Benjamin Lincoln | |
---|---|
![]() 1784 portrait by Charles Willson Peale | |
1st Collector of the Port of Boston | |
In office 1789–1809 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Henry Dearborn |
2nd Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts | |
In office 1788–1789 | |
Governor | John Hancock |
Preceded by | Thomas Cushing |
Succeeded by | Samuel Adams |
1st United States Secretary at War | |
In office March 1, 1781 – November 2, 1783 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Henry Knox |
1st Clerk of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress | |
In office October 7, 1774 – May 31, 1775 | |
Preceded by | office established |
Succeeded by | Samuel Freeman |
Committee of Safety | |
In office October 7, 1774 – February 1, 1775 | |
Constituency | At-large (Commissary Officer) |
Personal details | |
Born | Hingham, Massachusetts, British America | January 24, 1733
Died | May 9, 1810 Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged 77)
Resting place | Old Ship Burying Ground, Hingham |
Political party | Federalist |
Spouse |
Mary Cushing (m. 1756) |
Children | 11 |
Signature | ![]() |
Military service | |
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() |
Branch/service | Massachusetts Bay militia![]() ![]() |
Years of service | Militia (1755–1777) Continental Army (1777–1781) |
Rank | Major general |
Commands | Massachusetts provincial militia Bound Brook Southern Department |
Battles/wars | |
Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 (O.S. January 13, 1733)[1] – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lincoln was involved in three major surrenders during the war: his participation in the Battles of Saratoga (sustaining a wound shortly afterward) contributed to John Burgoyne's surrender of a British army, he oversaw the largest American surrender of the war at the 1780 siege of Charleston, and, as George Washington's second in command, he formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown.
Lincoln served from 1781 to 1783 as the first United States Secretary of War. While Secretary of War, Lincoln became an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati of the state of Massachusetts and was elected as the first president of the Massachusetts Society on June 9, 1783. After the war, Lincoln was active in politics in his native Massachusetts, running several times for lieutenant governor but only winning one term in that office. In 1787, Lincoln led a militia army (privately funded by Massachusetts merchants) in the suppression of Shays' Rebellion, and was a strong supporter of the new United States Constitution. He was for many of his later years the politically influential customs collector of the Port of Boston. He was the fourth cousin three times removed of Abraham Lincoln through his mother's side.[2]
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