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Benjamin Lincoln Biography

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LINCOLN, Benjamin (1733-1810), An American soldier, prominent in the Revolutionary War. He was born at Hingham, Mass., Jan. 24, 1733, received a common-school education, and was engaged in farming at Hingham until 1774, acting successively as local magistrate, Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature, and colonel of militia. In 1775 he took an active part in organizing the Continental forces, and in 1776 was appointed major general of the Massachusetts militia. At the siege of Boston Washington put him in command of an expedition to force the British fleet out of Boston harbor. He commanded the Massachusetts militia at the battle of White Plains, reënforeed Washington by a fresh levy of Massachusetts militia at Morristown, N. J., in February, 1777, and at Washington's request was made a major general in the Continental army on February 19 of that year. He served with marked efficiency in the Burgoyne campaign, both under Schuyler and Gates, being second in command under the latter; and on Oct. 8, 1777, received a wound which maimed him for life and caused his temporary withdrawal from the army. Resuming service in August, 1778, he was assigned to the command of the Southern army in September and arrived at Charleston, December 4. A detachment of his army was defeated at Brier Creek (q.v.). in March, 1779, and his main force met with a severe repulse at Stono Ferry in June. Later he acted in conjunction with the French under D'Estaing against Savannah, but, the combined forces, meeting with a sanguinary repulse on October 9, he returned to Charleston, where he was soon besieged by the English under Sir Henry Clinton and was forced to surrender (May 12, 1780), after which he returned to Hingham, Mass., on parole. Exchanged in the spring of 1781, he joined Washington and was chosen by him at Yorktown to receive the sword of Lord Cornwallis. He held the office of Secretary of War in 1781-83 and retired to his farm at Hingham in 1784. In 1786-87 he commanded the Massachusetts militia against Shays and his followers. (See SHAYS's REBELLION.) Be was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1787, was a member of the State convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States, was one of the commissioners to treat with the Creek Indians in 1789 and with the Indians north of the Ohio at Sandusky in 1793. In 1789 he was made collector of the port of Boston, which position he held until two years before his death. Late in life he took a great interest in science and wrote a number of scientific papers which attracted considerable attention. He was a man of simple, earnest character; and the persevering zeal and disinterestedness of his public service gave him great popularity. Consult the biography by Bowen in Jared Sparks, Library of American Biography, vol. xiii (2d series, Boston, 1847).