's 'forgotten patriot' By BRICE STUMP rhile GovDaily. LeviTimens StafWindef Writer irs virtually an unknown name today, he lives with distinction in the annals of Maryland Whistory.' Winder was born at the family estate on Rewastico Creek near Quantico, in what is now Wicomico County, on Sept. 4,1757. Winder studied law, but at the age of 20 he was a 1st lieutenant in the Fifth Company, Smallwood's First Maryland Battalion of the Flying Camp in January 1776. By December of that year he was a captain, 1st Maryland Regiment, and a held the rank of major, 4th Maryland Regiment in 1777. While fighting in the Battle of Camden in 1780, according to the Biographical Diction­ ary of the Maryland Legislature, he was tak­ en prisoner, and exchanged in 1781 and served as a lieutenant colonel, 2nd Maryland Regiment in that same year. Winder was transferred to 1st Maryland Regiment and discharged in 1783. He was commissioned as a major general, 2nd Divi­ sion of the Maryland Militia in 1794. On May 13, 1790 Winder, then 33 married Mary Stoughton Sloss of Somerset County. Times Photo Through his wife he inherited a portion of Gov. Bloomsbury, an 840-acre plantation along the See PATRIOT, page E2 Maryland's 'forgotten patriot' and served until 1815. At the same "... he left the world so tranquilly as the county s most famous mili­ PATRIOT, from page El time he was senior major general that it could hardly be discerned at tary officer of that war. Little Monie Creek, several miles of the Maryland Militia, a position what moment he breathed his But Grier said Maryland's most west of Princess Anne. he held until his death in 1819. last." distinguished leader should also be Winder was also a presidential According to the History of Free­ remembered for his bold and deci­ It is believed he began construc­ sive leadership. tion of his home in the early 1790s, electorate for President George masonry in Maryland by Edward Washington. He was an original T. Schultz, "Among the many who The "forgotten patriot" is also within walking distance of the an­ the state's lost governor whose cestral home of his wife. member of the Society of the Cin­ paid the last sad tribute of respect cinnati of Maryland. to his memory, were all the breth­ rave and possible rare lead cas- According to the will of Thomas Winder won the admiration of ren of the army of the Revolution et have been sought after for al­ Sloss, father of Winder's wife in the city, except one, who was de­ most a century in Somerset Mary, she received her father's his constituents when, as gover­ nor, he took steps to save the state tained by domestic affliction, and County. house on the Little Monie, three by the members of the Grand slaves and one-third of his live­ from attack by the British in 1812. When the national government Lodge and its subordinates of the stock and one-third of his crops at city, who after the church services his death in 1797. By 1798 Winder failed to provide for the defense of the state. Winder called upon the by the Rev. Brother James Inglis had 30 more slaves; by 1800 he of the Presbyterian Church (in owned 43 and in 1810, he had 53 state legislature to protect Balti­ more and Annapolis. It was during ) committed his mortal slaves. remains to the grave with the sol­ In addition to 400 acres of land in his term as governor and the de­ fense of Fort McHenry that "The emn and affecting rites of Freema­ Western Maryland awarded him sonry. for his military service, Winder Star-Spangled Banner" was writ­ ten by Frances Scott Key. "It is thought the remains of owned two lots in Vienna, which Brother Winder were deposited in were confiscated British property According to Salisbury business­ a vault in the First Presbyterian and more than 2,000 acres in Som­ man David Grier, who has spent graveyard, corner of Greene and erset County. decades searching for the grave of Fayette streets, and that they were Increasingly interested in poli­ Gov. Winder, in 1812 the governor afterwards removed to the family tics, gentleman planter Winder raised the largest number of sol­ burying ground on the family es­ represented Somerset County in diers to fight a battle since the tate 'Monie Creek', two miles from the Maryland House of Delegates Revolutionary War in protecting the state from a British invasion. Princess Anne where the grave is from 1789 to 1793, and as Speaker pointed out to visitors," Schultz of the House from 1791 to 1793. A trustee of the famous Washing­ wrote. Elected again in 1806 to the ton Academy which once stood Through marriage and birth House of Delegates, Winder served near Princess Anne, Winder en­ Winder was among one of the until 1809, and was elected as couraged adoption of an educatio­ state's most prominent families, Speaker of the House in 1807. nal system for all people. and with J. Millard Tawes, and Winder was elected governor of Like Washington, Winder was a became one Maryland prior to the War of 1812 Mason, and was the Grand Master of three governors from Somerset of the Grand Lodge of Ancient County. Free and Accepted Masons of Grier said Winder is Maryland's Maryland in 1814. "forgotten patriot." So impressed On July 4, 1815, Winder presided was Grier with Winder's creden­ over Masonic ceremonies in Balti­ tials that while serving on the Wi­ more for the laying of the corner comico County Council from 1966 stone of the first monument to 1978, he suggested that the coun­ erected in honor of President ty's new high school be named af­ Washington. ter the governor, but failed. It is now known as Parksids High Winder died at age 63 "after a School. painful and protracted illness," on July l, 1819 in Baltimore, where he Grier has also suggested that a had gone for medical help for a liv­ statue of Winder be erected in Sa­ er problem. lisbury. A plaque honoring Civil War Confederate Brig. Gen. John Earlier that day the man who Henry Winder stands on the lawn Grier claims can be credited with at the old Wicomico County Court stopping the British from seizing House in Salisbury. He was the the state and nation, made his grandson of Levin Winder's oldest brief will, leaving his estate and brother William, and his name was personal belongings to his wife. selected for the plaque during the According Winder's obituary, Civil War Centennial celebration