Benjamin Lincoln

Benjamin Lincoln
1784 portrait by Charles Willson Peale
1st Collector of the Port of Boston
In office
1789–1809
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byHenry Dearborn
2nd Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office
1788–1789
GovernorJohn Hancock
Preceded byThomas Cushing
Succeeded bySamuel Adams
1st United States Secretary at War
In office
March 1, 1781 – November 2, 1783
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byHenry Knox
1st Clerk of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress
In office
October 7, 1774 – May 31, 1775
Preceded byoffice established
Succeeded bySamuel Freeman
Committee of Safety
In office
October 7, 1774 – February 1, 1775
ConstituencyAt-large (Commissary Officer)
Personal details
Born(1733-01-24)January 24, 1733
Hingham, Massachusetts, British America
DiedMay 9, 1810(1810-05-09) (aged 77)
Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting placeOld Ship Burying Ground, Hingham
Political partyFederalist
Spouse
Mary Cushing
(m. 1756)
Children11
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Great Britain
 United States
Branch/serviceMassachusetts Bay militia
Continental Army
United States Army
Years of serviceMilitia (1755–1777)
Continental Army (1777–1781)
RankMajor general
CommandsMassachusetts 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]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference dates was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln (Continental Army)". Geni.com. May 4, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2024.