Samuel Osgood - The Revolution

The Revolution

Osgood led a local company of minutemen into the Battle of Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775. They followed the retreating British, and became part of the Siege of Boston. As more troops assembled, he was made Major of a brigade while serving at Cambridge. He became an aide to General Artemas Ward, and was promoted to Colonel. When the siege succeeded in the spring of 1776 Osgood left the army and returned to the provincial congress.

The Provincial Congress named Osgood to the Massachusetts Board of War and he served there until 1780 when the government was reorganized. He was a delegate to the state's constitutional convention in 1779-1780. Under the new Constitution he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1780 and served two terms. The new government named Osgood as one of their delegates to the Continental Congress and he served there from 1782 until 1784.

After a brief term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1784, the governor appointed Osgood a judge in 1785 but he soon resigned when the National Congress made him a commissioner of the Treasury later that year. He moved to New York City to take up this office, which he held until the Congressional Government ended.