Lot 190
Revolutionary War
Recruiting and Organizing the Revolutionary Army in Maryland
This remarkable collection of a dozen letters written by and to William Smallwood includes two letters by John Steward, who received one of only eleven Congressional Silver Medals, a predecessor of the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the Revolutionary War. This group offers a fascinating window into the process of recruiting the Maryland Line for the Continental Army and handling the many circumstances of individual soldiers and officers.
WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, Archive of Retained Secretarial Copies of Letters Sent and Autograph Letters Signed and Received, 1777-1784. 12 documents, 21 pages total.
William Smallwood (1732-1792) was born in Charles County, Maryland, and educated in England at Eton College. He served as an officer in the French and Indian War. When the Revolutionary War began, he received appointment as colonel of the 1st Maryland regiment. He led the regiment in the New York and New Jersey campaign of 1776-1777, and helped prevent the occupation of Wilmington by the British. He was twice wounded in the Battle of White Plains and for his actions promoted to brigadier general. He continued to serve in the Philadelphia campaign of 1777-1778. In 1780, he commanded a part of the southern army routed at Camden, South Carolina, and he objected to working other Baron von Steuben or other foreign-born commanders. He spent the remainder of the war in Maryland. Elected to Congress in 1785, Smallwood was also chosen to be Maryland’s governor. He served in that office from November 1785 to November 1788. In 1790, he owned 56 slaves.
Excerpts
WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, Handwritten Letter (retained copy) to Capt. John Sterett, March 14, 1777, Snow Hill, Maryland. 1 p., 8” x 12”.
“I have just received yours of the 10th Inst informing me of the Behaviour of most of your Company in refusing to deliver up your Fifer and Drummer to the Officer and Guard which I have expressly order’d after them, and am sorry that my Duty obliges me to lay their conduct before the General Assembly and to remark, if they have not disobey’d orders, they have descended to a Degree of Petulance which in this Instance as Gentlemen and well Wishers to their Country they ought to have held themselves above. At the same Time allow me to return you my Thanks for your Conduct on this Occasion and I flatter myself, you are conscious as Gentlemen I made it my particular Duty to treat with politeness, and extend every Indulgence to your Company whilst under my Command, and from a Consideration of their respective Circumstance and Situation in Trade and to oblige discharg’d them, before it was consistent with my Duty or the Exigency of the State.
“If these Gentlemen held my Orders in Contempt, they certainly ought not to have suffer’d their own Caprice, or the Convenience of a paltry Drummer and Fifer to have influenced their Conduct to the prejudice of their Country, for it’s very clear your Company could have had no use for them. I have inclos’d your Letter to the Assembly, and should be oblig’d wou’d you transmit me a List of the Names of such, who refus’d to let the Officer comply with his Orders.”
“P.S. I wish Lieutt Campbell may have acquitted himself on this Occasion in a manner becoming a regular Officer.”
John Sterett (1751-1787) was born in Pennsylvania. His father moved the family to Baltimore in 1761, where he became a wealthy merchant. John Sterett became captain of the Baltimore Independent Company, which fought at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, and at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. He and his father built and outfitted a privateer in 1777 to prey on British commerce, and in 1781, he contributed $250 to aid Lafayette’s soldiers.
On the same day he wrote this letter, Colonel Smallwood wrote the following letter to the president of the Maryland Council of Safety, informing him of the actions of the Baltimore militia company and discussing the “disaffected” on the eastern shore of Maryland, south of Delaware.
WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, Handwritten Letter (retained copy) to Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, March 14, 1777, Snow Hill, Maryland. 3 pp., 8” x 12”.
“I have waited sometime in expectation of receiving an Answer to my Ltr of the 3d Inst and of being favor’d with the commands of the general Assembly respecting any further Operations or Measures which might be thought expedient to be adopted, the better to Protect the Whigs, and secure the Tories of these two Counties; for I am better satisfied than when I wrote before, that the Proclamation will not have the desired Effect, nor indeed wou’d any measures avail here,
unless Similar shou’d be adopted in the Delaware State, such is their Confidence in each other, from their communication, and Vicinity, and from their particular situation and Intercourse with the British Navy, that unless this Intercourse, and the Principle and Spirit of Disaffection can generally be removed, the purpose by an Attempt in any particular Part will not I doubt be effected.”
“What have you to expect from those who have cut down Liberty Poles, and in direct opposition thereto, have erected the Kings Standard, & in an avowed manner drank his Health and Success, & destruction to Congress and Conventions…what can be expected from the Inhabitants of a Place which becomes the Reception of Deserters, escaping Prisoners, and most of the Disaffected who have been expelled [from] the neighbouring States?”
“These Facts being unquestionably proved, & in many Instances admitted, wou’d not lead to demonstrate that Religion was the original cause of those Events, yet this is urged as the Principal motive in every Instance, tho there are some Exceptions wherein Ignorant men from their Religious Attachments have been deluded (those are readily distinguished & to be pitied) yet by far the greater number conceal their true motives, & make Religion a Cloak for their nefarious Designs....”
“my design in this last Instance will in some measure be frustrated, by the conduct of some Gentlemen of the Baltimore Compy, who in general behaved well ’till they were discharged, after which if they have not disobeyed Orders they have descended to a degree of Petulance which in this Instance as Gentlemen and well wishers to their Country they ought to have held themselves above whilst under my command as Gentlemen I made it my particular Duty to treat with Politeness and gave them every Indulgence & from a consideration of their respective circumstances & situation in Trade & to oblige discharged them the 10th Inst before it was consistent with my Duty, or the Exigency of the States, at the same Time informing Capt Sterett, and others of his Compy, that as the Militia Regts were to meet, I shou’d keep their Fifer & Drummer, who wou’d contribute much (by the musick) in procuring Recruits, & promoting that Service, which he not only very politely agreed to, but order’d the Fifer and Drummer to continue... I shou’d not have taken up your Attention with this Circumstance, but to point out that I am sorry your Independants had not a stronger Sense of their Duty, both as Soldiers & as Gentlemen well affected to the general good, and to acquaint you that unless proper Notice is taken of it, I shall decline in future the command of your Independants as Militia, upon any action unless under better Regulations.”
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (1723-1790) was born in Charles County, Maryland. He served as a member of the Governor’s Council from 1773-1776. Although closely identified with the colonial government, Jenifer supported the patriot cause in the Revolutionary War. He served as president of Maryland’s Council of Safety from 1775 to 1777, then as the first president of the Maryland State Senate from 1777 to 1780. He represented Maryland in the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1782. In 1787, he was one of the oldest members to serve in the Constitutional Convention, alongside his old friend Benjamin Franklin.
WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, Autograph Letter Signed (draft), to Unknown Recipient, ca. March 1777. 1 p., 7” x 7.75”.
“In answer to yours of the 14 Inst I beg leave to inform you that the Requisitions, in his Excellency Genl Washingtons Ltr by this opportunity have in a great measure been complied with by my Orders issued to 5 of the commandants of the Regts in this State in consequence of the late Resolve of Congress transmitted to me by the Board of War for the Express Purpose of forward the Troops raised for this State upon the continental Establishment....”
This letter may refer to either of General George Washington’s letters to Smallwood of March 8 and 12, 1777, both written by Alexander Hamilton from Morristown, New Jersey. The first spoke to the dire state of the army: “the present weak state of our army, and the appearance of a speedy movement being intended by the enemy make it necessary that I should use every resource to augment our numbers in the most expeditious manner possible. You will therefore immediately call upon the commanding officers of all the regiments of yr state, and order them without delay to repair to camp, with such men as they have already collected; leaving a proper number of officers to prosecute the business of recruiting, which must not by any means be impeded or retarded.” The second sent Smallwood circular letters to distribute to the commanders of the five continental battalions from Maryland. Washington informed Smallwood that they express “my opinion of the pressing necessity we have for troops immediately; this consideration alone will call forth a continuance of your utmost exertions at this important period.”
WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, Handwritten Letter (retained copy), to Col. John Gibson, January 6, 1781. 1 p., 7.5” x 9.5”.
“Colo [Liniff?] has Instructions of the Baron de Steubens to carry into Execution which he will communicate to you for the accomplishment of which he will require about Twenty Horsemen properly officered—these I would recommend to be furnished immediately out of the Volunteer and other Corps which may be at hand...as I don’t propose taking Command here I shall leave it to your Judgment and discretion to carry the Barons orders into Execution in that manner you may judge most expedient and conducive to the Service and shall be happy in consulting and coinciding in Sentiment with you and him in every Measure to promote the public Good at this alarming Crisis tho’ I do not wish to interfere in the Command.”
On January 8, Baron von Steuben wrote to General Washington, “Yesterday Genl Smallwood arrived here on his way to Maryland, but Stop’d, & has been so Obliging as to Afford us his assistance. Some Vessels of the Enemy were sent up this River Yesterday to take or destroy some Merchant Vessels laying there, but by the dispositions Genl Smallwood made with the Militia, & Some Ship guns, they were obliged to desist from their Enterprize.”
John Gibson (1740-1822) was born in Pennsylvania, the son of an Irish merchant father and a French Huguenot mother. Gibson served in the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore’s War, the American Revolutionary War, Tecumseh’s War, and the War of 1812. In May 1775, he was elected colonel of the 6th Virginia regiment and later commanded troops on the western frontier. At the time of this letter, he was second in command at Fort Pitt, in present-day Pittsburgh.
WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, Handwritten Letter (retained copy), to President and Members of the Council of Maryland, July 21, 1781. 3 pp., 7.5” x 9.75”.
“Impressed with the fullest Confidence that you will do every thing in your Power to obviate the Difficulties, represented in the enclosed Address from the Officers of the Maryland Line, the removal of which must tend to facilitate the March of the Troops to join the southern army, I have taken the Liberty to submit their sentiments to the Consideration of your honourable Board.
“Having experienced their Alacrity generally in the Execution of Orders, I cannot but sympathise with them on their present Embarrassments & lament that their situation should be such as to constrain them even to contemplate for a moment the Necessity of a different Conduct. My Regard for them, and my Desire to promote the service induces me to solicit you on their behalf and to request that you would grant them a sum of the remission adequate to the Discharge of their Debts, unavoidably incurred by some whilst on Duty, & by others, whose want of Command obliged them to remain in this state, that they may reserve the small sum of specie already advanced & what may be hereafter advanced agreeable to the Directions of the Assembly to defray their Expences during the present Campaign.”
The Council of Maryland was the executive authority of the state, comprised of Governor Thomas Sim Lee (1745-1819) and five councilors. On July 19, the Council had ordered “That the Treasurer pay to General Smallwood nine hundred and sixty eight pounds specie in part of the four thousand pounds, to be distributed to the Officers and soldiers ordered to the Southward agreeably to the ‘Act of relating to Public Creditors.’” On August 27, the Council ordered the “western shore Treasurer” to pay £791 to Smallwood under the same act. Much of the Maryland Line was in South Carolina and did not participate in the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, which led to General Cornwallis’s decisive surrender. A part of the Maryland Line was present at Yorktown, under the command of General Mordecai Gist (1743-1792).
HENRY H. CHAPMAN, Autograph Letter Signed, to William Smallwood, January 30, 1782. 2 pp., 8.25” x 6.75”.
“The severe indisposition of Health, I suffered about the Time of the Siege of York, oblig’d me after the Capitulation to apply to B: Genl Gist for a furlough to return to thy State for the Benefit thereof; which being granted was injoin’d on my Recovery, to call upon you, & subject my self to your further Order’g and in Consequence of his Injunction as soon as I was rid of the fatigue of riding (Home) incident to a Person in an extreme State of Weakness, I took an Opportunity of going to your House, just before your Departure for Annapolis; but being disappointed in seeing you, spoke a few Days after to Major Stoddart, who promised to communicate my Business, and said he imagined had you any thing for me to do I shou’d hear from you; but fearing that might not be all which was necessary, have once more attempted to inform you of my Situation by Letter, as my coming to Annapolis has till now been prevented by a constant attending Complaint in my Breast, and am now prohibited by the exceeding Illness of my Mother....”
Henry H. Chapman (1764-1821) was an ensign in the 4th Maryland Line in 1781, promoted to lieutenant in 1782, and served until 1783. He served in the Maryland General Assembly from 1787 to 1815 and twice served as speaker. He was also an active member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
JOHN ALLEN THOMAS, Autograph Letter Signed, to William Smallwood, March 10, 1782, St. Mary’s, Maryland. 2 pp., 7.25” x 9.75”.
“The bearer hereof Charles Thompson being taken up by Captain Bruce as a deserter, has requested me to lay his case before you, which I willingly do believing that his Case is more than commonly particular.
“He enlisted with me in 1776 and served the Campaign faithfully and was in the Second Regiment in 1777, and was captured on Staten Island with Major Steward, after being some Time in Goal [jail], he agreed to enlist with the Enemy, and by that Means made his Escape. He says that Genl Putnam engaged to discharge him, and directed him to the General for that Purpose, but the Army moved before he could get to the General. he returned home and has remained here in a public Manner ever since, three years agoe Major Steward was down here, and Thompson waited on him, who (as the Major told me) thought, that he ought not continue in the Army, because if he should happen to be captured he would be treated by the Enemy as a deserter, last Winter Steward was down here and I saw him and Thompson talking together, Steward afterwards told me that Thompson had again mentioned the Matter and that he had told him the same thing. Thompson says that he has frequently seen Major Davidson Capn Manger and several other Officers but they never intimated to him that he ought to join the Regiment, for if they had, he would without Hesitation have done it From the Manner of making his Escape, and his Situation if again captured, I am induced to urge his Case to you, but if you are of Opinion that he ought to be considered still as a Soldier, I have to request in a particular Manner of you that you will permit him to return home and that you will accept of a good Man in his Room, if he can procure one, and I will be answerable to you for his Return and faithful Compliance with your Orders. I hope you will excuse the Freedom I have taken, and be assured that nothing but a sacred Regard to (what I think) Justice should at any time induce me to trouble you with Matters of this Kind.”
John Allen Thomas (1734-1797) was born in Talbot County, Maryland. He moved to St. Mary’s County by 1771 and was an attorney. He was elected captain of the 5th Independent Maryland Company, from St. Mary’s County in January 1776. By the fall of 1776, he served as major of the second battalion. In 1777, he served as major of the St. Mary’s County militia. He represented St. Mary’s County in the state legislature from 1778 to 1779 and again from 1781 to 1782.
DONALDSON YEATES, Autograph Letter Signed, to William Smallwood, March 17, 1782. 1 p., 8.25” x 13.5”.
“Mr Bullen has not had any appointment from me, and I am confident receipts passed from him to this State, must be injudicious and tend to embarrass and create disputes in the settlemt of Accots between States and State.... some time ago I was advised by Genl Gist in which he informed me he had your concurrent opinion, that a temporary appointment of a QrMaster at Annapolis was absolutely necessary until you had marched the State troops, on this advice Mr Tooth being recommended I gave him the appointment which was presented to the Hone Council Board for such aid as could be afforded, no aid was gained and he returned me the Commission.”
Donaldson Yeates (1729-1796) was born in Delaware and worked as a saddler. In 1767, he moved to Kent County, Maryland, where he became a successful merchant. He served as a colonel in the Kent County militia. He served with the Continental Army at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. In 1780, Yeates was appointed as deputy quartermaster general for Maryland and Delaware. He served as a member of the Maryland Convention of 1788 that ratified the U.S. Constitution.
JOHN STEWARD, Autograph Letter Signed, to William Smallwood, April 14, 1782, Camp Bacons Bridge, South Carolina. 2 pp., 7.25” x 9”.
“I shall never Wonder at the weakness of the measures adopted by your People while they are governed by a Faction who will sacrifice the most important considerations of state to secure an Election, or a Bargain of twice wrought Iron and who in order to effect their purpose, impose on their blind adherents a shew of Caballistic Mystery, which those infatuated Gulls swallow with as much Avidity as devout Indians do the surreverence of the great Lama"
“We quietly ly within 22 miles of the Enemy without hope of engaging them tho’ if they knew our true situation they would certainly have a touch at us and drive us from nakedness to eternity”
John Steward (1753-1783) began his military service in John Allen Thomas’s Fifth Independent Company in August 1776. He became a captain in the newly formed 2nd Maryland Regiment early in 1777 and was promoted to major in April 1777. He served throughout the war and earned a Congressional Silver Medal for his actions at the Battle of Stony Point in July 1779. In February 1781, he received promotion to lieutenant colonel of the 1st Maryland Regiment. He was present at the surrender at Yorktown and then marched his regiment to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was in command of the Maryland regiment when the British left in December 1782. Three months later, he died there from injuries sustained in a riding accident. His medal, a predecessor of the Congressional Medal of Honor and one of only eleven issued during the Revolutionary War, did not arrive in America until 1790, so Congress gave it to his father Stephen Steward.
LEVIN HANDY, Autograph Letter Signed, to William Smallwood, April 27, 1782. 1 p., 7.75” x 13”.
“I have lately preferred a Petition to the Honorable Assembly of Maryland, in order to have the depresitiation of my pay made up, and in consequence must beg you will use your Interest in my favour to forward the same; as I make no doubt but you are fully acquainted with the Circumstances attending my Resignation.”
On April 3, 1779, Handy was tried at a general court martial for “refusing his tour of duty in not taking command of the Bound-Brook Picket.” The court found that Handy’s reasons for his refusal “are not sufficient…and that he is guilty of…a disobedience of orders. But as it appears to have proceeded from a dispute of rank existing in the regiment he belongs to, they consider his being arrested and tried by a General Court Martial to be a sufficient punishment for the charge exhibited against him.” On April 6, General George Washington approved the sentence and released Handy from arrest. On June 14, 1780, Congress accepted Handy’s resignation from the army effective May 1, 1780.
Levin Handy (1754-1799) of Worcester County, Maryland, was a 2nd lieutenant in the Eastern Shore Battalion in June 1776, and promoted to 1st lieutenant two months later. He became a captain in the 5th Maryland regiment in December 1776, and resigned from the army in May 1780. He later served as clerk of the Worcester County Court.
JOHN STEWARD, Autograph Letter Signed, to William Smallwood, October 23, 1782, Camp, South Carolina. 3 pp., 7.25” x 9.25”.
“I beg you will acquaint the Executive of our State, that their artillery are in a precarious situation. I have had information of an intention of G—l—G—n to form them into a Corps with 4 Companies from Virginia as a Command for Coll Carrington Lt Col to the Virga Regt which they propose (G—n G—n) to have dissolved, in order to give C—n a command. He is G—n’s first favorite and will have every support he can lend however, as the men are held under inlistment to the state only, it will not be in their power without consent of the Legislature to do it. the great danger is that it may cause a total dissolution of these two Companies, without your immediate interference should prevent it.
“We shall march Northward by the last of Novr at farthest I will tell you a great deal which cannot [be] trusted to the frail conveyance of paper.”
THOMAS PRICE, Autograph Letter Signed, to William Smallwood, April 4, 1784, Baltimore, Maryland. 1 p., 8.25” x 13.25”.
“Not receiving an answer to my letter wrote you from Annapolis some time last feby makes me wright you the second time to request a certificate that I was continued on duty till the arrangemt of our line took place I believe it was the first of August until which time I declare to you on Honor that I was continu’d on Duty at Fredk Town.... Mr Carlton who does business in the Minister’s at war Office acknowledges the justice of my acct and says he will give me a warrant for the money on getting your or Genl Gist’s certificate.”
Thomas Price (1732-1795) was a hatter in Frederick Town, Maryland, and became a planter by 1768. He was the captain of a company of expert riflemen that left Frederick, Maryland, in July 1775 to join General George Washington’s army at Boston. He served as a major in Smallwood’s Maryland regiment throughout 1776, and became colonel of the 2nd Maryland regiment in December 1776. His regiments fought in the Siege of Boston, the New York Campaign, and the Battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. Price resigned in April 1780.
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