BENJAMIN LINCOLN.

THIS distinguished individual, who truly deserves, in the language of one of his biographers, "a high rank in the fraternity of American heroes,” was a native of the pleasant little town of Hingham, situated on a small bay which sets up south from Boston, at the distance of about thirteen miles from the city, and within a few years become one of the principal summer resorts of such of its residents as grow weary at that season of the dust and din of its "populous streets." He was born January 23d, (O. S.,) 1733, in the same house which he died in, and which is still pointed out to the stranger by the members of the large and highly respectable family of his own name, who are among the inhabitants of the place to this day.

The parentage and early situation and education of LINCOLN, although far enough from being remarkably imposing, were well calculated, like those of many others of the greatest men of the revolutionary period, to prepare him for the trying contest in which he was destined to act a conspicuous, as well as a laborious part. His father, Benjamin Lincoln, was a maltster and farmer, in good circumstances, and a man much respected by his fellow-citizens, who repeatedly elected him, during times of no little political interest, the representative of Hingham in the general court, as the legislature was then usually termed. The young man enjoyed also, during the entire period of his early life, the eminent advantages implied in a good Massachusetts common school education; an opportunity of access to a considerable variety of books, and frequent leisure to read them; and especially, so far as his moral character was concerned, and upon that very much depended during his after life-in the exemplary, religious, orderly, and cheerful habits of his father's household.

Previous to the revolution, though his regular vocation was farming, and his robust constitution enabled him to pursue it with an industrious perseverance, he was several times called on to interest

himself in the civil and military affairs of the county and province. At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed an adjutant in the regiment of militia then commanded by his father, and not long afterwards major, under Colonel Josiah Quincy-Bernard being at that time governor. In 1772, Governor Hutchinson made him lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. He also sustained several of the town offices, and was elected its representative in the legislature.

When the disputes between the colonies and the mother country grew warm, he espoused the cause of the former, and supported it with energy and effect. This course brought him necessarily into political life, and in 1775, he was chosen a member of the provincial congress, which assembled at Cambridge and Watertown: that respectable body made him one of their secretaries, and a member of the important committee of correspondence who were instructed to communicate with the towns throughout the province, and with the other colonies, in relation to the critical circumstances of the times.

During this year he was not called into actual military service. On the memorable 19th of April, when blood was shed upon the plains of Lexington and Concord, he summoned the troops under his command to march to the scene of contest; but the rapid return of the British to the capital that same night, prevented the movement. The celerity with which the intelligence of this affair, we may here remark, travelled in all directions over the commonwealth and the continent, was perhaps till that time unexampled in colonial history. The writer has frequently conversed with a venerable eitizen of Concord,* lately deceased, then an artisan in the village, who, having at the first news of the approach of the enemy some time before day-break, commenced the voluntary labor of alarming the neighboring country, actually rode on horseback more than one hundred miles during the next twenty-four hours, in the performance of that duty-a task which, considering the condition of some of the roads he traversed, may be regarded as a feat worthy to be mentioned. This gentleman's wife and her young children had, meanwhile, deserted his house, and gone off to find security in the neighboring woods, with a large number of inhabitants situated like themselves.

Having been appointed by the council of Massachusetts a brigadier in February, 1776, and a major-general by the same authority,

* Mr. Reuben Brown.

in May of that same year, he employed himself industriously during the summer, in the exercise of the militia under his command. In August the council appointed him, by virtue of the supreme executive power reposed in their hands, to the control of all the troops of the state, doing duty at and about Boston; and the high opinion generally entertained of his ability and fidelity is still farther manifested by the selection which the general court, in the following months, made of him as commander of the regiments to be raised by the state to reinforce the army of Washington in New York and New Jersey, which had now become the chief theatre of the war. Previous to leaving the environs of Boston, he had the honor of heading an expedition of provincial troops and volunteers, who succeeded in clearing the harbor of the last remnants of the enemy. Until the 13th of June, they remained about Nantasket, with a fifty gun-ship, and several other vessels. The general embarked at Long Wharf, with the view of dislodging this force; and having landed upon Long Island, made arrangements for a vigorous cannonade; but a few shots soon convinced the British commodore of his danger, and he hastily abandoned the Boston waters, never more to infest them. "Thus,” in the language of the Journal of Dr. Thatcher, who was himself one of the party-"is the port again opened by our own authority, after being closed during two years by virtue of· an act of the British parliament.

The acquaintance which the illustrious commander-in-chief of the American army had formed with LINCOLN, while at Cambridge, induced him to recommend the latter to the continental congress as an officer whose services it was desirable to secure in the federal line, and accordingly, in February, 1777, he was appointed by that honorable body a major-general of their forces. During the spring and summer of this year, he was intrusted by Washington with the command of divisions or detachments of the main army, and was frequently in situations which required, the exercise of a high degree of military skill, though by no means fruitful in the means of brilliant distinction. The inferiority of the American force to that of the enemy, and the uncertainty of the operations of the latter, rendered the campaign a continual trial of vigilance and perseverance, much rather than of more imposing qualifications, on the part of the American generals.

On one occasion, notwithstanding all his caution, he was very near being surprised. He was at Bound Brook, on the Rariton, near the enemy, with a detachment of a few hundred men, appointed to

guard a line of some five or six miles. About day-break of the morn ing of April 13th, owing to the negligence of his patrols, he was suddenly assaulted by a large British party under Cornwallis and Grant. They had arrived within two hundred yards of his own quarters when discovered, and the general, with one of his aids, had hardly time to mount and leave the house before it was surrounded. The other aid, with the baggage and papers of the party, fell into the enemy's hands, as did also a few small pieces of artillery, while the general led off his troops between two columns of the British, who had nearly closed, and made good his retreat to the pass of the mountains near his encampment, with the loss of sixty killed and wounded.

The commander-in-chief on all occasions manifested great confidence in the talents and patriotism of LINCOLN, and with the view of turning these to the best account, he directed him, in July, to join the northern army under Schuyler, (afterwards. Gates,) which was to oppose Burgoyne. "My principal view," said his letter to the general, "in sending you there, is to take command of the eastern militia, over whom, I am informed, you have influence, and who place confidence in you. I have this day received two letters from General Schuyler, in such a style as convinces me that it is absolutely necessary to send a determined officer." This, for Washington, who was not a man of many compliments-was saying a good deal.

Having made his first station at Manchester, in Vermont, to form the militia as they came in from the northern sections of New England, and to operate in the rear of the enemy, LINCOLN soon distinguished his energy and good judgment advantageously by an expedition which he sent out on the 13th of September, under Colonel Brown, with five hundred men, to the landing at Lake George. The object was to release the American prisoners, and destroy the British stores, and this was effected completely by the capture of the fort and two hundred batteaux, with two hundred and ninety-three of the enemy's soldiers, and by the liberation of about one hundred American prisoners, while the loss of our party was only three killed and five wounded; an incident which contributed not a little to raise the spirits of the northern militia at this critical period.

After some other operations, LINCOLN joined the army of Gates, to whom he was second in command, and arrived in camp on the 29th September. Here he distinguished himself by his usual acti

vity until after the warm engagement of the 7th October. The day succeeding that action, he had occasion to ride from one part of his line to another about a mile distant, and before his return the same route was taken by a party of the enemy. The general knowing that a number of the captured German uniforms had been placed on his own troops, mistook these soldiers for Americans, and came within reach of their fire before the mistake was discovered. They discharged a volley, and wounded him in the lower part of the leg so severely, that he apprehended for some weeks the loss of the limb. This disabled him, and he was removed, first to Albany, and thence to Hingham. He joined the army again in August of 1778, but suffered for several years from the effects of the wound.

In the course of this season, the reputation of LINCOLN induced the delegates in congress from South Carolina to request that body to appoint him to the command of the southern army, which he accordingly assumed, and reached Charleston in December. Here he was soon engaged in the bustle of an active campaign; for on the 25th of the month, he learned the arrival of the enemy's fleet at Tybee, and on the 29th, that they had effected a landing, routed the Americans under Howe, and gained Savannah. He immediately put his own forces in motion, while the enemy extended himself into Georgia; but was unable to commence offensive operations until the last of February. On the 2d of March, General Ashe was defeated at Brier Creek, and thus LINCOLN lost nearly a fourth part of his army. From this time until June, a variety of movements took place; but of an inconclusive character. On the 20th of that month he attacked the enemy at their works near Stono Ferry, and a very warm action ensued, in which nearly two hundred were killed and wounded on each side. The battle was bravely fought, but did not effect a decisive result. The general was on this occasion, after being without sleep the previous night, ten hours on horseback at one sitting. Both armies rested in their summer quarters till September, the enemy being at Savannah.

In the beginning of that month, Count D'Estaing arrived off the place just mentioned, with a considerable French force, and LINCOLN joined soon afterwards with one thousand men, though not in time to prevent the garrison being largely reinforced. A siege and bombardment ensued, which proving too slow an operation for D'Estaing's temperament, he determined on an assault. This occurred on the 9th of October, and was one of the bloodiest engagements of the whole southern war, but less successful than glorious. The