Maitland, John
Maitland, John
MAITLAND, JOHN. (??–1779). British army officer. Eighth son of the earl of Lauderdale, he had been a lieutenant colonel of marines and member of Parliament for Haddington before appointment as lieutenant colonel of the First Battalion of a Highland regiment, the Seventy-first Foot, on 14 October 1778. He was with Archibald Campbell at the fall of Savannah on 29 December. In command of Prevost's rearguard when he retreated from Charleston, Maitland won the action at Stono Ferry (20 June 1779) before withdrawing to Port Royal Island (Beaufort). Although already ill with malaria, he then made an epic eighty-mile withdrawal by swamps and waterways, evading French blockaders and American troops to join Prevost at Savannah. He died a few days after the repulse of the Franco-American assault on 9 October 1779.
SEE ALSO Charleston Raid of Prevost; Savannah, Georgia (29 December 1778); Stono Ferry, South Carolina.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mackesy, Piers. The War for America, 1775–1783. London: Longman, 1964.
revised by John Oliphant