SULLIVAN, JOHN (174o-1795), American soldier, was born in Somersworth (now Rollinsford), N.H., on Feb. 17, 1740. He practised law at Berwick, Maine, and at Durham, N.H., was a member of the New Hampshire Provisional Assem bly (1774), and also a member of the first Continental Congress. In June, 1775, he was appointed brigadier-general in the Con tinental Army, and aided in the siege of Boston. In the same year, he took command of the American army in Canada, and exhibited great skill in effecting a retreat from that province. Soon afterward, having been superseded in command by General Gates, he rejoined Washington's army and took part in the battle of Long Island, where he was taken prisoner In December he was exchanged, and succeeded General Charles Lee in command as major-general of the right wing of Washington's army. In the battle of Trenton he led an attack on the Hessians, and on Aug. 22, 1777, he led a night attack against the British and Loyalists on Staten Island. He commanded the American right in the battle of Brandywine and took part in the battle of Germantown. In March 1778 he was placed in command in Rhode Island, and in the following summer plans were made for his co-operation with the French fleet under Count d'Estaing in an attack on Newport.
The Indian raids in western New York, especially the atrocities in the Wyoming and Cherry valleys caused a retaliatory expedition to be sent to "chastise and humble the Six Nations," and Sullivan was chosen to lead the expedition. With about 4,000 men, he
defeated the Iroquois and their Loyalist allies at Newtown (now Elmira, N.Y.), burned their villages, and destroyed their or chards and crops. Although severely criticized for his conduct of the expedition, he received the thanks of Congress in October 1779, and in November resigned from the army. Sullivan was again a delegate to the Continental Congress in 178o-81 and from 1782 to 1785 he was attorney-general of New Hampshire. He was president of the State in 1786-87 and in 1789, and in 1786 sup pressed an insurrection at Exeter immediately preceding the Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts. He presided over the New Hamp shire convention which ratified the Federal Constitution in June 1788. From 1789 until his death at Durham, on Jan. 28, 1795, he was United States district judge in New Hampshire.
See 0. W. B. Peabody, "Life of John Sullivan" in Jared Sparks's Li brary of American Biography, vol. iii. G. S. Conover, Journals of the Military Expedition of Major John Sullivan against the Six Nations (1887) ; Oscar E. Risine, A New Hampshire Lawyer in General Washington's Army (Geneva, N.Y., 1915).