American physician and soldier, born in Hampton, NH, on the 23rd of February 1751; died in Roxbury, MA, on the 6th of June 1829. He studied and began the practice of medicine at Nottingham Square in 1772, and during his leisure made a study of military tactics, making his knowledge available during the Revolutionary War. The day following the battle of Lexington, with sixty minute-men he marched to Cambridge and covered the American retreat at Bunker Hill; he accompanied Arnold’s expedition to Canada, where he was taken prisoner in the attack on Quebec; he fought at the battles of Stillwater, Saratoga, Monmouth and Newtown, and at the siege of Yorktown. After the war he was appointed United States marshal for Maine, twice elected to Congress, was Secretary of War under President Jefferson, collector of the port of Boston, and in 1812 was advanced to major-general, assigned to the northern department and took part in the war, capturing York (now Toronto) and Fort George. He was suspected of political intrigues and recalled, but was at once appointed commander of New York City, and in 1822 President Monroe sent him as minister to Portugal. A military post in Chicago, evacuated by the United States troops in 1812, was named after General Dearborn.
