Henry Burbeck Henry Burbeck ( June 10 , 1754 – October 2 , 1848 ) , son of William Burbeck and Jerusha Glover , was born in Boston , Massachusetts . He served in the United States army for more than forty years most notably during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 and achieved the rank of Brigadier General . In the Revolutionary War , he fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill , Brandywine , Germantown and Monmouth . After the Revolutionary War , he was assigned to protect the arsenal at Springfield , Massachusetts in the aftermath of Shays ' Rebellion . He then served on the Court of Inquiry that investigated General James Wilkinson and he served on the court for his subsequent court marshal in 1811 . During the War of 1812 , he commanded the Connecticut State Militia at New London , Connecticut . During the blockade of the east coast by Commodore Hardy , Burbeck was sent to Boston , Massachusetts to take command there after a brutal winter march from New London , Connecticut . His first wife was Abigail Webb and his second wife was Lucy Rudd . He had six children . Early Life ( 1754 - 1775 ) . Henry Burbeck was born in Boston on June 10 , 1754 , the son of Jerusha Glover and William Burbeck of Boston . His father was a British colonial officer in the ordnance department and second in command of Old Castle William in Boston Harbor , but gave up his commission and supported the patriot cause when hostilities broke out . Burbeck ' s education consisted of a public writing school in the North End of Boston under John Tileston ( 1735 – 1826 ) . He would later credit his father with the remainder of his education . Prior to his military service , Henry worked at the coppersmith ' s forge with Paul Revere . Revolutionary War Service ( 1775 - 1781 ) . At the outbreak of the Battle of Lexington , Burbeck ' s father escaped to Cambridge and reported to the Committee on Public Safety and its leader , General Joseph Warren , to join the patriot cause which resulted in a price being placed on his head by the British . Burbeck joined his father in Cambridge where they made ammunition used at the Battle of Bunker Hill and also participated in the battle . Henry served as a lieutenant in the Battle of Bunker Hill and his commission was signed by General Joseph Warren on May 19 , 1775 . Following the Battle of Bunker Hill , Burbeck married Abigail Webb on August 12 , 1775 in Boston . He was assigned as a lieutenant of artillery to the Massachusetts line commanded by Colonel Richard Gridley , the Continental Army ' s first Chief Engineer and artillery commander , in 1775 . Washington ' s Campaigns . In 1777 , he briefly joined the army at Saratoga until he was assigned to Pennsylvania to join Gen . George Washington ' s army . He fought in the battles of Brandywine , Germantown . He remained in the Artillery Corps under General Henry Knox and , in 1777 , assumed command of a company of the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment . He marched with Gen . Washington and his men from Valley Forge to New Jersey in 1778 . Following the march , he fought in the Battle of Monmouth . His unit was sent North and he remained in White Plains New York , to defend the Hudson Highlands from 1779 - 1783 . He marched into New York when the British army evacuated that city at the close of the Revolutionary War . Burbeck knew General George Washington personally from his service and it was from Burbeck ' s associations with foreign officers serving in the American Revolution that he recognized the need to educate and train the army in artillery and engineering . Burbeck recommended the establishment of West Point military academy . Between the Wars ( 1781 - 1811 ) . Honorably discharged in January 1784 , Burbeck was reappointed captain of artillery , commanded by Major John Dougherty , in October 1786 and commanded the post at West Point , New York , in 1787 - 1789 . In 1787 , he was ordered by General Knox to Springfield , Massachusetts to protect the arsenal there is the aftermath of Shays ' Rebellion . His wife Abigail died in June 1790 in Bath , Maine . Creek Treaty Attempt . He commanded the Army ' s Battalion of Artillery and served as General Anthony Wayne ' s Chief of Artillery in the Northwest Indian War in 1792 - 1794 . He was ordered , on August 29 , 1789 , to Georgia to serve as a guard to Major General Benjamin Lincoln and Colonel Humphries during the unsuccessful treaty negotiation with the Creek people . He returned to Georgia in 1790 and built a fort on the St . Mary ' s River . Fort Recovery . He was promoted to Major Commandant of the Artillery on March 16 , 1792 . Burbeck established Fort Recovery in Ohio in 1794 which was named after the lost cannons that were recovered at the site of in the aftermath of St . Clair ' s defeat by the Indians in 1791 . Burbeck buried 200 skulls and numerous bones from Arthur St . Clair ' s defeat and interred them as two brass cannons from the 1791 action , recovered by Burbeck in the Wabash , were discharged in their honor . Fort Mackinac . Burbeck oversaw the transfer of power from British to American control of Fort Mackinac in 1796 , 13 years after the Treaty of Paris was signed . He served at the fort through 1799 . From 1798 to 1802 , Burbeck was the senior regimental commander of artillerists and engineers . He also commanded the Eastern Department of the Army in 1800 and in that year endorsed the creation of a corps of engineers separate from the artillerists . He was Chief of the new Artillery Corps from 1802 to 1815 , first as a colonel and then during the War of 1812 as a brevet brigadier general . During the Jefferson administration ( 1801 - 1809 ) , Burbeck successfully developed and tested domestically produced cast - iron artillery pieces . Court Marshal of Gen . James Wilkinson . In 1808 , he served on the Court of Inquiry , ordered by President Madison , held at Morin ' s Tavern in Philadelphia , investigating General James Wilkinson for receiving a pension from the Spanish government while serving in the United States military . Previously , Wilkinson had been a member of the Conway Cabal against Washington and resigned from the army . He received the governorship of Louisiana by Thomas Jefferson in 1805 . Wilkinson ' s close relationship with the Spanish government led to a confrontation with Aaraon Burr which ultimately resulted in accusations that Wilkinson was tied to the Spanish government . Other members of the Court of Inquiry included Col . Cushing of the Infantry and Col . Williams of the Engineers . In September 1811 , during the court marshal , Wilkinson took exception to the presence of Burbeck and two other members of the court and they were all replaced . Wilkinson was found not - guilty on December 25 , 1811 . War of 1812 ( 1812 - 1815 ) . At the beginning of the War of 1812 , Burbeck was summoned to New London , Connecticut to relieve Jirah Isham of the command of the state militia . While stationed in New London , he received orders to march to Boston to take command there during the blockade by a British squadron commanded by Commodore Sir Thomas Hardy . The winter march resulted in the suffering of many of the men under his command who were frostbitten from exposure to the winter elements . During the march , Burbeck refused any favors offered to him that were not also given to his men . After returning to New London , in July 1813 , he received a letter from Gen . Armstrong which enclosed a copy of a letter written by the Governor of Virginia stating that information from British deserters indicated that British transports , under Admiral George Cockburn , sailed from Chesapeake Bay to New London , Connecticut . Burbeck responded by organizing the state militia to respond while Hardy ' s fleet lay off New London harbor . Burbeck continued in command of New London to the end of the war . He left the Army in June 1815 . Burbeck ' s Private Life . Second Marriage . He married Lucy Elizabeth Rudd Caldwell on December 13 , 1813 in New London , Connecticut . She was the daughter of Corp . Daniel Rudd , Jr . and Abigail Allen . She was first married to Capt . Henry Caldwell of the Marines who died March 12 , 1812 at Charlestown , Massachusetts . Caldwell was on the Little Belt during the Little Belt Affair , an event that is regarded as one of the causes of the War of 1812 , and he testified during the Court of Inquiry on the Little Belt Affair which convened in New York in September 1811 . Lucy was a descendant of Gov . William Bradford ( 1590 - 1657 ) of the Mayflower and Jonathan Rudd who was married , in a legendary ceremony , at Bride Brook in what is now East Lyme , Connecticut in December 1646 . Burbeck was the same exact age as Lucy ' s father Daniel Rudd , Jr . , both being born on June 10 , 1754 . At the time of his marriage to Lucy , Burbeck was 29 years her senior . Gen . Burbeck purchased a home at 114 Main St . , in New London , Connecticut , it 1815 . The house was built in 1735 and was one of the few houses in New London that remained after the city was burned by the British in 1781 . Gen . Burbeck and his wife lived in the house until he died in 1848 . Children . They had six children all born in New London ; Susan Henrietta ( b . September 23 , 1815 ) , Charlotte Augusta ( b . March 8 , 1818 in New London , Conn . , d . July 13 , 1897 in New London , Conn . ) , Henry William ( b . May 31 , 1819 in New London , Conn . , d . February 19 , 1840 at sea ) , Mary Elizabeth ( b . March 7 , 1821 in New London , Conn . , d . July 13 , 1897 ) , William Henry ( b . October 8 , 1823 in New London , Conn . , d . February 28 , 1905 in New London , Conn . ) and John Cathcart ( b . February 9 , 1825 in New London , Conn . , d . April 28 , 1904 in New London , Conn . ) . Burbeck hoped that his son Henry would follow in his military footsteps , but Henry died when he tried to test his strength by lifting a keg of silver dollars which fell on his foot and severed his toe while at sea on a revenue cutter . By the time the cutter reached New York and a physician was summoned , it was too late and he died . Thereafter , Gen . Burbeck was so overcome by grief that he would not have his son ' s name spoken in his house . Later Years ( 1815 - 1848 ) . In his later years , he enjoyed the company of Capt . Bulkeley who also retired to New London . They maintained a close relationship despite the fact that Burbeck was a Whig and Bulkeley was a Democrat . Burbeck died at his home on Main Street on October 2 , 1848 in New London , Connecticut just months after his friend Capt . Bulkeley died . The Massachusetts Society of Cincinnati , of which Burbeck was a member , erected a monument to him in Cedar Grove Cemetery ( Sec . 4 , Lot 1 ) , New London , Connecticut . The inscription on the monument states : The Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati Dedicate This Monument to the Memory of Their Late Honored President . He Was An Officer of the Army From the Commencement of the Revolutionary War Until The Close of His Life By a Patriotic and Faithful Discharge of the High and Responsible Duties of a Gallant Soldier And An Exemplary Citizen He Has Been Justly And Eminently Distinguished As He Was Rightfully and Universally Respected . His wife Lucy died February 22 , 1880 in New London and at the time of her death was one of the last in the nation to receive a Revolutionary War pension which was $ 130 a quarter in 1875 . Burbeck ' s daughter Charlotte was made an honorary member of the Lucretia Shaw chapter of the Daughter ' s of the American Revolution . References . " This article contains public domain text from "