John Sullivan was an Irish-American General in the Revolutionary War, a delegate in the Continental Congress, Governor of New Hampshire and a United States federal judge.
Background
John was born in Somersworth in the Province of New Hampshire, United States. Sullivan was the third son of Irish settlers from the Beara Peninsula in County Cork ; his father was a schoolmaster. One of his brothers, James Sullivan, became Governor of Massachusetts. Another brother, Benjamin, who served in the Royal Navy died before the American Revolution. A landing party from HMS Allegiance on February 14, 1781 kidnapped another brother, Captain David Sullivan, who later died of disease. His father, John Sullivan of Limerick, Ireland, and his mother, Margery Browne of Cork, had emigrated as redemptioners to Maine, about 1723; John is said to have bought Margery's freedom.
Education
The younger John Sullivan studied law at Portsmouth under Samuel Livermore.
Career
An able, if somewhat litigious, lawyer, he was successful enough to maintain his family. In 1772 Sullivan was appointed major of the New Hampshire militia. He seems to have inherited an antipathy for England which led him to the patriot side in the American Revolution.
Sent as delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, he took his seat September 5, 1774. By December he was back in New Hampshire, in time to receive Paul Revere's warning of a British threat, whereupon he rallied a band that captured Fort William and Mary at the entrance of Portsmouth harbor, and appropriated above one hundred barrels of gunpowder.
On May 10, 1775, he took his seat in the Second Continental Congress, by which body he was (June 22) appointed brigadier-general. In July Sullivan joined Washington's army outside of Boston and was stationed with his brigade at Winter Hill.
With the exception of trips to organize the defenses of Portsmouth in October 1775, he served through the siege of Boston, until the evacuation, March 17, 1776. Then ordered to the Northern army, which was retreating from Canada after Montgomery's defeat at Quebec, he reached Chambly early in June, and upon the death of General John Thomas succeeded to the command. Superseded by Horatio Gates in July, he went to Philadelphia and offered his resignation, but a personal conference with President John Hancock led him to withdraw it.
On August 9, 1776, Sullivan was promoted to be major-general. He joined the main army and was stationed with his command on Long Island. In the battle of August 27, he was captured by the British and taken before Lord Howe, who wished to send him with overtures of peace to the Americans. Having obtained Washington's permission, Sullivan went to Philadelphia. During the negotiations between Congress and Howe, Sullivan was exchanged for the British general, Richard Prescott.
He then rejoined the American army in Westchester County, New York, shared in the retreat across the Jerseys, led the right column at Trenton, and pursued the British at Princeton. The winter of 1777 he spent in northern New Jersey, conducting various skirmishes against the British outposts.
In March 1777, Sullivan returned to New Hampshire to expedite the preparations for the ensuing campaign. On July 1 he joined Generals Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox in threatening to resign if Congress persisted in elevating the newly arrived French officer, Du Coudray, over their heads. Congress demanded an apology, and suggested that otherwise they might be asked to resign. Neither apologies nor resignations were forthcoming, but Du Coudray was accidentally drowned September 15.
On August 21 and 22, Sullivan led an expedition against the British posts on Staten Island, which, although conducted with spirit, failed of its objective. This failure coupled with the Du Coudray affair made him enemies in Congress who began to question his capacity.
Meantime, he hurried his division to the south to join Washington in defending Philadelphia against Howe. In September a proposition was made in Congress to suspend Sullivan from command, pending a court of inquiry into his conduct of the Staten Island affair. This matter was now complicated by violent criticism, on the part of delegate Thomas Burke of North Carolina, of Sullivan's conduct at Brandywine.
Washington, however, refused to recall Sullivan, and the investigations exonerated him from blame. At the battle of Germantown he executed the movements assigned to him, and the American discomfiture on that occasion was due to the progress of the action elsewhere. Sullivan spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, and in the spring was directed to take the command in Rhode Island, with a view to driving the British from Newport. Everything depended on the active cooperation of the French army and fleet under D'Estaing.
In August Sullivan threw his armies around Newport and began the siege. Lord Howe's British fleet appeared, and D'Estaing stood out to meet him. A storm scattered and injured both squadrons before any action was possible. D'Estaing's captains then counseled him to withdraw his fleet and army to Boston, which left Sullivan in an awkward position, with inferior forces. He withdrew to the north end of the island on which Newport stands, where the British attacked him on August 29, 1778.
In the following battle the British were severely repulsed, but since Lord Howe now reappeared, Sullivan's position was very dangerous, and during the night he withdrew his entire force, with baggage and artillery, to the mainland. It required all of Washington's tact and Lafayette's loyalty to smooth down the anger which Sullivan and his men exhibited at what they regarded as D'Estaing's desertion. Sullivan remained at Providence until March 1779, when he was ordered to take an expedition into western Pennsylvania and New York to lay waste the Iroquois country. While a force, under Colonel Daniel Brodhead, made an independent raid up the Allegheny, another, under General James Clinton, marched from Canajoharie to join Sullivan near the New York-Pennsylvania line.
On August 29, thus reinforced, Sullivan completely routed the combined Indian and Loyalist forces, near modern Elmira, New York. After pursuing them through the length of the Finger Lake country, burning and harrying the countryside as far west as modern Livingston County, he returned with health so impaired that he was compelled to resign from the army (November 30, 1779).
In 1780-81 he reappeared in Congress. At this time his brother Daniel, who was dying as a result of ill treatment received aboard one of the British prison hulks, brought to him a further overture of peace from the British. Sullivan himself flatly refused to have anything to do with the matter, but brought it to the attention of Luzerne, the French minister. Since Luzerne had loaned Sullivan money, this episode was dragged out after the latter's death to insinuate that he was a pensioner of the French, but the charge has been thoroughly refuted. In 1782 Sullivan was a member of the New Hampshire constitutional convention.
In September 1789 he was also appointed United States district judge of New Hampshire, a position which he held until his death at Durham in 1795. Although his health prevented his sitting on the bench after 1792, he held the post until he died on January 23, 1795, aged 54, at his home in Durham.
Achievements
Personality
Descriptions of Sullivan's character reveal traits typical of his Irish ancestry: he was brave, hot-headed, oversensitive, fond of display, generous to a fault, usually out of money, and a born political organizer.
Connections
In 1760, he married Lydia Worcester. They had two daughters who died in infancy and a daughter and three sons - one of them George Sullivan - who survived.