Henry Dearborn
Henry Dearborn | |
---|---|
Isaac Parker | |
Constituency | 4th district (1793–95) 12th district (1795–97) |
Personal details | |
Born | Roxbury, Massachusetts, U.S. | February 23, 1751
Political party | Anti-Administration (Before 1792) Democratic-Republican (1792–1829) |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | Continental Army United States Army |
Years of service | 1775–1783 1812–1815 |
Rank | Colonel Major General |
Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War War of 1812 |
Henry Dearborn (February 23, 1751 – June 6, 1829) was an American military officer and politician. In the
He served as
Early life
Henry Dearborn was born February 23, 1751, to Simon Dearborn and Sarah Marston in North Hampton in the Province of New Hampshire. He was descended from Godfrey Dearborn, from Exeter in England, who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639. Godfrey Dearborn settled first at Exeter, New Hampshire, and soon after at Hampton, where four successive generations of his descendants lived. Henry spent much of his youth in Epping, where he attended public schools. He grew up as an athletic boy, notably strong and a champion wrestler.[3] He studied medicine under Dr. Hall Jackson of Portsmouth and opened a practice on the square in Nottingham, New Hampshire, in 1772.[4]
Dearborn was married three times: to Mary Bartlett in 1771, to Dorcas (Osgood) Marble in 1780, and to Sarah Bowdoin, widow of James Bowdoin, in 1813. Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn was his son by his second wife.[1]
Revolutionary War service
When fighting in the
Dearborn volunteered to serve under Colonel Benedict Arnold in September 1775, during the difficult American expedition to Quebec. Later Dearborn would record in his Revolutionary War journal their overall situation and condition: "We were small indeed to think of entering a place like Quebec. But being now almost out of provisions we were sure to die if we attempted to return back and we could be in no worse situation if we proceeded on our rout."[10]
On the final leg of the march, Dearborn was taken seriously ill with fever, forcing him to remain behind in a cottage on the Chaudière River. Later he rejoined the combined forces of Arnold and Gen. Richard Montgomery in time to take part in the assault on Quebec.[b][4] Dearborn's journal is an important record for that campaign. During the march he and Aaron Burr became companions.[11] Along with a number of other officers, Dearborn was captured on December 31, 1775, during the Battle of Quebec, and detained for a year.[12][13] He was released on parole in May 1776, but he was not exchanged until March 1777.[1]
After fighting at Ticonderoga in July 1777, Dearborn was appointed major in the regiment commanded by Alexander Scammell.
In September 1777, he took part in the
Dearborn fought at the
During the winter of 1778–1779, he was encamped at what is now Putnam Memorial State Park in Redding, Connecticut. Dearborn rejoined General Washington's staff in 1781 as deputy quartermaster general and commanded the 1st New Hampshire at the siege of Yorktown with the rank of colonel[15] and was present when Cornwallis surrendered in October of that year.[12]
In June 1783, Dearborn received his discharge from the Continental Army and settled in
Revolutionary War journals
During the American Revolution Dearborn maintained six separate journals where he recorded the various campaigns, battles, and other notable events from his point of experience. His Revolutionary War journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775-1783, have provided historians of early American history with valuable first-hand information from the perspective of an officer who was engaged in the various battles and surrounding events. His journals were first published in 1939 by the Caxton Club of Chicago and were edited from the original manuscripts by historians Lloyd A. Brown and Howard Henry Peckham; the publication includes a biographical essay of Dearborn by Hermon D. Smith. The six journals are enumerated as follows:
Journal II. The Burgoyne Campaign
Journal III. Operations in the Middle Colonies
Journal IV. Sullivan's Indian Expedition
Journal V. The Yorktown Campaign
Journal VI. Peace Negotiations[18]
Dearborn also wrote An Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Various scholars have cited the short work as being culturally important and greatly contributing to the knowledge base of early American history.[19]
Post-Revolution
Dearborn was commissioned as a
Congresses from 1793 to 1797.In 1801, third President
During the 1801 and 1802 period, Dearborn and Jefferson corresponded frequently, discussing various political and military matters. Notable among them was Dearborn's report of May 12, 1801 on the War Department,
During his tenure, he helped Jefferson form a policy on Native Americans, the goal being to establish a western boundary by procuring lands along the Mississippi River.[23]
In 1805, while events in the
Dearborn was appointed collector of the port of Boston by President James Madison in March 1809,[28] a position he held until January 27, 1812, when he was appointed as the Commanding General of the United States Army.[2]
War of 1812
During the War of 1812, while President Madison was urging Federalists to join in "united support" against Britain in a war they were given little reason to cooperate in, he gave Henry Dearborn senior command of the northeast sector which ranged from the Niagara River to the New England coast. Dearborn had favor with Madison as a Revolutionary War veteran who rose to the rank of colonel and for serving as Secretary of War under President Jefferson,[29] and especially for helping Jefferson draft the Military Peace Establishment Act, which served to remove many Federalist officers from the ranks of the military. Subsequently, Madison's choice for commanding general of the northeast theater was not well received by most Federalists.[30] [i] At age 61, however, Dearborn was now overweight, slow and insecure, and he found it difficult to inspire confidence among the men under his command. In March he suffered a minor injury from a fall, and it is suggested that Dearborn took his time recovering. When the war broke out he spent even more time in Boston, fearing, as did Vice President Elbridge Gerry, that the Federalists were once again plotting a northeastern secession[j] and ready to install a "Hanoverian"-like monarchy in opposition to them.[30]
Needing to present Congress with reports of progress, Secretary of War William Eustis urged Dearborn to promptly embark for Albany and plan and make preparations for an invasion of Montreal in Canada. Dearborn maintained, however, that he must first get to New England and secure the militia for defending the New England coast, which would free up the regular troops of the region for the coming campaign against Canada, and before the Federalists effected an open revolt there. After disputes with New England's several Federalist governors, who refused to supply the militia for coastal defense, Dearborn reluctantly left New England for Albany with regular troops in late July, leaving the coast almost defenseless against British coastal attacks.[32][k]
On August 9, while General
Dearborn prepared plans for simultaneous assaults on Montreal, Kingston, Fort Niagara, and Amherstburg, but the execution was imperfect. A half-hearted advance into Lower Canada in November 1812 simply collapsed after a very minor engagement at the Battle of Lacolle Mills. Some scholars believe that Dearborn also did not move quickly enough to provide sufficient troops to defend Detroit. Hull, without firing a shot, surrendered the city to British General Isaac Brock.[l] Hull was court-martialed and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted. Dearborn headed the court martial.[34]
On April 27, 1813, American forces on Lake Ontario under Dearborn and Commodore Isaac Chauncey gained success at the Battle of York, occupying the town for several days and capturing many guns and stores. Thereafter the American army was transported across the lake in Chauncey's ships to Fort Niagara. Dearborn assembled 4,500 troops at Fort Niagara and planned to attack Fort George next, and entrusted the attack to Colonel Winfield Scott,[35] but his army required rest and reorganization. No preparations had been made to accommodate the troops at Fort Niagara, and they suffered considerable shortages and privations for several days.[36]
Although Dearborn had minor successes at the capture of York (now Toronto) on April 27, 1813, and at the capture of Fort George on May 27, 1813, his command was, for the most part, ineffective. He was recalled from the frontier on July 6, 1813, and reassigned to an administrative command in New York City,[37] and married his third wife, Sarah Bowdoin.[1]
Dearborn was honorably discharged from the Army on June 15, 1815.[38]
Later life
Dearborn was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati,[39] and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1816, now the oldest historical society in the United States.[40]
Dearborn ran for
President
He retired to his home in
Legacy
Augusta, Maine, was so renamed after Henry's daughter, Augusta Dearborn, in August 1797.
A U.S. military armory, initially named "Mount Dearborn", was planned in the early 1800s to be built on an island near the confluence of the Catawba and Wateree rivers, adjacent to Great Falls, South Carolina. The facility was never constructed, but the island name stuck, and after the town was founded in 1905, its main thoroughfare was named Dearborn Street.
During
General Dearborn's son, Henry A. S. Dearborn, was a U.S. congressman representing Massachusetts's 10th congressional district from 1831 to 1833.
See also
- List of American Revolutionary War battles
- Unsuccessful nominations to the Cabinet of the United States
- Dearborn wagon
Notes
- ^ In 1822 Dearborn wrote an anonymous plea in the Boston Patriot to urge the purchase of the site of the Bunker Hill battlefield, which was listed for sale.[9]
- ^ During the battle Montgomery was killed and Arnold seriously wounded.
- ^ Maine then being a part of Massachusetts.
- ^ A grandnephew of Benjamin Franklin; John Adams appointed Williams a major in the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers in February 1801. President Jefferson appointed him the Army's Inspector of Fortifications.
- ^ Both Burr and Wilkinson, with large land holdings and other interests in the Louisiana Territory, claimed that most Louisiana residents, who were recently ruled by France, preferred to be separate from the United States.
- ^ Present-day southern Louisiana
- ^ Burr and Wilkinson, with the support of General Andrew Jackson, were earnestly promoting the idea (e.g. via newspapers) in the Southwest that war with Spain was imminent and that he would use "Mexican treasure" to entice the Western states along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers into secession.[24]
- ^ This is when Wilkinson realized that knowledge of his plotting with Burr was becoming commonplace, confirming similar reports coming out of New Orleans.[26]
- ^ The Federalists viewed the war as a political plot against them, while the Democratic-Republicans portrayed the Federalists as traitors for their concerted efforts to oppose the war effort.[30]
- ^ Timothy Pickering and the Federalists once attempted a northeastern secession during Jefferson's first term.[31]
- ^ No British coastal attacks occurred for the first year of the war — presumably a favor from the British for New England's open opposition to the war.[32]
- ^ While governor, Hull's repeated requests to build a naval fleet on Lake Erie to properly defend Detroit, Fort Mackinac, and Fort Dearborn were ignored by Dearborn, which contributed to Hull's overall unpreparedness.
References
- ^ a b c d e U.S. Army Center of Military History
- ^ a b c d U.S. Biographical Directory
- ^ Dearborn, Smith, 1939, p.4
- ^ a b c d Malone, Allan, 1930, p. 174
- ^ N.Y. Public library: Archives division
- ^ Willey, 1903, p. 161
- ^ Philbrick, 2013, chap.10
- ^ Dearborn, Peckham, 2009, p. 5
- ^ a b c Cray, 2001
- ^ Dearborn, Smith, 1939, p.50
- ^ Dearborn, Smith, 1939, p.19
- ^ a b c d e Willey, 1903, p. 162
- ^ Dearborn, Peckham, 2009, pp. 36-37
- ^ Willey, 1903, p. 9
- ^ Willey, 1903, p. 13
- ^ Proceedings of the General Society of the Cincinnati, 1784-, Volume 1 (1887), p. 98
- ^ "Henry Dearborn | New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati". nhsocietyofthecincinnati.org. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
- ^ Dearborn, Peckham, 2009, pp. i - vii5
- ^ Dearborn, 2016
- ^ Thomas Jefferson to the Senate, March 25, 1802
- ^ a b Henry Dearborn's Report on the War Department, May 12, 1801
- ^ Dearborn's December 5, 1801 letter to Jefferson
- ^ Thomas Jefferson Foundation: Henry Dearborn (Physiognotrace)
- ^ a b Wheelan, 2005, p. 128
- ^ Stewart, 2011 pp. 148-149
- ^ Stewart, 2011, p. 111
- ^ Stewart, 2011, pp. 110-111, 209
- ^ McDonald, 2004, p. 115
- ^ Daughan, 2011, p. 28
- ^ a b c Taylor, 2010, pp. 180-182
- ^ DiLorenzo, 1998, Yankee Confederates
- ^ a b c Taylor, 2010, p. 182
- ^ Daughan, 2011, p. 95
- ^ Hickey, 1989 p. 84
- ^ Taylor, 2010, p. 217
- ^ Elting, 1991, p.119
- ^ Hickey, 1989 p. 88
- ^ Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. V, p.174
- ^ 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.
- ^ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
- ^ Journal of the American Revolution
- ^ Purcell, 2010, pp.164-168
- ^ Fredriksen, 1999, p. 210
Bibliography
- Johnson, Allen; Malone, Dumas (Eds.) (1930). Dictionary of American Biography, Feb. 23, 1751 - Jun. 6, 1829, Vol. V. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
- Dearborn, Henry; Putnam, Daniel (1818). An Account of the Battle of Bunker's Hill. Munroe & Francis, Boston.
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005: The Continental Congress, September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788. Government Printing Office. 2005. ISBN 9780160731761.
- Cray, Robert E. (2001). Bunker Hill Refought: Memory Wars and Partisan Conflicts, 1775-1825 (PDF). Historical Journal of Massachusetts. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 5, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
- Dearborn, Henry; ISBN 9780788401244. e-Book
- Daughan, George C. (2011). 1812, The Navy's War. Perseus Books, New York, 491 pages. ISBN 9780465028085.
- Elting, John R. (1991). Amateurs, to Arms! A Military History of the War of 1812. DaCapo Press. ISBN 0-306-80653-3.
- Fredriksen, John C. (1999). American Military Leaders. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576070017.
- Green (2009). The Guns of Independence: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781. ISBN 9781932714685.
- Hickey, Donald R. (1989). The War of 1812, The Forgotten Conflict. University of Illinois Press, 454 pages. ISBN 9780252078378.
- McDonald, Forrest (2004). Thomas Jefferson's Military Academy: Founding West Point. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 9780813922980.
- Philbrick, Nathaniel (2013). Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution. Penguin Books, 416 pages. ISBN 9781101622704.
- Purcell, Sarah J. (2010). Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Proceedings of the General Society of the Cincinnati, 1784-1884, Volume 1. Society of the Cincinnati, Philadelphia. 1887.
- Stewart, David O. (2011). American Emperor: Aaron Burr's challenge to Jefferson's America. Simon & Schuster, 411 pages. ISBN 9781439160329.
- Taylor, Alan (2010). The Civil War of 1812. Alfred A Knopf, New York, 623 pages. ISBN 9780679776734.
- Wheelan, Joseph (2005). Jefferson's Vendetta. Carroll and Graf Publishers, New York, 344 pages. ISBN 9780786714377.
- Willey, George Franklyn (1903). State Builders: An Illustrated Historical and Biographical Record of the State of New Hampshire. State Builders Publishing, Manchester, NH.
Website sources
- "Dearborn, H.A.S. (Henry Alexander Scammell), 1783-1851". New York Public library. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
- "Dearborn's 5 December 1801 letter to Jefferson". U.S. National Archives. 1801. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
- "Henry Dearborn's Report on the War Department, [12 May 1801]". U.S. National Archives. 1801.
- "Thomas Jefferson to the Senate, 25 March 1802". U.S. National Archives. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
- "DEARBORN, Henry, (1751 - 1829)". U.S. Congress. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
- "Henry Dearborn". U.S. Army Center of Military History. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
- "Henry Dearborn (Physiognotrace)". Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
- DiLorenzo, Thomas J. (1998). "Yankee Confederates". Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- "Bunker Hill Monument and Memory". Journal of the American Revolution. June 18, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
Further reading
- Dale, Ronald J. (2001). The Invasion of Canada: Battles of the War of 1812. James Lorimer & Company, 96 pages. ISBN 9781550287387.
- Frothingham, Richard (1890). Battle of Bunker Hill. Little, Brown & Company, 136 pages. — eBook
- Livingston, William Farrand (1901). Israel Putnam: Pioneer, Ranger, and Major-general, 1718-1790. G. P. Putnam's Sons. — eBook
- Tarbox, Increase Niles (1876). Life of Israel Putnam. Lockwood, Brooks & Company, Boston. — eBook
- Winsor, Justin (1887). Narrative and Critical History of America, Volume 6. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 777 pages. — eBook
External links
- The Society of the Cincinnati
- The American Revolution Institute
- Letters from Henry Dearborn, to Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc.
- Bell, William Gardner (2005). "Henry Dearborn". Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff: Portraits and Biographical Sketchs. United States Army Center of Military History. pp. 72–73. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- George LaBarre Galleries: Henry Dearborn autographed as President, Republican Institution Certificate dated 1821.
- Works by Henry Dearborn at Project Gutenberg