Chronicles of Baltimore - Part 6



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1780. In this year an Act was passed by the General Assembly, "to seize, 
confiscate and appropriate, all British property within this State." Owing 
to the large number of valuable lots in Baltimore and estates in the 
neighborhood confiscated under this law, internal improvements received 
valuable aid by the sales. Among the records we find the following names 
and property of individuals formerly residing in Baltimore Town, which was 
confiscated. The lot on which Reverdy Johnson's mansion and the Gilmour 
House now stand, then belonging to the estate of Edward Fottrell, was 
divided into six lots, fronting on Calvert street 33 feet each, with a 
depth of 1811/2 feet, was sold at public auction, on the 4th of April, 
1781; Mr. John McLure purchasing two lots for the sum of £780; General 
Gist purchasing four lots for £1340; realizing for the entire front £2120. 
The two squares of ground fronting on the east side of Calvert street, 
running from Baltimore to Lombard streets, were divided into thirteen lots 
and sold on the same date, realizing for the whole £6790--Messrs. David 
Poe, Henry Wilson, Captain John Swan, Luther Martin, Dr. Fred Ridgely, 
John Snyder, Michael Diffenderfer and Capt. Aquila Johns being the 
purchasers. The square of ground on the south side of Pratt street, 
running from Charles to Light street, was divided into three parts and 
sold same date, realizing for the whole £1500; Capt. John Dorsey being the 
purchaser. "Twenty acres meadow near Jones Falls, late the property of Ed. 
Fottrell," was sold same date to Messrs. Benjamin Griffith, Phillip 
Halland, Richard Lemmon, for the sum of £2590; "eight acres meadow, late 
the property of James Christie, Jr.," same date sold to Matthew Ridley, 
for the sum of £1020. "An undivided half of the wharf and warehouse, late 
the property of Messrs. Christies," same date sold to Capt. Aquila Johns 
for the sum of £2560. During the year 1781, the entire property on 
"Whetstone Point," then called Upton Court, containing four hundred

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acres, and belonging to the "Principio Company," was sold. The terms of 
all the above sales were "one half in specie, one half in paper at its 
value, one half in ten days, residue in six weeks." Among those whose 
property was confiscated, we find the names of Richard Button's estate at 
the Point, Dr. Patrick Kennedy, John Lynde, John Lorah, John Macinheimer, 
William Smith, "a rope-walk supposed to contain three acres, with all 
buildings," James French, William Frost, two squares of ground on the west 
side of Frederick street, from Baltimore street to the Falls, Daniel 
Dulany, Capt. Joe Richardson, Dr. Henry Stevenson, Robert Ballard, Charles 
Wells, John Lynch, Daniel Carroll, John Weatherburn, Anthony Bacon, John 
Eversfield, George and Andrew Buchanan, James Brown & Co., Mackie, Spiers 
& Co., Mackie, Spiers, French & Co., heirs of Samuel Hyde, the heirs of 
Thomas Bladen, and Mark Alexander.

1781. The inhabitants of the town, on the 7th of August, held a meeting at 
the court-house, to carry into execution the circulation of the new paper 
money, known as the "red money," and John Dorsey, Richard Ridgely, Daniel 
Bowly, Isaac Gist, John McClellan, James Calhoun, David McMechen, Mark 
Alexander, Joseph Donaldson, James Tibbert, John Dorsey and David Stoddart 
were appointed a committee to execute it. A complaint was lodged by Thomas 
White against Daniel Deady, shopkeeper, for attempting to depreciate the 
new money, by asking four to one, after he had signed the association to 
take it equal to gold or silver. The charge being supported by the oath of 
the said Thomas White, it was resolved "that the said Daniel Deady be held 
up to the public as a violator of the said association, and as a man whoso 
conduct is destructive to public good, and that the same be published in 
the Maryland Journal, &c."

During the year, Fell's Prospect was first laid off by the commissioners, 
and added to the town on the east, and the 18 acres of Messrs. Moale and 
Steiger, lying between Bridge, now Gay, and French streets, for which 
authority had been given eight years before.

The weight of flour per barrel was now fixed at the present standard of 
one hundred and ninety-six pounds nett, with some other regulations 
respecting that staple.

On the 4th of September, about 10 o'clock in the morning, a Cutter called 
the Serpent, belonging to his Most Christian Majesty, commanded by M. Amie 
de la Lanne, arrived in our harbor, with despatches for General 
Washington, from the Count De Grasse, who arrived in the Chesapeake on the 
26th ult., with a formidable fleet of French men-of-war, consisting of 28 
sail of the line, 4 frigates, and the cutter above mentioned.

General Washington, on the 8th September, accompanied by Adjt.-General 
Hand and other officers of distinction, arrived in town, and stopped at 
the Fountain Inn on their way to Virginia. He

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was received in the vicinity, and escorted to his quarters by Capt. 
Moore's troop of light dragoons. The Baltimore artillery companies gave 
his Excellency a handsome salute, and the inhabitants in general seemed to 
vie with each other in testifying their respect and affection for his 
person and character. In the evening every part of the town was elegantly 
illuminated; Fell's Point in particular made a most brilliant appearance. 
A banquet was given at Lindsey's Coffee House in consequence of the 
arrival of the French fleet, and many toasts were drunk. On this occasion, 
the following address was presented to General Washington, and his answer 
published a few days after:

"His Excellency George Washington, Esq., General and Commander-in-Chief of 
the armies of the United States of America.-May it please your Excellency, 
the citizens and inhabitants of Baltimore, impressed with the warmest 
sentiments of respect and esteem, and with the most lively sense of the 
important services rendered by you to them and their country, beg leave, 
through us, to congratulate your Excellency upon your arrival in this 
town, and to express the general joy diffused through every breast at the 
return of your Excellency to this place.

"It has been with the highest satisfaction we have found our most sanguine 
expectations from your military talents exceeded by the abilities you have 
displayed during a series of various fortune, as well in the day of battle 
as the hoar of distress; your fortitude and perseverance under all our 
calamities, the wisdom of your counsels, the judicious and mild regulation 
of the army, your sacred attention to the civil powers of the respective 
States, and the great address with which our military operations have been 
conducted under your Excellency's direction, demand the warmest effusions 
of gratitude that can flow from the hearts of a free people. Permit us 
also to congratulate your Excellency upon the many signal successes that 
have lately attended the American arms in the Southern States, obtained 
with such distinguished honors to our gallant officers and soldiers, and 
on the arrival of the fleet of our magnanimous ally, aided by whose noble 
and generous exertions, we look forward with pleasing hopes to the day of 
peace, when we may freely enjoy the bounties with which Allgracious Heaven 
has enriched our country.

"May your present operations prove successful, and may the grand work in 
which you are engaged be happily terminated. Our prayers are for your 
Excellency's preservation, that you may continue approved by heaven, 
esteemed by virtuous men, and dreaded by tyrants; and on the restoration 
of public tranquillity, that you may in peaceful retirement enjoy that 
satisfaction of mind which the sense of great and noble deeds always 
inspires; and may posterity, in the full possession and exercise of that 
freedom which your sword has assisted to establish, venerate and do ample 
justice to your virtue and character to the last ages. With

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sentiments of the most profound esteem and respect, we are, in behalf of 
the citizens and inhabitants of Baltimore, your Excellency's most obedient 
and most humble servants,

Committee." 
"Wm. Smith, 
"Samuel Purviance, Jr., 
"John Moale, 
"John Dorsey, 
"James Calhoun,
"To the citizens and inhabitants of the town of Baltimore.--Gentlemen:--
With the warmest sense of gratitude and affection, I accept your kind 
congratulations on my arrival in this town. Permit me, gentlemen, to 
assure you, that from the pleasure which I feel in having this opportunity 
to pay my respects to the worthy inhabitants of the town of Baltimore, I 
participate in your sensations of joy. If during the long and trying 
period in which my services as a soldier have been employed for the 
interests of the United States of America and for the establishment of 
their rights, I have acquitted myself to the acceptance of my fellow-
citizens; if my various fortunes, if my attention to the civil powers of 
the States, have subserved the general good of the public in these things, 
I feel myself happy, and in these considerations I rejoice in your 
felicity.

"The happy and eventful successes of our troops in the Southern States, as 
they reflect glory on the American arms, and particular honor on the 
gallant officers and men immediately concerned in that department, fills 
my heart with pleasure and delight.

"The active and generous part our allies are taking in our cause, with the 
late arrival of their formidable fleet in the bay of the Chesapeake, call 
for our utmost gratitude, and with the smiles of heaven on our combined 
operations, gives us the happiest presage of the most pleasing events--
events, which in their issue, may lead to an honorable and permanent peace.

"I thank you most cordially for your prayers and good wishes for my 
prosperity. May the author of all blessings aid our united exertions in 
the cause of liberty and universal peace; and may the particular blessing 
of heaven rest on you and the worthy citizens of this flourishing town of 
Baltimore.

"I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

"Geo. Washington."

Towards the close of the summer of 1779, the country was greatly agitated 
by the existence of financial embarrassments. Meetings were held in the 
chief cities on the subject. Congress was powerless to stay the downward 
tendency of the paper currency; it continued to depreciate, and prices to 
rise. Early in 1780, forty paper dollars were worth only one in specie. 
The commissaries found it extremely difficult to purchase supplies for the 
army, for the people refused to exchange their articles for the al-

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most worthless paper. Direct taxes had been unsuccessfully tried to 
replenish the treasury, and as supplies could not be obtained, a speedy 
dissolution of the army and abandonment of the rebellion seemed 
inevitable. Congress was obliged to open new resources for the supply of 
the army, and required each State to furnish a certain quantity of beef, 
pork, flour, corn, forage, and other articles, which were deposited in 
such places as the Commander-in-chief should determine. The States were to 
be credited for the amount at a fixed valuation in specie. This scheme was 
utterly impracticable, from the want of authority to enforce the demands, 
and the distance of several States from the army, and Congress speedily 
abandoned it. The following bill of items is preserved, and illustrates 
the value of the Continental bills in 1781:

Captain A. McLane

Bought of W. Nicholls,

January 5th, 1781.

1 pair boots,                $ 600 
63/4 yds. calico, at 85 ds.    752 
6 yds. chintz, at 150 ds.      900 
41/2 yds. moreen, at 100 ds.   450 
4 hdks., at 100 ds.            400 
8 yds. quality binding, 4 ds.   32 
1 skein of silk,                10 
                            $3,144
If paid in specie, £18 10s.

Received payment in full for Wm. Nicholls,
Jona Jones.

Sept. 9th, the Count de Rochambeau, Major-General and commander of the 
French troops in America, (under the orders of General Washington) with 
his suite, arrived in Baltimore, and after a short stay, proceeded 
southward. This great officer received every mark of respect from the 
inhabitants that his short stay admitted. The same evening Brig.-Gen. 
Marquis de Chastellux, of the French army, also arrived. Within the week 
several hundred wagons and carts loaded with the baggage, provisions, &c., 
of the allied army, passed through town on their way to Annapolis, to 
embark for Yorktown. A brigade of New York State troops, under the command 
of Gen. James Clinton, embarked and sailed from Fell's Point. Mr. James 
Kigsbury unfortunately received a mortal wound in the discharge of one of 
the cannon that were fired as a salute to the Count de Rochambeau.

David McMechan and Henry Wilson were elected delegates to represent the 
town in the General Assembly.

Messrs. John Cornthwait, Gerard Hopkins, George Mathews, John and David 
Brown, and others of the Society of Friends, who until now had held their 
meetings at the house on the Harford road, buy a spacious lot, and build a 
meeting-house between Baltimore and Pitt streets, where they inter their 
deceased members.

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The following letter was written by Gen. La Fayette to Gov. Thomas Sims 
Lee, when the former was on his march southward:

"Elk, April 10, 1781.

"Sir:--I have received your Excellency's favor of the 8th instant, and 
most sincerely lament the depredations committed by the enemy. This cruel 
and savage way of making war is the more exasperating, as it is out of our 
power either to punish or prevent these devastations. Every town lying on 
the bay or the rivers is so defenceless and exposed, that each of them 
requires a force to defend it superior to what the enemy will send for its 
reduction. So far as relates to armed vessels and privateers, I should 
think that militia could be collected to oppose the landing of a few 
sailors. As to the movements of the British troops, they are so rapid, and 
it is so impossible to defend both shores of every river, that with the 
least judgment they may elude our opposition.

"I have made preparations for an immediate movement, and if no obstacles 
occur, shall march to-morrow with the whole detachment. The new latitude 
added to my instructions gives me the liberty of doing what t could not 
even think of when at Annapolis. The same zeal I had to execute my first 
orders will prompt me to advance rapidly into the Southern States. However 
inadequate I am to the defence of Annapolis, Baltimore and Alexandria at 
once, I will hasten to the point that will be nearest to those three 
places. I request your Excellency to furnish me speedy minuted and 
frequent intelligence.

"It will be necessary that a collection of wagons and horses be made at 
Baltimore, in order to relieve those which we take from this place. I beg 
leave to request your Excellency will please to order that a quantity of 
live cattle and flour be also collected at that place; the rapidity of our 
movements wholly depends upon the precautions that will be taken for our 
transportation and subsistence. I hope, sir, that precautions will be 
taken for the safety of our stores now at or near Indian Landing. General 
Smallwood will certainly dispose of them in the best manner, but I request 
you will acquaint him that if I proceed southward, I will want the musket 
cartridges.

"When I was coming up the bay, two men came on board my vessel, which then 
was full of my troops, and a part of the fleet and detachment under my 
command. Having been induced to mistake us for British, they gave us every 
intelligence in their power; offered to guide us to several places on the 
shore, and in telling us they had been on board the Hope, and had supplied 
the enemy with provisions, offered to pilot us to a place where they had a 
sloop loaded with flour, and ready to slip off to Portsmouth. One of them 
went with Major McPherson, whom they took, as well as every one of us, to 
be British spies; the other was put in irons immediately after the 
departure of his comrade in a barge with

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my aide-de-camp. As soon as Major McPherson arrives, I will have both of 
them tried and executed, as they come within the description of spies, 
giving intelligence to the enemy, and going to them for imparting the 
remarks they have made among us, with an offer to guide them to attack our 
people in consequence of the intelligence which they have collected among 
us for that purpose. Maj. McPherson being gone with the spy and six 
soldiers (supposed by that man to be British), I have not yet heard from 
them. They were to land in Gunpowder creek, and I request your Excellency 
will please to send there, as I am uneasy on that matter, and I am afraid 
something has happened to McPherson.

"In requesting my best regards to be presented to Mrs. Lee, I have the 
honor to be, &c.,

La Fayette."

When La Fayette halted in Baltimore, on his way to join the army at the 
South, a ball was given in honor of his arrival. One of the ladies, 
observing that he appeared sad, inquired the cause. "I cannot enjoy the 
gayety of the scene," the Marquis replied, "while so many of the poor 
soldiers are in want of clothes." "We will supply them," was the prompt 
response. The next morning the ball-room was turned into a clothing 
manufactory. Fathers and husbands furnished the materials; daughters and 
wives plied the needle at their grateful task. Mrs. David Poe [see La 
Fayette's visit, 1824], with her own hands, it is said, cut out five 
hundred garments and superintended the making of them. Such were the women 
of the Revolution. La Fayette, a short time after this, sent the following 
grateful letter, never before published, to the Committee of Observation 
in Baltimore:

"Mr. Lyon's Plantation, 20 miles from Williamsburg,
"July the 3d, 1781.

"Gentlemen--By Major McHenry you will receive some papers that relate to 
the affair in which you have so kindly assisted me, but I claim the 
pleasure personally to express my obligations to you, and by you to be 
convinced that you have excited the most grateful and everlasting 
sentiments in my heart. Permit me to request my respectful thanks may be 
presented to the ladies of Baltimore--I am proud of my obligations to 
them -- not only from a general respect to the fair sex, but more 
particularly because I know the accomplishment of those to whom I am 
indebted. I am happy in the ties of gratitude that bind me to them, and 
beg leave once more to assure you of the regard and attachment I have the 
honor to bear.

"Your most obedient, humble servant,
"La Fayette."

The following address was presented, on the 5th of November, by the 
citizens of Baltimore, to the Marquis De La Fayette, who passed through 
the town:

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"It is with peculiar satisfaction that the citizens of Baltimore embrace 
the present moment to express a gratitude which they will always owe to 
Maj.-Gen. the Marquis de la Fayette, and to congratulate him personally on 
the late important events in Virginia and South Carolina, so glorious and 
consequential to America. Among the first in our cause, you early found a 
way to our affections, with him who has struggled with our various 
difficulties since their beginning. At a time when we gained an ally, your 
good offices could not but increase a cordiality which must render our 
union with France permanent. In particular, we cannot sufficiently 
acknowledge our sense of your late campaign in Virginia, where, with a few 
regulars and militia, you opposed the British commander, from whose large 
army and military talents this State had serious cause of apprehension. 
These things, sir, have rendered you dear to us, and we feel the highest 
gratification in seeing once more in our town the man who will always hold 
a first place in our hearts."

To which Major-Gen. De La Fayette answered as follows:

"In the affectionate attentions of the citizens of a free town, I would 
find a reward for the services of a whole life. The honor to have been 
among the first American soldiers, is for me a source of the greatest 
happiness. I participate with you in the glorious events that have taken 
place under his Excellency General Washington's immediate command, and 
under Gen. Greene. I enjoy the effects these will have on the success of 
our noble cause, and particularly the advantages which they will afford to 
this State. The time when I had the honor to command the army in Virginia, 
which you are pleased so politely to mention, has only shown that the 
courage and fortitude of American troops are superior to every kind of 
difficulty. My campaign began with a personal obligation to the 
inhabitants of Baltimore; at the end of it I find myself bound to them by 
a new tie of everlasting gratitude.

"La Fayette."

General Washington and lady arrived in Baltimore the 19th day of November, 
from Virginia, and the next morning proceeded on their way to Philadelphia.

The 13th December was appointed and kept as a day of general thanksgiving.

The period limited for the first Senate was now expiring, and at the 
election held this year, Charles Carroll, Esq., barrister, was re-elected 
to the new Senate, with Messrs. John Smith and James McHenry, of this town.

Thomas C. Deye, John B. Howard, Charles Ridgely of William, and Samuel 
Worthington, Esqrs., were elected delegates for the county.

Henry Wilson, Esq., succeeded Mr. Alexander as one of the members for the 
town.

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Extracts from the letters of Geo. P. Keeports, purchasing agent in 
Baltimore Town, to Gov. Thomas Sims Lee in 1780--81:

"There is about 40 dozen of excellent stockings to be had if wanting, at 
£185 per doz." "I have searched the town over, and cannot find any 
trimmings. There may be had about two pounds scarlet buff and blue-colored 
sewing-silk at £220 per lb., which is all I can find." "Mr. John Hudson 
has a quantity (about 600) blankets; they are very thick and a good 
quality, but some rather small--not more than five feet square. His price 
is £125 per piece." "I have bought 20 pairs of shoes at $50 per pair, to 
supply the immediate wants of the recruits. I have engaged buttons for the 
officers with one Mr. Evans, who makes very fine buttons, and marks them 
with the number of the regiment and the letter M. The coat-buttons at £18 
per dozen, and waistcoat-buttons at £16 per dozen." Mr. Evans afterwards 
raised his prices to £2210s. for coat-buttons and £18 per dozen for jacket 
buttons. "There may be about 800 yards more Olnaburgs had at $19 per yard, 
and some more shoes by paying the money down." "Hired two wagons--all I 
could get in town -- one at £35 and the other at £40 per day." Pewter, $40 
per lb.; lead, $30 per lb.; and shoes, $140 per pair. The following scale 
of depreciation is also preserved:
Page image viewer (table) Value of $100 in Specie in Continental Money.

1782. The following notice from the Maryland Journal is the first 
intimation we have of the wishes of the citizens of Baltimore town to be 
incorporated as a city. This was defeated, however, by the laboring 
classes. "April 2d, notice is hereby given to all whom it may concern, 
that the inhabitants of Baltimore intend petitioning the ensuing General 
Assembly, to incorporate said town."

The following mills were appointed by William McLaughlin, commissary of 
provisions for Baltimore county, to receive wheat that may be paid in the 
discharge of taxes: Benjamin Griffith's, Col. James Gittings', Benjamin 
Rogers', Capt. Charles Ridgely's, Thomas Matthews', Jacob Lemmon's, Arthur 
Chinwith's, Samuel Owings', Doc. William Lyon's, Solomon Allen's, and 
Henry Brown's.

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On the 21st of April, Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon the Rev. 
Patrick Allison, by the University of the City of Philadelphia.

On the 13th of June, a proclamation was issued by Thomas Sire Lee, Esq., 
Governor of Maryland, announcing the birth of a Dauphin of France, and 
appointing the 25th of the same month as the day for the celebration of 
the auspicious event. "I cannot doubt," says the Governor, "that the 
citizens of this State will unite in the joy which an occasion so nearly 
affecting the happiness of our ally will not fail to inspire, while they 
experience a new source of satisfaction on the birth of a prince from whom 
we have every reason to expect a continuance of the blessings of our 
alliance--the same lively attention to the injured and oppressed, and all 
those great qualities which have excited our admiration and gratitude, and 
which so eminently distinguished his illustrious father." The day selected 
by the Governor was celebrated in Baltimore by an elegant dinner, provided 
at a place called the "Independent Spring," at which were present the 
Chevalier D'Anmour, the French consul, and a number of strangers and 
French gentlemen. After dinner, many toasts were drunk, and the 
entertainment was closed with that harmony and good humor which in a 
peculiar manner distinguished the day. This was in honor of the 
unfortunate Louis XVII., the victim of the subsequent French Revolution.

On account of the great suffering by the Maryland Line in the Southern 
army for the want of the necessaries of life, the following very 
interesting letter was written by Gen. Williams to Gov. Lee:

"Annapolis, 7th July, 1782.

"Sir:--My attachment to the service of my country, and the interest I feel 
in whatever concerns the honor and happiness of my fellow-soldiers, are 
the only considerations which induce me to communicate to your Excellency 
the complaints of the Maryland Line now with the Southern army.

"It is known and acknowledged that the troops of this State, ever since 
the commencement of the Revolution, have participated in the greatest 
fatigues and perseverance, and that in the extremity of their sufferings 
their complaints have always approached the ear of civil authority with 
humility and respect.

"It is also known that since the Maryland troops have served in the 
Southern States (which is now more than two years), they have upon the 
most arduous occasions given the highest satisfaction to the Generals who 
have successively commanded the Southern army, and particularly to their 
present enterprising commanding officer, General Greene, under whom they 
have performed the most gallant services. And that they are the only 
troops who have constantly kept the field under every difficulty, since 
the spring of 1780, without a shilling of pay real or nominal, without a 
supply of

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clothing at any time equal to their necessities; and without any other 
subsistence than what, with the assistance of the rest of the army, they 
have occasionally collected, by force of arms, in a country once entirely 
in subjection, and in a very great degree attached to the enemy.

"No distresses, no dangers have ever shaken the firmness of their spirits, 
nor induced them to swerve from their duty. They have a long time 
patiently suffered the neglect of their country, not without murmuring, it 
is true, but without mutiny or disaffection, to a cause which they are 
endeavoring to maintain with their blood. But what man or body of men will 
long forbear to express their apprehensions of injustice when they find 
some of their companions disbanding themselves and receiving a 
compensation for past services; and others reinlisted, or new levies, in 
the same service, receiving large bounties in specie, for three years, 
which they who have already served twice that time have never received nor 
expected; and that every corps by which they have been reinforced, from 
time to time, has received more or less cash for pay, subsistence, &c., 
before they could be induced to march from the State in which they were 
incorporated.

"A part of the troops now with the Southern army has, I am well informed, 
received pay for several months, and some corps belonging to the Northern 
army have received pay from the States in which they were raised.

"These considerations, and similar ones which might be added, will and do 
naturally occasion jealousies which may in their consequences produce very 
unhappy effects.

"I would not be understood to insinuate that the officers have not virtue 
enough to submit to every species of neglect, injustice, and partiality 
that can be imposed, sooner than concur in anything fatal to the community 
they serve; but the common soldiers, who are men of less consideration, 
will compel them to waive the exercise of their authority, or reduce them 
to the unhappy necessity of maintaining a slavish discipline by examples 
dreadful to humanity.

"I therefore most humbly solicit, in behalf of both officers and soldiers, 
that your Excellency, with the concurrence of your Council, will be 
pleased to address the honorable the Congress to instruct the minister of 
finance to appropriate a part of the specie tax to be levied in this 
State, to the payment of the Maryland troops; and that the same may be put 
into the hands of a proper person for that purpose, so soon as it is 
collected.

"I cannot doubt, if this should be granted, and the good people of 
Maryland should be advertised of the purpose for which the money is to be 
raised, that speedy voluntary payments will anticipate the necessity of 
executing property for the tax according to the act of Assembly, and 
prevent those calamitous consequences that may attend a continuance of 
their grievances.

Page 199

"I beg that the occasion may be my apology for giving your Excellency this 
trouble.

"With the greatest respect and esteem, I am your Excellency's most 
obedient and most humble servant,

"O. H. Williams.

"His Excellency Governor T. S. Lee."

Count de Rochambeau, on the 10th of July, with his suite, arrived in 
Baltimore from Virginia, and the next morning set off for Philadelphia. 
The elegant answer of this great and gallant officer to an affectionate 
and polite address of the corporation of the city of Williamsburg, on his 
leaving that place, contains the following paragraph: "Happy to serve my 
sovereign, in giving effect to those noble and distinguished principles 
which attach him to the cause of America, I feel an additional 
satisfaction in having fought in Virginia, under the auspices of a 
Virginia General, whose glory, equally celebrated in both hemispheres, 
shines with particular lustre in his native country."

The Chesapeake bay was visited by ships of war of France and England 
alternately; some armed barges were particularly troublesome to the 
coasters. On the 5th of July, Capt Simmons, in the brig Ranger, going out 
of the Potomac, with his pikes beat off and killed Barry and wounded 
Whaland, two famous barge men; but on the 30th of November, three of them 
attacked, and after killing Captain Whalley, killed and wounded sixty-five 
out of seventy-five men; the brave survivors being without small 
cartridges, which had taken fire early in the action, were captured, with 
the State's galley. This was said to be, and with great propriety no 
doubt, the most bloody conflict which had taken place during the war.

Samuel Sterett, Esq., was appointed Secretary to the President of Congress.

A deputation of the merchants of Baltimore, on the 29th of July, waited 
upon his Excellency Count de Rochambeau, then in this city, and presented 
him with the following address:

"We, the merchants of this Town of Baltimore, impressed with a grateful 
sense of the important services rendered by your Excellency, and the 
gallant forces under your command, to the United States, and more 
particularly to the State of Maryland, beg leave to wait upon your 
Excellency, and return you our most sincere thanks, in this public manner, 
for the distinguished aid and protection which you have, from time to 
time, so willingly afforded to the commercial interests of this State; and 
to inform your Excellency that we are happy in the opportunity of paying 
you this tribute so justly due to distinguished merit. And permit us, sir, 
on this occasion, to observe that when the distresses of this country 
rendered an application to the French nation for assistance necessary, the 
wisdom of your Sovereign pointed out your Excellency

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as the grand instrument to assist in our salvation; and with gratitude, we 
remark that the objects of your appointment have been fully answered, and 
the events that have taken place since your happy arrival in America, and 
in which you acted so distinguished a part, fully evince the propriety of 
your Sovereign's choice, and the magnanimity of his intentions toward us--
for we have seen a British army, numerous and well appointed, become 
prisoners of war to the united exertions of the combined armies of France 
and America, an event that was considerably accelerated by the great 
experience and military talents of your Excellency, and the value of the 
officers and soldiers under your command, and which, we trust, will tend 
eventually to the establishment of the rights and liberties of this 
country, the purposes for which you have so generously drawn your sword.

"And we beg leave also, amidst the general joy diffused by the birth of a 
Dauphin of France, to congratulate your Excellency on that auspicious 
event; and it is our fervent wish and prayer, that he may long live to 
tread the footsteps of his illustrious father, in being the friend of the 
distressed, and the advocate of the liberties of mankind. In hopes that 
your Excellency will enjoy health and happiness, while you reside among 
us, and on return to your native country, may you be rewarded by your 
sovereign in proportion to your merits and services. We remain, with 
sentiments of gratitude and esteem, on behalf of the merchants of 
Baltimore, your Excellency's most obedient servants,

"Samuel Purviance, 
"Richard Curson, 
"Samuel Smith, 
"Mark Pringle, 
"William Patterson.
"Baltimore, July 29, 1782."

To which His Excellency was pleased to return the following answer:

"To the merchants of the town of Baltimore:

"Gentlemen:--The intentions of the King, my master, towards his faithful 
allies, being his auxiliary troops, should not only protect the liberties 
of the United States, but watch over their commercial interests, as often 
and as much as it would be in their power. I have felt a peculiar pleasure 
to have been able to render some services to your State. The noblest 
reward for me is, without doubt, the approbation of such a respectable 
body of citizens. The praises which you are able to bestow on my conduct, 
and that of the officers and soldiers under my command, are due, in a 
great measure, to his Excellency General Washington, and his army, to 
whose exertions we have had the honor to co-operate, in the reduction of 
the British army at Yorktown. My Sovereign will certainly be impressed 
with a grateful sense of the general joy

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which has been diffused among the people of all ranks in the United 
States, upon the birth of an heir to his kingdom. I shall not fail to make 
him acquainted with your patriotic and generous wishes. I embrace with 
pleasure, gentlemen, this occasion, to render you my sincere thanks for 
the readiness with which you have taken in your houses our staff-officers 
and others, whose duty and station render the convenience of a house 
absolutely necessary to them. I flatter myself that they will maintain, 
with you, that good understanding and harmony of sentiments which we have 
been happy enough to experience till now, from your fellow-citizens in the 
different States.   Le Cte. de Rochambeau."

At the first session of the Assembly this year, Col. Howard laid off part 
of the tract adjoining his father's first addition and that before made by 
Mr. Hall, and annexed to the town all the grounds east of the street, to 
which the Colonel gave the name of Eutaw street. Beyond that, and on the 
street which he called Lexington street, he laid off a spacious lot for a 
public market, which was improved and appropriated to that purpose twenty 
years after. The Colonel appropriated another spacious lot of ground 
bounded by German, Eutaw and Pica streets and Cowpen alley, for the use of 
the State, should the General Assembly accept and make it the seat of 
government within that period. Though an effort was made to carry the 
removal in the House of Delegates at the same session, it was rejected by 
a vote of twenty to nineteen, and has failed as often as it was proposed 
as well during the twenty years limited as afterwards; and whether it is 
or is not a matter of less interest to the citizens, it is certain that 
they now view it with more indifference than they do the proportion of 
representation allowed them. Until this time none of the streets of 
Baltimore Town, except here and there on the sidewalks, were paved, and 
the main street especially, from the depth of soil, was actually 
impassable some part of the spring and fall seasons, from the market-house 
at Gay street to Calvert street. Mr. Robert Gilmor, before his death, said 
that when the army passed through Baltimore in 1781, a mounted drummer boy 
nearly swamped in Baltimore street opposite to North street, in a deep mud-
hole from which the rider and his horse were with difficulty extricated.

In this year the streets were begun to be paved, especially the main or 
Market street. Sidewalks were laid, and the width of the cellar doors and 
of the old-fashioned porches of front doors limited, so that the burghers 
could not take up too much space allowed for pedestrians, while enjoying 
their evening chat or pipe before their dwellings. Wharves, too, were 
built, and laws made to guard the streets from nuisances, and the harbor 
from street drainage, while the streets themselves were only to be used by 
vehicles of a certain breadth of wheel. To defray these expenses, an 
auction tax was laid on the sales of the only auctioneer in the town, 
Thomas Yates;

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a tax was also imposed on public exhibitions and on assessed property; and 
that common panacea, an annual lottery, was authorized, to bring up the 
arrears of deficiencies in municipal expenses. The executive of this 
system was a board of commissioners, with ample powers to aid the town 
commissioners, so that the new board, in fact the first "Civic Fathers" of 
Baltimore, composed of William Spear, James Sterrett, Engelhardt Yeiser, 
George Lindenberger, Jesse Hollingsworth, Thos. Elliott and Peter Hoffman, 
was made a sort of body politic and corporate, authorized to fill their 
own vacancies, appoint a treasurer, collect fines for the use of the town, 
appoint constables, and to report their accounts to the town 
commissioners. At the ensuing session of the Legislature it was thought 
that the powers thus conferred on a self-appointing and irresponsible body 
were too extensive; and accordingly provision was made for the removal of 
the first set, and the selection of others every five years by elected 
electors. In recording these primordial city foundations, it is due to the 
memory of our excellent ancestry in town government, to record the names 
of William Smith, John Moale, Richard Ridgely, Daniel Bowly, Hercules 
Courtney and John Sterrett, who then filled the important function of town 
commissioners of Baltimore.

A line of stage coaches were established between Baltimore and 
Philadelphia, by Mr. Gabriel P. Vanhorne, with Mr. Nathaniel Twining, and 
others. They afterwards extended the line to Alexandria. The town was then 
said to contain 8000 inhabitants, and eight places of worship, viz: 
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Dutch Calvinists, Roman Catholics, 
Baptists, Quakers and Methodists, one for each society.

Mr. Charles Ridgely, of John, and others, at the November session of the 
Assembly, procured the addition to the town of those grounds called Gist's 
Inspection and Timber Neck, lying south of the former additions and upon 
the middle branch; and Mr. Benjamin Rogers, and others, those which lay 
between Fell's Prospect and Harris's creek. These were the last specific 
additions by act of Assembly, and the power given to the corporation to 
admit other grounds by the consent of the owners, being exercised only in 
one instance relating to some lots on North Howard street, between 
Saratoga and Mulberry street, no change of limits was effected for many 
years, nor until the population of the precincts had become equal to the 
third of the city itself.

The Hon. Thomas Sim Lee, Governor of this State, and his lady, accompanied 
by several other persons of distinction, arrived in Baltimore on the 3d of 
August from Annapolis, and on the next morning was saluted (on his 
entrance into the French camp) by a discharge of twenty-one pieces of 
cannon. In the afternoon the French forces, consisting of upwards of 5000 
men, were reviewed by his Excellency the Count de Rochambeau, &c., in the 
presence of his Honor the Governor several a st angers of distinction, and 
a

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numerous concourse of respectable citizens. The appearance and behavior of 
these veteran soldiers reflected the highest honor on their officers as 
well as themselves, and gave the greatest satisfaction to the spectators.

Count Rochambeau returning with his army from Yorktown, halted in 
Baltimore, and some of his troops remained until the close of the war. 
Besides the cavalry and infantry of the legion of the Duke De Lauzun, the 
division included the regiments of Bourbonnois, Deux Ponts, Saintonge, and 
Soissonnois. The officers, among whom were Count Dillon, Baron Viomenil, 
General Lavalette, &c., were lodged with private families. The legion 
encamped on the ground where the Cathedral now stands, and the rest of the 
troops on that eminence near the York Road which the deceased John McKim 
improved and occupied.

Samuel Worthington, Esq., was elected in the place of Mr J. B. Howard for 
the county, and Wm. Fell, son of Edward Fell, Esq., in the place of Mr. 
Wilson, late delegate for the town, and William McLaughlan, Esq., was 
elected Sheriff.

On the 22d of August the cavalry and infantry of the legion, the regiment 
of Bourbonnois, Deux Ponts, Saintonge, and Soissonois, composing the 
greater part of the French troops, marched northward in five divisions. 
The good wishes of all ranks of citizens accompanied them. Gen. Count de 
Rochambeau, on the 24th of August, accompanied by several officers of 
distinction, left Baltimore for Philadelphia. Before leaving, the 
merchants presented him with the following address:

"Sir:--The merchants of Baltimore are too sensible of the harmony which 
has subsisted between the troops which your Excellency commands and all 
orders of the inhabitants, not to feel anxious to make known their 
satisfaction before your departure. We do not pretend to be judges of the 
discipline of armies, but from the brilliant and signal services which 
your army has rendered this country; from the watchful attention which the 
soldiery have had over every species of our property; from the decorum and 
order which they have uniformly preserved both in the camps and in the 
town; and from the great politeness of the officers on every occasion, we 
cannot but acknowledge ourselves deeply impressed with the most lively 
ideas of its perfection, and with a gratitude which from its nature must 
be perpetual; and we are happy in this opportunity to declare, that had 
the prejudices against the French nation been real which the English have 
so pertinaciously attributed to the Americans, the residence of your 
Excellency and the army in this place must have convinced us how little 
credit ought to be given to the popular maxims of a people who have never 
been sincerely our friends. Permit us, Sir, to assure you, that the only 
regret which we experience is on the prospect of the removal of the army, 
and our incapacity to make a

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proper return for its great services and distinguished care of the 
privileges of citizens.

"In behalf of the merchants, we have the honor to be, with the greatest 
respect, your Excellency's most obedient servants,

"William Smith, 
"Samuel Smith, 
"Thorogood Smith."
"To the merchants of the City of Baltimore:

"Gentlemen:--It cannot but be very agreeable to me and the troops under my 
command, to perceive that the discipline observed by them and the 
inhabitants of this city, the harmony and good understanding which we have 
always been anxious to maintain with our allies. Your willingness to 
receive us in your houses, your attentive politeness to us, have been a 
sufficient return for the services which we have been so happy as to 
render you. We have had our full reward, in fulfilling to our mutual 
satisfaction the intentions of our sovereign.   Le Cte. de Rochambeau."

After the departure of the main army, there remained about 500 French 
troops in and near the town, under the command of General La Valette.

The loans obtained abroad, and the payment of gold and silver to the 
French troops, procured a supply for circulation, and the Bank of North 
America being opened, the paper was superseded altogether.

At this period, Delaware bay and river were infested by numerous "refugee 
barges and privateers," which were committing the most extensive 
depredations, not only upon the commerce of Philadelphia, but upon the 
peaceable inhabitants along the shores of every accessible stream that 
emptied into these waters. In order to drive off these plunderers--who 
were protected by the presence of several of His Majesty's ships--and to 
offer that assistance to their distressed citizens which it was not in the 
power of the General Government to afford, the State of Pennsylvania had 
determined to fit out, at its own expense, a number of armed vessels, the 
operations of which were to be confined within the great thoroughfare to 
their capital. At this time Lieutenant Barney arrived at Philadelphia, and 
was honored with the command of one of the vessels to be equipped--a small 
ship, mounting 16 six-pounders, and carrying 110 men, called the Hyder 
Ally. On the 8th of April, he received instructions to convoy a fleet of 
merchantmen to the capes, but on no account proceed to sea. The convoy 
dropped down to Cape May road; and while lying there, waiting for a fair 
wind to take them to sea, two ships and a brig were discovered standing 
for them. Capt. Barney, perceiving them to be a part of the enemy's force, 
made the signals to this convoy to get under way immediately and return up 
the bay--orders they were not

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slow to obey, covered in their retreat by the Hyder Ally. An action 
speedily ensued between the Hyder Ally and one of the vessels, which 
proved to be the sloop-of-war General Monk, mounting 20 nine-pounders, and 
carrying one hundred and thirty-six men, under the command of Captain 
Rogers, of the Royal Navy--nearly double his own force of metal, and 
nearly one-fourth superior in number of men! In attempting to luff athwart 
the hawse of the enemy, the Hyder Ally ran foul, and in that position, 
within pistol shot, the two vessels fought desperately for half an hour, 
when the Monk struck her colors. Cooper, in his Naval History, says: "This 
action has been justly deemed one of the most brilliant that ever occurred 
under the American flag. It was fought in the presence of a vastly 
superior force that was not engaged, and the ship taken was in every 
essential respect superior to her conqueror." We will here add that the 
General Monk was formerly the American ship General Washington, captured 
by Admiral Arbuthnot, and placed in the King's service under a new name. 
Both vessels arrived at Philadelphia a few hours after the action, bearing 
their respective dead. The General Monk lost 20 men killed, and had 33 
wounded. Among the former were the first lieutenant, purser, surgeon, 
boatswain and gunner; among the latter were Captain Rogers himself, and 
every officer on board, except one midshipman! The Hyder Ally had four men 
killed, and eleven wounded. The old name was restored to the prize, and 
Barney made a cruise in her on a secret mission to the West Indies. Off 
Turk's Island he fell in with a privateer brig of 16 guns, under enemy's 
colors. After an exchange of several broadsides, one of the enemy's shot 
cut away his mainmast at the moment the privateer was hauling down her 
colors. The privateer took advantage of this, and made her escape. As soon 
as Captain Barney found that there would be an engagement, he turned to 
one of his passengers, who was calmly walking the deck, and requested him 
to go below, where he would be out of danger. The gentleman looked at him, 
with a slight curl of indignation moving his upper lip, but did not move. 
Soon afterwards, in the preparation for action, Barney observed him at the 
arms-chest, deliberately examining the muskets, which he took up one after 
another, brought to his shoulder, examining the flints, and snapped to see 
if they made good fire, until at length he found one that seemed to please 
him; he then fixed a cartridge-box over his shoulder, very coolly tied a 
handkerchief around his head, and was the first man that fired into the 
enemy. During the whole of the fighting he took his post in that part of 
the ship which was most exposed to the enemy's fire, and in the very heat 
of it, his musket having made a false snap, he seated himself with the 
most perfect sangfroid upon the arms-chest, took a knife or key from his 
pocket, and picked his flint until he brought it again to a proper edge. 
He fired oftener than any other man on board, and looked the whole time as 
cool and unconcerned as if he had been sitting at his own

Page 206

fire-side. This man was James H. McCulloch--the same patriot and hero who 
met the enemy at North Point in 1814, was wounded and taken prisoner, and 
afterwards the venerable and universally respected Collector of the port 
of Baltimore.

On the 7th of October, agreeably to the constitution and forms of 
government, an election for delegates, &c., was held in the different 
counties of this State. David McMechan and Wm. Fell were elected from 
Baltimore Town.

Died at Annapolis, on the 29th May, aged eighty-two years, Charles 
Carroll, who was proprietor of that part of Cole's Harbor which the 
commissioners purchased of him forty-two years before, for the first town. 
On the 14th of October, in this town, at an advanced age, Thomas Harrison, 
one of the town commissioners in 1745. At Mount Clare, near town, the 23d 
of March, Charles Carroll, barrister, one of the framers of the 
Constitution and senators of the State; and on the 30th, at his seat in 
the county, Walter Tolley, formerly a member of the House of Delegates, 
and of the convention of 1774.

In December, Mr. Daniel Grant removed from the Indian Queen Tavern on the 
corner of Hanover and Baltimore streets, into "his large, new, and elegant 
house in Light lane, between Market street and Ellicott's wharf, where the 
Fountain Inn is opened for the reception and entertainment of such 
gentlemen and ladies, travellers or others, as shall be pleased to honor 
his house with their company."

1783. Hostilities were suspended on 11th of April, by Congress, and the 
joyful news of peace and independence was celebrated in Baltimore on the 
21st, with great enthusiasm. At night the town was brilliantly 
illuminated. On the 2d of May, the following address was presented to 
Brigadier-Gen. La Valette, commandant of the remnant of the French troops 
who for some time were stationed in Baltimore:

"Sir:--We, the merchants, and others, citizens of Baltimore, could not see 
you leave this town, to embark for France, without expressing our 
acknowledgment for the good behavior of the troops under your command, and 
the politeness their officers have discovered on every occasion. To the 
national reasons this country had for a union with yours, the residence of 
the French amy has added others, the highest personal esteems and the 
sincerest attachments. The blessings of peace, we are persuaded, will not 
prevent frequent reviews of the events of the war; and these will serve to 
perpetuate our union and to preserve our attachments. Whether we consider 
the acts of Louis the Sixteenth, or the achievements of his army, we shall 
find cause for admiration and gratitude. Even in the first moments of the 
war, and while the boldness of our undertaking astonished all Europe, and 
made the oldest statesmen tremble for our safety, gentlemen of your 
nation, fired at the prospect of a virtuous people struggling against 
oppression,

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embarked for America, some of whose lives have been sacrificed for our 
liberty, and all of whose services have assisted to establish our 
independence. We trust, Sir, that we shall never learn the art to forget 
these things, or the various obligations of the federal republics to your 
prince and to his people. Permit us to wish you, and the officers, and 
your troops, a safe return to France, and those rewards which all have so 
highly merited.

"With the greatest respect, we have the honor to be, in behalf of the 
merchants and others, citizens of Baltimore, Sir, your most obedient 
servants,

"Samuel Purviance, 
"James Calhoun, 
"Richard Carson."
The General answered as follows:

"Gentlemen:--Nothing could flatter me more than the polite and obliging 
address which you honor me with, and both pride and gratitude will prompt 
me to make known the kindness and civilities I have received from you 
during my station in this town. Perfectly acquainted with the sentiments 
of all the French officers under my command, I also offer you their 
sincere thanks for the flattering opinion you are so kind as to entertain 
of them. We look upon ourselves infinitely happy to have had it in our 
power to contribute to your glorious successes, and fulfill the intention 
of his most Christian Majesty; and we pray you to believe that we think 
ourselves sufficiently rewarded by the assurance you give us, that we have 
secured some right to your esteem. Permit us, gentlemen, to lay hold of 
this opportunity, to assure the illustrious commander-in-chief of your 
armies, that it is with sincere regret we feel ourselves separated from 
him, and to express the deepest respect for his virtues and military 
talents. As to myself, gentlemen, I shall never forget the happy days I 
have passed amongst you, and I beg you will believe that their remembrance 
will be forever dear to my memory.

"I am with respect, gentlemen, your very humble and most obedient 
servant,   Le Chevalier de la Valette."

On Sunday, June 12th, Major Burnet, aide-de-camp to General Greene, 
accompanied by Major Edwards, passed through town on his way to 
Philadelphia with dispatches for Congress, announcing the evacuation of 
Charleston, S. C., by the British, on the 14th of December, 1782, and on 
the 13th of January the "Delaware State regiment, with lank-lean cheeks 
and war-worn coats, passed through this town from South Carolina, on their 
way home."

Messrs. Samuel Smith, Samuel Purviance, Daniel Bowley, John Sterrett, 
Thomas Russell, Richard Ridgely, Robert Henderson, Thomas Elliott, and 
William Patterson were appointed wardens of the port of Baltimore for five 
years, to be renewed by election

Page 208

of the electors of the special commissioners every five years in 
succession. They elected Mr. Purviance chairman, and were authorized to 
make a survey and chart of the basin, harbor, and the Patapsco river. Also 
to ascertain the depth and course of the channel, and provide for cleaning 
the same; and the sum of one penny per ton was imposed upon every vessel 
entering or clearing, which was raised to two cents, and sanctioned by 
Congress, after the adoption of the Constitution, to defray the expense. 
They were also authorized to make rules respecting wharves and wharfage, 
and keeping them in repair. There was still no public wharf, but that of 
about 100 feet on Calvert street, and no private wharves extending above 
200 feet; except those of Messrs. Spear, Smith, and Buchanan; so that the 
space occupied by the water at that time was perhaps equal to double the 
surface of the present basin and dock. Messrs. John and Andrew Ellicott 
purchased the water lot and extended a wharf on Light street, for the 
filling of which they used a drag, and, with a team of horses, drew the 
oozy sediment from the bottom of the river. They also procured iron scoops 
to be used by hand or windlass, with which the same operation was 
performed, and was improved upon by Messrs. Cruse and Colver, with the use 
of horses. This primitive and rude process was the simple mud-machine of 
our ancestors.

A company, chiefly composed of Baltimoreans, was very soon formed and 
incorporated to make a canal on the Susquehanna; and in the year 1799, 
another corporation was created to unite the waters of the Chesapeake and 
Delaware by the same means.

The defects of the original plan of the town now became more burthensome, 
and on the petition of a number of inhabitants, a law was passed 
authorizing the commissioners of the town to make Hanover lane the width 
of sixty-six feet, being an extension to the street of that name in Mr. 
Howard's addition, assessing the damages sustained and the benefits from 
which the same should be paid. By the consent of the proprietors of the 
grounds, the commissioners also opened Holliday street of the width of 
eighty feet; Lemmon street thirty-three feet; Orange lane eighteen feet; 
and widened East lane, now Fayette street, from Holliday to Gay street, to 
forty feet. Holliday street was extended northwardly fifty feet wide, in 
1810. In 1787, Light lane was widened to thirty-eight feet and a half; a 
street called Walnut street, then bounding the town southwesterly, was 
entirely closed, and Forrest street, now Sharp street alley, north of 
Baltimore street, which had been laid out sixty-six feet, was limited to a 
lane of eighteen feet. In 1792, Tammany and Chatham streets, now part of 
Fayette street, were opened to the width of forty feet; Charles street was 
extended across two or three docks from Camden to Barre street in 1796, 
and the docks filled up; and from thence Goodman street, now Charles 
Street, was opened south. Sharping lane was widened to forty-nine and a 
half feet from Gay to South

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streets, and called Second street, of which it was an extension, in 1798.

An attempt to establish a bank failed; but a better project -- to light 
the streets -- succeeded, as well as the plan of a day police, and a night 
watch to guard the villagers while they slept. Our 8000 townsmen of that 
day were, however, so exemplary in their demeanor, both in daylight and 
darkness, that but three constables were required for hours of business, 
and but fourteen watchmen for the night.

In the course of this year regular lines of stage coaches were established 
to Fredericktown and Annapolis.

Col. Howard commenced his improvements at Belvedere, and William Gibson 
his dwelling west of the town. The greater part of the Baltimoreans who 
went to the wars and held commissions returned as permanent residents to 
the town, and were soon followed by such persons as General Otho Holland 
Williams, Colonel Ramsey, Colonel McHenry, General Swann, Colonel Bankson, 
the Tilghmans, Strickers, Clemms, Ballards, and Harrises, Martin 
Eichelberger, Yeiser, Samuel Sadler, John Lynch, Clement Skerrett, John 
Brevet; also Paul Bentalon, who was first a captain of cavalry in 
Pulaski's Legion, and had become chief officer and commander of the 
survivors of that gallant corps, and in whose arms the brave Pulaski died 
after the siege of Savannah. Some French gentlemen established commercial 
houses during or after the war, viz: Moubos, Latil, Zacharie, Pascault, 
Dumeste, Delaporte; and the Chevalier D'Anmour, the French Consul for 
Maryland and Virginia, made his residence in Baltimore. Directly after the 
peace several merchants from other parts of this State settled here, who 
were Messrs. Slubey, James Carey, W. Potts, William West, Haxall, Van 
Wyck, Contee, Dall, Stouffer, Starck, Kimmel, Isaac Solomon, George Evans, 
Elisha Tyson, Barton, William Young, Henry Johnson, and Johonnot; and a 
number of European gentlemen, among whom were Messrs. S. Wilson, R. 
Oliver, A. Campbell, James Buchanan, Riddell, S. Liggatt, J. Salmon, 
Carrere, G. Salmon, Mayer, A. Stewart, A. Robinson, Grundy, J. Hollins, 
Caton, Coopman, Hodgson, Buckler, Nicholson, Brune, Neilson, Schroeder, 
Seekamp, Ghequiere, Brantz, Ratien, Konecke, Von Kapff, Labes, McCausland, 
Hackett, Zollickoffer, and Messonier, and established houses of trade.

By the Minerva, Capt. Zelt, Harmony, Capt. Lysle, Paca, Kell, and other 
vessels, there were brought here a great many Irish and German 
redemptioners, and a society for the aid of the Germans not speaking the 
language of the country was formed.

Those Justices who resided in or near the town, and most frequently 
occupied the bench, were A. Buchanan, John Moale, W. Buchanan, J. 
Vanbibber, A. Vanbibber, Geo. Lindenberger, James Calhoun, William 
Russell, Thomas Russell, James McHenry, Peter Sheppard, Henry Wilson, 
Thomas Elliott, John Merryman, Robert

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Lemmon, Thomas Sellers, and Jesse Busey, Esqs.; and the gentlemen of the 
bar, besides the Attorney-General, Samuel Johnson, Richard Ridgely, 
Aquilla Hall, Robert Smith, Zeb Hollingsworth, James Carroll, W. H. 
Dorsey, William Moore, Rinald Johnson, Archibald Robinson, Robert 
Milligan, Robert Goldsborough, Henry Ridgely, Peter Carnes, and Thomas 
Gittings, Esqs. The doctors at this period were Johnson, Goodwin, Troup, 
Andrews, Coale, Gilder, Brown, Littlejohn, Ross, A. Wiesenthall, and 
Buchanan.

In May, James McHenry was appointed a member of Congress in the place of 
Edward Giles, deceased. Zachariah Allen was appointed Notary Public, being 
the first here; and in October, John Sterrett was elected a delegate to 
the Assembly in the place of Mr. Fell.

On Wednesday, Nov. 5th, were executed, near this town, John Lee and Robert 
Conaway, for felony, and on the 12th, Francis Piers (a Spaniard) for 
murder.

Arrived here on the 6th of November, the ship Duke of Leinster, Capt. 
Devereux, from Dublin, having on board redemptioners and servants.

Now that the war was over, the remnants of the old Line and the regiments, 
having already, upon the scene of their Southern exploits, been presented, 
through Gen. Greene, with the thanks of both Houses of the Legislature for 
their gallantry and good conduct, turned their footsteps towards their 
native State, to be disbanded, and to carry to their homes their honorable 
scars and constitutions broken by fatigue. General Nathaniel Greene 
speaking of these noble patriots, says in his letter to Gov. Lee: "Many of 
your officers are on their return home. I should be wanting in gratitude 
not to acknowledge their singular merit and the importance of their 
services. They have spilt their blood freely in the service of their 
country, and have faced every danger and difficulty without a murmur or 
complaint. I beg leave to recommend Col. Williams, who has been at the 
head of your Line, to the particular notice of your State, as an officer 
of great merit and good conduct. A very considerable number of those 
(Maryland Line) returned are not, nor ever will be, fit for service again. 
They are incapable of doing active duty, and ought to be turned over to 
the Invalid Corps."

On the 4th of November, Mr. Sterett's brewery was burned down. Overcome by 
this second distressing calamity, in which the citizens warmly sympathized 
with the then venerable sufferer, Mr. Sterett declined business during the 
remainder of his life. But Mr. Thomas Peters moved from Philadelphia, and 
erected the brewery near Lombard street bridge in the course of the year, 
which was also destroyed by fire some years after and rebuilt.

In the last week of December there were cleared out two ships, three brigs 
and two schooners, a proof of enterprize which did not escape the 
penetrating eye of General Washington, who, in

Page 211

answer to the address of the citizens, on the 18th of December, at a 
public dinner given to him in this city when on his way to Annapolis to 
resign his commission to Congress there assembled, that body being 
threatened at Philadelphia by the discontented troops of that State about 
to be disbanded, he expressed his pious good will, a good will which 
Heaven seems to have blessed in our favor:

"Sir:--The town of Baltimore feels a universal joy on your Excellency's 
arrival, and willing to testify in an acceptable manner the most grateful 
senses of your eminent services and superior abilities, we are intrusted 
to congratulate your Excellency on the glorious and happy conclusion of an 
unequal, precarious and bloody war, through which you have successfully 
commanded the armies of the United States, established the liberties and 
independence of your native country, and gained to yourself the unrivalled 
appellation of its most illustrious citizen. May your Excellency long 
survive the fatigues and calamities of war; may health, ease and domestic 
tranquillity smooth your path of life, and Heaven hereafter grant the only 
adequate reward of your exalted merit.

"We have the honor to be, with perfect respect and esteem, your 
Excellency's most obedient and most humble servants,

"William Smith, 
"Samuel Purviance, 
"John Sterrett, 
"O. H. Williams."

His Excellency's answer:

"Gentlemen:--The acceptable manner in which you have welcomed my arrival 
in the town of Baltimore, and the happy terms in which you have 
communicated the congratulations of its inhabitants, lay me under the 
greatest obligations. Be pleased, gentlemen, to receive this last public 
acknowledgment for the repeated instances of your politeness, and to 
believe it is my earnest wish that the commerce, the improvements and 
universal prosperity of this flourishing town, may, if possible, increase 
with even more rapidity than they have hitherto done.

"I have the honor to be, with the greatest esteem, gentlemen, your most 
obedient and humble servant,

"G. Washington.

Esquires." 
"To William Smith, 
"Samuel Purviance, 
"John Sterrett, 
"O. H. Williams,

Maj.-Gen. Greene, accompanied by Maj. Hyrne, arrived here on the 30th of 
September, from Charleston, South Carolina. An elegant entertainment was 
provided for him at Grant's tavern, by the citizens of the town, where a 
numerous company attended, and

Page 212

spent the day with the greatest joy and happiness, in the course of which 
many interesting and pleasing reflections and observations were made 
complimentary to their "illustrious guest." On this occasion the following 
address was presented:

"To the Honorable Major-General Greene:

"Sir:--The citizens of Baltimore, being strongly impressed with a grateful 
sense of the important services which you have rendered to your country, 
are happy in an opportunity of congratulating you on your safe return to 
this place. We, who have the happiness of expressing their sentiments on 
this pleasing occasion, shall not attempt to recite the honors of your 
brilliant and successful campaign, already written in indelible characters 
on the hearts of your grateful countrymen. We trust they will be 
faithfully transmitted to posterity in the brightest pages of our history, 
which shall record the important circumstances of the glorious Revolution, 
to which your services have so greatly contributed. It affords us 
particular satisfaction when we reflect, that the gallant officers and 
soldiers of this State have had so great a share in the brilliant 
achievements of your peaceful command.

"With every sentiment of personal respect for you and those brave men, and 
wishing both a lasting enjoyment of health, peace, and independence, we 
have the honor to be, in behalf of the citizens of Baltimore, Sir, your 
most obedient and most humble servants,

"William Smith, 
"William Spear, 
"Samuel Purviance, 
"Abraham Vanbibber, 
"Samuel Smith."

The General's answer:

"Baltimore, 30th September, 1783.

"Gentlemen:--Nothing can be more welcome than your kind congratulations, 
upon my return, or anything more flattering to the feelings of a soldier 
than your sentiments of the Southern operations. Every opportunity of 
expressing my obligations to the officers and troops of this State, 
affords me the highest satisfaction. They have been companions with me in 
the hours of adversity, and have greatly contributed to all our little 
successes. Your professions of respect and generous wishes for my 
happiness, excite the most lively emotions of a grateful mind, and I beg 
leave to offer my warmest acknowledgments upon this occasion, and to add 
my good wishes for the prosperity and happiness of this town.

"I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and humble servant,

Nathaniel Greene."

On the 27th of July, Brigadier-General Mordecai Gist, with the remnants of 
the Maryland Line, consisting of about 500 men,

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arrived in Baltimore, from Annapolis, having arrived there in transports 
from Charleston, S. C.

On the 19th of October, 1781, after a three weeks' siege, Cornwallis 
surrendered himself and his army prisoners to George Washington. By that 
surrender the War of the Revolution was virtually ended, and the 
independence of the American Colonies finally consummated. In the glorious 
struggle which obtained that independence, no State bore a more 
conspicuous part than our own Maryland, and no county of Maryland was more 
distinguished through the gallant deeds of her patriotic sons than that of 
Baltimore. Throughout the whole contest Maryland had been distinguished 
for its zeal in support of the common cause, ever coming forward with 
readiness at the call of the Commander-in-Chief. In spite of the 
difficulties with which it was surrounded, it had furnished during the war 
to the Continental army fifteen thousand two hundred and twenty-nine men, 
in addition to those enlisted in the independent corps, the State 
companies, the marine and naval force, and five thousand four hundred and 
seven militia. No troops in the Continental army had rendered better 
service, endured more fatigue, or won greater glory than the Maryland 
Line. In proportion to their number, no body of men suffered more 
severely. They were the first to use the bayonet against the experienced 
regulars of the enemy, and that in their earliest battle; and throughout 
the succeeding struggles of the war, they were most often called on to 
lead with that effective weapon into the ranks of the foe. They seldom 
shrank from the encounter. At Long Island a fragment of a battalion shook 
with repeated charges a whole brigade of British regulars; at White Plains 
they held the advancing columns at bay; at Harlaem Heights they drove the 
enemy from the ground; at Germantown they swept through the hostile camp 
with their fixed bayonets far in advance of the whole army; and at Cowpens 
and at Eutaw their serried ranks bore down all opposition with unloaded 
muskets; and at Guilford and at Camden, though victory did not settle on 
their banners, they fought with a courage which won the admiration and 
surprise of their enemies: everywhere they used the bayonet with terrible 
effect. Entering into the war two strong battalions, they were soon 
reduced to a single company. Again swelled up to seven regiments, they 
were again thinned by their losses to a single regiment, and before the 
campaign had well passed they were once more promptly recruited to four 
full battalions of more than two thousand men. There is something 
strangely affecting in the language of the Maryland Council of Safety on 
announcing to our delegate in Congress that the State quota of troops had 
been raised, when we recall the heroic devotion and the sad fate of the 
noble youths who filled their ranks: "We shall have near four thousand men 
with you in a short time. This exceeds our proportion for the flying camp; 
but we are sending all that we have that

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can be armed and equipped; and the people of New York, for whom we have 
great affection, can have no more than our all." Maryland was the first to 
nominate George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, 
and she ever sustained him with a devotion unsurpassed even by the State 
of his birth.

The richest wealth of any people is the fame of their great men. All other 
evidences of their existence may pass away--this only is immortal. 
Carthage has long since mouldered into the dust, but the name of her 
Hannibal still lives and reminds us of what his country once was. Sparta 
is no more, but the name of her Leonidas preserves the remembrance of her 
ancient glory. Athens has dwindled to an unimportant village, but the fame 
of her Solon, her Demosthenes, her Themistocles, and many others 
distinguished in letters or in arms, remind her that she was once the 
freest and most enlightened nation of antiquity. And so with ancient Rome, 
tho names of her Cicero and her Brutus, of her Cæsar and her Scipio, hand 
down to modern times the remembrance that a city built along the shores of 
the muddy Tiber, and now too weak to defend herself against the invasion 
of any petty army of French or Austrians who may choose to take 
possession, that this feeble city was once the proud mistress of the 
civilized World. It is the duty of every people to cherish the memory of 
its great men, whether their distinction has been won by efforts of 
intellect or by deeds of heroism in arms. The renown of a great statesman, 
an accomplished scholar, an eloquent orator, or a successful warrior, 
forms a portion of the reputation of his country, and every citizen should 
feel a just pride in endeavoring to perpetuate its remembrance. Full 
justice has never been done to the memory of the noble heroes whom 
Maryland contributed to the army of the Revolution. The first histories of 
that eventful struggle--prepared at times when the materials for accurate 
narratives were accessible--were generally the productions of citizens of 
the Northern States. The men of the South, prompt in action, had less 
taste than their Northern neighbors for writing accounts of their 
achievements, and fewer facilities for publishing such histories, even if 
they had been disposed to write them. The result was that the historians 
of the North, without meaning to do injustice to the patriot warriors of 
the South, gave especial prominence to the achievements of those who 
belonged to their own section. While enlarging with a just pride upon the 
gallant deeds of their own ancestors and neighbors, they passed over in 
comparative silence those performed by the soldiery from other sections of 
the confederacy. Thus every school-boy in Maryland for the last fifty 
years has been taught to admire the heroism of a Montgomery, a Greene, a 
Gates, a Putnam, a Sullivan, and a Wayne, while the equally glorious 
services of the patriot soldiers of his own State, of a Smallwood, a Gist, 
a Howard, a Smith, and a Williams, have scarcely been heard of, or 
communicated as if

Page 215

they were of a character which made them comparatively unimportant. It is 
full time that this injustice should be repaired. There was a Smallwood, 
than whom a more gallant officer was not to be found in the whole American 
army. He served throughout the war, and led the Maryland columns in many a 
victorious charge. Directly after the close of the contest, the 
Legislature of his State testified their admiration of his services by 
thrice electing him her Chief Executive. He now sleeps under the sod of 
his native county, near the waters of the Potomac, with not even a stone 
to mark the spot where the remains of a hero are laid. There was a 
Williams, who began his career at the first dawn of the Revolution as a 
lieutenant in a rifle company raised in Frederick, and marched around 
Boston. He came out of the war a brigadier-general, and no soldier ever 
won promotion by more arduous, patriotic and gallant achievements. There 
were many others from other parts of the State whose names are worthy of 
our remembrance and admiration; of these we have not space to give them in 
a work of this kind. But there were men, not less distinguished than any 
of those alluded to, who stood during the war among the columns of the 
American army as the immediate representatives of the patriotism and 
bravery of the town of Baltimore. And the names of such men should not be 
forgotten, nor their services fail to be remembered. In December, 1774, a 
convention of delegates from all parts of Maryland assembled at Annapolis, 
and recommended to their fellow-citizens to prepare for the contest which 
they foresaw was soon to be commenced. A few weeks afterwards, in response 
to the call, a band of patriots assembled within the limits of Baltimore, 
and organized as the "Baltimore Independent Company." It was the first 
Revolutionary corps organized in Maryland, and a young man, little over 
thirty years of age, a native of Baltimore, was chosen its Captain. That 
young man was Mordecai Gist. Three months afterwards news arrived that the 
war had actually begun, and that blood had already been shed at Lexington 
and at Concord. On the 27th of August, 1776, General Howe's army of 
British and Hessians, thirty thousand strong, were on Long island 
advancing to attack the city of New York. Gen. Washington was there, 
determined to defend it; but the forces under his command were but little 
more than half as numerous as those of the invaders. A large portion of 
the American army under Putnam were stationed around Brooklyn, to resist 
the enemy and prevent his nearer approach to New York. Far in advance of 
the main body of Putnam's army was stationed its right wing under 
Stifling, placed there to defend the widest and most practicable of the 
three routes to Brooklyn. In this wing is found a battalion of 
Marylanders. At dawn of day the dense columns of the British forces 
advance upon the American lines. After sustaining for a time the attack of 
superior numbers, the left wing of the Americans is forced to retreat, and 
soon the centre, under Sullivan,

Page 216

also gives way. "Driven out from the woods upon the open plain in groups 
of fifty or sixty men, and in full view of the troops which garrisoned the 
forts, the flying Americans were met by squadrons of British dragoons, 
followed by columns of infantry, which completely blocked their line of 
retreat. Hurled back again upon the Hessian line by the dragoon charges 
which smote and crushed them, without discipline, or officers who could 
restore it, exposed to equal lines of fire in front and rear, many of 
these detached squads attempted to surrender, flinging down their arms, or 
reversing them, to indicate submission; but they were inclosed by an 
infuriated enemy, indifferent to these tokens of surrender, and were 
inhumanly cut to pieces." The British advance and occupy the grounds 
between the American right wing and their entrenchments at Brooklyn. And 
there stands Stirling's little division, almost completely surrounded by 
an enemy more than five times its numbers. The only chance of escape is to 
ford a broad and dangerous creek before considered impassable. In a 
valuable work published by the Long Island Historical Society, called the 
"Battle of Long Island," the following appears:

"Fired with a common emulation of slaughter, Hessian and British troops 
were now pressing forward to inclose Stirling's division between them and 
Grant, in the same fatal embrace which had crushed the life out of 
Sullivan's corps. The right wing of the enemy, commanded by Lord 
Cornwallis in person, was hastening forward to occupy the junction of the 
Porte and Gowanus roads. Cornwallis had proceeded as far as the Cartelyon 
House, which is beyond a doubt the dwelling sometimes spoken of as a 
'stone' and sometimes as a 'brick' house, of both of which materials it is 
constructed. This house Cornwallis proceeded at once to occupy as a 
redoubt. It thus became apparent to Lord Stirling that his position was no 
longer defensible. What an appalling change from the confidence and 
elation of an hour before t The gigantic extent and the consummate skill 
of the British combination was apparent to tho General at a glance. The 
noble soul of the generous soldier at once impelled him to the great 
sacrifice which, at such an hour, is all that is left for a defeated 
commander. The onset of the victorious foe must be checked while his 
retreating columns toiled through the salt marshes and across the deep 
tide-water creek in their rear. To the heroic mind of Stirling there was 
no necessity for reflection upon the decision. In such minds instinct is a 
safer guide than is the maturest judgment in others. The decision is a 
species of inspiration. Fortunately for his purpose, the noblest 
instruments for his design were at hand. The Maryland regiment, now 
commanded by Major Gist, some portions of which had, from the peculiar 
formation of Stirling's line, fought on the right wing, although part of 
the left, was still nearly intact, and was burning with patriotism and the 
desire for distinction. This body of young men, sons of the best families 
of Catholic Maryland, had been emulous

Page 217

of the praise of being the best drilled and disciplined of the 
Revolutionary forces; and their high spirit, their courage, their self-
devotion, as well as the discipline of which they were proud, were now to 
be proved in the fierce furnace of battle. Flinging himself at the head of 
these brave lads, who on that day for the first time saw the flash of an 
enemy's guns, Stirling determined to stem the advance of the foe. The 
little band, now hardly numbering four hundred men, prepared for an 
assault upon five times their number, of the best troops of the invading 
army, who were inflamed with all the arrogance of successful combat. 
Forming, hurriedly, on ground in the vicinity of Fifth avenue and Tenth 
street, the light column advanced along the Gowanus road into the jaws of 
battle, with unwavering front. Artillery ploughed the fast-thinning ranks 
with the awful bolts of war, infantry poured its volleys of musket-balls 
in almost solid sheets of lead upon them, and from the adjacent hills the 
deadly Hessian Yagers sent swift messengers of death into many a manly 
form. Still, above the roar of cannon, musketry and rifles, was heard the 
shout of their brave leaders, 'Close up! Close up!' and again the 
staggering yet unflinching files, grown fearfully thin, drew together, and 
turned their stern young faces to their country's foe. At the head of this 
devoted band marched their General, to whom even victory had now become 
less important than an honorable death which might purchase the safe 
retreat of his army. Amid all the terrible carnage of the hour there was 
no hurry, no confusion, only a grim despair, which their courage and self-
devotion dignified into martyrdom. The advanced bodies of the enemy were 
driven back upon the Cartelyon House, now become a formidable redoubt, 
from the windows of which the leaden hail thinned the patriot ranks as 
they approached. Lord Cornwallis hurriedly brought two guns into position 
near one corner of the house, and added their canister and grape to the 
tempest of death. At last the little column halted, powerless to advance 
in the face of this murderous fire, yet disdaining to retreat with the 
disgrace of a flight. Again and again these self-devoted heroes closed 
their ranks over the bodies of their dead comrades, and still turned their 
faces to the foe. But the limit of human endurance had for the time been 
reached, and the shattered column was driven back. Their task was not, 
however, yet fully performed. As Stirling looked across the salt meadows, 
away to the scene of his late struggle at Bluckie's Barracks, and saw the 
confused masses of his countrymen crowding the narrow causeway over 
Freeke's mill-pond, or struggling through the muddy tide-stream, he felt 
how precious to their country's liberty were the lives of his retreating 
soldiers, and again nerved himself for a combat which he knew could only 
prove a sacrifice. Once more he called upon the survivors of the previous 
dreadful assault, and again the noble young men gathered around their 
General. How sadly he must have looked upon them, scarcely more than boys, 
so young,

Page 218

so brave, and to meet again the pitiless iron hail! The impetus and spirit 
of this charge carried the battalion over every obstacle quite to the 
house. The gunners were driven from their battery, and Cornwallis seemed 
about to abandon the position; but the galling fire from the interior of 
the house and from the adjacent high ground, with the overwhelming numbers 
of the enemy who were now approaching, again compelled a retreat. Three 
times more the survivors rallied, flinging themselves upon the constantly 
reinforced ranks of the enemy; but the combat, so long and so unequally 
sustained, was now hastening to its close. A few minutes more of this 
destroying fire, and two hundred and fifty-six of the noble youth of 
Maryland were either prisoners in the hands of the enemy, or lay side by 
side in that awful mass of dead and dying. The sacrifice had been 
accomplished, and the flying army had been saved from complete 
destruction. Amid the carnage Stirling was left almost alone, and scorning 
to yield himself to a British subject, he sought the Hessian General De 
Heister, and only to him would he surrender his sword. On the conical 
hill, within the American lines, stood the Commander-in-Chief, Gen. 
Washington; and, as he witnessed the assault, the repulse and the 
massacre, he exclaimed in agony of heart, 'Great God! what must my brave 
boys suffer to-day.' From the eminence on which he stood, the termination 
of the last struggle of the brave Marylanders was plainly and painfully 
visible to him. On the shore of Gowanus Bay sleep the remains of this 
noble band. . . . Rebel tongues have chanted the refrain of 'Maryland, my 
Maryland;' but they cannot rob the nation of the sad sweet thought: 'She 
is Maryland, our Maryland. Her dead on the field of battle are our dead, 
her fame and her glory are our pride and our rejoicing. We weep over her 
fallen in the cause of liberty, and we do not cease to honor them because 
of their kinsmen who would have robbed her of her fame by allying her to 
the coalition of liberticides. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

In a letter written Sept. 1st, 1776, the writer says: "The Maryland 
battalion lost two hundred and fifty-nine men, amongst whom twelve were 
officers: Capts. Veasy and Bowie, Lieuts. Butler, Sterrit, Dent, Coursey, 
Morse, Prawl, Ensigns Corts and Fernandis. Who are killed and who 
prisoners is yet uncertain." From the Brooklyn Union of Jan. 17th, 1867, 
we take the following: "This is the old stone house which stands on the 
south-east corner of Third street and Fifth avenue, (Prospect Park) which 
was at the time of the battle a British redoubt, and marks the spot where 
Stirling and his heroic band of Marylanders made the stand which saved the 
remnant of the American army flying across the Gowanus marshes, though it 
cost the lives of nearly all. Here is a place with a kind of Thermopylæ 
glory hovering about it. We shall be negligent of our duty if in some way 
it is not preserved to the people. We hope that the Commissioners will 
also be authorised to raise a plain but suitable monument to the noble

Page 219

band of Southerners who there laid down their lives in support of our 
common liberties." It was the first time that the American Continentals 
had dared to meet in the fierce encounter of bayonets the regulars of 
Great Britain, and it was Mordecai Gist who first taught his countrymen 
that they were equal to the sustainment of such a conflict. Shortly 
afterwards Gist was made a Colonel, and in 1779 a Brigadier-General. At 
Germantown he was in the thickest of the fight; and on the disastrous 
field of Camden it was Gist who stood side by side with the noble De Kalb, 
and held the enemy in check long after Gates with the rest of the American 
forces had retreated from the field. Lee, in his memoirs of the campaigns 
of the South, says: "Rawdon could not bring the brigade of Gist to recede; 
bold was the pressure of the foe--firm as a rock the resistance of Gist." 
Here, as at Brooklyn, Gist's command formed a part of the right wing of 
the patriot army, and here, as there, he was the last officer to retire 
from the field, and was able to do so and escape capture only by cutting 
his way, with a mere handful of devoted followers, through the midst of 
the enemy's ranks. Had the rest of the army displayed half the same 
gallantry as the Marylanders, the battle of Camden, instead of a defeat, 
would have been one of the most glorious victories of the American arms. 
There fell the brave De Kalb, covered with wounds, and his dying moments 
were spent in expressing his praise of the noble Maryland regiments, and 
his admiration of Gist and its other gallant officers.

Among those officers, standing foremost in every charge upon that bloody 
field, and among the last to leave it, was another son of Baltimore, and 
one of whose achievements on many other occasions she has just cause to be 
proud. We speak of the gallant, the lion-hearted Howard. John Eager Howard 
was born in Baltimore County, on the 4th of June, 1752. At twenty-four 
years of age he joined the American army as a Captain in the regiment of 
Col. J. Carville Hall, raised from Baltimore and Harford Counties. Soon 
after we find him in the army of Washington at the battle of White Plains. 
At the battle of Germantown, in the absence of its Colonel, detained by 
sickness, the youthful Howard had command of his regiment, and led it 
again and again into the thickest of the fight. He was with Washington at 
Monmouth, with Gates at Camden, with Greene at Guilford, Hobkirk's Hill, 
and Eutaw; and at Cowpens, though not first in command, was the most 
prominent hero of the day. No American officer during those seven years 
was more frequently engaged in desperate conflicts with the enemy, and by 
none were performed more numerous acts of heroic daring. The distant 
cannonade was not the kind of warfare pleasing to his ardent temperament; 
he delighted to meet the foe in the close encounter of crossed bayonets. 
At Camden, Cowpens, Guilford, and Eutaw, ho gave evidences of his 
unequalled skill in the use of that dangerous weapon. At Camden,

Page 220

after Gates had fled from the field, Howard at the head of his regiment 
charged upon the ranks of the enemy, drove them before him with his keen 
bayonets, and was near retrieving the fortunes of the day. At Cowpens, 
cheering on his men, he rushed like a thunderbolt upon the British 
infantry while advancing as if to certain victory. The shock was terrible--
the foe were unable to stand before it. Tarleton's best troops recoiled--
fled--and Howard stood master of the field. He had charged without orders; 
and as he stood with the swords of seven British officers in his hands, 
whom he had just taken prisoners, Morgan rode up to him and said: "You 
have done well, for you are successful; had you failed, I would have shot 
you." After this victory at Cowpens, Gen. Greene gave orders that the 
Maryland Line should use the bayonet in every battle. At Guilford these 
orders were nobly executed, and Howard, with his Maryland bayonets, again 
drove before him the choicest veterans of the British army. At Eutaw, when 
a large portion of his army began to waver and fall back, Greene ordered 
the Marylanders and Virginians to reserve their fire and charge with the 
bayonet. That desperate charge, made in the face of a close and murderous 
fire, decided the fortunes of the day. Howard's regiment was received by 
the "Buffs," a choice Irish corps; and here was witnessed the fiercest 
encounter of that hard-fought field. Ranks mingled together; bayonets were 
crossed; and for a time there was between these two brave bands the most 
bloody hand-to-hand struggle. But the "Buffs" were at last forced to give 
way. General Greene rode up and complimented Howard's regiment and its 
commander in the warmest terms. In his dispatches, giving an account of 
the battle, Greene said: "Nothing could exceed the gallantry of the 
Maryland Line. Cols. Williams and Howard, and all the officers, exhibited 
acts of uncommon bravery, and the free use of the bayonet, by this and 
some other corps, gave us the victory." After the close of the Revolution, 
the State of Maryland testified her appreciation of Col. Howard's gallant 
services by thrice electing him her Governor, and afterwards twice sending 
him to represent her in the Senate of the United States. General 
Washington invited him to a seat in his Cabinet as Secretary of War, which 
high honor he magnanimously declined. During the war of 1812, Howard was 
still living. When the British army, flushed with their easy victory at 
Bladensburg, were threatening an attack upon Baltimore, some of the more 
timid of its inhabitants proposed to purchase the safety of their property 
from impending destruction by an inglorious capitulation. Howard answered 
the proposition indignantly, with a response worthy of his own character 
and of lasting remembrance: "I have," said he, "as much property at stake 
as most persons, and I have four sons in the field; but sooner would I see 
my sons weltering in their blood, and my property reduced to ashes, than 
so far disgrace the country."

Page 221

There was another of Baltimore's representatives in the armies of the 
Revolution, whose name should not be forgotten. Though not born on her 
soil, he had lived there from his earliest boyhood. Directly after the 
first news of the conflict at Lexington, the Committee of Safety of 
Baltimore, headed by its chairman, Mr. Purviance, took the bold resolution 
of forthwith arresting the British Governor of Maryland (Eden) then at 
Annapolis. They looked around for some daring spirit willing to execute 
their perilous command, and found the agent whom they sought in the person 
of Samuel Smith, then commander of one of the newly raised patriot 
companies. Capt. Smith, then a youth of twenty-two, proceeded at once to 
the execution of the orders of the committee. But these orders were 
disapproved by the general committee of the State, and Capt. Smith was 
ordered to return to Baltimore. This gallant youth, soon aider promoted to 
a colonelcy, won unfading laurels by his noble defence of Fort Mifflin, or 
the Mud Fort, ou the Schuylkill, through a seven weeks' siege, against the 
powerful land and naval forces of the British, seeking to open the 
communication between Philadelphia and the Atlantic. He endured with 
Washington's army the privation's of the winter's camp at Valley Forge, 
and his undaunted courage was displayed on the fields of Brandywine and 
Monmouth. After the adoption of the Federal Constitution he was frequently 
elected to represent his district in the National Congress; and, for the 
almost unexampled period of twenty-three years, filled with great 
distinction the exalted position of Senator of the United States from 
Maryland. In 1814, when the land and naval forces of Great Britain made 
their attack upon Baltimore, General Smith was the commanding officer 
charged with the responsible duty of its defence; and it was owing chiefly 
to the prudence and firmness displayed by him on that occasion that the 
invaders were repulsed, and the fair Monumental City saved from the same 
fate which had just before befallen the national capital.

These patriot heroes are now no more. Gist and Howard, Williams and Smith, 
and the other gallant leaders of the old Maryland Line, have all gone, one 
by one, to their final resting-place. But the work which they aided to 
accomplish still survives. American liberty, achieved by their valor and 
consecrated by their blood, still blesses their native land--the richest 
patrimony which they could bequeath to their descendants!

John Jacob Astor, born in Germany, in the village of Waldorf, near 
Heidelberg, July 17th, 1763, died in New York, March 29th, 1848. At the 
age of 20 years, in 1783, a few months after the recognition of the 
independence of the United States by Great Britain, he sailed for 
Baltimore, taking with him a few hundred dollars' worth of musical 
instruments to dispose of on commission. The vessel had reached Chesapeake 
Bay when a storm threatened shipwreck. Astor surprised the passengers by 
appearing on deck

Page 222

arrayed in his best suit, but gave a satisfactory answer to their 
inquiries. "If," said he, "I save my life, it shall be in my best clothes; 
if I perish, it is no matter what becomes of them." On the voyage he made 
acquaintance with a shrewd and communicative furrier, in accordance with 
whose suggestions he removed to New York, where he exchanged his musical 
instruments for furs, with which he immediately hastened back to London, 
where he disposed of them to great advantage. At his death his fortune was 
the largest ever accumulated in America: estimated at not less than $20,
000,000. He gave many liberal donations during his lifetime, and his will 
contained numerous charitable provisions. The crown of his beneficence is, 
however, the Astor Library in the City of New York, to which he bequeathed 
$400,000 for its establishment.

We will now (so far as facts will enable us) present some memorials of the 
habits and state of society as they existed in former years, and chiefly 
such as they were when everything partook of colonial submission and 
simplicity, when we had not learnt to aspire to great things. To this end 
we shall here show the state of the past "glimmering through the dream of 
things that were."

It is said of the primitive state of society, prior to the Revolution, 
that great encouragement and ready pay were given to all conditions of 
tradesmen and workingmen. None need stand idle. Lawyers' and physicians' 
services were little required, as all were peaceable and healthy. Women's 
wages were peculiarly high, for two reasons: the sex were not numerous, 
which tended to make them in demand, and therefore to raise the price of 
their labor. Besides, as these generally married by the time they were 
twenty years of age, they sought to procure a maid-servant for themselves 
in turn. Old maids were not to be met with, neither jealousy of husbands. 
The children were generally well favored and beautiful to behold, and 
without the least blemish. Numerous traditionary accounts attest the fact 
that there was always among the early settlers a frank and generous 
hospitality. Their entertainments were devoid of glare and show, but 
always abundant and good. The old people all testify that the young of 
their youth were much more reserved and held much more restraint in the 
presence of their elders and parents than now. Bashfulness and modesty in 
the young were then regarded as virtues, and the present freedom before 
the aged was not then countenanced. Young lovers then listened gravely, 
and took side-long glances when before their parents or elders. It was the 
custom in early days for the young part of the family, and especially of 
the female part, to dress up neatly towards the close of the day and sit 
in the street porch. It was customary to go from porch to porch in 
neighborhoods and sit and converse. Young gentlemen in passing used to 
affect to say that, while they admired the charms of the fair who were thus

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occupied, they found it a severe ordeal, as they thought they might become 
the subject of remark. This, however, was a mere banter. Those days were 
really very agreeable and sociable. To be so easily gratified with a sight 
of the whole city population must have been peculiarly grateful to every 
travelling stranger. This custom still prevails during the periods of our 
hot summer seasons, when the whole population is out of doors in the 
evening, a sight which always excites the attention of strangers from the 
North. It was customary for persons to live on the same spot where they 
pursued their business, a convenience and benefit now so generally 
departed from by the general class of traders. Then wives and daughters 
very often served in the stores of their parents, and the retail dry-goods 
business was mostly in the hands of widows or maiden ladies. In early 
days, if a citizen failed in business it was a cause of general and deep 
regret. Every man who met his neighbor spoke of his chagrin. It was a rare 
occurrence, because honesty and temperance in trade were then universal; 
and none embarked then without a previous means adapted to their business. 
Dinners and suppers went the round of' every social circle at Christmas, 
and they who partook of the former were also expected to remain for the 
supper. Afternoon visits were made, not at night, as now, but at so early 
an hour as to permit matrons to go home and see their children put to bed. 
We have often heard aged citizens say that decent citizens had a universal 
speaking acquaintance with each other, and everybody promptly recognized a 
stranger in the streets. The tradesmen before the Revolution (we mention 
this fact with all good feeling) were an entirely different generation of 
men from the present. They did not then, as now, present the appearance in 
dress of gentlemen. Between them and what were deemed the hereditary 
gentlemen there was a marked difference. "The gentry think scorn of 
leather aprons," said Shakspeare. In truth, the aristocracy of the 
gentlemen then was noticed if not felt. In that day the tradesmen and 
their families had far less pride than now. While at their work, or in 
going abroad on week days, all such as followed rough trades, such as 
carpenters, masons, coopers, blacksmiths, &c., universally wore a leathern 
apron before them, and covering all their vest. Dingy buckskin breeches, 
once yellow, and check shirts and a red flannel jacket were the common 
wear of most workingmen; and all men and boys from the country were seen 
in the streets in leather breeches and aprons, and would have been deemed 
out of character without them. In those days, tailors, shoemakers, and 
hatters waited on customers to take their measures, and afterwards called 
with garments to fit them on before finished. In the olden time all the 
hired women wore short gowns and linsey-woolsey or worsted petticoats. 
Some are still alive who used to call master and mistress, who will no 
longer do it. Before the Revolution no hired man or woman wore any shoes

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so fine as calf-skin; that kind was the exclusive property of the gentry; 
the servants wore coarse neat's leather. The calf-skin shoe then had a 
white band of sheep-skin stitched into the top edge of the sole, which 
they preserved white as a dress-shoe as long as possible.

Men and women then hired by the year--men got £16 to £20, and a servant 
woman £8 to £10. Out of that it was their custom to lay up money, to buy 
before their marriage a bed and bedding, silver tea-spoons, and a spinning-
wheel, &c. It was usual in the Gazettes of 1760 to 1780, to announce 
marriages in words like these, to wit.: "Miss Jane Low, or Miss Sarah 
Stevens' a most agreeable lady with a large, or handsome fortune," or if a 
widow, "Mrs. Galloway, a widow gentlewoman of great worth and merit." The 
wedding entertainments of olden time were very expensive and harassing to 
the wedded. The house of the parents would be filled with company to dine; 
the same company would stay to tea and supper. For two days punch was 
dealt out in profusion. The gentlemen saw the groom on the first floor, 
and then ascended to the second floor, where they saw the bride; there 
every gentleman, even to one hundred in a day, kissed her.

A distinguished writer says: "It may surprise some of the present 
generation to learn that some of those aged persons whom they may now 
meet, have teeth which were originally in the heads of others. I have seen 
a printed advertisement of the year 1784, wherein Doctor Le Mayeur, 
dentist, proposes to the citizens of Philadelphia, to transplant teeth, 
stating therein, that he has successfully transplanted 123 teeth in the 
preceding six months. At the same time he offers two guineas for every 
tooth which may be offered to him by persons disposed to sell their front 
teeth, or any of them. This was quite a novelty in Philadelphia; the 
present care of the teeth was ill understood then. He had, however, great 
success in Philadelphia, and went off with a great deal of our patricians' 
money. Several respectable ladies had them implanted. I remember some 
curious anecdotes of some cases. One of the 'Mischianza' belles had such 
teeth. They were, in some cases, two months before they could eat with 
them. One lady told me she knew of sixteen cases of such persons among her 
acquaintance." Tooth-brushes were not even known, and the genteelest then 
were content to rub the teeth with a chalked rag or with snuff. Some even 
deemed it an effeminacy in men to be seen cleaning the teeth at all.

Of articles and rules of diet, so far as they differed from ours in the 
earliest time, we may mention coffee as a beverage was used but rarely; 
chocolate for morning and evening, or thickened milk for children. Cookery 
in general was plainer than now. In the country morning and evening 
repasts were generally made of milk, having boiled therein, or else 
thickened with, pop-robins--things made up of flour and eggs into a 
batter, and so dropped in with the boiling milk.

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It will much help our just conceptions of our forefathers and their good 
dames to know what were their personal appearances. Men wore three-square 
or cocked hats, and wigs, coats with large cuffs, big skirts lined and 
stiffened with buckram. None ever saw a crown higher than the head. The 
coat of a beau had three or four large plaits in the skirts, wadding 
almost like a coverlet to keep them smooth, cuffs very large up to the 
elbows, open below and inclined down, with lead therein; the capes were 
thin and low, so as readily to expose the close-plaited neck-stock of fine 
linen cambric and the large silver stock-buckle on the back of the neck; 
shirts with hand ruffles, sleeves finely plaited, breeches closely fitted, 
with silver, stone, or paste gem buckles; shoes or pumps with silver 
buckles of various sizes and patterns, thread, worsted, and silk 
stockings. The poorer class wore sheep or buckskin breeches close set to 
the limbs. Gold and silver sleeve-buttons set with stones or paste of 
various colors and kinds, adorned the wrists of the shirts of all classes. 
The very boys often wore wigs, and their dresses in general were similar 
to that of the men. The women wore caps (a bare head was never seen), 
stiff stays, hoops from six inches to two feet on each side, so that a 
full-dressed lady entered a door like a crab, pointing their obtruding 
flanks end foremost; high-heeled shoes of black stuff, with silk or thread 
stockings, and in the miry time of winter they wore clogs, galoshes, or 
pattens. The days of stiff coats, sometimes wire-framed, and of large 
hoops, were also stiff and formal in manners at set balls and assemblages. 
The dances of that day among the politer class were minuets, and sometimes 
country dances; among the lower order hipsesam was everything.

As soon as the wigs were abandoned and the natural hair was cherished, it 
became the mode to dress it by plaiting it, by queuing and clubbing, or by 
wearing it in a black silk sack or bag adorned with a large black rose. In 
time the powder, with which wigs and the natural hair had been severally 
adorned, was run into disrepute by the then strange innovation of "Brutus 
heads;" not only then discharging the long-cherished powder and perfume, 
and tortured frizzle-work, but also literally becoming "Round Heads," by 
cropping off all the pendant graces of ties, bobs, clubs, queues, &c. At 
one time young men of the highest fashion wore swords; so frequent, it 
was, as to excite no surprise when seen. They wore also gold-laced cocked 
hats, and similar lace on their scarlet vests. Their coat-skirts were 
stiffened with wire or buckram, and lapped each other at the lower end in 
walking. In that day no man wore drawers, but their breeches (so called 
unreservedly) were lined in winter, and were tightly fitted. Very few then 
could get coats to set in at the back. Laced ruffles depending over the 
hand were a mark of indispensable gentility. The coat and breeches were 
generally desirable of the same material, of "broad-cloth" for winter, and 
of silk camlet for summer. No kind of

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cotton fabrics were then in use or known; hose were, therefore, of thread 
or silk in summer, and of fine worsted in winter; shoes were square-toed, 
and were often "double channelled." To these succeeded sharp toes as 
peaked as possible. When wigs were universally worn, gray wigs were 
powdered, and for that purpose sent in a wooden box frequently to the 
barber to be dressed on his block-head; but "brown wigs," so called, were 
exempted from the white disguise. Coats of red cloth, even by boys, were 
considerably worn, and plush breeches and plush vests of various colors, 
shining and slipping, were in common use. Everlasting, made of worsted, 
was a fabric of great use for breeches and sometimes for vests. The vest 
had great depending pocket-flaps, and the breeches were very short above 
the stride, because the art of suspending them by suspenders was unknown. 
It was then the boast of a well-formed man that he could by his natural 
form readily keep his breeches above his hips, and his stockings without 
gartering above the calf of the leg. With the queues belonged frizzled 
side-locks, and toupes formed of the natural hair, or, in defect of a long 
tie, a splice was added to it. Such was the general passion for the 
longest possible whip of hair, that sailors and boatmen, to make it grow, 
used to tie theirs in eel-skins to aid its growth. Nothing like surtouts 
were known, but they had coating or cloth great-coats, or blue cloth and 
brown camlet cloaks, with green baize lining to the latter. In the time of 
the Revolution, many of the American officers introduced the use of Dutch 
blankets for great-coats. The sailors in the olden time used to wear hats 
of glazed leather or of woollen thrumps, called chapeaux, closely woven 
and looking like a rough-knap; and their "small clothes," as we would say 
now, were immense wide petticoat-breeches, wide open at the knees, and no 
longer. At one time our workingmen in the country wore the same, having no 
falling flaps, but slits in front; they were so full and free in girth 
that they ordinarily changed the rear to the front when the seat became 
prematurely worn out. In sailors and common people, big silver brooches in 
the bosom were displayed, and long quartered shoes with extreme big 
buckles on the extreme front. Gentlemen in the olden time used to wear 
mufflers in winter; it was in effect a little woollen muff of various 
colors, just big enough to admit both hands, and long enough to screen the 
wrists, which were then more exposed than now; for they then wore short 
sleeves to their coats, purposely to display their fine linen and plaited 
shirt-sleeves with their gold buttons, and sometimes laced ruffles. The 
sleeve cuffs were very wide, and hung down depressed with leads in them. 
It was not uncommon to see aged persons with large silver buttons to their 
coats and vests--it was a mark of wealth. Some had the initials of their 
names engraved on each button. Sometimes they were made out of real 
quarter dollars, with the coinage impression still retained; these were 
used for the coats, and the eleven-penny bits for

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vests and breeches. Others often used conch-shell buttons, silver mounted.

When the ladies first began to lay off their cumbrous hoops they supplied 
their place with successive succedaneums, such as these, to wit: First 
came bishops, a thing stuffed or padded with horse-hair; then succeeded a 
smaller affair under the name of cue de Paris, also padded with horse-
hair. Next they supplied their place with cut cork, and with silk or 
calimanco, or russell thickly quilted and inlaid with wool, made into 
petticoats; then these were supplanted by a substitute of half a dozen 
petticoats. Then we had the "skimmer-hat," made of a fabric which shone 
like silver tinsel; also the "horse-hair bonnets," the "musk-melon," the 
"calash bonnet," "wagon bonnet," and the "straw bee-hive bonnet." The 
ladies once wore "hollow-breasted stays"; then came the "straight stays." 
At one time the gowns worn had no fronts. The design was to display a 
finely quilted Marseilles, silk, or satin petticoat, and a bare stomacher 
on the waist. In other dresses a white apron was the mode; all wore large 
pockets under their gowns. As a universal fact, it may be remarked that no 
other color than black was ever made for ladies' bonnets when formed of 
silk or satin. Fancy colors were unknown, and white bonnets of silk fabric 
had never been seen. The first innovation was the bringing in of blue 
bonnets.

It was very common for children and workingwomen to wear beads made of 
Job's tears, a berry of a shrub. The use of lace veils to ladies' faces is 
but a modern fashion, since 1800. In olden times none wore a veil but as a 
mark and badge of mourning, and then as now, of crape in preference to 
lace. It was no unusual thing for ladies to attend balls, parties, &c., in 
full dress on horse--back. Ancient ladies in early life wore blue, red and 
green stockings of very striking appearance. Until the period of the 
Revolution every person who wore a fur hat had it always of entire beaver. 
Every apprentice at receiving his "freedom" received a real beaver, at a 
cost of six dollars; their every-day hats were of wool, and called felts.

In the old time shagreen-cased watches of turtle-shell and pinchbeck were 
the earliest kind seen; but watches of any kind were much more rare than 
now. It was so rare to find watches in common use that it was quite an 
annoyance at the watchmaker's to be so repeatedly called on by street 
passengers for the hour of the day. Gold chains would have been a wonder 
then; silver and steel chains and seals were the mode, and regarded good 
enough.

The use of boots has come in since the War of Independence; they were 
first with black tops after the military, strapped up in union with the 
knee-bands; afterwards bright tops were introduced. Ladies shoes were then 
made mostly of white or russet rands, stitched very fine on the rand with 
white waxed thread;

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and all having wooden heels, called crosscut, common and court heels; next 
came in the use of cork, plug, and wedge, or spring heels. The sole-
leather was all worked with the flesh side out. The materials for the 
uppers were of common woollen cloth, or coarse curried leather, afterwards 
of stuffs, such as cassimere, everlasting, shalloon, and russet; some of 
satin and damask, others of satin lasting and florentine. All elderly 
gentlemen had gold-headed canes; it was their mark of distinction.

Before the war of Independence, marble mantels and folding doors were not 
known, neither were sofas, carpets, side-boards, or girandoles. A white 
floor sprinkled with clean white sand, large tables and heavy high-back 
chairs of solid walnut, or mahogany, decorated a parlor sufficiently 
enough for anybody. Sometimes a carpet, not, however, covering the whole 
floor, was seen upon the dining-room. There was a show-parlor up stairs, 
not used but upon gala occasions, and then not to dine in. Pewter plates 
and dishes were in general use. China on dinner-table was a great rarity, 
in fact from the old documents prior to 1700 we find no mention of China 
dishes at all. Plate, more or less, was seen in most families of easy 
circumstances, not indeed in all the various shapes that have since been 
invented, but in massive silver waiters, bowls, tankards, cans, &c. Glass-
tumblers were scarcely seen. Punch, the most common beverage, was drunk by 
the company from one large bowl of silver, pewter, or china, and beer from 
a tankard of silver. When china was first introduced among us in the form 
of tea-sets, it was quite a business to take in broken china to me