USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 35
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The enemy with eleven barges made an attack on the little fort at mouth of the harbor of St. Michaels, on Tuesday morning, the 10th inst., and under a dark cloud, and were not seen until they were landing. They were fired on by two guns, and the men from the fort retreated with the loss of their muskets. The guns were spiked and the enemy embarked, and commenced a cannonade upon the town. There were fifteen well directed shot from our guns, which made the enemy retreat; ten of the shot were fired by Lieut. Graham from his battery, and five from Lieut. Vickars. There was much blood on the grass at the water. One pair of boarding pistols, two boarding cutlasses, two cartridge boxes and a pair of pumps were left. The barges fell down to the brig three or four miles, and remained until 9 or 10 o'clock; nine of them went to Kent Island, in slow order; two went to the Admiral's ship. The militia generally behaved well, and I have no doubt the same body would meet the conflict with redoubled ardor. Some of the houses were perforated, but no injury to any human being. This showeth the hand of a protecting providence.13 (signed,) P. BENSON, B.G.
Foiled in their first attempt upon St. Michaels, the enemy, on the 26th of August landed at the farm of Col. Auld, now owned by J. W.
13 It is proper to say this report does not tally in some particulars with the recollections yet living who were participants in the affair.
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Kemp, Esq., a large force represented by some to have been 1800 men from sixty barges, and moved upwards towards the town. Genl. Benson disposed his troops in such manner as to deter the commander, Sir Sidney Beckwith, from executing his purpose. Towards evening the British forces were reembarked, and joined the fleet off Kent Point. In a letter to the editor of the Republican Star written by S. Dickinson, Brigade Major, under the direction of Genl. Benson, it is said:
The militia presented a determined front in support of their country's rights.
On the 30th the troops at St. Michaels were discharged, the enemy's fleet having left its anchorage and stood down the bay, when the General in command issued the following:
BRIGADE ORDERS
August 30, 1813. As the British are on their way down the Bay, the militia at this Post are discharged, except such a guard as Col. Auld may see proper to keep here. The Caroline militia will deliver their arms and cartridges to the Armorer at Easton; the extra arms will be delivered to the Quarter Master, Mr. Garey, to be sent to Easton. The General, in behalf of the country, sincerely thanks the militia that have remained at this place, under many privations, and in some in- stances under disagreeable circumstances. In sight of a menacing enemy, the troops presented a determined front in support of their country's rights. All the commandants of Corps and Companies are on their return to their respective homes, to order court martial on all deserters and delinquents. There is to be no firing of guns-no waste of cart- ridges. Every officer stands responsible for the safe keeping of arms and equipments-and as the main body of the militia have done them- selves honor, the General hopes and flatters himself that they will return home with the same honor.
Again, in the spring of 1814, the British fleet made its appearance in the bay, and from that time onward during the summer continued to annoy the people along its shores and the water courses making into it. The militia of the county was kept on the alert. In October there was great alarm created by the presence of the enemy at the mouth of Chop- tank, and the marauding parties which were sent from the fleet along the shores of that river and its tributaries. A considerable force of militia was assembled at Easton, under the command of Genl. Benson, in anticipation of an attack on that town by barges sent up Third Haven. But these citizen soldiers were, fortunately perhaps, not called upon to contend with the British regulars, and when the danger was
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passed they were dismissed, and soon after the commander issued the following address, through the public press of the county to the forces which had been under arms at Easton:
WHEATLAND, Nov. 7, 1814.
Sir: In justice to the patriot band of militia I had the honor to command and dismiss on the morning of the 2nd inst., at Easton, I wish it to be know that on the morning of the 20th ultimo, after they had been lying upon their arms all night with a probability of an attack from the enemy, at their 4 o'clock parade, A. M., from report of the officers, there was not one absentee from any of the corps. There appeared to be no party but one, and that was WE ARE ONE. You will please hand this to each of the editors of papers in Easton.
Your humble servant,
P. BENSON, B. C.
(signed,)
Robert Spencer, Esq., A. D. C.
Although there were those who severely criticised the management of the military operations in the years 1813 and 1814 in Talbot, there was a perfect unanimity of opinion as to the intense military ardor, and the fearless bravery displayed by the commanding general: indeed it was those very qualities which caused him to give ground for these animad- versions. He displayed such an anxiety to engage with his adversary and placed such confidence in the soldiery under his command, attribut- ing to them the same firmness and courage he himself possessed, that he was said to have exhibited something of rashness or temerity upon the approach of the enemy.14
With the war the military career of General Benson was terminated. During the remainder of his life, by reason of long peace, he was debarred from serving his country in that capacity for which alone he was fitted. He was not called upon to gird on his sword, except for display on certain festive occasions, or to attend the annual muster of the militia of the county. In those reviews or parades of the citizen soldiers which the
14 Mr. Robt. H. Goldsborough, who was present at the affair of St. Michaels commanding a body of horse, says of the troops and their general; "the force he could levy consisted entirely of militia, but they were militia who derived courage as well from their innate love of country as from the confidence they felt in their veteran commander, which seemed to prepare them to breast danger in defence of their native soil. *
* * The enemy was met and repulsed with an energy and bravery which would have reflected honor on veteran soldiers. On this occasion the General offered in his own conduct an example of coolness and firmness in the midst of personal peril."
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law at one time required, he participated with the utmost zest; for although they were but poor travesties of the
Pride, pompt and circumstance of glorious war,
they served to recall scenes in his life to which he reverted with peculiar pleasure. His military vanity was gratified in 1819 by the reception from Governor Charles Goldsborough of the commission of a Major- General of the Maryland militia, dating from the 1st of November of that year, and accompanied by the following flattering letter:
ANNAPOLIS, Nov. 3, 1819.
DEAR SIR :- I have much pleasure in having it in my power to present to so meritorious an officer of the Revolution, as you are well known to have been, the commission of Major General in the Militia of Maryland. I hope you will not decline to accept it, but beg leave to accompany it with the assurance of the respect and regard with which I am,
Dear Sir, Your Ob't Servant, C. GOLDSBOROUGH.
The monotony of the life of this our Cincinnatus, who had returned to his plough, was pleasantly diversified by occasional meetings at his own home, in the town of Easton, or during his visits abroad, with his old companions-in-arms. Under the exhilaration of such meetings, like the retired soldier of all times, he
Fought his battles o'er again,
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.
But the most gratifying of all these meetings was that with General Lafayette, when that friend of America was in the city of Baltimore, in the year 1824. At an assembly of
the freedom of Talbot county at the Court House in the town of Easton, on Tuesday, the 21st of September, 1824, to give a proper and united expression of their joy on the arrival of Gen'l Lafayette in this country.
Gen'l Benson was placed in the chair, and Tench Tilghman, Esq., appointed Secretary. A committee was appointed to draft an address to the distinguished visitor, expressive of the sentiments of the citizens of the county. This address having been adopted, a deputation consist- ing of Major Gen'l Perry Benson, Robert H. Goldsborough, Esq., and the Hon. Edward Lloyd was chosen by the convention to present the same in person to Gen'l Lafayette upon his arrival in Baltimore. This agreeable duty was accordingly performed, and its discharge made a part
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of the proceedings at those fetes, which, in October, were celebrated in honor of the guest of the State and of the nation. He made one of that patriotic band who were by privilege admitted to the sacred precincts of the tent of Washington, which was spread on this occasion, to receive the distinguished visitor. The scene that was there witnessed was one of the most touching in all our history. Although Benson was a man of rugged character and "unused to the melting mood" it is not difficult to believe that, like all who were present at the memorable meeting of Lafayette with his old companions-in-arms, he had his sensibilities most deeply moved, and that he too was dissolved in tears. After these emotions had subsided, it is altogether probable that Lafayette, who was just from Philadelphia, where he had heard repeated an hundred times the story of the field of Brandywine and Germantown, had his French politeness tested by having to listen to the old veteran of Talbot rehearse his version of those fights. Another diversification of his quiet life besides that of occasional association with old companions, was his custom of spending a part of the summer away from his house and family under his tent, which he had preserved from his revolutionary service. This, an officer's marquee, he would spread in his large lawn extending down to the river, and there beneath its shelter, he would attempt to renew the life of the camp. To any guest who might visit him he offered merely a soldier's fare taken from his chest; and that this feigned campaigning might possess a realism which could not be disputed, he sometimes made that fare as poor and scant as ever continental soldier was compelled to accept in the darkest of revolutionary days. But liquor rations were never shortened in these summer quarters.
General Benson took little part in politics. After the parties under the present form of government became defined, he allied himself with the Federalists, and with them he continued to act during his life. He seems to have had no political aspirations whatever, and never held but one position of a political or civil character. In the year 1798, the year of the ever memorable contest for a seat in Congress between Mr. Hindman and Mr. Seney, he was a candidate for the House of Delegates. The Republicans, or Democrats, elected three of their ticket, but there was a tie between General Benson and David Kerr, Esq., another very popular Federal gentleman, which rendered a new election necessary when Gen'l Benson was chosen. At another time his name was men- tioned in connection with the sheriffalty, but he never stood for that or any other office. He was no partisan, but an intense patriot. At a time when it was the custom of their opponents to reproach Federalists
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with tory sentiments or a subservience to foreign influence, it would have been dangerous for any man, in his presence, to insinuate that Gen'l Benson was actuated by any other than the sincerest devotion to his country.
It does not appear that he was in connection with any religious body. In early life he was brought under the influence of the Methodists, but fell away from the austere rule of life of that people-so at least says Asbury, whom Benson visited in Virginia, in his journal. Later he claimed a birthright in the Protestant Episcopal Church. But he was too honest and sincere to pretend to a piety with which his conduct was not always in consonance. 'Twas said, "our armies swore terribly in Flanders." Armies the world over, have done so. Benson was but a soldier, and maintained the reputation of the army in the particular attributed to it by Uncle Toby.
He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and the lodge at Easton honored him with a burial according to its impressive ritual.
He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Agri- cultural Society for the Eastern Shore: and this club of very respectable gentlemen very properly appointed him in 1824 one of a committee to notify Gen'l Lafayette of his election to a membership in that body, and to extend to him an invitation to attend the cattle show to be held at Easton in that year.
He belonged to the Society of the Cincinnati. The Diploma of the Society, signed by General Washington, indicates the date of his election as of the 27th of July 1793. It is sacredly preserved by his surviving daughter as the patent of a true nobility.
General Benson was twice married, each time to a daughter of Henry Johnson, Esq., and a sister of Dr. Theodore Johnson, an eminent physician in this county, of a past generation. The last of his wives only bore him children, and of these three survived their father, namely: Elizabeth Johnson, who married first Mr. Thomas Bond, and then Mr. Louis Pascault; George Robert, and James Henry. Of these, Mrs. Pascault alone is alive at this date, but she is enjoying a vigorous old age, respected for her own personal virtues, and venerated for her years and reputable ancestry. It is believed there are no descendants of General Benson of the second generation.
The personal appearance of General Benson was that of a strong robust man. He was above the ordinary height in stature, being six feet one inch or more. He was spare of habit but muscular. In complexion he was dark but florid. His bearing was that of the soldier, erect, and state-
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ly. The entire loss of the use of his left arm which he habitually carried in a sling, did not prevent him from mounting his horse, but his wound gave him pain throughout his life. His latter years were attended with much physical suffering which he bore with the fortitude that was be- coming a good soldier. It is said that in his last hours he enjoyed the consoling influence of religion, and that he met his last enemy with the same courage that he had encountered him so often upon the field of battle. He died after a lingering illness on Tuesday, the second of October, 1827. He was buried at Wheatland with Masonic honors, and was attended to his grave by a large number of the most respect- able people of the county, his friends and neighbors.
The impressions of General Benson which are meant to be conveyed by this survey of his life and career, are the same that would be derived from the representations of those persons, still living, who knew him and who are capable of forming a proper estimate of his character. He was a "plain blunt man," without pretension and without affectation. He claimed to be but a soldier. It was his pride to have been a soldier of the revolution. He had a soldier's qualities. He was frank, loyal, brave frank to bluntness, passionately loyal, fearlessly brave. As an officer he is represented to have been a rigid disciplinarian, but thoughtful of the comfort and safety of his command. In his inter- course with men he was somewhat brusque, but he had that politeness of the heart that peers through bluff speech and rough manners. In the domestic circle he was indulgent and affectionate. Love of country was his absorbing passion. The most marked quality of his mind was his courage; and he was well characterized when he was called "the intrepid Benson."
No stone marks his grave. The citizens of this county would honor themselves while they honor him, if they would erect some monument to his memory, before she passes away, who, perhaps alone, can point out the spot where repose the remains of the most conspicuous soldier Talbot sent into the army of independence, and as brave a man as ever faced the enemies of his country, on the field of battle.
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COL. JEREMIAH BANNING
COL. JEREMIAH BANNING. 1733-1798
Dis carus ipsis quippe ter et quater Anno revisens aquor Atlanticum Impune. HOR. LIB. i OD. XXXi.
The physical features of this county of Talbot, with its extraordinary extensive shore line, its numerous deep navigable water courses pene- trating into every part of its territory, and communicating with that of neighboring counties, taken in connection with its proximity to the great ocean through the noble Chesapeake bay that washes its western borders, to which may be added its originally magnificent forest growth of timber trees, seems to have destined it to be the home of a sea-faring, ship-building and ship owning people. In fact we find that from the beginning it had a class, proportionately large, of citizens who lived by the sea-sailors and shipwrights of every grade. To a maritime population the sea has its fascinations hardly to be resisted. One can- not say whether its strongest lures are its smiles or its frowns; the pleasures it affords, or the dangers which it threatens; the competence which it brings or the promises which it violates. To "go to sea" was the chosen employment many a Talbot youth, long before the minds of boys had been excited by the tales which modern literature has furnished them in such luxuriant abundance of adventure upon that element; and to become a Master of a vessel trading between Choptank or Ches- ter river with England or the West Indies was to realize the highest aspirations of the most ambitious lad, who from his home upon some quiet cove or creek saw the great tobacco ships as they were wafted out of the Easton bay, or lay becalmed off Sharp's Island in the Chesapeake. To a people thus seated by the sea, as it were, or living upon its bosom the ship, as might be expected of them, was considered at once the most valuable and the most beautiful of human creations. It was the agent that brought almost all that was prized to their humble homes: it real- ized their ideal of what was most pleasing to the eye of man's construc- tion. The generalization may be ventured that as among maritime races of imperfect development their boats are the first objects, of not a strictly personal nature, upon which their taste is exercised for the production of graceful forms and ornamentation according to their own canons; so in Talbot ships were the first great objects of creative art in the construction of which the æsthetic feelings sought gratification. In their model and rig something more than simple adaptation to useful
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purposes was sought to be attained by rough artisans who had but a glimmering thought that beauty itself is utility of the highest kind. It is safe to say there were built in the county many noble ships of fine lines and elegant finishing long before there was a single house that could justly claim any architectural beauty of design or decorative ornamenta- tion, if not indeed before there was one that could be called comfortable, even though the ugliness which was common to them all, might not be considered discomforting.
The exigencies of the sailor's life call into exercise some of the best faculties of the mind, and are therefore calculated to develop the strong- est characters. Fortitude under hardship; courage in the presence of danger, foresight to anticipate it; dexterity to avoid it, or vigor to over- come it; self-reliance that does not extinguish but fosters trust in others; loyalty to duty; generosity, too apt to be prodigal; piety, too often without foundation in morals or equally often mingled with supersti- tion; a love of liberty which has its usual expression either in a devoted patriotism when his country is free, or in unlawful protests against authority when his country is oppressed-these are some of the qualities which are nourished and trained by the rough "calling of the sea-faring man."
Talbot is not without examples of the happy results of such a life, and it is now proposed to present an account of one of the most worthy of these-one in whom the best qualities of the bold, the skillful, the faith- ful, the generous, the patriotic sailor was conspicuously displayed and illustrated, Jeremiah Banning, of the Isthmus. Fortunately it is pos- sible to give this account, at least so far as it shall relate the story of his earlier years, or those spent in the prosecution of his calling of mariner- merchant, in his own words. It was Mr. Banning's custom, originating doubtless in the duty of writing the logs of his many voyages, to keep a journal of a personal character, in which, however, he noted many in- cidents which especially attracted his attention, whether curious or important. As a part of this journal, a short time before his death he prepared for the gratification of his children a brief auto-biography. The journal of Mr. Banning is carefully preserved by one of his descend- ants, who for reasons that she considers imperative and which are cer- tainly most worthy and creditable, declines allowing it to be examined by any one except those bound to the author by the same ties of kinship as those which bind her, or by ties of a similar kind. But the custodian of this "Day Book," as it is called, has most generously furnished ex- tracts from it to the compiler of these contributions, and has kindly
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consented that these extracts shall be published. They are therefore here presented without alteration or abridgment, and are said to be the very words of the writer himself. A few notes are affixed by way of elucidation, and an appendix or supplement is added for the purpose of relating what Mr. Banning has omitted. It may be well to introduce this autobiographical sketch by the statement that Mr. Banning was a native of Talbot county, and the son of Mr. James Banning by his wife Jane. After the death of his father, his mother married Mr. Nicho- las Goldsborough, who having no children of his own adopted those of his wife, and dying left them his property. These children were Jeremiah, Anthony and Henry Banning, each of whom occupied positions of the highest respectability in society and have left descendants who are proud to trace their origin to such an honored and honorable ancestry. Anthony removing in 1771 to Chestertown, Kent county, there married, settled, accumulated large property, and died December 27, 1787, in his 47th year, leaving an only daughter, and heiress, Catherine Banning, who intermarried with Benjamin Chew, Esq., of Germantown, Pa., one of the well-known family of that name. Henry remaining in Talbot, was a gentleman of social and political prominence, having been one of the Justices of the Peace, or Judges of the County Court from 1774 to 1778. He was chosen by the convention one of the Captains of a Com- pany of militia in 1775, and as such aided in protecting the country during the war of the Revolution. He was a vestryman of St. Michaels Parish for a number of years, from 1768 to 1783, but subsequently be- came identified with the Methodists. At his house meetings of the people of this denomination were held before churches or chapels had been erected for their accommodation. He died at a great age, Aug. 19, 1718, leaving children, one of whom was Mr. Anthony Banning, re- membered by many still living as a man whose precise formal and digni- fied manners and habits did not misbecome a character of singular probity, purity and piety. Of the children of Jeremiah the eldest son of James and Jane Banning mention will be made in the sequel. The following are the extracts from his journal referred to above.
Jeremiah Banning was born in Talbot county on the 25th of March, 1733, and received an education sufficient to qualify him for mercantile pursuits and for a mariner, to which latter occupation his disposition always led him from his earliest youth.
In order to learn a thorough knowledge of seamanship he entered before the mast on board the snow, Mary & Nancy, commanded by Captain Edward Rooke, a near relation of the great Admiral of the same name, who was a sensible man, a gentleman, and an ingenius and
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able navigator, but unfortunately inherited a small portion of discretion. This was a new vessel, just off the stocks, and then lying up Choptank river, ready to put out on a voyage to Madeira.
In May, 1751, they sailed from Wye River in the said snow, and re- turned to Maryland in the September following without meeting with any incident worthy of note; though to a speculative mind it is natural to imagine the feelings upon the first appearance of the unbounded ocean. The stupendous height of the Western Islands, particularly that of Pico, which was the first land he ever saw, save that of his native country, the top of which appeared to soar far above the clouds; the Portugese pilot coming on board; the health and custom-house officers, their, to him, unintelligible language had to the young and inquisitive mind a peculiar effect. To this may be added the new and various scenes that opened to his view upon visiting the superb cathedral, the splendor and riches of which seemed to have exhausted all Brazil and Peru of their treasures. Their convents, in one of which was a room for meditation whose walls were wainscoted with human bones, four of the thigh bones being placed in the wall when the mortar was green, forming a diamond, the space being filled with five human skulls; the backs were in like manner fixed, a faint glimmering of light, just sufficient to render the whole more visible, gave it the most solemn, awful and humiliating aspect that can possibly be conceived.
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