USA > Maryland > Harford County > History of Harford County, Maryland : from 1608 (the year of Smith's expedition) to the close of the War of 1812 > Part 14
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In February, 1775, he was elected a member of the Committee of Harford County to represent, with nine other members, the Bush River Lower Hundred, and was present at Harford Town on March 22, 1775, when he signed the memorable declaration of that date. Sam- uel Calwell survived that interesting event about twenty-five years and died in the year 1800.
One of his sons, James Calwell, migrated to Vir- ginia, and was the founder and owner of the Green- brier White Sulphur Springs, which he conducted for many years, helping to make it one of the most cele- brated summer resorts in the United States, and some of his descendants are still living there.
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Another son, William, established himself as a mer- chant in Bel Air, and died in the early part of the last century.
A third son, Thomas, removed to Baltimore and established large and successful flour mills there. The last named was the father of sixteen children, some of whose descendants are still living in Baltimore and Harford counties and in other states. A grandson, Joseph Cushing Calwell, a retired merchant, is living in Brooklyn, N. Y .; another grandson, William G. Wetherall, whose father's family settled in Harford over a century ago, is a prominent iron merchant of Baltimore city, and James S. Calwell, a member of the bar of Baltimore, whose summer home is in Harford, is another grandson, whose children by his marriage with the daughter and only child of the late Daniel Scott and his wife, Cordelia Scott (nee Norris), are descendants of three signers of the Harford declara- tion, that noble band of patriots who risked their lives and fortunes that they and their posterity might enjoy constitutional government, viz : Samuel Calwell, Daniel Scott and Benjamin Bradford Norris.
ISAAC WEBSTER. SAMUEL WEBSTER. RICHARD WEBSTER.
The Webster family is one of the oldest in Har- ford, and has furnished of its members some of the most distinguished men in the county, among these being the Isaac, Samuel and Richard above named, Captain John A. Webster, of the war of 1812 fame, and the late Col. Edwin H. Webster, a distinguished lawyer,
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president of the Maryland Senate, colonel of the Seventh Maryland Regiment, which he organized, member of Congress and twice Collector of the Port of Baltimore. As the scope of this book does not reach past the war of 1812, it is with Isaac, Samuel and Rich- ard that this sketch is especially to deal. The Webster family is of English and Scotch origin, the first to cross the ocean being John, who settled in Virginia, and was known as John of Roanoke; Isaac, who was the progenitor of the present Webster family here; Samuel and Michael. There are patents now in pos- session of the family for land in this county, bearing date in the seventeenth century. The original repre- sentatives of the Websters in this county were of diversified religious belief, some being Quakers and others Episcopalians, many of the present generation being Presbyterians and Methodists. The family coat of arms is a swan feeding its young. A very old seal showing this crest is now in possession of the family.
John Webster was born in 1670, and lived to be eighty-five years of age. His will, dated in 1751, is recorded in the old Will Records of Baltimore County. A son John had died before the testator, and in the latter's will he provides for his children as follows: Sarah, Michael, Samuel, Aliceanna and the Isaac above named.
Samuel, the son of John, was born in 1710, and married Elizabeth Dallam. He was a prominent man in his day and held the important and lucrative office of tobacco inspector at Joppa, then one of the principal ports of the State. Samuel's son, Richard, was born April 7th, 1741, on the family homestead near Calvary,
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in Harford County, and he died in the old stone family residence. He was twice married, his first wife being a daughter of William Lester. Of this union there were three children : John, Samuel and Richard, the latter being the father of Mr. James Webster, now living in the county. His second wife was Phoebe, daughter of George Smith, of Chester County, Penn- sylvania, whose children were: George, Elizabeth, William W., Sarah, Isaac, Wesley, Henry and Phoebe. Henry was the father of Col. Edwin H. Webster and of Mr. William Webster, who now resides on the home place.
Isaac, the son of John, was a leading man in the county before and at the time of the Revolution. He was a member of the Bush River Company, and was a man of wealth and position. His daughter, Aliceanna, married John Bond, of Baltimore Town, who was also a member of the Bush River Company. Aliceanna Bond, daughter of John Bond and Aliceanna Webster, his wife, on May 30th, 1767, married Thomas Kell at Fell's Point, Baltimore. They moved shortly afterwards to Kellville, Harford County, which was their home for the remainder of their lives. The issue of this marriage were :
Alice Kell, June 2nd, 1768.
Elizabeth Kell, July 10th, 1769.
Pamelia Kell, August 5th, 1770. John Bond Kell, July 16th, 1771. Thomas Kell, September 22nd, 1772.
Isaac Kell, August 17th, 1774. Wesley Kell, Aliceanna Kell, Twins, June, 1776.
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William Kell, April 20th, 1777.
Nathan Kell, December 28th, 1778.
Aliceanna Kell, August 15th, 1780. 1.
Elizabeth Kell, October 26th, 1781.
Elizabeth Kell, May 26th, 1783.
Anne Kell, April 25th, 1785.
Harriet Ann Kell, May 23rd, 1786.
The Thomas Kell, born September 27th, 1772, was Judge, Clerk of the Court in Baltimore, and the only native of Harford who was ever Attorney General of the State of Maryland. The latter's daughter, Eliza- beth, on November 10th, 1835, married Augustus W. Bradford, who was born in Bel Air, on January 9th, 1806, and was Governor of Maryland during the Civil War.
A portion of the house in which Governor Bradford was born is now standing and is part of the residence of his son, Mr. Samuel Webster Bradford, on Main street, Bel Air.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE WAR OF 1812.
NATIONAL CONDITIONS-WEAK FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-VALUABLE ASSISTANCE BY THE FRENCH-FORT MCHENRY-NORTH POINT -CAPT. JOHN A. WEBSTER, COL. WILLIAM SMITH AND COL. JOHN STREETT, ALL OF HARFORD, ASSIST IN THE DEFENCE OF BALTI- MORE-SKETCH OF CAPTAIN WEBSTER-BRITISH ATTACK UPON HAVRE DE GRACE-JOHN O'NEIL-COLONEL SMITH'S 42D REGI- MENT.
There are old men yet with us who in their youth have seen soldiers of the Revolution, but even young men can remember soldiers of the war of 1812, and the meetings of veterans of that war held annually in Bal- timore have only within the past decade ceased on account of the death of the last survivors. Many men of middle age now living in Harford had fathers who served in that war. Our distinguished fellow-citizen, Capt. John A. Webster, a participant in that conflict, reached his journey's end at his home, "The Mount," in the first district, on July 4, 1877, and so the events of that time in a certain sense may be considered mod- ern. The causes of that war are well known, and the victories on the sea and disasters on land are too famil- iar to be recounted here. The successful financial sys- tem of Hamilton had not been kept up. Jefferson became President 1801, and with him came in the doctrines of individual liberty, States rights and poor
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finances. Under the administration of Jefferson and Madison the public taste for home government, State sovereignty and equal rights was freely indulged, but the arm of the federal power was allowed to become weak and feeble, so that when the time came for the nation to act as such and resist the encroachment of her most bitter enemy, the loose fabric of the Federal Government, as then administered, was entirely inade- quate to the situation. Here again fortune came to our side in the assistance rendered by France. In the Rev- olution, when the English held our large cities, while the army of Washington was suffering from cold and hunger at Valley Forge, while the British lived in com- fort and plenty in the cities of New York, Philadel- phia and Boston, when the conservative element of the country, many of whom had come from Severn and from Clyde and from the banks of Shannon, were ask- ing themselves whether the game was worth carrying on, the news, long delayed, which finally came, that the French government had decided to assist us, revived the drooping spirits of the patriots and inspired them to press on to victory. And at that final struggle at Yorktown, when the army of Cornwallis was sur- rounded by that of Washington, out in the bay was the fleet of De Grasse, and the forces of Rochambeau were assisting the American Army, the presence of the French contributing much to the final result.
And so in the war of 1812, while we were doing the best we could with our improvised army, we had a friend in France whose wooden walls on sea were suf- ficient to monopolize the attention of the British fleet. The traveler in London who passes along the Strand sees at Trafalgar Square, high over the beating hearts
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of that great city, the column erected to Nelson, and on it, leaning against a capstan, the one-armed sailor who gave his life for his country in the cockpit of the Vic- tory ; and when one remembers that Nelson's triumphs were over the French alone, and what a relief passed through the hearts of the people of England at the vic- tory of Trafalgar, we may know that the French were no mean rivals of the English, even on the seas. And thus in the war of 1812, when England had to contend with her ancient rival, as well as with her defiant daughter across the sea, the double burden was more than she could withstand.
The events of the war were startling and contra- dictory. While on the seas the natural quality of the American sailor asserted itself, and victories were often obtained over great odds; on the land for the most part the battles ended in disaster to the American side. There is one great exception-that of Jackson at New Orleans-who infused into his hastily recruited sol- diers something of his indomitable spirit, and won out a victory with a loss of but thirteen men, while two thousand of the enemy went down before his guns. In the history of the world there is scarcely such a record for disparity of losses, except in the naval engagements at Manila and Santiago de Cuba, nearly a hundred years later, when the American fleets utterly destroyed the forces of Spain, hundreds of the enemy being killed or captured, with the loss of but one American life in both engagements.
At the commencement of hostilities a number of com- panies in the State offered their services to the Federal Government, but the national finances were in such a miserable condition that they could only be accepted
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at the charge of the State. In the city of Baltimore nearly a regiment was sent forward under the com- mand of Col. Wm. H. Winder, the expense of the com- mand being defrayed by private subscription, about fif- teen thousand dollars being raised in this way. Indeed, the defence of Baltimore, a large city, within forty miles of the national capital, depended largely on State aid and private contributions.
In the attack by the British fleet on Fort McHenry, Captain John A. Webster, of Harford, rendered valuable service to his country and won well-merited fame. Captain Webster was born at "The Mount," about five miles from Bel Air, on September 19, 1789. He was the son of Samuel Webster and Margaret Adams, his wife, the latter, being a member of the distinguished Adams family of Massachusetts, which gave two Presidents to the country. The first Web- sters came to this country early in the eighteenth cen- tury from England, and settled, Isaac and Richard in Maryland, Michael in New England, and John in Vir- ginia, where he was known as John of Roanoke. Daniel Webster, the great Senator, came from the New England branch. When fourteen years old Captain Webster began his life on the sea by sailing for South America in a merchant vessel, and afterwards made many voyages to foreign ports. At the beginning of the war of 1812 he was appointed a third lieutenant by Commodore Barney on the privateer Rossie, and served during the whole period of the war.
On the organization of the Flotilla at Baltimore he was made sailing master in the navy, and had charge of one of the barges. He was with Commodore Barney in all his engagements. At the request of General
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Smith, he was detached from his appointment and ordered to command the six-gun battery between Forts McHenry and Covington, and was the first to discover and open fire on the British ships on the night of Sep- tember 13, 1814, and remained on duty during the engagement, though he was twice wounded. In recog- nition of his services he was presented with two hand- some gold-mounted swords-one by the State of Mary- land and the other by the city of Baltimore. The National Government gave him a pension of twenty dollars per month and paid for property lost by him.
On March 1, 1816, President Madison appointed him a sailing master in the United States Navy, in which position he served for a considerable time, and on account of his experience and nautical skill he was frequently assigned to perform important duties out- side the line of his official position.
On February 8, 1816, he was married to Miss Rachel Biays, daughter of Col. Joseph Biays, who, with his brother James, had served in the Revolution.
On November 22, 1819, President Madison issued Captain Webster a commission as captain in the reve- nue marine, which position he held at the time of his death-July 4, 1877.
While in the revenue marine, Captain Webster per- formed important services, among them being his command of eight revenue vessels to act with the army and navy against Vera Cruz and upon the Rio Grande in the Mexican war.
Captain and Mrs. Webster were the parents of eleven children, viz : Margaret, the widow of William R. Bissell, who was killed in command of a com- pany in Pickett's charge in the battle of Gettysburg;
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Dr. J. Biays Webster, Susan A. Webster, Laura A., wife of John C. Patterson; William S. Webster ; Jo- sephine, wife of Dr. William Dallam; John A. Web- ster, also of the revenue marine service ; Mary A., wife of Algernon S. Dorsey; Benj. M. Webster; Rachel Cassandra, wife of Gen. Frank A. Bond, and Isaac P. Webster.
Captain Webster and his wife lie buried in the family burying ground at "The Mount." Harford may be justly proud of the career of this one of her most dis- tinguished sons, who was ever ready to respond to the call of duty, and who spent his life in the service of his country.
For the defence of Baltimore, Generals Smith, Win- der and Stricker had assembled of State militia, regular troops and detachments from Virginia and Pennsylva- nia about twelve thousand men. The battle of North Point came off on September 12; the enemy were checked, and General Ross, the commander, killed. The attack on Fort McHenry failed, and the British were forced to retreat.
At the battle of North Point, the Harford Regiment known as the Forty-second Maryland Militia, under the command of Col. William Smith, constituted part of the reserve, and Col. John Streett, with the Harford cavalry command, was present and participated in the battle.
As Great Britain was at war with France, then as now a great naval power, they did not at first prose- cute vigorously the war in America.
But in December, 1812, the ports and harbors of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays were declared by the
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British Government in a state of blockade, and Admi- ral Cockburn, with a British fleet consisting of four ships of the line, six frigates and a number of smaller vessels, entered the Chesapeake and took possession of Hampton Roads. This force was speedily increased, and by March of the year 1813, the whole coast was in a state of blockade, except Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which sections had opposed the war, and on that account were spared by the enemy. There was no force with which we could oppose this powerful fleet, as the navy and coast defences had been neglected by the young government.
Captain John Southcomb, in the schooner Lottery, with letters of marque, carrying six guns and twenty- eight men, on February 8, 1813, was attacked by nine boats of the enemy containing more than two hundred men. An engagement ensued, lasting two hours and a half, in which the British loss was more than the whole number of the crew of the American schooner. The captain of the Lottery was killed and the vessel was captured.
In April of the same year the American privateer schooner Dolphin engaged several vessels of the enemy at the mouth of the Rappahannock river, but was defeated and captured. The arrival of the British fleet spread consternation throughout the State. The State capital was in a defenseless condition, and the govern- ment at Washington was unable to furnish aid. The Governor of the State made repeated demands upon the Secretary of War for arms and men, but little assistance came from this source, and the defence of the State and city of Baltimore was left to themselves.
In the spring of 1813, the British moved up the
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HISTORY OF HARFORD COUNTY.
Chesapeake, landing at different points and plundering wherever they set foot. General Winder made the best defence of the city of Baltimore possible with his available means. The channel was obstructed, cannon mounted, and Colonel Wardsworth, of the United States engineers, laid off fortifications. The enemy's fleet moved off towards the head of the bay.
They plundered Sharp's, Poole's, Tilghman's and Poplar Islands, and then entered upon their design of pillaging and destroying the towns and villages at the head of the bay. On April 29, Lieutenant Westphal, of the British warship Marlborough, in command of thirteen barges, with four hundred men, made an attack on Frenchtown, at the mouth of the Susque- hanna, in Cecil county. Here they destroyed a num- ber of small vessels, and the wharves and warehouses. They next turned their attention to Havre de Grace, on the other side of the river, in Harford county. In anticipation of the arrival of the enemy, on a high bank just below the town, three cannon were mounted-one nine-pounder and two six-pounders- and a small battery was erected at Concord Point, where the lighthouse now stands. Early on the morn- ing of May 2 the enemy began to bombard the city without a moment's warning. Nineteen barges from the enemy's squadron appeared before the town and sent a dreadful fire of shell, shot and rockets. After a short bombardment the enemy landed and proceeded to shell the town. Only one house-that of Mr. Pringle-was left uninjured.
There were a few militia on hand, but they speedily fled. The story of the sad fate of Havre de Grace is redeemed by the brave conduct of one of her
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citizens, John O'Neil, who remained firing the cannon after all others had fled, and was severely injured by the recoil of his gun .*
The following is from a contemporaneous account: "The place, though called a town, contained only a few warehouses, a tavern, two or three dwelling- houses, with a few stables and outhouses, deriving its whole importance from being the 'stopping place' of the 'land and water line of stages between Philadel- phia and Baltimore.' On the report of guns we im- mediately jumped out of our beds, and from the top of the house could plainly see the balls and hear the cries of the inhabitants. We ran down the road, and soon began to meet the distressed people-women and children half naked; children inquiring for their par- ents, parents for their children and wives for their husbands. It appeared to us as if the whole town was on fire. I think this act, committed without any previous warning, has degraded the British flag.
"The enemy robbed every house of everything valu- able that could be carried away, leaving not a change of raiment to one of ten persons, and whatever they could not take conveniently they destroyed by cutting in pieces or breaking to atoms. The Admiral himself was present at this work of destruction, and gave orders for it to his officers. Mrs. John Rogers, wife of the commodore, Mrs. William Pinkney and Mrs. Goldsborough took shelter at Mr. Mark Pringle's. When a detachment was sent up to burn that elegant building, Mrs. Goldsborough told the officer that she had an aged mother in it, and begged it might be spared. The officer replied that he acted under the
*Scharf's History.
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admiral, and it would be necessary to obtain his con- sent. Mrs. Goldsborough returned with the officer and detachment and obtained the permission that the house might be spared; but when she reached it she found it on fire, and met two men, one with a sheet, the other with a pillow-case crammed full coming out, which she could not then notice, but ran upstairs and found a large wardrobe standing in the passage all aflame. William Pinkney, who was with her, and two of the marines by great exertion saved the house; but some of the wretches after that took the cover from the sofa in the front room and put coals in it, and it was in flames before it was discovered. An officer put his sword through a large elegant looking glass, at- tacked the windows and cut out several sashes. They cut hogs through the back, and some partly through, and then left them to run. Such wanton barbarity among civilized people I have never heard of."*
O'Neill himself has given a graphic account of his experience on that day : "No doubt before this you have heard of my defeat. On the third instant we were at- tacked by fifteen English barges at break of day. We had a small breastwork erected with two six and one nine-pounder in it, and I was stationed at one of the guns. When the alarm was given I ran to the battery and found but one man there, and two or three came afterwards. After firing a few shots they retreated and left me alone in the battery. The grape shot flew very thick about me. I loaded the gun myself without any one to serve the vent, which, you know, is very dangerous, and fired her, when she recoiled and ran
*Scharf's History.
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over my thigh. I retreated down to town and joined Mr. Barnes, of the nail manufactory, with a musket, and fired on the barges while we had ammunition, and then retreated to the common, where I kept waving my hat to the militia, who had run away, to come to our assistance, but they proved cowardly and would not come back. At the same time an English officer on horseback, followed by the marines, rode up and took me with two muskets in my hand. I was carried on board the Maidstone frigate, where I remained until released, three days since."*
"John O'Neill was born in Ireland on the 23d of No- vember, 1788, and came to America at the age of eighteen years. He was in the military service under Gen. Henry Lee in quelling the whisky insurrection in 1794, and in 1798 entered the naval service against the French. He became a prosperous merchant at Havre de Grace and the destruction of the place ruined his business. When the present lighthouse was built on Concord Point, in 1829, he became its keeper, and con- tinued as such until his death, the 26th of January, 1838. For his gallantry at the "Potato Battery" the city of Philadelphia presented him with a beautiful sword."t
In that war there was organized in the lower section of the county the Forty-second Regiment of militia, under the command of Col. William Smith.
There are very few old men yet living who remember Colonel Smith. The time of the organization of this regiment is not exactly known. From what little light we have it began in 1813. The last communication to Colonel Smith from Major Black, brigade inspector,
*Scharf's History. +Scharf's History.
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was on August 24, 1825. Its existence then would be about twelve years. Patterson's old fields, on the road from Havre de Grace to Bush, six or seven miles from the former place, was the parade ground of the regi- ment. July 14, 1814, Colonel Smith communicated to General Foreman that he had called out the Forty- second Regiment for duty, and had appointed Captains Ruff, Bradford, Courtney and Sheckles over four com- panies, consisting of sixty-four privates detached from the whole regiment. He also stationed a picket guard, with Major Burkhead, on Strong's Hill, Gunpowder Neck, with a sergeant and six privates, having a full view of the Chesapeake bay from Spesutie Island to Kent Island, to watch the British. There is no record of the regiment being at the battle of Havre de Grace, but it is certain Colonel Smith, with his regiment, was behind the intrenchments on Loudenslager's Hill when General Ross attacked Baltimore, but he was not in the battle of North Point.
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