Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is notable for being 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.
After the war he was active in politics in his native Massachusetts, running several times for lieutenant governor but only winning one term in that office. He led a militia army (privately funded by Massachusetts merchants) in the suppression of Shays' Rebellion in 1787, and was a strong supporter of the new United States Constitution. He was for many of his later years the customs collector of the Port of Boston.
Read more about Benjamin Lincoln: Early Life, American Revolution, Post-war Politics, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words benjamin and/or lincoln:
“Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“In using the strong hand, as now compelled to do, the government has a difficult duty to perform. At the very best, it will by turns do both too little and too much. It can properly have no motive of revenge, no purpose to punish merely for punishment’s sake. While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)