Greenlief Dearborn was born into a military tradition. His father had fought in the American Revolution, and his great-uncle Henry would go on to be Secretary of War under Thomas Jefferson and the senior general during the War of 1812. When war with England appeared imminent in 1812, Greenlief obtained a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Artillery, thus beginning a career that would last more than three decades. Transferred to the...