40 Facts About Henry Dearborn

Henry Dearborn was an American military officer and politician.

Henry Dearborn was present at the British surrender at Yorktown.

Henry Dearborn served as Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson, from 1801 to 1809, and served as a commanding general in the War of 1812.

Fort Dearborn in Illinois, Dearborn County in Indiana, and the city of Dearborn, Michigan, were named in his honor.

Henry Dearborn was descended from Godfrey Dearborn, from Exeter in England, who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639.

Godfrey Henry Dearborn settled first at Exeter, New Hampshire, and soon after at Hampton, where four successive generations of his descendants lived.

Henry Dearborn spent much of his youth in Epping, where he attended public schools.

Henry Dearborn grew up as an athletic boy, notably strong and a champion wrestler.

Henry Dearborn studied medicine under Dr Hall Jackson of Portsmouth and opened a practice on the square in Nottingham, New Hampshire, in 1772.

Henry Dearborn was married three times: to Mary Bartlett in 1771, to Dorcas Marble in 1780, and to Sarah Bowdoin, widow of James Bowdoin, in 1813.

Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn was his son by his second wife.

When fighting in the American Revolutionary War began, Henry Dearborn fought with the Continental Army as a captain in the 1st and 3rd New Hampshire Regiments; he soon rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Henry Dearborn took part in the Saratoga campaign against Burgoyne at Freeman's Farm.

The New Hampshire brigade under General Poor and a detachment of infantry under Major Henry Dearborn, numbering about three hundred, along with detachments of other militia, and Whitcomb's Rangers, co-operated with Morgan in the repulse of Fraser's attack.

Gates later noted Henry Dearborn's marked ability as a soldier and officer in his report.

Henry Dearborn served in the US House of Representatives from the District of Maine, 1793 to 1797.

Henry Dearborn was an original member of the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati.

Henry Dearborn's 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.

Henry Dearborn wrote An Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Henry Dearborn was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Massachusetts Militia in 1787 and was promoted to major general in 1789.

Henry Dearborn represented this district as a Democratic-Republican in the Third and Fourth Congresses from 1793 to 1797.

Henry Dearborn offered the superintendency of the school to Jonathan Williams, who had translated into English some European treatises on artillery and fortification.

Henry Dearborn was appointed collector of the port of Boston by President James Madison in March 1809, a position he held until January 27,1812, when he was appointed as the Commanding General of the United States Army.

Henry 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, and especially for helping Jefferson draft the Military Peace Establishment Act, which served to remove many Federalist officers from the ranks of the military.

At age 61 Henry Dearborn was now overweight, slow and insecure, and he found it difficult to inspire confidence among the men under his command.

Henry Dearborn maintained 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.

Henry Dearborn learned that Lord Liverpool was giving the American government time to respond.

Henry Dearborn prepared plans for simultaneous assaults on Montreal, Kingston, Fort Niagara, and Amherstburg, but the execution was imperfect.

Some scholars believe that Henry Dearborn did not move quickly enough to provide sufficient troops to defend Detroit.

Henry Dearborn assembled 4,500 troops at Fort Niagara and planned to attack Fort George next, and entrusted the attack to Colonel Winfield Scott, but his army required rest and reorganisation.

Henry Dearborn was recalled from the frontier on July 6,1813, and reassigned to an administrative command in New York City, and married his third wife, Sarah Bowdoin.

Henry Dearborn was honorably discharged from the Army on June 15,1815.

Henry Dearborn was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1816, now the oldest historical society in the United States.

Henry Dearborn ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 1818 against incumbent John Brooks.

Subsequently, Henry Dearborn accepted an offer from Charles Miner, the editor of The Port Folio, a Philadelphia political magazine, asking him to verify and edit a British soldier's map depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Henry Dearborn saw this as a chance to win public favor and seized the opportunity.

Henry Dearborn was later appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal by President James Monroe and served from May 7,1822, until June 30,1824, when, by his own request, he was recalled.

Henry Dearborn retired to his home in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he died five years later.

Henry Dearborn is interred in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.

Henry Dearborn, was a US congressman representing Massachusetts's 10th congressional district from 1831 to 1833.