Howard, John Eager
Howard, John Eager
HOWARD, JOHN EAGER. (1752–1827). Continental officer. Maryland. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, on 4 June 1752, Howard became a captain in the Second Maryland Battalion of the Flying Camp in July 1776 and fought at White Plains. On 22 February 1777 he was commissioned major of the Fourth Maryland and saw action at Germantown. Promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Fifth Maryland on 11 March 1778, he fought in the Monmouth campaign. On 22 October 1779, he was transferred to the Second Maryland and distinguished himself at Camden and Cowpens (17 January 1781). For his part in the latter victory he received the thanks of Congress and one of the eight medals awarded by that body. He figured prominently in the battles of Guilford, Hobkirk's Hill, and Eutaw Springs, being wounded in the last action.
Howard was considered a particularly able leader of one of the army's finest regiments. General Henry Lee praised Howard as "one of the five lieutenant-colonels on whom Greene rested throughout the hazardous operations" in the southern campaign. Lee credited Howard with turning the tide of battle at Cowpens and preventing disaster at Guilford and the Eutaws. According to Lee, he "was always to be found where the battle raged, pressing into close action to wrestle with fixed bayonet" (Lee, p. 592).
After the war Howard was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1787–1788), governor of Maryland (1788–1791), and U.S. senator (1796–1803). He was a leader of the Federalists and a candidate for vice president in their last, unsuccessful campaign in 1816. He died at his home in Baltimore on 12 October 1827.
SEE ALSO Cowpens, South Carolina; Medals.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Howard, Cary. "John Eager Howard, Public Servant." Maryland Historical Magazine 62 (1967): 300-317.
Howard Papers. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland.
Lee, Henry. Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States. 1827. Rev. ed. New York: University Publishing, 1869.
revised by Michael Bellesiles