James Clinton

File:Coat of Arms of George Clinton.svg

Clinton was born in Ulster County in the colony of New York, at Little Britain in the town of New Windsor, now part of Orange County, New York. He was the third son of Col. Charles Clinton, an Anglo-Irish colonist and a colonel in the French and Indian War who immigrated to New Ulster in 1729,{{cite book|last1=Murphy|first1=Victor|title=A History of Corboy Presbyterian Church and School|date=2015|location=Longford|pages=13–28}} and his wife Elizabeth Denniston.{{sfn|Campbell|1849|pp=x–xiv}}[https://archive.org/stream/historyoforangec00head#page/n535/mode/2up Gorse, C.A., "Town of New Windsor", The History of Orange County, (Russel Headley, ed.), Van Deusen and Elms, Middletown, New York, 1908]

He was the brother of George Clinton, who was elected and served as Governor of New York from 1777 to 1795 and as U.S. Vice President from 1805 to 1812, and the father of DeWitt Clinton, who would also serve as Governor of New York.[https://books.google.com/books?id=IhGflokDzmAC&pg=PA24 George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic] by 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, {{ISBN|0-945612-17-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-945612-17-9}}, page 24) He was the grandson of James Clinton (d. 1718), and the great-grandson of William Clinton (1614–1684), a Royalist officer in the army of Charles I of England.[https://books.google.com/books?id=FqorAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112 Johnson's (revised) Universal Cyclopaedia]

File:Gen Clinton's Dam Monument.jpg

James Clinton's military experience began in the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War), where he served in the provincial troops of New York in the British cause. He was commissioned an ensign in 1757 and achieved the rank of captain in the New York Regiment in 1759.[https://archive.org/details/lectureonlifean00campgoog/page/n12 Campbell, William W., Lecture on the Life and Military Services of General James Clinton], 1839, p. 8"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. Commanding a company in 1758, he participated, along with his father (Colonel) and brother George (Lieutenant), in General John Bradstreet’s capture of Fort Frontenac (now Kingston, Ontario). He and his brother played a key role in capturing a French vessel.{{sfn|Campbell|1849|pp=xv–xvii}}

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.

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 the Hudson River. Clinton and Major Christopher Tappen, lifetime residents of the area, were sent to scout appropriate locations. Clinton was commissioned as colonel of the 3rd New York Regiment, which took part in Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery’s unsuccessful expedition to Quebec in 1775. In March 1776, Clinton took command of the 2nd New York Regiment and soon after, in August, was promoted to brigadier general in the Continental Army.

He served most of the war in the Northern Department, along the New York frontier.[https://www.nps.gov/york/learn/historyculture/clintonbio.htm "Brigadier General James Clinton", Yorktown Battlefield, National Park Service] During the Saratoga Campaign in 1777, he commanded Fort Clinton in the Hudson Highlands. He participated in a successful effort to prevent British General Sir Henry Clinton from rescuing General John Burgoyne at 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.Sullivan Clinton Campaign 1779-1979; A Bicentennial Commemorative. Chemung County Historical Society, Inc., Elmira, New York. pub. 1979. In 1778 he was stationed in Albany to oppose Indian and Tory forces.Sullivan Campaign of the Revolutionary War: The Impact on Livingston County

Image:Gen Clinton's Dam Plaque.jpg

In 1779, Clinton led an expedition down the Susquehanna River after making the upper portion navigable by damming up the river's source at Otsego Lake, allowing the lake's level to rise, and then destroying the dam and flooding the river for miles downstream. This event is described by James Fenimore Cooper in the introduction to his popular novel The Pioneers (1823). It is commemorated by an annual Memorial Day canoe race.

At Tioga, New York, Clinton met up with General John Sullivan's forces, who had marched from Easton, Pennsylvania. Together, on August 29, they defeated the Tories and British-allied Iroquois at the Battle of Newtown (near today's city of Elmira, New York). This became known as the "Sullivan-Clinton Campaign" or the "Sullivan Expedition." They also attacked Iroquois villages throughout western New York, destroying 40 as well as the winter stores of the people. Around 5,000 Iroquois fled to British controlled Niagara and mortality was high that winter because of starvation with several hundred deaths.

In 1780, Clinton temporarily commanded the Northern Department. By October 1781, his brigade had joined George Washington's army in the siege of Yorktown.

After leaving he army, Clinton served on the commission defining the New York-Pennsylvania boundary. In 1783 General Clinton became an original member of the New York Society 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.{{Cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clinton.html|title=The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians}}

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:{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wekpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA548|title=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|last1=Bergen|first1=Tunis Garret|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|language=en|access-date=18 July 2017}}

• Alexander Clinton (1765–1787), who served in Colonel Lamb's regiment during 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 Judge Ambrose 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 married Ambrose Spencer, her sister's widower.

His second wife was Mary (née Little) 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:

• James G. Clinton, who died young.
• Caroline Hannah Clinton (1800–1864), who married Charles Augustus Dewey (1793–1866), an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts 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.{{cite web|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000528|title=CLINTON, James Graham - Biographical Information|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=18 July 2017}}
• Letitia Clinton (1806–1842), who married Dr. Francis Bolton (1804–1849).
• Anna Clinton (1809–1833), who married Lt. Edward Ross.

Clinton died in Little Britain, New York, on September 22, 1812, the same year as his brother George.

Through his son DeWitt, he was the grandfather of ten, including George William Clinton (1807–1885) who served as Mayor of Buffalo, New York from 1842 to 1843. Through his son George, he was the grandfather of three.William Smith Pelletreau, [https://books.google.com/books?id=m9ZtFcegDKcC&pg=PA183 Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York], Volume 3, 1907, page 183

;Notes

{{reflist|30em}}

;Sources

• {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=William W. |title=The Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton |publisher=Baker and Scribner |year=1849}}

• [http://sullivanclinton.com Sullivan/Clinton Expedition]
• {{find a Grave|13454538}}

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Category:1736 births

Category:1812 deaths

Category:Continental Army generals

Category:Continental Army officers from New York (state)

Category:People from Otsego County, New York

Category:People from New Windsor, New York

Category:Irish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies

Category:People of New York in the French and Indian War

Category:People from colonial New York

Category:Clinton family (New York)

Category:De Witt family

Category:Continental Army personnel of the Sullivan Expedition