Dr. Lewis Howell (1754–1778)

Surgeon for the 2nd New Jersey Battalion

Dr. Lewis Howell was the twin brother of Richard Howell.1 Lewis Howell was a participant in the Greenwich Tea Burning.2 Dr. Howell served as Surgeon for the 2nd New Jersey Regiment.3

Lewis studied medicine under Dr. Jonathan Elmer in Newark, Delaware, at the same time his future regimental colleague Ebenezer Elmer was a student there. Having completed his studies, he was commissioned as Surgeon of the 2nd Regiment in 1777, with Ebenezer Elmer commissioned alongside him as Surgeon’s Mate.4

Lewis fell ill with fever during the Monmouth campaign. He was sick at the time of the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778) and resigned from the army on July 5, 1778.5 He died shortly thereafter at a tavern near Monmouth Court House. He was 23 years old.

Currently it is unknown where Dr. Howell was laid to rest. If anyone reading this knows where he was buried or has any information about Dr. Howell please contact us.

  1. Josiah Granville Leach, Genealogical and Biographical Memorials of the Reading, Howell, Yerkes, Watts, Latham, and Elkins Families (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1898), p. 139, https://archive.org/details/genealogicaland00leacgoog. Lewis and Richard Howell were born October 25, 1754, Newark, New Castle County, Delaware. ↩︎

  2. Frank D. Andrews, The Tea-Burners of Cumberland County (Vineland, N.J., 1908), https://archive.org/details/teaburnersofcumb00andr. Lewis Howell is listed among the participants in the December 22, 1774 burning. ↩︎

  3. Ebenezer Elmer, “Journal Kept During an Expedition to Canada in 1776,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, p. 97 (entry for April 20, 1777): “agreed and entered as Surgeon Mate under Dr. Lewis Howell their Surgeon.” Presented to the Historical Society by the Hon. L. Q. C. Elmer of Bridgeton. PDF on file at Project/incoming/ElmerJournal.pdf. See also Valley Forge Muster Roll Project, 2nd New Jersey Regiment. ↩︎

  4. Thomas Cushing and Charles Sheppard, History of the Counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland, New Jersey (Philadelphia, 1883), p. 557: “He became a pupil in the office of Dr. Jonathan Elmer at the same time that Ebenezer Elmer was studying medicine there. Having finished his course of study, he was commissioned in 1777 as surgeon of the Second Regiment in the army of the Revolution. His fellow-student, Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, was commissioned at the same time in the same regiment as surgeon’s mate.” ↩︎

  5. “To George Washington from Major Richard Howell, 7 April 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-19-02-0717. Washington Papers, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 19, ed. Philander D. Chase and William M. Ferraro (University of Virginia Press, 2009), pp. 765–766. Lewis Howell’s illness and resignation (July 5, 1778) are documented in a footnote to this letter. The July 5 date is independently confirmed by the Elmer journal service summary: “From that day to the 5th of July, ‘78, as Surgeon’s Mate in the 2d Jersey Regiment, and from that day till the present as Surgeon of said Regiment.” (Elmer, Proceedings of the NJHS, final service record.) ↩︎