Philip Reed

Philip Reed (1760 – November 2, 1829) was a United States senator representing Maryland from 1806 to 1813.

Early life

Born near Chestertown in the Province of Maryland in 1760, Reed completed preparatory studies and served with the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, attaining the rank of captain of infantry. He participated in the Battle of Stony Point in 1779, and later attested to having cut off the head of an American deserter so that it could be displayed to the troops as a deterrent. Reed was seriously wounded at the Battle of Camden in 1780. He was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1787, sheriff of Kent County, Maryland from 1791 to 1794, and also member of the executive council of Maryland from 1805 to 1806.

War of 1812, later life and death

Reed was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate in 1806 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert Wright. He was reelected the same year and served from November 25, 1806, to March 3, 1813. Although he voted, on June 17, 1812, against declaring war on Britain, Reed served as a lieutenant colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment of the Maryland Militia and later as lieutenant colonel commandant. He led a successful defense in the Battle of Caulk's Field in August 1814.

After the war, Reed was elected to the House of Representatives in the Fifteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1817, to March 3, 1819. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1818 to the Sixteenth Congress, but successfully contested the election of Jeremiah Cosden to the House in the Seventeenth Congress and served the remainder of the term from March 19, 1822, to March 3, 1823.

In 1828, he served as vice president of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati. He died in Huntingtown, Maryland, and is interred in the cemetery of Christ Church near Chestertown.