Henry Burbeck

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Henry Burbeck

Henry Burbeck (June 8, 1754 – October 2, 1848) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as lieutenant of artillery under Colonel Richard Gridley, the Continental Army's first Chief Engineer and artillery commander, in 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. His unit remained in the North to defend the Hudson Highlands and marched into New York when the British army evacuated that city at the close of the Revolutionary War.

Honorably discharged in January 1784, Burbeck was reappointed captain of artillery in 1786 and commanded the post at West Point, New York, in 1787-1789. 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.

Burbeck oversaw the transfer of power from British to American control of Fort Mackinac in 1796, 13 years after the Treaty of Paris was signed. He served at the fort through 1799.

From 1798 to 1802, Burbeck was the senior regimental commander of artillerists and engineers. He also commanded the Eastern Department of the Army in 1800 and in that year endorsed the creation of a corps of engineers separate from the artillerists. He was Chief of the new Artillery Corps from 1802 to 1815, first as a colonel and then during the War of 1812 as a brevet brigadier general. During the Jefferson administration, Burbeck successfully developed and tested domestically produced cast-iron artillery pieces.

He left the Army in June 1815 and died in New London, Connecticut.

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This article contains public domain text from Lieutenant Colonel Henry Burbeck. Portraits and Profiles of Chief Engineers. Retrieved on May 10, 2005.