William Smallwood, born in Kent County, Maryland, in 1732, was elected
colonel of the Maryland battalion on the 2d of January, 1776; and on
the 10th of July following, at the head of nine companies he joined
Washington in New York. His troops took an active part in the battle
of Brooklyn Heights on the 20th of August. Fighting desperately from
sunrise until the last gun was fired at night, they lost nearly half
their number. Again, on the 18th of October, at White Plains, the
Maryland troops fought valiantly. Smallwood was severely wounded, and
for his gallantry was commissioned brigadier-general by the Continental
Congress on the 23d of October, 1776. At Fort Washington, November 16
of the same year, his troops again distinguished themselves, but with
heavy loss in killed and wounded. In the summer of 1777, he joined
Sullivan in his expedition against Staten Island, and when the British
arrived in the Chesapeake, to Smallwood was intrusted the collecting
and organizing of the Western Shore Maryland Militia. In the battle of
Germantown, on the 4th of October, Smallwood’s troops retrieved the
day, and captured part of the enemy’s camp. Stationed by Washington at
Wilmington during the winter of 1777–78, he captured a British brig
in the Delaware River, laden with stores and provisions. Ordered
South with the army under Gates in 1780, his command behaved with
their accustomed bravery at the disastrous battle of Camden, for which
Smallwood received the thanks of Congress and was promoted to the rank
of major-general on the 15th of September, 1780.
When Greene superseded Gates in command of the Southern army, Smallwood
refused to serve under Baron Steuben, who was then his superior
officer, and declared his intention of retiring, unless his commission
was antedated two years. So absurd a claim could not be allowed,
as besides there being no reason for changing the date, to comply
would have thrown into confusion the entire list of major-generals.
Smallwood, however, remained in service until the 15th of November,
1783, when Congress accepted his resignation. In 1785, his native State
elected him to Congress and the same year chose him for governor. The
latter office he held for three years and then retired from public
life. He died in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on the 14th of
February, 1792.