Military officer; born in
Kent county, Md., in 1732; became a colonel in the
Maryland line in 1776, and his battalion, which joined
Washington, at New York, before the
battle of Long Island, was composed of men belonging to the best families of his native State.
These suffered in that battle, at
which
Smallwood was not present.
He was in the action at
White Plains, about two months later; and when, late in the summer of 1777, the
British, under the Howes, appeared in
Chesapeake Bay, he was sent to gather the militia on the western shore of
Maryland.
With about 1,000 of these he joined
Washington after the
battle of Brandywine.
He was in the
battle of Germantown with his militia.
While with
Gates, in the
South, he was promoted major-general (Sept. 15, 1780), and soon afterwards he returned to the
North.
Smallwood refused to serve under
Baron de Steuben, who was his senior officer, and demanded that his own cornmission should be dated two years before his appointment.
He was a member of Congress in 1785, and governor of
Maryland in 1785-88.
He died in
Prince George county, Md., Feb. 14, 1792.
