Henry Dearborn

Henry Dearborn (February 23, 1751 – June 6, 1829) was an American military officer, congressman, cabinet official, and diplomat whose career spanned the Revolutionary War, the early national period, and the War of 1812. He was born in North Hampton, in the Province of New Hampshire, where he studied medicine under Dr. Hall Jackson and established a medical practice in Nottingham Square before the outbreak of the American Revolution. As tensions with Britain escalated, he joined the patriot cause, setting aside his medical career for military service that would define much of his public life.

Dearborn entered the Continental Army as a captain in Colonel John Stark’s 1st New Hampshire Regiment and saw early action at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. In the fall of that year he served under Benedict Arnold in the arduous expedition to Quebec, a march through the Maine wilderness that he documented in a journal later regarded as an important primary record of the campaign. He was wounded and captured during the assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775, and was held prisoner until he was exchanged in 1777. After his exchange he rejoined the Continental Army and rose steadily in rank, serving in George Washington’s forces in several major engagements, including the Saratoga campaign and the Battle of Monmouth. Dearborn ultimately attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and served on General Washington’s staff in Virginia, where he was present at the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.

After the war, Dearborn settled in Maine, then still part of Massachusetts, where he engaged in farming and public affairs. He served as a brigadier general in the Massachusetts militia and entered politics as a Jeffersonian Republican. Elected to the Third Congress, he represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1793, to March 3, 1797. In Congress he aligned with the emerging Democratic-Republican opposition to Federalist policies, particularly on military and fiscal issues. Following his congressional service, he remained active in local and state politics in Maine and Massachusetts and continued to cultivate his reputation as a Revolutionary War veteran and public servant.

In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Dearborn Secretary of War, a post he held from 1801 until March 7, 1809. In this capacity he advised Jefferson on military personnel and structure at a time when the new administration sought to reduce the size and cost of the standing army while maintaining essential defenses. Dearborn played a key role in shaping the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802, which reorganized the Army and provided for the establishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point. In April 1801 he recruited George Baron, an English mathematician and friend from Maine, to serve as the academy’s first mathematics instructor, and he offered the superintendency to Jonathan Williams, an engineer and translator of European works on artillery and fortification. Dearborn’s extensive correspondence with Jefferson in 1801 and 1802 included his May 12, 1801 report on the War Department and recommendations for clearly designating the boundary line between the United States and adjacent British possessions to prevent future disputes. During his tenure he also helped Jefferson formulate policy toward Native American nations, with the administration’s stated goal of establishing a western boundary by acquiring lands along the Mississippi River.

Dearborn’s term as Secretary of War coincided with rising tensions on the southwestern frontier and the intrigues surrounding Aaron Burr and General James Wilkinson. In 1805, as rumors of a possible war with Spain and a secessionist scheme in the Southwest circulated, Wilkinson urged Dearborn to support aggressive moves against Spanish Florida. Dearborn, responding to the prospect of conflict, ordered three companies of troops to Fort Adams in West Florida as a precaution and in May directed Wilkinson to the Orleans Territory with instructions to repel any invasion of the United States east of the Sabine River or north or west of the bounds of what was then called West Florida, declaring that any such movement would constitute “an actual invasion of our territorial rights.” When Wilkinson sought authorization for an exploratory military expedition into the Southwest that might facilitate a broader conflict, Dearborn cautioned him, remarking that “you, Burr, etc., are becoming too intimate … keep every suspicious person at arm’s length,” and warning that Wilkinson’s name was “very frequently” mentioned with Burr’s. Burr was soon afterward arrested and tried for treason, while Dearborn continued to administer the War Department until the close of Jefferson’s presidency.

Upon leaving the cabinet, Dearborn was appointed by President James Madison as collector of the port of Boston in March 1809, a position he held until January 27, 1812. On that date Madison appointed him Commanding General of the United States Army. When the War of 1812 began, Madison placed Dearborn, then sixty-one years old, in senior command of the northeastern theater, extending from the Niagara River to the New England coast. Dearborn’s Revolutionary War record and his service as Secretary of War, particularly his role in the Military Peace Establishment Act that had displaced many Federalist officers, made him a trusted figure for the administration but a controversial one among New England Federalists. By this time he was overweight and in declining vigor, and he struggled to inspire confidence among his subordinates. Early in 1812 he suffered a minor injury from a fall and was slow to return fully to the field. Concerned, like Vice President Elbridge Gerry, about the possibility of Federalist-led secession in New England, he devoted considerable attention to securing the region’s militia for coastal defense, which led to disputes with several Federalist governors who refused to place their militia under federal control.

Under pressure from Secretary of War William Eustis to mount an invasion of Canada, Dearborn moved slowly to assemble forces. In August 1812, while General William Hull at Detroit expected a diversionary attack near the Niagara frontier, Dearborn remained at his headquarters at Greenbush, near Albany, struggling to gather sufficient troops. During this period he agreed to a temporary armistice with British authorities, negotiated by Colonel Edward Baynes on behalf of Governor General George Prévost, after learning that the British government was awaiting the American response to its recent policy changes. Dearborn welcomed the delay and notified Madison, but the president repudiated the armistice on August 15 and ordered the offensive renewed. Dearborn’s subsequent plans for simultaneous assaults on Montreal, Kingston, Fort Niagara, and Amherstburg were poorly executed. A tentative advance into Lower Canada in November 1812 collapsed after a minor engagement at the Battle of Lacolle Mills, and critics later argued that he had not moved quickly enough to provide adequate support for Detroit, where Hull surrendered to British General Isaac Brock without firing a shot. Hull was court-martialed and sentenced to death, with Dearborn presiding over the court; the sentence was later commuted.

Despite these setbacks, Dearborn achieved limited successes in 1813. On April 27, 1813, American forces on Lake Ontario under his overall command, in cooperation with Commodore Isaac Chauncey, captured York (now Toronto), occupying the town for several days and seizing guns and military stores. He then concentrated approximately 4,500 troops at Fort Niagara and planned an attack on nearby Fort George, entrusting the assault to Colonel Winfield Scott. The capture of Fort George on May 27, 1813, marked another tactical success, though the American army suffered from inadequate preparations at Fort Niagara, including shortages of supplies and accommodations that caused significant hardship. Overall, Dearborn’s command in the War of 1812 was widely judged ineffective, and he was recalled from the frontier on July 6, 1813. He was reassigned to an administrative command in New York City and was honorably discharged from the Army on June 15, 1815.

In the later years of his life, Dearborn remained active in public service and intellectual pursuits. He served as president of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and maintained correspondence with leading figures of the Revolutionary generation, including Washington, John Adams, and Jefferson. He also wrote “An Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill,” a short work that scholars have regarded as culturally important and a significant contribution to the historical understanding of the early stages of the American Revolution. His critical assessment of General Israel Putnam’s conduct at Bunker Hill, expressed in this and related writings, provoked a major and long-lasting controversy, as defenders of Putnam’s reputation challenged Dearborn’s version of events in public debates and historical literature. In his personal life, Dearborn married three times; in his later years he married Sarah Bowdoin, a member of the prominent Bowdoin family of Massachusetts.

Dearborn’s final major federal appointment came in 1822, when President James Monroe named him U.S. minister to Portugal. He served in Lisbon until 1824, representing American commercial and diplomatic interests during a period of political transition in the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas empire. After returning to the United States, he spent his remaining years in Massachusetts, where he continued to be honored as a Revolutionary War veteran and early national statesman. He died on June 6, 1829, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. His legacy is reflected in numerous places named for him, including Fort Dearborn and Dearborn Park in Illinois, Dearborn County, Indiana, and the city of Dearborn, Michigan, as well as in the public career of his son, Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn, who became a noted lawyer, politician, and author.