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United States Army general

Henry Burbeck (June 10, 1754 – October 2, 1848) was a senior officer of the United States Army who served as the Commandant of the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers from 1798 to 1802.

Henry Burbeck was born in Boston on June 10, 1754, the son of William Burbeck and his wife Jerusha Glover of Boston. His father was an ordnance storekeeper at Castle William, in Boston Harbor. When the British took over the castle in 1770 he stayed on, but left the service in 1774. With the help of Dr. Joseph Warren he received an appointment as superintendent of the provincial artillery laboratory, joining the Patriot cause. Burbeck's education consisted of a public writing school in the North End of Boston under John Tileston (1735–1826). He would later credit his father with the remainder of his education. Prior to his military service, Henry worked at the copper smith's forge with Paul Revere. He married his first wife, Abigail Webb, on April 12, 1775, in Boston.

At the outbreak of the Battle of Lexington, Burbeck's father escaped to Cambridge and reported to the Committee on Public Safety and its leader, General Joseph Warren, to join the patriot cause which resulted in a price being placed on his head by the British. Burbeck joined his father in Cambridge where they made ammunition used at the Battle of Bunker Hill and also participated in the battle. Henry served as a lieutenant in the Battle of Bunker Hill and his commission was signed by General Joseph Warren on May 19, 1775. He remained in the Artillery Corps under General Henry Knox and, in 1777, assumed command of a company of the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment commanded by Colonel John Crane. He marched with General Washington and the Continental Army from Valley Forge to New Jersey in 1778. Following the march, he fought in the Battle of Monmouth. His unit was sent North and he remained in White Plains, New York, to defend the Hudson Highlands from 1779 to 1783. He marched into New York City when the British army evacuated it at the close of the Revolutionary War. Burbeck became an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati upon its founding in 1783. He served as president of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati from 1846 until his death in 1848. Burbeck knew General George Washington personally from his service and it was from Burbeck's associations with foreign officers serving in the American Revolution that he recognized the need to educate and train the army in artillery and engineering. Burbeck recommended the establishment of West Point Military Academy.

Burbeck was honorably discharged from the Continental Army in January 1784. In October 1786 he was re commissioned as captain of a company of artillery, one of four in a battalion commanded by Major John Doughty, and commanded the post at West Point, New York, from 1787 to 1789. In 1787, he was ordered by General Knox to Springfield, Massachusetts, to protect the arsenal there is the aftermath of Shays' Rebellion. His wife Abigail died in June 1790 in Bath, Maine.

Burbeck was promoted to Major Commandant of the Artillery Battalion on March 16, 1792. He commanded the Army's Battalion of Artillery and served as General Anthony Wayne's Chief of Artillery in the Northwest Indian War in 1792–1794. He was ordered, on August 29, 1789, to Georgia to serve as a guard to Major General Benjamin Lincoln and Colonel Humphries during the unsuccessful treaty negotiation with the Creek people. He returned to Georgia in 1790 and built a fort on the St. Mary's River. Previously, Wilkinson had been a member of the Conway Cabal against Washington and resigned from the army. He received the governorship of Louisiana by Thomas Jefferson in 1805. Wilkinson's close relationship with the Spanish government led to a confrontation with Aaron Burr which ultimately resulted in accusations that Wilkinson was tied to the Spanish government. Other members of the Court of Inquiry included Colonel Thomas Humphrey Cushing of the Infantry and Colonel Jonathan Williams of the Engineers. In September 1811, during the court martial, Wilkinson took exception to the presence of Burbeck and two other members of the court and they were all replaced. Wilkinson was found not guilty on December 25, 1811.

At the beginning of the War of 1812, Burbeck was summoned to New London, Connecticut, to relieve Jirah Isham of the command of the state militia. At the same time he was placed in command of Military District No. 2 comprising the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island. While stationed in New London, he received orders to march to Boston to take command there during the blockade by a British squadron commanded by Commodore Sir Thomas Hardy. The winter march resulted in the suffering of many of the men under his command who were frostbitten from exposure to the winter elements. During the march, Burbeck refused any favors offered to him that were not also given to his men. After returning to New London, in July 1813, he received a letter from Gen. Armstrong which enclosed a copy of a letter written by the Governor of Virginia stating that information from British deserters indicated that British transports, under Admiral George Cockburn, sailed from Chesapeake Bay to New London, Connecticut. Burbeck responded by organizing the state militia to respond while Hardy's fleet lay off New London harbor. Burbeck continued in command of New London to the end of the war. General Burbeck retired from the Army in June 1815, when the Army was reduced following the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war. At the time of Burbeck's retirement, he had served a total of 37 years in the Continental Army and the United States Army. He was one of the relatively few officers who had served in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

Burbeck married Lucy Elizabeth Rudd Caldwell on December 13, 1813, in New London, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Corp. Daniel Rudd Jr. and Abigail Allen. She was first married to Capt. Henry Caldwell of the Marines who died March 12, 1812, at Charlestown, Massachusetts. Caldwell was on board the USS President during the Little Belt affair, an event that is regarded as one of the causes of the War of 1812, and he testified during the Court of Inquiry on the Little Belt Affair which convened in New York in September 1811. Lucy was a descendant of Mayflower passenger and Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford (1590 1657) and Jonathan Rudd who was married, in a legendary ceremony, at Bride Brook in what is now East Lyme, Connecticut in December 1646. Burbeck was the same exact age as Lucy's father Daniel Rudd Jr., both being born on June 10, 1754. At the time of his marriage to Lucy, Burbeck was 29 years her senior. General Burbeck purchased a home at 114 Main St., in New London, Connecticut, in 1815. The house was built in 1735 and was one of the few houses in New London that remained after the city was burned by the British in 1781. Gen. Burbeck and his wife lived in the house until he died in 1848. In 1846, being one of the very few surviving officers who had served in the Revolution, Burbeck was elected president of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and served in that position until his death two years later.

Burbeck and his second wife had six children, all born in New London: Susan Henrietta (b. September 23, 1815), Charlotte Augusta (b. March 8, 1818 in New London, Conn., d. July 13, 1897 in New London, Conn.), Henry William (b. May 31, 1819 in New London, Conn., d. February 19, 1840 at sea), Mary Elizabeth (b. March 7, 1821 in New London, Conn., d. July 13, 1897), William Henry (b. October 8, 1823 in New London, Conn., d. February 28, 1905 in New London, Conn.) and John Cathcart (b. February 9, 1825 in New London, Conn., d. April 28, 1904 in New London, Conn.). Burbeck's daughter Charlotte was made an honorary member of the Lucretia Shaw chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 2014 the bulk of his papers were then acquired by the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan.

Gen. Henry Burbeck was nominated into the Connecticut Hall of Fame on February 24, 2016. It was Wyatt Kopp, a cousin of Lucy Rudd Burbeck, who nominated him back in 2013. He was finally accepted into the Hall of Fame in 2016. The Connecticut Hall of Fame is located at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Connecticut which is directly linked to the state capital building. The ceremony for his induction into the Connecticut Hall of Fame was held on March 7, 2016, at the Legislative Office Building.