The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-04-12

DIR. GEO. W. ARCHER.

Owing to the imperfect records extant con
corning the baUtalions of militia, there is some
Giiiiculty i'll designating them clearly. AT frs
there We're only twO-the Upper and the Lower
the latter being mentioned also as the Sth Bat
TALON. Later, the Odd Battalion appears in the
records. 1t Was probably formed from the com
panieS last raised, though it may possibly hav,
been the Upper with a numeral designation
just as the Lower was sometimes called tn,
Stn. 1t is certain that on January l. 10 the
committee recommended that two battaiions
be formed, one to comprise the companies OF
Captains Josias Carville Hall, John Archer
Charles Anderson, Aquila Hall, John Rodgers
Greenberry Dorsey, William Bradford and
John Love; the other, the companies of Cap
tains Benjamin Rumsey, Jacob Bond, John
Taylor. James Stewart, William McComas
Thomas Bond, Abraham Jarrett and Robert
Harris-the last two being Minute companies
The field officers appointed for the two battal.
ions-four for each-being all captains of the
several companies, their places were filled by
the appointment OF their SubOrdindteS reSpGc.
lively which made other vacancies, to be SUD.
piled i'll IL similar manner-and SO on, making
many changes And it has occurred TO me
since writing the foregoing installment, that
several of the companies, of which. us already
explained, there is no list of the pryates ex-
tant, may really have been the earlier com.
panies reorganized by the election or appoint
ment of officers to fill vacancies. In that case
the number of companies would be material Nv
diminished; instead of there being thrty-two
there m9y have been only some two dozen.
This. too, would account for the fact that there
are no rolls of any OF the companies from No.
2l TO No. 81; for if the officers alone were
changed, it would have been superfiuous to
make new lists OF the men-they being the
same as before.
OF course, only proportionatey small num-
ber-perhaps some five hundred-of these mill
tiamen were ever in the regular service This
would approximate Harford's quota if we as
sumo, us Il basis of calculation, the fact that the
State, from first to last, furnished, i'll round
numbers. fifteen thousand regulars.
/ will conclude by giving such information
as / nave been able to CLEAN here and there
which am sorry to say Is very meagre-c con-
corning few of the men who went forth hence
10 do battle i'll those trying times. Among the
very first, was Edward Prall first lieutenant of
Captain John Archer's company. He was APP
pointed in February, 20, ensign in company of
SmullwOOds brigade, and was one of those i'm
mortnls who saved the American army ut the
battle of Long Island. The captain, the first
lieutenant and many Others OF his company
were killed on the field. and he was hin> elf
captured. In the following July, soon after
his exchange, he was made I'd Lieutenant Of
his subsequent military career | know nothing
After the war he was, n many Years, an hon
ored Justice of the Peace. a sad feature Of
his case is, that all the historians make his
name utterly unacceptable by writing it
Pratt" and they have been doing so for m pre-
than hundred years. Such is fame!
With Col. Joslas Carvill Halls honorable ca
Ieer,as colonel of the Fourth Battalion of Reg
ulars, your readers are, no doubt, already IA
mIlIar. OF Captain Alexander Lawson Smith
have already written. But | cannot refrain
from remarking here, that he fares, at the
hands of historians, even worse, if possible,
then poor Pruil they write him down John
Smith ~ Captain John Smith," they tell is,
and his company fought with great bravery
at Fort Washington" and so on 1t is ONLY
when I slight is put upon this gallant son of
Hartford by the tickle Congress, that the his
tOrians and chroniclers give him his right name;
and then it brings him no credit. For example.
An additional regiment" says McSherry,n
was ased in Maryland and placed under the
command of Captain Alexander L. Smith but
after it had marched TO the south. its officers
wa ed san1 he 1r,f
the old regiments" Sic transit gloria
Besides the names hereinbefo given the
following were i'll regular service: Jacob
Norris, captain i'll the fifth regiment; Joshua
Rut!edge, lieutenant i'll the fourth regiment:
Parker Hall Lee, ensign in the fourth regi-
Incnt; Robert Harris, captain in the sixth bat
talon John Sears, lieutenant III the fifth regi-
meat; DIR. Richard SappingtOn. surgeon;
Samuel Griffith, captain i'll the third battalion;
James Allison, lieutenant in third battalion
Joshua Miles, lieutenant i'll the sixth battalion;
John Garlic, major, (In service seven years,
UNKNOWN; John Hughes, captain,
lin service seven years, command unknown)
The following were priYateS whose COM
mands are not known To this writer John
Reed, Aquila beaver, James Wilgus, Michael
thus Wheeler, Thomas Ellis, Dominick COyu,
Andr, W Meadow the WAS, after the war, un
elder in the Presbyterian Church, at Church
Vile. died 1914, aged SS years; Archibald
Heal s (born 1853: John Heaps born 176tD;
. Long first name unknown his widow,
Nancy Long, SO years of age, drew II pension
in 1S4O.)
AS regards the service rendered by the mill
tin, il did not amount to much, comparatively
speaking, though it served its purpose fairly
well ON the few occasions on which it was call
ed out. In August. II, when the enemy were
making unusual Roadway i'll Pennsylvania,
two thousand of the militia were ordered to the
field from this State. The greater part of them
were from the Western Shore, and were to be
by General Smallwood. They were
to assemble at Baltimore and Hartford Towns,
to repel the expected invasion of Pennsylvania,
Delaware and Maryland" Two full Compa-
MES of each battalion were to be marched to
the neghborhood of the Susquehanna." There
is little doubt that Hartford furnished several
in this emergency, especially as the
RENDEZVOUS was within her borders but the
particulars do not appear to have been record
ed except to the effect that many more assem-
bled then could be supplied with arms, and Il
great part of them returned to their homes.
On the 9th August, VI, a large body of the
enemy entered Gunpowder river and threaten
ed Joppa. The Eighth Battalion gathered
here and threw up earthworks ON which they
placed some foul FOUNDERS. This caused the