Henry Dearborn

Henry Dearborn in an 1873 painting by Walter M. Brackett

Henry Dearborn (born February 23, 1751 in North Hampton , Rockingham County , New Hampshire Colony , †  June 6, 1829 in Roxbury , Massachusetts ) was an American doctor, politician and officer in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 .

Life

Dearborn was born in North Hampton and grew up in Epping, New Hampshire. He studied medicine and opened a practice in Nottingham Square (New Hampshire) in 1772 . When the Revolutionary War broke out, he organized the formation of a local militia force of 60 men, took over their leadership and marched with them to Boston , where he participated as a captain in the Battle of Bunker Hill . He then volunteered for Benedict Arnold's unsuccessful expedition to Canada . Due to the American defeat in the Battle of Québec on December 31, 1775 , he was captured by the British and spent a year there. In May 1776 the British released him on word of honor; It was not formally exchanged until March 1777.

He then rejoined the army and was involved in the fighting for Fort Ticonderoga and the battles at Freeman's Farm and Saratoga in 1777 . Dearborn spent the winter of 1777/1778 - now with the rank of lieutenant colonel - with George Washington's main army in Valley Forge . In 1778 he was involved in the Battle of Monmouth and in 1779 took part in Major General John Sullivan's expedition against the Iroquois . In 1781 Dearborn joined Washington's staff as Quartermaster General with the rank of Colonel, and in this role he witnessed the surrender of British troops under General Cornwallis after the Battle of Yorktown .

After the end of the Revolutionary War, he received his discharge from the army in June 1783 and settled in Kennebec County , which was then still part of Massachusetts , where he was the first US Marshal for the District of Maine . The first execution ordered by the federal government took place under his supervision in 1790. In addition, he represented his district as a member of the Democratic Republican Party from 1793 to 1797 in the United States House of Representatives and earned the rank of major general in the Maine militia. In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson appointed him to his cabinet as Secretary of War . He held this post until 1809. Although he succeeded in making a number of small improvements, he did nothing to change the fundamentally poor condition of the US Army , which was characterized by insufficient training and discipline, outdated, corrupt or incompetent officers and political influence.

From 1809 to 1812 he was a customs collector in Boston Harbor . At the outbreak of the War of 1812 with Great Britain Dearborn received by President James Madison to the rank of the oldest major-general and the supreme command over the American troops should invade Canada. Despite his military experience from the War of Independence, Dearborn proved completely unsuitable. His soldiers nicknamed him "Granny" (grandmother). He failed to organize the defense of the coasts and mobilize the state militias. The negligence and slowness of the Americans allowed the vastly outnumbered British under Sir Isaac Brock to attack before Dearborn could implement his offensive plans. Because he had failed to take precautions for possible British attacks in the northwest, they could take the strategically important Fort Mackinac by surprise. Since he left Brigadier General William Hull to his fate in Detroit , he saw himself compelled on August 16, 1812 to surrender to Brock with his 2,000 men.

Dearborn succeeded in giving the US troops a much-needed respite through a truce signed with the British Governor General Sir George Prevost . With the resumption of attack operations on the Niagara River , the shortcomings of the US Army became clear again. When Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer, subordinate to Dearborn , tried to cross the river, the Americans suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of Queenston Heights on October 13, in which soldiers were poorly trained, poorly disciplined, poorly organized and overtly disobeyed for political reasons played an essential role. Another attempt at invasion under van Rensselaer's successor Alexander Smyth also failed due to the defeat in the Battle of Frenchman's Creek on November 28th. At the same time, Dearborn, who was under massive pressure from President Madison after previous failures, launched an attack on Montreal . The only half-hearted advance with 6,000 men failed right at the border due to the defeat in the First Battle of Lacolle Mills on November 27, 1812, in which American troops set fire to each other due to organizational and communication errors. Dearborn's repeated resignation requests were rejected by President Madison. With strongly superior troops and support from the US Navy , he achieved two minor successes in 1813 with the conquest of York (now Toronto ) on April 27 and the capture of Fort George on the Niagara River on May 27, 1813. However, both reveal a lack of strategic understanding: York was attacked instead of the much more important Kingston (Ontario) , the conquest of Fort George remained unused because the US troops stopped there instead of seriously pushing into the interior of the country. After embarrassing defeats at Stoney Creek and Beaver Dams , the Americans had to evacuate the Canadian banks of the Niagara in the winter of 1813. Dearborn was recalled on July 6, 1813, and received an administrative post in New York . He later presided over the court-martial that sentenced General Hull to death for the surrender of Detroit, although Dearborn's failures had played a major role in the debacle. Dearborn was honorably discharged from the army on June 15, 1815. He is largely responsible for the fact that in the war of 1812, despite overwhelming odds, the Americans failed to achieve their goal of conquering Canada and suffered a series of defeats that are among the most embarrassing in American military history.

Nevertheless, President Madison nominated him again as Secretary of War. However, the Senate rejected it. President James Monroe appointed Dearborn envoy to Portugal , from where he was called back two years later in 1824 at his own request. Dearborn retired to his home in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he died five years later. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.

family

He was married three times: to Mary Bartlett (1771), to Dorcas ( Osgood ) Marble (1780) and to Sarah Bowdoin , the widow of the politician and intellectual James Bowdoin III (1813). The politician and general Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn was his second marriage son.

Commemoration

The former Fort Dearborn in Chicago and the coastal fortification Fort Dearborn in New Hampshire were named after him. Lewis and Clark named the Dearborn River in Montana in 1803 after Henry Dearborn. Dearborn County, Indiana , Dearborn in Michigan , Dearborn in Missouri are all named after him. The town of Augusta , Maine, was named after Henry's daughter Augusta Dearborn in August 1797.

Web links

• Henry Dearborn in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Henry Dearborn in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on Henry Dearborn on the website of the US Marshals Museum ( memento of the original from January 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ http://fortwiki.com/Fort_Dearborn_%283%29 , accessed March 2, 2011
3. ↑ http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/New_Hampshire/Fort_Dearborn/history.html , accessed March 2, 2011