Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James
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HEATH, William, soldier, born in
Roxbury, Massachusetts, 7 March, 1737; died there, 24 January, 1814. He was
brought up on the same farm on which his ancestor settled in 1636. He was active
in organizing the militia before the Revolution, was a captain in the Suffolk
regiment, of which he afterward became colonel, joined the artillery company of
Boston, and was chosen its commander in 1770, in which year he wrote a series of
essays in a Boston newspaper on the importance of military discipline and skill
in the use of arms over the signature "A Military Countryman." He
was a representative in the general assembly in 1761, and again in 1771-'4, a
member of the committees of correspondence and safety, and of the Provincial
congress in 1774-'5.
He was appointed a provincial brigadier-general on 8 December, 1774,
performed valuable services in the pursuit of the British troops from Concord on
19 April, 1775, organized and trained the undisciplined forces at Cambridge
before the battle of Bunker Hill, was made
a major-general of provincial troops on 20 June, 1775, and upon the organization
of the Continental army was, on 22 June, commissioned as a brigadier-general,
and stationed with his command at Roxbury. On 9 August, 1776, he was made a
major-general in the Continental army. In March, 1776, he was ordered to New
York, and opposed the evacuation of the city. After the battle of White Plains
he took command of the posts in the Highlands.
In 1777 he was assigned to the command of the eastern department, embracing
Boston and its vicinity, and had charge of the prisoners of Burgoyne's
army at Cambridge. In June, 1779, he was ordered to the command of the posts
on the Hudson, with four regiments, and remained in that vicinity till the close
of the war, going to Rhode Island for a short period on the arrival of the
French forces in July, 1780. He returned to his farm after the war, was a member
of the convention that ratified the Federal constitution, a state senator in
1791-'2, probate judge of Norfolk county in 1793, and was elected
lieutenant-governor in 1800, but declined the office, he was the last surviving
major-general of the Revolutionary army, and published "Memoirs of
Major-General William Heath, containing Anecdotes, Details of Skirmishes,
Battles, etc., during the American War" (Boston, 1798).
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