An “Ordinary” Soldier for American Independence

During the 250th year of American independence, we’ll hear about the lawyers, merchants, and plantation owners who signed the Declaration of Independence and about the generals and politicians who planned the strategy. Please take a few minutes, as well, to consider the “ordinary” soldiers who actually fought and won America’s Revolutionary War. Every soldier was a unique individual, and Private Thomas DeArmond’s story is offered here only as an example of the extraordinary range of heroism that deserves to be remembered and honored.

Thomas DeArmond stepped forward to volunteer on August 17, 1776—just 44 days after the Declaration was signed. He was illiterate, unable even to tell Army paymasters how to spell his unusual name. He made his “X” instead, signifying his commitment to serve for the next three years in Alexander Lawson Smith’s Company, Rawlings’ Rifle Regiment, Continental Army. DeArmond was then 41 years old, living with his wife and two sons on a farm in the backwoods of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He was illiterate but far from ignorant about hardship and international politics. He knew the stories told in his Huguenot family about their being driven from France for their Protestant faith, and he knew firsthand about the religious and other conflicts in Northern Ireland, where he was born. As a young adult, DeArmond immigrated to Pennsylvania with his Huguenot wife in search of a better life. Their arrival around 1760 was soon disrupted by tragedy when DeArmond’s wife and child died in childbirth. He had more resources than most new arrivals in America and was able to sail back to Ireland, where he remarried. The couple returned to his Pennsylvania farm and began to prosper. When DeArmond departed to serve for three years as a Private in the Continental Army, he left the farm in the hands of his wife and two sons, ages 7 and 9.

One indication of DeArmond’s success at the time was that he owned and could use a Pennsylvania long rifle. Custom-made by one of the German gunsmiths then living in the colony, the flintlock rifle DeArmond took with him into the Army was far more accurate than the more common muskets of the time. It also had important disadvantages. Rifles took more time and effort to load, they required custom-molded rifle balls, they were more prone to malfunction, and they lacked a way to attach the bayonet that was expected to be critical in almost every battle. Rifles also required higher-quality gunpowder than could be used in muskets. Rifles were made for hunting, not for war.

By modern standards, DeArmond was too old to enlist as a Private. In 1776, his relatively advanced age and his extensive travel would likely have been considered an advantage in the eyes of the Army recruiter. Medical understanding of infection was still far from complete, but it was understood that diseases like smallpox were more likely to kill a soldier than were enemy guns or bayonets. Young soldiers who had never before ventured far from home were more susceptible to disease than was someone like DeArmond.

By later accounts, riflemen were generally regarded as an elite unit, and some had to compete in tests of their marksmanship to secure their positions. In August of ’76, however, volunteers were in short supply. Rawlings’ Regiment was nominally made of men from Virginia and Maryland, but it was not uncommon for recruiters to travel into adjacent colonies in search of volunteers. Smith’s Company seems to have had more difficulty than most in recruiting soldiers. One group of volunteers who joined the Company from Baltimore soon changed their minds and deserted.

The difficulty with recruiting may well have saved DeArmond’s life. Smith’s Company had not yet joined the rest of Rawlings’ Regiment when it played an important role in the Battle of Fort Washington on Nov. 16, 1776. The Regiment fought well, defending a ridge north of the Fort in what is now central Manhattan. The attacking Hessians suffered extensive casualties as they climbed the ridge in the face of well-aimed fire from soldiers taking cover among the trees above. The poor quality of American gunpowder, however, soon began to foul their rifles and forced the Regiment to withdraw into the Fort. Although they suffered few casualties during the battle itself, the riflemen in Rawlings’ regiment were among the 3000 soldiers captured when the Fort surrendered. They were sent to British prison ships, where many died later of hunger and disease. Colonel Rawlings was captured as well, but was released at George Washington’s request as part of a prisoner exchange.

After the American defeat at Fort Washington, Smith’s Company of Riflemen was reorganized and later became part of the 4th Maryland Regiment. Details are scarce about this period of Pvt. DeArmond’s service, but it is possible that he participated in the crossing of the Delaware River and in the surprise victories at Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey. He was almost certainly engaged in the Continental Army’s winter encampment at Morristown, New Jersey. A year before the famous winter at Valley Forge (in which DeArmond would also participate), the winter of 1776-77 confronted the Continental soldiers with severe hardship and shortages. As a rifleman, DeArmond was most likely stationed outside the main camp to guard against British incursions and to forage for supplies, an assignment that may have allowed him to avoid the worst of the hardships.

Private Thomas DeArmond is listed from July 1777 through July 1779 in the pay records of Gabriel Long’s detached Company, Morgan’s Rifle Regiment. He received $20 for each 3-month period. From mid-June through mid-August of 1777, Morgan’s Riflemen moved rapidly around New Jersey, skirmishing with British troops and helping defend against an expected attack on Philadelphia. The first significant action of this period was at Millstone, beginning when a party of Morgan’s men discovered a column of British troops under General Cornwallis, attempting to draw the main body of Continental forces out of their fortified camp and into a general engagement. As would happen in other battles, Morgan’s men sounded the alarm and initiated the fighting, allowing the Continentals to manage the scope of the fight.

Another threat was developing in northern New York during the late summer of 1777, where British General Burgoyne was attempting to split the colonies by attacking south from Canada. His combined force of British and Hessian regulars plus several hundred Iroquois allies posed a real threat, but the precarious British supply lines also offered an opportunity. The British and Hessian regulars were the primary danger, however the Iroquois were the more familiar enemy to American militia and to backwoods farmers like DeArmond. Brutal fighting had flared repeatedly for many years between American settlers and the various nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Stories that two Iroquois warriors under Burgoyne’s command had abducted and murdered a woman named Anne McCrea fed new flames of hatred and fear. Washington agreed reluctantly to send Morgan’s Rifle Corps north, specifically to “fight the Indians in their own way.” That encounter will be the subject of our next blog.