Name Robert Kirkwood | ||
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Sally and Robert Kirkwood
Robert Henry Kirkwood (1746 – November 4, 1791) was a soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War and the Battle of the Wabash (also known as St. Clair's Defeat).
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He was named a lieutenant of the 1st Delaware Regiment in the Continental Army on December 9, 1775. In 1776, the Delaware Battalion, under the command of Colonel John Haslet, was assigned to Mifflin's Brigade under Gen. Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania. He participated in every battle in which George Washington fought in 1777. In the August 16, 1780 Battle of Camden, Kirkwood's troops won fame and were called "The Blue Hen's Chickens" after that. This battle reduced his regiment from eight companies to two by reason of death and capture. At the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, Captain Kirkwood repulsed the British cavalry, and made a famous bayonet charge ordered by Colonel John Eager Howard. He was with General Washington in his pursuit and defeat of Cornwallis.
As a captain in the regular army, he joined a 1791 military expedition led by Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory. In November 1791, Kirkwood was killed by Native Americans from the Miami people in a major defeat at present-day Fort Recovery, Ohio, after having survived 32 Revolutionary battles without a disabling wound.
He was a graduate of Newark Academy (later renamed the University of Delaware), which chose the Blue Hen as its mascot to honor Captain Kirkwood. Kirkwood also held a certificate of membership in the Society of the Cincinnati.
Kirkwood is the great grandfather of Robert Kirkwood Martin, constructor of the Gunpowder Water works which supply the city of Baltimore, and grandfather of General R. H. K. Whiteley of Baltimore.
Legacy
Robert Kirkwood is the namesake of Kirkwood Township, Belmont County, Ohio.
A monument was erected near Fort Recovery in Ohio to honor Kirkwood and others who died there. On May 9, 1941, a highway was named in honor of Major Kirkwood. The Robert Kirkwood Highway comprises a part of Delaware Route 2 in New Castle County. Kirkwood, Delaware, a small village at a crossroads on Delaware Route 71, also bears his name. The Major Robert Kirkwood Reserve Center is the headquarters of Detachment 2, 11th Battalion, 98th Regiment (formerly 9th Battalion / 80th Regiment Health Services) of the United States Army. One of the New Castle County public libraries is called the Kirkwood Library. There is an historical marker for Robert Kirkwood adjacent to the library's parking lot.
The Major Robert Kirkwood Chapter of the Delaware Society of the Sons of the American Revolution has a Color Guard whose members wear the frontiersman uniform used when the Delaware Continentals fought in remote regions of the Carolinas, far from good cloth and family seamstresses.
A North Carolina unit of the Brigade of the American Revolution (BAR) portrays Kirkwood's Company—the remnant of the Delaware Regiment which fought with the Maryland Brigade after the Delaware Regiment was devastated in the first Battle of Camden.