Existing comment:
Frederick Hall / William Williams:
In the Spring of 1814 the slave Frederick Hall ran away from Benjamin Oden of Bellefields in Prince George's County. On April 14, Frederick, alias William Williams, enlisted as a private in the 38th US Infantry. Federal law prohibited the enlistment of slaves in the army. However, he received his bounty of $50 and was paid a private's wage of $8 per month.
During the summer of 1814, Williams served during the Battle of St. Leonard's Creek, when the British navy engaged the US Chesapeake Flotilla and later at the Battle of Bladensburg. In early September 1814, he was at the US Infantry's encampment on Hampstead Hill in Baltimore. At Fort McHenry, Williams was stationed in the ditch surrounding the fort with orders to repel any attempted landing by the enemy. Records indicate that Williams was severely wounded having "his leg blown off by a cannon ball." He was taken to the garrison hospital at Fort McHenry where he died. His final resting place remains unknown.
After the war in 1833-34, Mr. Oden petitioned the government for Williams land bounty, but since Williams was a slave, and "therefore, inasmuch as a slave cannot possess or acquire title to real estate by the laws of the land, in his own right, no right can be set up by the master of his representative." Mr. Oden's claim was therefore dismissed. |