1. Major-General James Clinton was a Continental Army officer and politician who fought in the American Revolutionary War.
15 Facts About James Clinton
1. 2.
James Clinton subsequently obtained the rank of brevet major general.
3.
James Clinton was born in Ulster County in the colony of New York, at Little Britain in the town of New Windsor, now part of Orange County, New York.
4.
James Clinton was the brother of George Clinton, who was elected and served as Governor of New York from 1777 to 1795 and as US Vice President from 1805 to 1812, and the father of DeWitt Clinton, who would serve as Governor of New York.
5.
James Clinton was commissioned an ensign in 1757 and achieved the rank of captain in the New York Regiment in 1759.
6.
James Clinton remained in the army, and was stationed at various frontier posts.
7.
James Clinton was commissioned as colonel of the 3rd New York Regiment, which took part in Brig.
8.
James Clinton served most of the war in the Northern Department, along the New York frontier.
9.
James Clinton participated in a successful effort to prevent British General Sir Henry Clinton from rescuing General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, but he and his troops were unable to hold Forts Clinton and Montgomery.
10.
James Clinton sustained a bayonet wound in the leg during the assault.
11.
In 1779, James Clinton led an expedition down the Susquehanna River after making the upper portion navigable by damming up the river's source at Otsego Lake, allowing the lake's level to rise, and then destroying the dam and flooding the river for miles downstream.
12.
In 1783 General James Clinton became an original member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati.
13.
James Clinton entered state politics, serving as an assemblyman in the New York State legislature from 1787 to 1788 and again from 1800 to 1801, and as a New York State Senator from 1788 to 1792.
14.
James Clinton's second wife was Mary Gray, the widow of Alexander Gray, who was born in Ireland.
15.
James Clinton died in Little Britain, New York, on September 22,1812, the same year as his brother George.