Captain Benjamin Burton, Sherburne’s Additional Continental Regiment
Benjamin Burton was born December 9, 1749 near Fort St. Georges, Massachusetts (present-day Thomaston, Maine). He married Hannah Church of Bristol, Rhode Island.
On November 6, 1776, Benjamin Burton was commissioned as a Lieutenant in Captain King’s company of Colonel Thomas Marshall’s 10th Massachusetts Regiment.
In late 1776, the Continental Congress authorized the formation of sixteen (16) additional regiments not to be included on any of quotas allotted to the State Lines. Henry Sherburne of Rhode Island was commissioned a Colonel and given command of one of the regiments. Sherburne’s Regiment was organized on January 12, 1777 with soldiers mostly recruited from Rhode Island and Connecticut. On March 15, 1777, Second Lieutenant Burton was promoted to Captain and transferred to Sherburne’s Regiment with duties as a company commander.
In 1779, Sherburne’s Regiment was stationed at West Point, New York where they built Sherburne’s Redoubt – a small fortification covering the land approaches to Fort Clinton. Captain Burton resigned from the Continental Army on June 1, 1779. Later in 1780, Benjamin Burton served as a Major in the Massachusetts Militia under Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth.
Captain Benjamin Burton died May 21, 1835 in Warren, Maine.
Sources: Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army, (Baltimore, 1914), 136 (which claims Burton is served in the third New Hampshire regiment from June 1775 to December 1776, although Burton’s name has not been found on these particular military rolls on fold3.com and in New Hampshire State Papers); Frank B. Miller, Soldiers and Sailors of the Plantation of Lower St. Georges, Maine, Who Served In The War For American Independence, (Rockland, 1931); Pension of Captain Benjamin Burton; Selected Wartime Service Records of Captain Benjamin Burton.
