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When Greene superseded Gates in command of the Southern army, Smallwood refused to serve under Baron Steuben, who was then his superior officer, and declared his intention of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.