Sullivan, John

Sullivan, John, 1740–95, American Revolutionary general, b. Somersworth, N.H. He was a lawyer and a delegate (1774–75, 1780–81) to the Continental Congress but is better remembered as a military leader. He served at the siege of Boston, and in 1776, while fighting under George Washington at the battle of Long Island, he was captured by the British. He was exchanged in time to fight at Trenton and Princeton and later at Brandywine and Germantown. In 1778 he was sent to cooperate with the French fleet in an attack on Newport. The fleet was forced to withdraw, however, and the attack had to be given up. The next year, with Gen. James Clinton, he conducted a retaliatory campaign against the Iroquois and Loyalists on the New York frontier. The Native Americans and Loyalists were defeated in the battle of Newtown (near Elmira), and much of the Iroquois country was laid waste. Sullivan was later elected chief executive (1786, 1787, 1789) of New Hampshire. He also helped to put down Shays's Rebellion and was influential in getting the Constitution ratified.

Bibliography

See biographies by T. C. Amory (1868, repr. 1968) and C. P. Whittemore (1961).

---

Sullivan, John (1740–95) soldier, public official; born in Somersworth, N.H. A lawyer and militia officer, he sat as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and fought at Trenton and Princeton (1777). He led the expedition to Newport, R.I. (1778), which failed largely because of the absence of naval support. Poor health forced him to leave the army in November 1779. After the American Revolution, Sullivan served three terms as governor of New Hampshire and as a federal judge.