Biographical Sketches of the Generals of the Continental Army of the RevolutionLeiter, Mary Theresa
History
Biographical Sketches of the Generals of the Continental Army of the Revolution
Leiter, Mary Theresa
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Biography
Otho Holland Williams, born in Prince George’s County, Maryland, in
1749, entered the Revolutionary army in 1775, as a lieutenant. He
steadily rose in rank, holding the position of adjutant-general under
Greene. Though acting with skill and gallantry on all occasions, his
fame chiefly rests on his brilliant achievement at the battle of
Eutaw Springs, where his command gained the day for the Americans by
their irresistible charge with fixed bayonets across a field swept
by the fire of the enemy. On the 9th of May, 1782, he was made a
brigadier-general, but retired from the army on the 6th of June, 1783,
to accept the appointment of collector of customs for the State of
Maryland, which office he held until his death on the 16th of July,
1800.
JOHN GREATON.
John Greaton, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 10th of March,
1741, was an innkeeper prior to the Revolution, and an officer of the
militia of his native town. On the 12th of July, 1775, he was appointed
colonel in the regular army. During the siege of Boston, he led an
expedition which destroyed the buildings on Long Island in Boston
Harbor. In April, 1776, he was ordered to Canada, and in the following
December he joined Washington in New Jersey, but was subsequently
transferred to Heath’s division at West Point. He served to the end of
the war, and was commissioned brigadier-general on the 7th of January,
1783. Conscientiously performing all the duties assigned him, though
unable to boast of any brilliant achievements, he won a reputation for
sterling worth and reliability. He died in his native town on the 16th
of December, 1783, the first of the Revolutionary generals to pass away
after the conclusion of peace.
RUFUS PUTNAM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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