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James Clinton

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James Clinton
1861 sketch of Clinton
Born(1736-08-09)August 9, 1736
DiedSeptember 22, 1812(1812-09-22)(aged 76)
Little Britain,New York,United States
Spouses
Mary DeWitt
(m.1765;died 1795)
  • Mary Gray
Children13, includingDeWitt,George,James
Parent(s)Col.Charles Clinton
Elizabeth Denniston
RelativesGeorge Clinton(brother)
William W Clinton(great-grandfather)
James Clinton(grandfather)
George W. Clinton(grandson)
Ambrose Spencer(son-in-law)
Signature

Major-GeneralJames Clinton(August 9, 1736 – September 22, 1812) was aContinental Armyofficer and politician who fought in theAmerican Revolutionary War.

During the war he, along withJohn Sullivan,led the 1779Sullivan Expeditionagainst the British-alliedIroquois.The Americans destroyed 40 villages as well as their winter stores of wheat and other produce. This forced 5,000 Iroquois to flee to British controlledFort Niagaraand caused the Iroquois to become unable to survive the harsh winter of 1779–1780, with their population being reduced by up to half.[1]He subsequently obtained the rank of brevet major general.[2]

After leaving the army, Clinton was a founding member of the New YorkSociety of the Cincinnatiand served as an assemblyman in the New York State legislature and later as a New York State Senator from 1788 to 1792.

Early life

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Coat of Arms of James Clinton

Clinton was born inUlster Countyin thecolony of New York,atLittle Britainin the town ofNew Windsor,now part ofOrange County,New York. He was the third son ofCol. Charles Clinton,anAnglo-Irishcolonist and a colonel in theFrench and Indian Warwho immigrated toNew Ulsterin 1729,[3]and his wife Elizabeth Denniston.[4][5]

He was the brother ofGeorge Clinton,who was elected and served asGovernor of New Yorkfrom 1777 to 1795 and asU.S. Vice Presidentfrom 1805 to 1812, and the father ofDeWitt Clinton,who would also serve as Governor of New York.[6]He was the grandson ofJames Clinton(d. 1718), and the great-grandson of William Clinton (1614–1684), a Royalist officer in the army ofCharles I of England.[7]

Career

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French and Indian War

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Monument at the site of Gen. Clinton's dam at the source of the Susquehanna River on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York

James Clinton's military experience began in theFrench and Indian War(the North American front of the Seven Years' War), where he served in theprovincial troops of New Yorkin the British cause. He was commissioned an ensign in 1757 and achieved the rank of captain in the New York Regiment in 1759.[8][9]Commanding a company in 1758, he participated, along with his father (Colonel) and brother George (Lieutenant), in GeneralJohn Bradstreet’s capture ofFort Frontenac(nowKingston,Ontario). He and his brother played a key role in capturing a French vessel.[10]

Clinton remained in the army, and was stationed at various frontier posts. In 1763 he raised and commanded a corps of two hundred men, who were designated as "Guards of the Frontier". After the war, he retired and married Mary De Witt.[2]

American Revolutionary War

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A month after the first open armed conflict in Lexington, the Continental Congress resolved on May 25, 1775, to build fortifications in the Hudson highlands for the purpose of protecting and maintaining control of theHudson River.Clinton and Major Christopher Tappen, lifetime residents of the area, were sent to scout appropriate locations. Clinton was commissioned ascolonelof the3rd New York Regiment,which took part in Brig. Gen.Richard Montgomery’s unsuccessfulexpedition to Quebecin 1775. In March 1776, Clinton took command of the2nd New York Regimentand soon after, in August, was promoted tobrigadier generalin theContinental Army.

He served most of the war in the Northern Department, along the New Yorkfrontier.[11]During theSaratoga Campaignin 1777, he commandedFort Clintonin the Hudson Highlands. He participated in a successful effort to prevent British General SirHenry Clintonfrom rescuing GeneralJohn Burgoyneat Saratoga, but he and his troops were unable to hold Forts Clinton and Montgomery. Clinton sustained a bayonet wound in the leg during the assault.[12]In 1778 he was stationed in Albany to oppose Indian andToryforces.[13]

Plaque on the Monument at the site of Gen. Clinton's dam

In 1779, Clinton led an expedition down theSusquehanna Riverafter making the upper portion navigable by damming up the river's source atOtsego Lake,allowing the lake's level to rise, and then destroying the dam and flooding the river for miles downstream. This event is described byJames Fenimore Cooperin the introduction to his popular novelThe Pioneers(1823). It is commemorated by an annual Memorial Day canoe race.

AtTioga,New York, Clinton met up with GeneralJohn Sullivan's forces, who had marched fromEaston,Pennsylvania. Together, on August 29, they defeated theToriesand British-alliedIroquoisat theBattle of Newtown(near today's city ofElmira,New York). This became known as the "Sullivan-Clinton Campaign" or the "Sullivan Expedition."They also attacked Seneca villages throughout western New York, destroying 40 as well as the winter stores of the people. Many Seneca fled to Canada and mortality was high that winter because of starvation.

In 1780, Clinton temporarily commanded theNorthern Department.By October 1781, his brigade had joinedGeorge Washington's army in thesiege of Yorktown.

Post-war years

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After leaving he army, Clinton served on the commission defining the New York-Pennsylvania boundary.[11]In 1783 General Clinton became an original member of the New YorkSociety of the Cincinnati.He entered state politics, serving as an assemblyman in the New York State legislature from 1787 to 1788 and again from 1800 to 1801, and as a New York State Senator from 1788 to 1792.[14]

Personal life

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On February 18, 1765, James Clinton married Mary DeWitt (1737–1795), the only daughter of Egbert DeWitt, members of a colonial Dutch family. They had seven children, including:[15]

  • Alexander Clinton (1765–1787), who served inColonel Lamb's regimentduring the Revolution and drowned in the Hudson River
  • Charles Clinton (1767–1829), who married Elizabeth Mulliner (1770–1865)
  • DeWitt Clinton(1769–1828), a politician and later governor of New York
  • George Clinton, Jr.(1771–1809), politician who served as a U.S. representative in Congress
  • Mary Clinton (1773–1808), who married Robert Burrage Norton. After his death, she married JudgeAmbrose Spencer(1765–1848).
  • Elizabeth Clinton (1776–1832), who married William Stuart
  • Katharine Clinton (1778–1837), who married Samuel Lake Norton, brother to her sister Mary's husband. After his death, she marriedAmbrose Spencer,her sister's widower.

His second wife was Mary (néeLittle) Gray (1768–1835), the widow of Alexander Gray (1762–1795), who was born in Ireland. Together, James and Mary were the parents of six children:[15]

  • James G. Clinton, who died young.
  • Caroline Hannah Clinton (1800–1864), who married Charles Augustus Dewey (1793–1866), an Associate Justice of theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
  • Emma Little Clinton (1802–1823), who never married.
  • James Graham Clinton(1804–1849), who married Margaret Ellsworth Conger and served in Congress.[16]
  • Letitia Clinton (1806–1842), who married Dr. Francis Bolton (1804–1849).
  • Anna Clinton (1809–1833), who married Lt. Edward Ross.

Clinton died inLittle Britain,New York, on September 22, 1812, the same year as his brother George.[15]

Descendants

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Through his son DeWitt, he was the grandfather of ten, includingGeorge William Clinton(1807–1885) who served asMayor of Buffalo,New York from 1842 to 1843. Through his son George, he was the grandfather of three.[17]

References

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Notes
  1. ^Koehler, Rhiannon (Fall 2018). "Hostile Nations: Quantifying the Destruction of the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide of 1779".American Indian Quarterly.42(4): 427–453.doi:10.5250/amerindiquar.42.4.0427.S2CID165519714.
  2. ^abMoore, Charles B., "Introductory Sketch to the History of the Clinton Family",The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record,(Richard Henry Greene at al, eds.), New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1880
  3. ^Murphy, Victor (2015).A History of Corboy Presbyterian Church and School.Longford. pp. 13–28.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^Campbell 1849,pp. x–xiv.
  5. ^Gorse, C.A., "Town of New Windsor",The History of Orange County,(Russel Headley, ed.), Van Deusen and Elms, Middletown, New York, 1908
  6. ^George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republicby John P. Kaminski, New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, University of Wisconsin--Madison Center for the Study of the American Constitution (Rowman & Littlefield, 1993,ISBN0-945612-17-6,ISBN978-0-945612-17-9,page 24)
  7. ^Johnson's (revised) Universal Cyclopaedia
  8. ^Campbell, William W.,Lecture on the Life and Military Services of General James Clinton,1839, p. 8
  9. ^"Muster Rolls of New York Provincial Troops, 1755-1764."Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1891.New York: New York Historical Society, p. 521.
  10. ^Campbell 1849,pp. xv–xvii.
  11. ^ab"Brigadier General James Clinton", Yorktown Battlefield, National Park Service
  12. ^Sullivan Clinton Campaign 1779-1979; A Bicentennial Commemorative.Chemung County Historical Society, Inc., Elmira, New York. pub. 1979.
  13. ^Sullivan Campaign of the Revolutionary War: The Impact on Livingston County
  14. ^"The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians".
  15. ^abcBergen, Tunis Garret (1915).Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation.Lewis Historical Publishing Company.RetrievedJuly 18,2017.
  16. ^"CLINTON, James Graham - Biographical Information".bioguide.congress.gov.Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.RetrievedJuly 18,2017.
  17. ^William Smith Pelletreau,Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York,Volume 3, 1907, page 183
Sources
  • Campbell, William W. (1849).The Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton.Baker and Scribner.
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