Return J. Meigs, Sr.

Return Jonathan Meigs [born December 17 (old style) or 28th (new style), 1740; died January 28, 1823], a colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, was one of the settlers of the Northwest Territory in what is now the state of Ohio. He later served the federal government as an Indian agent working with the Cherokee in Tennessee.

Meigs was born in Middletown, Connecticut, on December 17, 1740, to Jonathan Meigs and Elizabeth Hamlin Meigs, whose thirteen children also included Josiah Meigs. His father was a hatter, and as a young man Meigs engaged in a mercantile business. He married his first wife, Joanna Winborn, in 1764. Before her death in 1773, they had four children, including Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr.. In 1774, Meigs married Grace Starr, with whom he had three children, of whom two survived.

He served in the local militia, achieving the rank of lieutenant in 1772 and promoted to captain in 1774. On April 19, 1775, after the Battle of Lexington, he led a company of light infantry to Boston. There he was appointed major in the 2nd Connecticut Regiment, a provincial regiment of the Continental Army. Later that year, serving as a division (battalion) commander under Colonel Benedict Arnold, he accompanied Arnold on his 1,100-man expedition through Maine to Canada. He kept a journal of the expedition, written with ink made by mixing powder and water in the palm of his hand. Meigs was captured by the British in the assault on Quebec City and imprisoned, but was paroled on May 16, 1776, by British General Guy Carleton as consideration for Meigs's decent treatment of a British prisoner, Captain Law, Carleton's chief engineer. Meigs returned to Connecticut by way of Halifax.

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