Chapter 22
Light Infantry
Clad in a linen shirt and buckskin moccasins, and with numerous rings in his nose and ears, the aging Indian chief fought for his life as the ambush unfolded around him. Caught in a trap set by Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe, Marylanders and Stockbridge Mohicans fought hand-to-hand and tomahawk-to-knife against the British soldiers. Natives with multiple piercings and Mohawk haircuts grappled with uniformed Redcoats, dragging the British dragoons from their horses and cutting them down. Armed with rifles, tomahawks, and bows, the Mohicans fought bravely as they had on many other occasions, but this time they were unable to overcome their enemy.
“[I am] old and would die here!” the chief, Daniel Ninham, called out. He ordered his warriors to retreat, but he himself went on the offensive, attacking Simcoe. He wounded the colonel and, more important, bought time for some of his warriors and many of the Marylanders to retreat. Eventually, a British orderly killed the old man, bringing his courageous charge to an end.
During the Revolution, most Native Americans in the East fought for or were aligned with the British. In the Northeast the United States had to deal with the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. Five of the six were united behind the Crown and mounted raids on American settlements near the frontier. Only the Oneida sided with the Americans. In the South the Cherokee were active and fought against the Americans for a time.
In a nearly forgotten chapter of American history, the Stockbridge Mohicans were a unique exception and fought for the American cause. After leaving their lands in 1734 for a variety of reasons including debt, the Mohicans had settled in a beautiful meadow surrounded by the bucolic Berkshire Mountains in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Missionaries soon converted them to Christianity, and in 1775 the Stockbridge Mohicans joined the Patriot cause. Congress appointed Abraham Ninham, Daniel’s son, who also served as a chief of the tribe, as an emissary to communicate with western Indians. In 1778 Abraham, Daniel, and about sixty warriors joined the Patriot light infantry led by Mordecai Gist.
In the fall of 1778 after the battle at Monmouth, George Washington moved the American army back up to White Plains, New York, in order to keep the British pinned down in New York. There the general ordered the creation of light infantry units, which had more flexibility and the ability to mount raids. In addition, they would counter the British light infantry operating in the area, harass their supply lines along the road network in today’s Bronx and southern Westchester County, and hamper their efforts to forage. Light infantry was ideal for this role. In his general orders of August 8, Washington stipulated that each brigade would supply “a Corps of Light Infantry composed of the best, most hardy and active Marksman and commanded by good Partizan Officers.” Already an elite unit, the Marylanders supplied many officers and men to the new corps. Other than ranger units, it was arguably the closest thing an American eighteenth-century army had to special-operations troops. The light infantry corps were some of the finest troops in the Continental Army: four regiments of veterans chosen for their “alertness, daring, and military efficiency.” They traveled light and could strike quickly, since they were unencumbered by baggage and heavy artillery.
Gist commanded the light infantry, and Jack Steward led a detachment within it. On Washington’s orders, they moved the light infantry up into high ground in Yonkers, where they were in a position to penetrate behind British lines and harass the enemy. Several dozen Stockbridge Indians fought alongside Gist’s men. The light infantry skirmished, probing British positions through the scorching August of 1778. Fighting fire with fire and utilizing intelligence obtained from an American deserter, the British soon dispatched Simcoe, who commanded the Queen’s Rangers, a light infantry unit descended from Rogers’ Rangers of the French and Indian War, to destroy Gist’s light infantry. Born in 1752 to a Royal Navy captain, Simcoe attended Eton College and Oxford University before pursuing a military career. Double-chinned, with a pronounced paunch and wild, untamable gray hair, he saw action in numerous battles in the Revolution, including the siege of Boston and the Battle of Brandywine, where he was wounded. He was working to create a regiment of Loyalist freed black slaves when he was offered command of the rangers. Under his leadership, the Queen’s Rangers participated in many brutal engagements.
Attached to the Queen’s Rangers were the notoriously brutal Banastre Tarleton and his legion of cavalry. Tarleton and Simcoe were perfectly matched as two of the most ruthless officers in the British army. Simcoe and Tarleton reconnoitered Gist and Steward’s position and prepared an ambush on August 31, 1778. “Our light infantry, which is a few miles below us, have a little scratching,” Marylander Benjamin Ford recalled, “[The British] rather worsted us yesterday, by ambuscading a small reconnoitering party under Major Steward; they killed six Indians and a white man or two and made prisoners of fifteen or sixteen Indians. Our little party behaved nobly, though surrounded by a much superior party.” Ford’s words downplayed the courage, valor, and horror of that day.
Once again Steward escaped death, thanks to the courage of dozens of Mohicans. In what became known as the Massacre of the Stockbridge Indians, Simcoe’s men refused to provide quarter to some of the Indians, murdering them instead of taking prisoners.26 Ford, who was by Steward’s side, predicted, “It won’t be long before Jack pays [the British] amply in their own coin, for their civility to him on this occasion.”
26. A plaque in the Bronx at Van Cortlandt Park East commemorates the ambush.
On that long August day, Steward, Gist, and most of the light infantry escaped Simcoe’s trap, but devastating losses forced what was left of the Stockbridge Indians to return home to Massachusetts. Discharged by Washington’s orders in September 1778, the tribe received a paltry thousand dollars for their service. They eventually lost their home at Stockbridge and relocated to upstate New York, where they settled with the Oneida.
Despite the setbacks and misfires, the French alliance was bearing fruit; the Revolution was morphing into a global war. In October 1778 the situation forced British commander Henry Clinton to release five thousand troops because they were needed for service in the Caribbean. There the Crown was pursuing a military campaign on the island of Saint Lucia, and it mounted a daring expedition to seize Spanish possessions in gold-rich Central America. Thousands of Clinton’s men headed to Florida, and hundreds more to Halifax and Bermuda. In a two-year period starting in 1777, British losses totaled a staggering 15,664 troops in the western Atlantic. Replacement troops never made up the shortfall; in the four years following John Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga in October 1777, Clinton received only 4,700 troops to replace losses of 19,200. Troop shortages plagued the British throughout the war, drove their military strategy, and restricted their ability to launch offensives. They needed to clear areas of Patriot troops, build new outposts, and hold them—but they never had sufficient resources to accomplish these goals.
In London, the disastrous defeat at Saratoga was refought in Parliament for most of 1778 and part of 1779. Major figures, including William Howe, expressed serious doubts that the war could be won now that the French had allied with the Americans. Major General Charles Grey, who led the Paoli Massacre that nearly killed William Smallwood and Gist, testified, “With the present force in America, there can be no expectation of ending the war by force of arms.” Sir John Wrottesley’s assessment was even more dire: “If fifty thousand Russians were sent, they could do nothing . . . our posts [are] too many and our troops too much detached. . . . The chain of communication was too far extended.”
For their part, the Americans also faced difficulty obtaining the number of troops they needed. The French never provided enough money to expand the war to the levels Washington desired. Lack of gunpowder, supplies, and money to pay soldiers hampered Washington’s ability to launch large-scale offensive operations. The coming year
proved to be largely a stalemate, with the British locked in New York and Washington’s army in blocking positions outside the city and near West Point, preventing the enemy from breaking out. With neither side having the means to bring the Revolution to a decisive conclusion, the war dragged on.
General George Washington had a unique relationship with the men of the Maryland Line. After the Battle of Brooklyn, in which the Marylanders launched several bayonet charges that held off the British, allowing elements of the American army to escape, Washington called upon them numerous times to make decisive contributions in major battles. The Marylanders fought in both the North and the South, frequently turning the tide of the conflict.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/George_Washington#/media/File:Portrait_of_George_Washington-transparent.png
In 1774 the intrepid Mordecai Gist, an early agitator for revolution, was elected the commanding officer of the Baltimore Independent Cadets, “gentlemen of honour, family, and fortune.” The independent company included many best friends who formed a cadre of officers in some of the greatest regiments in the Revolution.
Source: Benson Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution
One of the most important small unit engagements in American history was the Marylanders’ epic stand in front of the Old Stone House in Brooklyn. Buying precious time, their bayonet charges and holding action allowed a portion of the American army to escape. More than 250 of the men of the Maryland Line were either killed or captured by the British.
Source: Alonzo Chappel
Hanging from the venerable American Legion Post 1636 in Brooklyn, New York, is a corroded sign memorializing a mass grave. Nearby, perhaps beneath a garage or a paved street, lie the Marylanders’ undiscovered bodies. The exact location of their grave is a mystery to this day. Their remains lie intermingled in what should be hallowed ground. Many other Marylanders were captured and likely perished on prison ships in New York Harbor.
Author Photo
Cornwallis was bunkered in the Old Stone House in Brooklyn in August 1776 when the Immortals made their preemptive strike against the position. It was rebuilt near the end of the nineteenth century using stones from the original house.
Author Photo
General Charles, Earl Cornwallis, arguably one of Britain’s greatest generals during the Revolution, first engaged with the Marylanders at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn. A fearless leader and an adaptable tactician, Cornwallis faced Washington’s Immortals in numerous battles throughout the war.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Marquis_of_Cornwallis.jpg
Letter from Mordecai Gist. Much of the research for Washington’s Immortals came from unpublished primary sources: pension files, letters, and diaries. In the words of the participants, these unpublished sources capture a largely unknown, boots-on-the-ground, side of the Revolution.
Source: Myers Collection New York Public Library
Lord General William Howe was in charge of the British land forces fighting in the early years of the Revolution. He had a reputation for gambling and whoring, frequently bringing his married Loyalist mistress, derisively known as “the Sultana,” to public events. Although a member of Parliament and distantly related to the king, he had some sympathy for the Patriots and would have preferred a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.
Source: Library of Congress
After fighting in New York and New Jersey, the Marylanders sustained heavy losses of those killed, captured, and wounded. Worn down by heavy fighting, a small number of Marylanders participated in the crossing of the Delaware.
Source: Library of Congress
The Battle of Trenton, a turning point in the war, led to a decisive military victory and the capture of hundreds of Hessian soldiers. It raised the sinking morale of the country.
Source: Library of Congress
A forgotten battle of the Revolutionary War, the Second Battle of Trenton involved an epic stand at the Assunpink Creek, where the Marylanders and Washington’s Army blunted multiple British assaults.
Source: Library of Congress
Instead of retreating after the against-all-odds stand at the Second Battle of Trenton, Washington boldly went on the defensive and attacked the British at Princeton, another American victory.
Source: Library of Congress
Ironically, some of the most beautiful places in America, including the bucolic area around Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Creek, are fields of battle where many Americans sacrificed their lives.
Author photo
This monument honors the men who fell in the massacre at Paoli, where British light infantry forces overran an encampment occupied by soldiers under the command of General “Mad Anthony” Wayne. Mordecai Gist and William Smallwood marched Maryland reinforcements into the area and fought in part of the melee.
Author photo
British forces occupied the Chew House, located in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and turned it into a fortress. The quarried schist structure still stands today, its edifice pockmarked by musket and cannon balls.
Source: Library of Congress
Humble, charismatic, and known for his prodigious memory and dignified manners, John Eager Howard was one of Maryland’s most outstanding officers. He would later marry Peggy Chew, whose former home (pictured above)figured prominently at the Battle of Germantown.
Source: National Park Service
One of the longest sieges of the American Revolution involved the bombardment of Mud Island. The Patriot fortress blocked naval passage to British-occupied Philadelphia. Marylander Samuel Smith commanded the garrison there, and his forces participated in a raiding party to destroy British guns, as well as in the destruction of several British warships.
Source: Library of Congress
A great regimental commander of the war, Marylander Samuel Smith, a brilliant, charismatic leader, maintained close personal relationships with John Eager Howard and several other Maryland officers. During the Revolution, leadership went hand-in-hand with deep ties of friendship and family, and this eighteenth century band of brothers forged unbreakable bonds that carried the Continental Army through the darkest days of the war. Smith defended Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, where he was seriously wounded. He would later emerge as the victorious commanding officer who defended Baltimore in the War of 1812.
Source: National Park Service
At the Battle of Monmouth, the longest battle of the Revolution, Washington once again called upon the Immortals to help check the British advance. Marylander Nathaniel Ramsay and his regiment held off the British long enough for Washington to reform his men, but Ramsay was eventually surrounded and taken prisoner. According to legend, a British officer spared Ramsay’s life upon seeing his Masonic ring. His wife, Jenny, a camp follower and the center of social life in the regiment, joined Ramsay in captivity.
Source: Wikipedia—Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, located in the Roger W. Heyns Reading Room of the UC Berkeley Library
A view of Stony Point overlooking the Hudson River. At the time of the Revolution, the British had heavily fortified the point, featuring multiple rings of defenses.
Author photo
Among the most brilliant raids of the Revolution was one that occurred at Stony Point, New York. The Marylanders, many of whom were part of the light infantry, a precursor to special operations forces, conducted a spectacular assault, resulting in the capture of hundreds of British prisoners. The main thrust of the American attack involved a “forlorn hope” (in today’s parlance, a suicide squad), men equipped with axes to cut through a sharpened log barrier known as an abatis. One of the main groups was led by Marylander Jack Steward, who was decorated by Congress for his effort.
Source: Library of Congress
A veteran of the French and Indian War who was well acquainted with both George Washington and the Cornwallis fa
mily, Horatio Gates was a contender for Washington’s position as commander in chief of the American forces. He led his men to a resounding and important victory at Saratoga, New York, but his poor strategic decisions at Camden, South Carolina, resulted in a spectacular loss for the Americans. His military reputation never recovered after the debacle.
Source: National Park Service
A rugged frontiersman, Daniel Morgan ran an independent wagon team during the French and Indian War, earning the nickname “The Old Wagoner.” Animated by a fierce hatred for the British, he organized a company of Virginia riflemen at the start of the war, playing a pivotal role at the Battle of Saratoga. Recognizing Morgan’s brilliance as a military tactician, Greene placed him in command of the Flying Army. At the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina, he employed multiple lines of defense to great effect, decisively defeating Banastre Tarleton and his Legion.
Source: National Park Service
One of the great commanders of the war, Maryland native Otho Holland Williams joined the Continental Army in 1775. Unusually, he was promoted while in captivity and then released in a prisoner exchange. Williams went on to lead Maryland forces in many battles in the South. Most notably, he conducted brilliant rearguard and screening actions during Greene’s epic, yet largely forgotten, race to the Dan River.
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