Jeduthan Baldwin

Baldwin was born in Woburn, Massachusetts. Some records list his birth year as 1730 or 1731. On April 28, 1757, he married Lucy Parkman, daughter of Ebenezer Parkman, a Congregational minister in Westborough, Massachusetts; the marriage notice was registered on February 12, 1757. They had five children, though two died young. ==French and Indian War==

Baldwin commanded a company during the French and Indian War, gaining early experience as an engineer and surveyor. ==American Revolution==

In 1775, Baldwin took part in the Siege of Boston as an engineer and was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he helped construct American fortifications. On March 16, 1776, he was appointed assistant engineer with the rank of captain in the Continental Army. George Washington personally recommended him in a letter to John Hancock dated April 22, 1776. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 26 and to colonel of engineers on September 3, 1776. In 1777 he worked with Tadeusz Kościuszko under General Arthur St. Clair on the fortifications of Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, which together formed the main American stronghold on Lake Champlain. West Point and later service In 1780, Baldwin was again associated with Kosciuszko and St. Clair in constructing the works at West Point. In addition to his engineering duties, he organized several companies of artificers that were later formed into Baldwin's Regiment of Artificers. He resigned his commission on April 26, 1782. ==Shays's Rebellion==

In 1787, Baldwin participated in the suppression of Shays's Rebellion, an armed uprising in western Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays and other discontented farmers protesting economic injustices and government oppression. Baldwin served as a member of the state militia forces mobilized to quell the insurrection. His contributions included participating in the trials of the rebellion's leaders, which were held in April and May 1787. ==Journal==

Baldwin kept a detailed journal from 1775 to 1778, recording daily events and his engineering work. Published in 1906 as The Revolutionary Journal of Col. Jeduthan Baldwin, it is regarded as one of the most important first-hand narratives of the Revolutionary War, particularly for details of the Siege of Boston. ==Death and legacy==

Baldwin died on June 4, 1788, in Brookfield, Massachusetts, aged 56. He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization founded by officers of the Continental Army to preserve the ideals and fellowship of the Revolutionary generation. In 1906, U.S. Secretary of War ordered that the military reservation at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine be named Fort Baldwin in his honor. In popular culture Baldwin appears as a minor character in Diana Gabaldon's historical novel An Echo in the Bone, which depicts events of the American Revolutionary War. ==See also==