Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/459

 L,I^*COLN

LINCOLN

1636. Benjamin received a limited education, and worked on liis father's farm until two years after Ids father's death, which occurred in 1771. In 1755 he was appointed adjutant of his father's regiment, the 3d Suffolk, and saw service in the French and Indian war. He held the offices of magistrate, of representative in the provincial leg- islature and of colonel of militia. He also served as a member of the committee of correspondence and as secretary of the seveial provincial con- gresses. He engaged in raising and drilling troops, 1775-76; was appointed major-general of state militia in 1776 and was a member of the commit- tee to prepare instructions for the representatives in the general court. In June, 1776, he com- manded the expedition that forced the British vessels to leave the harbor, and he reinforced Washington's army at Harlem, N.Y., with a body of Massachusetts militia. He took part in the bat- tle of White Plains, N.Y., and the attack on Fort Independence, and early in 1777 lie reinforced Washington at Morristown, N.J. On Feb. 19, 1777, he was commissioned major-general in the Continental army. At Bound Brook, N.J., April 18, 1777, he was surprised by a large force under General Cornwallis but rallied his demor- alized forces and retreated with them to the mountains with comparatively small loss. In July, 1777, he reinforced General Schuyler in Al- bany and he destroyed the posts at Lake George established by Burgoyne and opposed his advance. He commanded the right wing of Gates's army at Stillwater and the American works at Bemis's Heights. On Oct. 8 with a small force he recon- noitred in the rear of Burgoyne'sarmy, and was fired upon and severely wounded in the leg. This wound disabled him for a year and lamed him for life. In August, 1778, he rejoined the arm}', and on Sept. 25, 1778, he was appointed by congress commander-in-chief of the South- . --^^^^.^ ern Department.

He engaged in the defence of Charleston, S.C. ^ against the Brit- -r^.i'ih inider Gen- "• 111 Prevost in J >t'cember, 1777, .*' and upon the ar- rival of Count -,v- d'Estaing he ar- "' ranged a co-op- erative attack on Savannah which his French allies refused to continue and he re- turned to Charleston, where in February, 17S0, he was besieged by Sir Henry Clinton and was obliged to capitulate in May, 1780. He was paroled and retired to Massachusetts in November, 1780. Upon

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his exchange in the spring of 1781 he joined Wash- ington, accompanied him to Yorktown and was appointed by his chief to receive the sword of Cornwallis upon the surrender of the British army. Lincoln was appointed by congress secre- tary of war, serving 1781-84. He retired to his farm in 1784 after receiving a vote of thanks from congress for his services. On the outbreak of Shays's rebellion in 1786 he commanded the state militia sent to suppress the insurrection. He was elected lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts in 1787. He was appointed collector of the port of Boston by President Washington, which office he held till 1808. He was one of the commissioners to treat with the Creek Indians in 1789, and with the Indians north of the Ohio at Sandusky in 1793. He was a member of the state convention that ratified the U.S. constitution; was president of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati from its organization; was a member of the American Academy of Arts aiid Sciences, and of the Massachusetts Historical society. The hon- orary degree of A.M. was conferred on him by Harvard in 1780. He contributed to the Annals of the ^Massachusetts Historical Society papers on: Indian Tribes: the Cause of their Decrease, their Claims, etc.; Observations on the Climate, Soil and Value of the Eastern Counties in the District of Maine, and On the Religious State of the Eastern Counties of Maine. He died in Hing- ham, Mass., May 9.. 1810.

LINCOLN, David Francis, physician, was born in Boston, Mass., Jan. 4, 1841; son of William and Mary Moore (Francis) Lincoln; grandson of the Rev. Henry and Susannah (Crocker) Lincoln and of David and Mary (Moore) Francis, and a descendant of Thomas Lincoln, who settled in Hingham, Mass., in 1635. He was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1861, A.M. and M.D., 1864. In 1863 with other students of the Harvard Medical school he entered the U.S. navy as an assistant surgeon, serving eighteen months. He was a house-surgeon in the Boston city hospi- tal, 1864-65. He studied in the universities and hospitals of Berlin and Vienna, 1865-67, and then engaged in practice in Boston. In 1872 he began to devote special attention to nervous diseases. He was elected a member and officer in the prin- cipal medical societies and became a frequent contributor to the medical and educational journals. He is the author of: Electro-Therapeu- tics (1874); School and Industrial Hygiene (1888); Hygienic Physiology, forscliools (1883); Sanity of 3Iind (1900); abridged translation of Trousseau and Pidoux' Therapeutics (1880), and many reports and articles on hygiene.

LINCOLN, Enoch, governor of Maine, was born in Worcester, Mass., Dec. 28, 1788; son of Levi and Martha (Waldo) Lincoln. He entered