Forgotten soldiers

Author’s latest book highlights the valor, sacrifice of a group of Marylanders during the Revolutionary War

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by SARA K. TAYLOR Linda Davis Reno of Charlotte Hall holds up a copy of her latest book, ‘‘The Maryland 400 in the Battle of Long Island, 1776,” a book that required almost four years of research to complete. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

At least, that’s the opinion of genealogist and author Linda Davis Reno of Charlotte Hall.

‘‘The people in New York ... they love Maryland and they never forgot Maryland’s sacrifices,” said Reno, who attends the ceremonies held every summer in Brooklyn to commemorate the Battle of Long Island. ‘‘I’m a Marylander to the core. I want our children to be proud too.”

Reno spent almost four years researching her latest book, ‘‘The Maryland 400 in the Battle of Long Island, 1776,” and will be signing copies at Beach Party on the Square in Leonardtown this Saturday.

‘‘It is three, three-and-a-half years of research; I let that drive the story,” she said. ‘‘I let [the soldiers] tell their story.”

On Aug. 27, 1776, the first major battle of the Revolutionary War unfolded in Brooklyn — then with a population of 250 — and if it hadn’t been for the tenacity and courage of a group of Maryland farmers turned trained soldiers, Reno said, the war would’ve likely ended that day with the redcoats, at the end of the Revolutionary War, victorious.

‘‘It is looked at as a defeat,” said Reno of the battle. ‘‘It is forgotten in light of [ultimate] victory.”

The American troops numbered about 13,000 against the British who were 30,000 strong, with a fleet that outnumbered the Spanish Armada.

The battle started early on Aug. 27 when British soldiers raided a watermelon patch, scarfing down the exotic fruit that trumped the stale biscuits they were living on. Companies from Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania were there that day, the same units Gen. George Washington would order to remain on the battlefront while the others retreated to safety.

The Delaware and Pennsylvania lines gave way, leaving the Maryland soldiers to fight, about 400 men primarily from Charles, Prince George’s, Caroline, Anne Arundel and St. Mary’s counties and Baltimore. It was 400 Maryland boys against 20,000 British.

If not so outnumbered, the Marylanders would have proved to be an even more formidable foe. Maryland was the only colony to insist that its men be paid, be well-fed and armed, according to Reno. ‘‘Good God, what brave fellows I must lose this day,” Washington is said to have exclaimed to Gen. Israel Putnam, while watching the Marylanders being killed.

‘‘Maryland was considered the crème de la crème. Washington claimed they were the best,” Reno said. ‘‘Delaware and Pennsylvania were not far behind.

‘‘In terms of population and size, Maryland gave more soldiers to the Revolutionary War than any other colony,” she continued. ‘‘Lore has it that they were ‘fine, young gentlemen from opulent farms.’ No. They were farmers.”

The Maryland line was made up of men ranging between 18 and 24; they would charge a building that has become a legend, the Old Stone House, six times in an effort to escape from the battle. The British, occupying the house, fought back, cannonballs raining down on the Maryland soldiers. The Marylanders took the house once, but lost control, each time losing more men.

‘‘Remember, a lot of them knew each other,” Reno said. ‘‘They weren’t just stepping over the bodies of a fellow soldier. This was family, their cousin, people they knew all their life.”

Some were killed in battle, others drowned in the marsh. At the end of it, 256 of the Maryland 400 were dead. Their bodies are buried somewhere still under the streets of Brooklyn; the massive gravesite still hasn’t been found.

Reno, who is slated to be the keynote speaker during the celebration at the Old Stone House later this month, has become familiar with the New York borough that was once home to the Dodgers.

Years back, she offered to ‘‘clean up” records used by the board members of the Old Stone House when they commemorated the battle each year, an event during which organizers read the names of the 400 aloud. A lifelong St. Mary’s County resident who has been combing archives and history for more than three decades, Reno immediately noted errors.

‘‘There was a Richard Sheik,” among the Maryland 400, Reno said. ‘‘I knew it must have been Richard Speake.”

The Friends of the Old Stone House have already bought 50 copies of Reno’s book.

She first became interested in the history of the 400 when she was researching other projects and military records that, while slipshod at times, outnumber any other historical account. ‘‘Unfortunately, war defines us,” she said. ‘‘There are more records of men in war than anything else. War is our legacy. They’re the ones who left the notes and materials.”

She has an affinity for World War II history, as her father, William Davis, was on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Reno also has an interest in the Civil War, but not the passion for it that consumes some.

Her work on the Maryland 400 earned her the Martha Washington Award from the Maryland Society Sons of the American Revolution, the highest honor given to a nonmember. ‘‘I love the detail she put into this book for each individual,” said Christos Christou Jr., past president and current secretary of MDSSAR. ‘‘Stories in stories, biological information like this has not been done before.”

Currently, Reno is wrapped up in several projects, including the stories of the men of the 400 and other colorful characters of the Revolutionary War.

But Reno has always been fascinated by the past. As a girl, after Sunday school she’d walk around the church cemetery looking at the aging stones, taking in the etched names and dates. ‘‘I wondered who these people were,” she said. ‘‘What they looked like.”

After retiring as an executive officer with the U.S. Department of Education in 2000, she thought she might turn to genealogy as a second career.

It didn’t happen. Too many projects sap her time.

Researching and writing wipes her out, something she learned after completing the book ‘‘Images of America: St. Mary’s County.” But the spark always returns.

She talks about long-dead historical figures like they were her neighbors or friends, offering up juicy information that would make even the most casual historian long for more.

Reno is looking into the life of Richard ‘‘Zarvona” Thomas, a Chaptico dandy born in 1833; even if he didn’t have a fetish for dressing up in women’s finery and flirting with men, he certainly had a talent for it. An adventurer and Confederate Army officer, he was known as the ‘‘French lady” after disguising himself in women’s clothes, boarding a ship and, with a crew of accomplices, seizing it for the South during the first year of the Civil War.

She thinks she has been able to track down the identity of the parents of Charles County-born Mother Catherine Spaulding, a nun who in 1813 was elected as first superior of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth congregation in Kentucky. Under her leadership, Kentucky schools and hospitals were established.

The story of St. Mary’s County’s Henry Carberry, who was at the Battle of Long Island, also has to be told, Reno said. Carberry, the first adjutant general of Maryland, served in the Pennsylvania line and was one of the leaders of a riot when the soldiers were not being paid.

She also wants to find the real gravesites of Maryland historical figures John Hanson, John Hoskins Stone and Gen. William Smallwood that have been lost over the years.

‘‘It’s what grabs my interest,” said Reno, of the paths of study she chooses to go down. ‘‘It’s a huge puzzle you put together using logic to make sense. It’s a big mystery and you gather the evidence. It started out as a hobby and has become a passion.”

While her husband, Ronnie, or her children, Dawn Mueller and Darryl Mueller, don’t have much interest in history, Ronnie will go along with her to events if she asks.

‘‘He’s a good egg,” she said. ‘‘He fits into any crowd.”

Reno is hoping her book generates some interest in others to study more or to debate the findings. In fact, Christou said, Adam Goodheart, the director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, is calling into question the validity of some of Reno’s research.

According to Christos, Goodheart’s argument centers on the list of men Reno was working from. The names Reno researched were compiled from a list made in June 1776; however, in July of that year the regiments were overhauled and the men who made up the Maryland 400 could very well have varied from those on the June list, Christou said.

This is just the sort of debate he was hoping would happen. Any back-and-forth between historians — professional, armchair or otherwise — breathes life into long-forgotten stories of long-forgotten heroes and villains.

‘‘We know there is so much work yet to be done in the original records of our archives to validate the regiments and the men of the Maryland 400,” Christou said. ‘‘But this book is a great first start, and the stories told are compelling, regardless of whether these men were in the Maryland 400 or the larger Maryland Battalion.”

Reno seemed to agree that the book could serve as a start of something. ‘‘This is the beginning, I don’t consider this the end,” said Reno, of the book’s publication. ‘‘I’m hoping it will uncover information that is in private hands.”