Brought up to be a farmer in Roxbury, Massachusetts, William Heath studied military tactics before the American Revolution began and was active in the resistance movement (1764-75). He was involved in local committees of correspondence as well as the Massachusetts provincial congress, and by 1774 he was a colonel in the militia. In February 1775 the provincial congress made him a brigadier general. The highest-ranking officer to join in the fighting during the British withdrawal after the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775), Heath assumed command of the militia in Cambridge until he was superseded by Artemas Ward. On June 22, 1775, he became a brigadier general in the Continental army. After participating in the siege of Boston (April 19, 1775-March 17, 1776), Heath went to New York, but he did not participate in any of the major battles around New York City. Congress promoted him to major general on August 9, 1776.

Heath's opportunity for independent combat command came in January 1777, when General George Washington ordered him to attack positions north of New York City to draw the British out of New Jersey. What followed was a misguided advance in which he demanded that the British garrison surrender but could not back up his threats with concerted action in the Battle of Fort Independence (January 17-25, 1777). With 6,000 men, Heath not only failed to dislodge 2,000 Hessians but also frittered away his advantage in a vain attempt to outmaneuver his enemy and then withdrew because of an impending snowstorm. Although Washington did not publicly condemn Heath, he privately censured him and considered the operation as "fraught with too much caution by which the Army has been disappointed, and in some degree disgraced."

Heath remained on garrison duty thereafter, commanding the eastern district centered in Boston, and was placed in charge of the Hudson Highlands in the later phases of the war, including during the Yorktown campaign. Since his strengths were in logistics and supply, these assignments were probably just as well for the army, and he oversaw the disbanding of the army before returning to his Roxbury farm on July 1, 1783.

After the Revolutionary War (1775-83), Heath had a modest and independent-minded political career. He supported the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and served for a while in the state senate and as a local judge. During the 1790s he became a member of the Democratic-Republican Party because he feared the central government's power on taxation. Though elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1800, he declined to serve. He died at his home in Roxbury on January 24, 1814.

Bibliography:

William Heath, Memoirs of Major-General Heath: Containing Anecdotes, Details of Skirmishes, Battles and Other Military Events during the American War (Boston: I. Thomas and E. T. Andrews, 1798).

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