USA > Maryland > Biographical sketches of distinguished Marylanders > Part 12
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OTHO HOLLAND WILLIAMS.
On the first of March, 1781, the Battle of Guilford Court House took place. The Americans fared badly, and were forced to retreat. On the 25th of April, another battle took place at Camden. From the camp before this place, Williams writes to his brother two days following the action: "The army lost a glorious opportunity of gaining a complete victory, taking the town, and biasing the beam of fortune greatly in favor of our cause. The loss was nearly equal on both sides, if we do not consider the loss of opportunity. We lost about one hundred and thirty killed and wounded, and from account, the enemy were not more lucky. The cavalry, the light infantry, and the guards acquired all the honor, and the infantry of the battalions all the disgrace, that fell upon our shoulders. The cavalry, led on by Washington, behaved in a manner truly heroic. He charged the British army in the rear, took a great number of prisoners, sent many of them off with small detachments, and when he saw we were turning our backs upon victory in front, by a circuitous maneuvre, he threw his dragoons into our rear, passed the line and charged the York volunteers (a fine corps of cavalry), killed a number, and drove the rest out of the field. Washington is an elegant officer; his reputation is de- servedly great. Many of our officers are mortally mor- tified at our late inglorious retreat. I say mortally, be- cause I cannot doubt that some of us must fall, in en- deavoring, the next opportunity, to re-establish our reputation. Dear reputation, what trouble do you not occasion, what danger do you not expose us to! Who, but for it, would patiently persevere in prosecuting a war, with the mere remnant of a fugitive army, in a country made desolate by repeated ravages, and rer dered sterile by streams of blood? Who, but for reputation would sustain the varied evils that daily attend the life
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of a soldier, and expose him to jeopardy every hour ? Liberty, thou basis of reputation, suffer me not to forget the cause of my country, nor to murmur at my fate!"
The brave young officer of whom he spoke so glow- ingly, was William Washington, of Stafford county, Virginia, and a distant relative of the Commander-in- Chief of the American armies. This battle is known as that of Hobkirk's Hill.
On the 22nd of May, 1781, the Americans began the attack on Ninety-Six, a small, fortified village near the Saluda river, in the State of South Carolina. The siege lasted twenty-eight days, in which the Americans lost one hundred and eighty-five men. The Americans were unsuccessful, and of. them General Greene writes: "I have only to lament that such brave men fell in an un- successful attempt." Colonel Williams, in writing to his brother, alludes regretfully to the defeat: " We were obliged to relinquish an object which, if attained, would not only have given peace to this distracted country, but would have added a lustre to our former services suffi- ciently brilliant to have thrown a proper light upon the character of our excellent General, and reflected a ray of glory upon each inferior officer. Though we have been greatly disappointed, no troops ever deserved more credit for their exertions. The operations were prose- cuted with indefatigable zeal and bravery, and the place was defended with spirit and address. Our loss is Cap- tain Armstrong, of the Maryland Line, killed; Captain Benson, dangerously wounded, and Lieutenant Duval, also wounded. Besides officers, we lost fifty-eight men killed, sixty-nine wounded, and twenty missing."
At the battle of Eutaw, Otho Williams was in com- mand of two battalions of Marylanders, which Green, in his " Life of Nathaniel Greene," calls " the best corps in the army." Through this fight Williams swept like
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the Angel of Death, bearing down all before him. Greene says of the Maryland troops: "Williams and Howard were with them, and they knew that the bayonet alone could give them victory."
In writing of this battle, Colonel Williams thus con- cludes a letter: "Upon re-perusal of this circumstantial sheet, I do not think I have said enough of the bravery of the American troops. To have an idea of their vivacity and intrepidity, you must have shared their danger and seen their charge, which exceeded anything of the sort I ever saw before. The battle of Eutaw was an example of what I conceive to be obstinate, fair field-fighting, and it is worthy of remark, that it hap- pened on the same spot of ground where, according to the tradition of this country, a very bloody, desperate battle was fought about a century ago between the savage natives and the barbarous Europeans who came to dispossess them of their property, which, in soil, is as rich as any upon the continent, or can be anywhere else. On the spot where the conflict of bayonets de- cided the victory, is a monument or mound of earth, said to have been erected over the bodies of the brave Indians who fell in defence of their country. Will any such honorable testimoney be erected to the memory of our departed heroes ?"
General Greene says with regard to this battle: "I cannot help acknowledging my obligations to Colonel Williams for his great activity on this and many other occasions, in forming the army, and for his intrepidity in leading on the Maryland troops to the charge."
After this contest the Americans did not so much dread the strength of the English in which the greatest reliance had heretofore been felt by friend as well as . foe. Fever, famine, and exposure were more to be dreaded than those visible foes well-clad, well-fed, and well-armed.
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OTIIO HOLLAND WILLIAMS.
The following letter from Scharf's Chronicles, dated July the 7th, 1782, was written by Colonel Williams in behalf of the starving soldiers, to Thomas Sim Lee, the Governor of Maryland :
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 Mary- land Line now with the Southern Army. It is known and ac- knowledged that the troops of the State, ever since the com- mencement of the Revolution, have participated in the greatest fatigues aud 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 satis- faction to the generals who have successively commanded the Southern Army, and particularly to their present enterprising commanding officer, General Greene, under whom they have per- formed 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 nomi- nal, without a supply of 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 subjec- tion, and in a very great degree attached to the enemy. No dis- tress, 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 withont 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 com- panions disbanding themselves and receiving 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 re-
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ceived nor expected, and that every corps by which they have been reinforced, from time to time, have received more or less cash for pay, subsistence, etc., 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 any- thing fatal to the community they serve; but the common sol- diers, who are men of less consideration, will compel them to waive the exercise of their authority, or reduce them to the un- happy 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 ยท 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 Mary- land 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 can- not 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 anti- cipate the necessity of executing property for the tax according to the Act of Assembly, and prevent those calamitous conse- quences that may attend a continuance of their grievances. I beg that the occasion may be my apology for giving your Excel- lency 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.
It is not possible, in a brief sketch, to follow, step by step, the career. of this brave man, who gave the best he had to bestow, to his country's service. Being sent by
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General Greene with dispatches to Congress, he received, during that time, the honorary title of brevet brigadier- general, which circumstance caused among the other colonels of the army a feeling of displeasure. In a letter to General Williams, General Greene says :
"The love of rank is so strong a principle in the breast of a soldier, that he who has a right to promo- tion will never admit another over his head upon a principle of merit. You must content yourself with having obtained it, and that no man is without his ene- mies but a fool. I am glad to hear the sentiments of the public are so fiattering to the southern army. The southern states have acted generously by me, and if I can close the business honorably here, I shall feel doubly happy ; happy for the people, and happy for myself.
I think the public are not a little indebted for our exer- tions. The southern states were lost, they are now re- stored; the American arms were in disgrace, they are now in high reputation. The American soldiery were thought to want both patience and fortitude to contend with difficulties; they are now remarkable for both. That sentiment had taken deep root in Europe, but it is now totally changed. Indeed the change of British administration is in a great degree owing to our efforts, and the consequences resulting from them.
At the time the battle of Eutaw was fought by the ene- my, from returns laid before Parliament, it appears they had in Charleston and in their advanced army, 6,700 men fit for duty, besides all the militia and negroes. What an amazing difference between their force and ours ? From these authorities, I find our operations were much more glorious than ever we considered them."
The following letter, addressed to a friend, is taken from "Lee's Memoirs;" it was written after Williams
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had been promoted to the brigadier-generalship. It is dated May 18th, 1782:
MY DEAR PENDLETON :- Your laconic epistle of the 20th April was handed to me by General St. Clair, in the situation you wished. Involved in a scene of the most agreeable amuse- ments, I have scarcely had time for reflection ; therefore, if I have been guilty of any omission toward you, or any other of my southern friends, I hope it will be imputed to the infatuating pleasures of the Metropolis. My promotion (for which I am principally indebted to my invaluable friend, General Greene,) might prove the efficacy of making a short campaign to court (especially as it had been once rejected), if the circumstances which attended it did not too evidently discover how much the greatest men are actuated by caprice, and how liable the most respectable bodies are to inconsistencies. Upon the application of General Greene, seconded by the recommendation of Wash- ington, the votes of Congress were taken, whether I should or should not be made a brigadier, in consequence of former re- solves, which very clearly, in my opinion, gave me a right to promotion. It was resolved in the negative. Upon the second motion in Congress, the same letters were reconsidered, and the man whose legal claim was rejected (because it was inconveni- ent, or might give umbrage to others), is promoted in considera- tion of his distinguished talents and services. I wish I may be always able to justify and maintain an opinion that does me so much honor. If Congress will please to wink at my imperfec- tions, I will be careful not to meddle with theirs.
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Among the heroes of the Revolution, none are better entitled to our veneration and gratitude than Otho Holland Williams. His bravery was only surpassed by many sacrifices made to Liberty, who, though represent- ing the people, attains her throne through the proudest blood of a nation.
In the quieter life of a private citizen, General Wil- liams preserved the respect of his fellowmen, won on the hazardous field of glory.
On the 21st of November, 1783, he was elected Treas- urer of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which General George Washington was the President.
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After the close of the war, he received the appoint- ment of Collector of Customs of the port in Baltimore, which office was conferred upon him by General Wash- ington.
On the 18th of October, 1785, he married-Miss Mary Smith, the second daughter of William Smith, Esquire, a merchant of influence and wealth in the city of Balti- more. His children, by this happy marriage, were five sons, whose names indicate, in some measure, the love of the father for his patriotic companions. They were Robert Smith, William Elie, Edward Green, Henry Lee and Otho Holland.
Not long before his death, he was offered the actual rank of brigadier-general, which honor he refused to accept. ITis health declining, he undertook a voyage to the Barbadoes in 1793, hoping to experience a benefit from the salt air. A slight improvement in health was of short duration.
In the following year of 1794, while on the way to the Sweet Springs of Virginia, overcome by illness, he was forced to stop at the small town of Woodstock. Here he died on the 15th of July. His body was taken to his farm, the home of his childhood, on the banks of the river Potomac. He was buried in the family grave- 'yard at "Springfield," where he sleeps undisturbed in the shadow of the busy little town of Williamsport.
On page 109, of Green's history, he says of Williams : " Beginning his military career with no advantages of military training, his rare intelligence led him directly. to the true sources, and gave him a clear perception of the fundamental principles of the science. His counsel was always the counsel of a clear, deep and perspicuous mind. Ilis conduct in the field was ardor, tempered by judgment and self-possession; his bearing in camp the system which gives vigor to discipline, and insures
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the punctual fulfillment of every duty. Greene, who had known him in the north, took him at once into his counsels, and communicated his thoughts and designs to him with a freedom and confidence which he seems to have felt with no other but Henry Lee."
He died at the age of forty-five. Mr. Tiffany says of him : " He was prepared ; he had lived the full measure of his fame ; his life had been glorious and happy; he had shrunk from no responsibility ; he had feared noth- ing but to do wrong; he had gained 'honor, love, obedi- ence, troops of friends,' and when at last he met the unconquerable foe, it was with the same calm courage and reliance on a higher power that had been his trust when he had rushed into mortal battle."
In Lee's Memoirs we find the following brave tribute to the brave man : " There was a loftiness and liberality in his character which forbade resort to intrigue and hypocrisy in the accomplishment of his views, and re- jected the contemptible practice of disparaging others to exalt himself. In the field of battle he was self- possessed, intelligent and ardent ; in camp circumspect, attentive and systematic ; in counsel sincere, deep and perspicnous. During the campaigns of General Greene he was uniformly one of his few advisers, and held his unchanged confidence. Nor was he less es- teemed by his brother officers, or less respected by his soldiery."
Thus ends the reading of a soldier's story-a soldier who was loyal to his God as to his country. To bravery and purity of life was joined the courtliness of a modern Bayard. What more can be required of a man ? Not illy chosen seems the family motto: "He who suffers conquers !"
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OH ! WOULD I WERE WITH THEE FOREVER !
0 H! would I were with thee forever, Oh ! would that we never might part, That the joy that now thrills me might ever Fill up every vein of my heart. I have traveled the fairy world over, I have tasted of many a bliss ; But 'twas madness to hope to discover The wealth of a moment like this.
Fate might point to the hour with her finger, That should tear me asunder from thee, Yet my spirit would near thee still linger, And laugh at the harmless decree. But no fancies like these will I cherish, Nor fear the sweet dream will not last- That the bliss of this moment will perish, Or live but a dream of the past.
No! enough that I know thou art near me, Enough that I feel thou art mine- As you gaze in my face, that you hear me, In accents responding to thine. Then away with the future before me, Like a syren still singing of bliss, Not the breath of all Time can allure me, While I live in a moment like this.
GEORGE HAY RINGGOLD,
United States Army.
"THE BOAST OF MARYLAND."
" He was desirous of fame ; of that fame which alone is endur- ing ; the fame which reposes on sound learning, exalted genius and diligent, nay, incessant study."-STORY.
ILLIAM PINKNEY was born at Annapolis, on the Severn river, in the State of Mary- land, the 17th day of March, 1764. His father was an Englishman named Jonathan Pinkney. He was of Norman descent, his ancestors having gone to England with William the Conqueror. His mother was a woman of strong intellectual powers and great tenderness of heart; to her he owed the first part of his education. Jonathan Pinkney was a Royal- ist, espousing that cause with great warmth during the struggle for independence. The boy, however, chose to be a patriot of a more decided order. Sparks, in his biographical sketch of Pinkney, says that "one of the freaks of his patriotism was to escape from the vigi- lance of his parents, and mount night-guard with the soldiers in the fort at Annapolis."
Having imbibed in these early years a hatred of op- pression and oppressors, it inspired at a later period some of his noblest efforts. Owing to the poverty forced upon him by the confiscation of his father's property, his classical education was rather limited. His teacher,
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Mr. Bref-hard, who was the Principal of the King William School, took a profound interest in the em- bryo statesman, at that time just thirteen years of age. (In the College Register for 1794, the name of William Pinkney is entered on the Board of Visitors chosen for that year.) Struggling against the inflictions of pride and poverty. he endeavored to earn his livelihood by labor. It is said that he entered an apothecary store in the city of Baltimore, and while there began the study of medicine under Doctor Dorsey. From this rather obscure position he was drawn by the learned Samuel Chase, under whose direction and encouragement Pink- ney began the study of the law at the age of nineteen.
He appeared as a practitioner before the bar in the year 1786. Leaving Annapolis he went to Harford county, on the Susquehanna river, where his first pro- fessional efforts saw the light. From this district he was sent as a delegate to the State Convention, which ratified the Constitution of the United States of America, in 1788. In October of the same year he was chosen and sent as a member of the House of Delegates.
The eloquent utterances of this wonderful son of genius is counted among the proudest memorials of historical Maryland. His nephew, the Reverend William Pinkney, thus writes of his gifted kinsman : " With a voice of un- common melody and power, an elocution beautifully accurate, and action graceful and impressive, he held the listening crowds upon his tongue in rapt astonish- ment and wonder. The tradition is still alive in Mary- land, which echoes the widespread rumor of his fame." He opposed the law that denied to the slaveholder the power of manumitting those slaves at will. Although battling, as he did, against a host of opponents, his for- cible arguments and lucid reasoning won him many adherents even in the camp of the enemy.
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"If," he said, "emancipation can be effected with the owner's consent, while his understanding is legally com- petent to the act, I care not through what medium- fraud excepted -- should he reduce his family to beggary by it; I should not be the one to repine at the deed. I should glory in the cause of their distress, while I wished them a more honest patrimony."
Sparks says: "This speech breathes all the fire of youth, and a generous enthusiasm for the rights of human nature, although it may not perhaps be thought to give any pledge of those great powers of eloquence and reasoning which he afterward displayed in his mature efforts."
The same writer, in referring again to the abolition of slavery in this country, says: "The more mature and ripened judgment of Mr. Pinkney, as a statesman, seenis to have ultimately settled down into the conviction that colonization was the only practical remedy from which the removal of this plague-spot could even be hoped for."
William Pinkney began well his peerless career of success by an early and happy marriage. So do the strongest souls yield most easily to the divine influences of love.
The woman who graced his honorable name was Miss Ann Maria Rodgers, the daughter of John Rodgers, Esq., of Havre-de-Grace, Maryland. She was the sister of the brave Commodore John Rodgers, of the United States Navy. She possessed great personal beauty, amiability of disposition, and elegance of manner. Her intellect was of a superior order, and it retained its vigor until the close of a long life. She was the mother of ten children, all of whom survived their father. Two of these children, at least, were afterward noted men for brilliancy of intellect and extraordinary cultivation.
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WILLIAM PINKNEY.
In 1790 he was elected member of Congress, but he declined the office.
In 1792 he was elected a member of the Executive Council of Maryland, which position he held for about three years. He was for a time President of that body. He was appointed by President Washington as Commis- sioner from the United States to England in 1796. He remained in that country, engaged in important govern- ment affairs, until 1804. While in London, and not engaged in official or social duties, he occupied the time in study. Under the direction of a tutor he pursued the study of the Latin language, and cultivated in other ways the talents so generously bestowed upon him. While in Europe he enjoyed the society and friendship of many of the most eminent statesmen of that period ; amongst his appreciative friends Mr. Pitt was the most prominent.
Lord Holland, who was also intimate with Mr. Pink- ney, addressed him the following letter:
LONDON, June 1st, 1808.
DEAR SIR :- From fear that you might have thought what I said to you about your boy a mere matter of form, I write again to you, after I have talked it over with Lady Holland, to say that if we are to encounter the misfortune of a war with America, and upon leaving this country you should wish your son to pursue his education here, Lady Holland and myself beg to assure you, that without the least inconvenience to us, we can take care of him during the holidays; and between them ascertain that he is going on properly, and give you all the information you would require upon the progress of his studies, state of his health, etc. I only entreat you to adopt this plan, if otherwise agreeable and convenient, without seruple, as I assure you we should not offer it if we did not feel pleasure in the prospect of its being accepted.
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