Benjamin Lincoln

Benjamin Lincoln
1784 portrait by Charles Willson Peale
1st Collector of the Port of Boston
In office 1789–1809
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Henry Dearborn
2nd Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office 1788–1789
Governor	John Hancock
Preceded by	Thomas Cushing
Succeeded by	Samuel Adams
1st United States Secretary at War
In office March 1, 1781 – November 2, 1783
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Henry Knox
1st Clerk of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress
In office October 7, 1774 – May 31, 1775
Preceded by	office established
Succeeded by	Samuel Freeman
Committee of Safety
In office October 7, 1774 – February 1, 1775
Constituency	At-large (Commissary Officer)
Personal details
Born	(1733-01-24)January 24, 1733 Hingham, Massachusetts, British America
Died	May 9, 1810(1810-05-09) (aged 77) Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting place	Old Ship Burying Ground, Hingham
Political party	Federalist
Spouse	Mary Cushing ​ (m. 1756)​
Children	11
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Great Britain  United States
Branch/service	Massachusetts Bay militia Continental Army United States Army
Years of service	Militia (1755–1777) Continental Army (1777–1781)
Rank	Major general
Commands	Massachusetts provincial militia Bound Brook Southern Department
Battles/wars	French and Indian War American Revolutionary War Boston Campaign Battle of White Plains Battle of Bound Brook Battle of Bemis Heights Siege of Savannah Siege of Charleston Yorktown Campaign Shays' Rebellion

Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 (O.S. January 13, 1733)^[1] – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lincoln was 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.

Lincoln served from 1781 to 1783 as the first United States Secretary of War. While Secretary of War, Lincoln became an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati of the state of Massachusetts and was elected as the first president of the Massachusetts Society on June 9, 1783. After the war, Lincoln was active in politics in his native Massachusetts, running several times for lieutenant governor but only winning one term in that office. In 1787, Lincoln led a militia army (privately funded by Massachusetts merchants) in the suppression of Shays' Rebellion, and was a strong supporter of the new United States Constitution. He was for many of his later years the politically influential customs collector of the Port of Boston. He was the fourth cousin three times removed of Abraham Lincoln through his mother's side.^[2]