Editing John Eager Howard (section)

==Military career==
Commissioned a captain at the beginning of the [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783), Howard rose in 1777 to the rank of colonel in the [[Maryland Line]] of the [[Continental Army]],<ref name=congbio/> fighting in the [[Battle of White Plains]] in 1776 and in the [[Battle of Monmouth]] in 1778. He was awarded a silver medal by the [[Congress of the Confederation|Confederation Congress]] for his leadership at the [[Battle of Cowpens]] in 1781,<ref name=congbio/> during which he commanded the [[2nd Maryland Regiment]].<ref name=MdArchBio>{{cite web|title=John Eager Howard (1752–1827)|url=http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000600/000692/html/692bio.html|website=Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series)|access-date=August 22, 2014}}</ref> In September 1781, he was wounded in a bayonet charge at the [[Battle of Eutaw Springs]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Maryland|author=Nancy Capace|page=81}}</ref> Major General [[Nathanael Greene]] wrote that Howard was "as good an officer as the world affords. He has great ability and the best disposition to promote the service....He deserves a statue of gold."<ref>Quoted in Lawrence E. Babits, ''A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 26.</ref>

At the conclusion of the war, Colonel Howard was admitted as an original member of the [[Society of the Cincinnati]] of Maryland.<ref>Metcalf, Bryce (1938). ''Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the [[Society of the Cincinnati]], 1783–1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies'' Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., p. 168.</ref> He went on to serve as the vice president (1795–1804) and president (1804–1827) of the Society in Maryland.<ref>Metcalf, p. 22.</ref>

[[File:John Eager Howard Uniform.jpg|thumb|left|''John Eager Howard in Uniform,'' painted in 1782 by [[Charles Willson Peale]] ]]