Biographical Sketches of the Generals of the Continental Army

John Greaton

John Greaton, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 10th of March, 1741, was an innkeeper prior to the Revolution, and an officer of the militia of his native town. On the 12th of July, 1775, he was appointed colonel in the regular army. During the siege of Boston, he led an expedition which destroyed the buildings on Long Island in Boston Harbor. In April, 1776, he was ordered to Canada, and in the following December he joined Washington in New Jersey, but was subsequently transferred to Heath’s division at West Point. He served to the end of the war, and was commissioned brigadier-general on the 7th of January, 1783. Conscientiously performing all the duties assigned him, though unable to boast of any brilliant achievements, he won a reputation for sterling worth and reliability. He died in his native town on the 16th of December, 1783, the first of the Revolutionary generals to pass away after the conclusion of peace.