few weeks after arriving, they faced the British 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 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.

Although Orme presumably saw no combat at the Battle of Brooklyn, he faced other challenges during the campaign of 1776. The deplorable conditions of the camps which Orme was charged with building and maintaining played a role in the army’s early failures. By September 1776, 32 percent of American troops were so ill that they could not fight.[4] The men themselves were plagued by dysentery, typhoid fever, malaria, and other illnesses. The poorly kept camps were largely to blame for these diseases. Inexperienced American soldiers did not practice proper field hygiene and, as a result, severely polluted their water supply. Additionally, soldiers lived in poorly-planned close quarters. Men were constantly exposed to dangerous illnesses. 

The enemy, however, was experienced and knew the importance of field sanitation. British and Hessian soldiers protected their water supply and enforced strict sanitation policies. As a result, they avoided the loss of men that proved catastrophic for the Americans.[5] The Continental Army was quickly pushed out of New York and into New Jersey before winning the crucial battles at Trenton and Princeton in the winter of 1776-1777. 

Orme completed his term as quartermaster sergeant and chose not to continue his military career. Unfortunately, no record of Orme can be found outside of his service in 1776. The details of his civilian life afterwards are unknown.

Jillian Curran, Explore America Research Intern, 2019

Notes:

[1] “Account of attendance and pay of soldiers,” Maryland State Papers, Revolutionary Papers, Sep 28 1776 [MSA S997-6-16, 1/7/3/11]. 

[2] Baron von Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Steuben, Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States : part I, (Philadelphia, Eleazer Oswald, 1786), 130.

[3] Steuben, 134.

[4] David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing, (New York, Oxford University Press, 2004), 87.

[5] Fischer, 87.

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