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Anthony Wayne
AN AMERICAN MILITARY GENIUS
Born January 1,
1745- Died December
15, 1796
This portrait is our favorite
and was probably made in June of 1796 by James Sharples, Senior.
"Issue the orders Sir, and I will storm hell!"
Anthony Wayne was one of the most colorful Commanders-in-Chief of the
army of the United States.
Some have acclaimed him as the first native-born military genius, whose
greatness as an organizer of troops and military affairs is only now beginning
to be recognized. Due to his brilliant exploits during the American Revolution,
he was regarded as a military hero in his own time, but his greatest
achievement came after the Revolution. In 1792, he was bestowed with the
responsibility of organizing a new army, which was named the Legion of the United
States (1792-1796). Following an intensive
two year training period, Wayne
defeated the Miami Indian Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers
in 1794. The Treaty of Greene Ville, signed the following year, was a landmark
peace treaty negotiated by General Wayne. This effectively put an end to
military activities and opened the Northwest Territory
to settlement. In 1796, Wayne’s
Legion accepted formal surrender of the British garrisons along the Great
Lakes, essentially ending the American Revolution. Born on January 1, 1745, in Chester
County, Pennsylvania, Anthony
was the only son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Iddings) Wayne and was named for his
grandfather, Captain Anthony Wayne, a veteran of Marlborough's
campaigns. (The
Battle of the Boyne)
After emigrating from Ireland
in the 1720’s, he built a structure which later became known as Waynesborough.
This homestead, where the future general was born, has been preserved to the
present day and is located near the small village
of Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Young Anthony's school record was far from outstanding. The most remarkable
incident of his schooldays was a sham battle in which Wayne
led his classmates in a re-enactment of the capture of Fort
Ticonderoga in 1759. He was
punished for this escapade, but it showed his awareness of what was going on in
the world as well as his inclination toward a military career.
The schoolmaster
wrote to Anthony’s father, stating that, "maybe your parental affection
has blinded you to your son’s talents. He is certainly not a scholar, perhaps a
soldier." In school he learned enough mathematics to make him a competent
surveyor and in 1765, when he was twenty years old, a land company sent him to
look after the surveying of lands in Nova Scotia.
This job was given to him by Benjamin Franklin. He later returned to Philadelphia
and married Mary Penrose, the daughter of a local merchant. The Nova
Scotia land venture failed in 1766, and Wayne
went back to Chester County
to run the family farm and tannery in partnership with his father.
His father's death in 1775 made him a man of means and social standing.
Despite his wealth and comfortable situation, General Wayne did not hesitate
when the issues leading to the American Revolution were drawn. In his county he
became a leader of the people who objected to British efforts to tighten
control over the colonies. He presided over committees, which framed
resolutions of protest against the British, and enforced the agreement against
the importation of British goods. In 1775, he represented Chester
County in the Pennsylvania General
Assembly. On January 3, 1776,
he accepted a commission as colonel of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion and
began his military career. Anthony Wayne has been called the "trouble
shooter of the Revolution" by a recent biographer, Harry Emerson Wildes.
This phrase well describes his services in the Continental Army. He seemed to
be everywhere at once; recruiting, drilling, disciplining, fighting, and
raising supplies. Difficult assignments, insuperable tasks, and dangerous feats
were the stock in trade of this energetic and self-reliant soldier. The
sobriquet "Mad", which is said to have originated in the drunken
babbling of a disgruntled soldier, reflects his quick temper. Wayne
was impetuous and swift to action, but he was not rash or fool-hardy. As a
commander he was cautious, and even his most glamorous deeds were based upon
careful and painstaking plans.
In the spring of 1776, Wayne and his battalion went with the
Pennsylvania brigade to reinforce
the Canadian expedition, through which Congress had hoped to gain another
colony for the American cause. By his personal bravery and leadership, Wayne
held his troops together to cover the retreat of the entire American army after
the defeat at Three Rivers, on the St. Lawrence. Congress abandoned the effort
to win Canada,
and Wayne was placed in command of Fort Ticonderoga. Here he had for the first time the thankless task of
maintaining discipline among troops from various states who were disinclined to
follow the orders of a Pennsylvania
colonel. Commanding Fort Ticonderoga
was not as enjoyable as his childhood game of fighting for it. In February,
1777, Anthony was made a brigadier general, and in April he left Ticonderoga
to join Washington at Morristown, New Jersey, and take command of
the famed Pennsylvania Line. After a period of drilling and training, during
which Wayne showed his customary
concern for the proper equipment and uniforming of his men, they were sent to
fight in the campaign against the British occupation of Philadelphia.
After the British army landed in Maryland
and marched north, Wayne and his
troops joined the Colonial Army in the attempt to stop them at Brandywine Creek. His
troops held the center of the defense at Chadd's Ford.
The Colonials, however, were outflanked by a British force
which crossed the Brandywine upstream. In the fierce
fighting which followed, Wayne's
troops held the stream crossing until the rest of the army was out of danger.
General Washington retired north of the Schuylkill
River, and sent Wayne
to circle around and harass the British in order to delay their advance on Philadelphia.
This led to the greatest disaster of Wayne's
military career. In a pre-dawn attack on September 20, 1777, the British fell upon his force of
1,500 men encamped at Paoli,
not far from his home.
The British had learned the position of his camp from
Tory spies. Wayne himself was warned by an old tanner of the approach of the
British, but not soon enough to get his men ready. The British moved up under
the cover of darkness and bayoneted more than two hundred men. Anthony Wayne
would never forget this loss, and would revenge his men at Stony
Point in 1779, in a strikingly similar bayonet attack. He asked
for a court-martial in regard to the Paoli incident and
was acquitted unanimously. In the career of almost every great military leader,
similar disasters can be found, caused by sheer bad luck or an unforeseen
combination of circumstances, but the measure of Wayne’s greatness was his
ability to meet disaster. The British had occupied Philadelphia
after the battle of Brandywine, and Washington
planned a surprise attack on elements of the British forces stationed at Germantown, five miles from the
city. The Americans lost this battle because of the stubborn British
defensive perimeter. Again, General Wayne and his troops were the rear guard
covering the retreat of the army. During the bitter winter at Valley
Forge, Wayne kept
"the esteem and confidence" of his men, and led foraging expeditions
to gather grain and cattle to feed the army. This action gained Wayne
yet another of his many nicknames, "the Drover." On one occasion in
southern New Jersey, he and the
Polish general, Count Casimir Pulaski, with 600 men attacked and frightened
away a British force of 4,000. When the news reached Valley Forge
of the British retreat toward New York City,
Wayne’s troops were among the first
to leave the winter encampment in pursuit of the enemy. At the Battle of Monmouth,
the Pennsylvania Line was in the spearhead of the American attack. Their valor
was paramount in forcing the British from the field. In the spring of 1779, He
was placed in command of a separate corps of light infantry, which was formed of
picked units from various states. With this corps on July 16, 1779, he carried out his most famous
exploit, the surprise and capture of the British post at Stony Point.
This British garrison was a serious threat to travel on the Hudson
River. General George Washington felt that it was imperative to
destroy this post. He understood that it would be a dangerous undertaking. Stony
Point was protected by a 200’ cliff face, and was strongly
fortified. Washington, knowing
how important this battle would be, saw Wayne
as the only choice. It is reported that when asked to accomplish this difficult
feat, he stated, "Issue the orders Sir, and I will
storm Hell."
In a fixed bayonets only attack, the Pennsylvanians
assaulted the British fortress at night. This daring move was successful,
resulting in the capture of over 500 British prisoners. Leading the attack was
the general himself. Felled by a British musketball, which grazed his head, Wayne
was carried over the parapet. Stony Point would become a
rallying point for the American public in a war that had seen few successes by
its military. Congress presented a medal to him for this victory. In 1780 his
corps was stationed in the lower Hudson
Valley, to hinder the British in New
York City from gathering cattle and other supplies.
When Benedict Arnold turned traitor and there was danger that West
Point might fall to the British, he marched his men 16 miles at
night in four hours and prevented the loss of this important post. The Pennsylvania
troops mutinied in December, 1780 because of grievances over pay and terms of
service. Wayne helped to restore
order and persuade the Pennsylvania
government to take care of their complaints. In 1781, he recruited new Pennsylvania
troops and served under Lafayette
in the Yorktown campaign against the British.
During this service in Virginia
on the lower James River, Wayne
was ordered to attack what was supposedly only a detachment of the British
army, but which was really Cornwallis' entire army. In a seemingly hopeless
situation, outnumbered nearly ten to one, Wayne
ordered a charge into the British army, a bold move which was so unexpected
that his men got safely away. After the Yorktown
campaign had been successfully concluded by the surrender of the main British
army, Wayne was sent to Georgia
where the British Loyalists and hostile Indians were still virtually in control.
.
As his forces and supplies were inadequate, his service there was a
series of disappointments, but he held the field and defeated the Creek Indians
in June, 1782. On July 12, his troops marched into Savannah
as the British army sailed away and after that he helped to restore order in
that war-ravaged state. In 1783, he retired from the army with the brevet rank
of Major-General. Wayne's civilian
life from 1782 to 1792 was less happy than his military career had been. The
State of Georgia
granted him an estate for his Revolutionary services. He ran into debt to
improve it and lost it by foreclosure. He ventured into politics again both in Pennsylvania
and Georgia
without much success. In Pennsylvania,
Wayne served in the General
Assembly and in the Council of Censors, where his party failed in an attempt to
revise the State Constitution.
He was elected to Congress from Georgia,
but in a few months lost his seat because of charges of irregularity in the
election. The treaty of peace with Great Britain
in 1783 had left some unfinished business, the actual establishment of United
States authority over the western lands. The
British still garrisoned a string of forts along the Great Lakes.
Agents of the British government, as well as the military incited the Native
populace to resist the influx of western settlers. The fledgling United
States government tried to bring these
Indians under control and to open the Northwest Territory,
first by peaceful means through treaties, and later by military expeditions.
The first expedition under Colonel Josiah Harmar was soundly defeated by Chief
Little Turtle, a Miami Chieftain. The second expedition, mounted in 1791 was
even more disastrous. President Washington, underestimating this army and
overestimating the fighting capabilities of the Native Americans, sent the army
west in November of 1791. On November
3, 1791, General Arthur St. Clair and his army encamped on the Wabash
River in Ohio.
In a classic encircling maneuver, Little Turtle surrounded the army at night.
In a daylight attack on the American army, over 690 men and women were killed.
Over 39 high ranking officers were killed, including a Major-general.
This brilliant victory stands today as the single worst
defeat of American arms by the Native Americans. Custer’s Defeat pales in
comparison, yet it is lost in history. After hearing the news of St. Clair’s
Defeat, Washington was livid. It
was the biggest crisis of the Washington
administration. Secretary-of-war, Henry Knox, told Washington
that the reason behind the defeat was that we did not have a professional
standing army. Washington agreed
and on March 5, 1792, the
United States Militia Act was passed. This act basically set the foundation for
the modern United States Army. The new army was to be known as the Legion of
the United States.
After great difficulty and serious contemplation, Washington
chose his old reliable war-horse, Anthony Wayne as Commander-in-Chief. He
accepted and headed to the newly built Fort LaFayette in Pittsburgh. The new recruits were formed into four Sub-Legions which were
given distinct colors. The 1st Sub-Legion was to be black and white; the 2nd
Sub-Legion was to be red and white; the 3rd Sub-Legion was to be black and
gold; and the 4th was to be green and white. The new uniforms were to be sharp
and Wayne demanded spit-and-polish.
He wanted these new troops to be confident and professional. After the army had
grown too large, it headed downriver to a new camp called Legion Ville.
It was there that this new army trained incessantly for
their mission. Training was incessant and brutal. Court martials and lashing
were commonplace. Wayne would not
lose this next battle. From November 1792 to April 1793, this army marched,
fired, fought sham battles and was honed into a capable fighting machine. In
six months time, this army had become as one historian noted, "…the
fightenest army the United States
has ever had…." In April, the army began the campaign into the west. It
was an entirely new United States Army that headed into the Ohio
country. Wayne bragged that the new
Legion that had just been molded at Legion Ville could beat anybody on the
field of battle.
After building a chain of over ten forts, Wayne,
had arrived in the heart of Miami Country. On August 20, 1794, General Wayne and his Legion of the United
States defeated the Miami Confederacy in the
pivotal Battle of Fallen Timbers. The following year he forced the Treaty of
Greene Ville, which brought peace. In 1796, the Legion of the United
States accepted formal surrender of the
British posts along the Great Lakes. In essence, it was
the true end of the American Revolution. General Anthony Wayne was headed back
to Pittsburgh in December of 1796
and became ill. He died in the Erie Blockhouse and was buried beneath the
flagpole. Thus ended a career that spanned 21 years of service to the United
States.
A stranger twist of the Wayne
tale took place in 1809 when his son came to Erie
to take his father’s remains to Philadelphia.
When Wayne was exhumed, he was
perfectly preserved. Isaac Wayne had a doctor deal with the problem. Unknown to
him, the doctor boiled the flesh off the bones in a cauldron and re-interred
the flesh at the blockhouse. He then gave the bones to Isaac to take back to
St. David’s Church in Radnor, Pennsylvania.
A public ceremony was held at the grave on July 4, 1809, with many famous people in attendance. Lafayette
himself sent a sword to be buried with Wayne.
The note said, "Mon Ami, the boy...” The cauldron that he was boiled in is
proudly displayed at the local historical society in Erie.
Thus even in death, Wayne was an
enigma. He has the illustrious title of being the only American general buried
in two places.
Today this great and colorful soldier is remembered in
numerous place names throughout the United
States, especially in Pennsylvania
and the states formed from the Northwest Territory. In Pennsylvania
alone, a county, nine townships, and the boroughs of Wayne,
Waynesboro, and Waynesburg bear his
name, and fifteen other states have Wayne
Counties.
General
Anthony Wayne's Camp Bed exhibited at the Fort
Wayne Historical Society.
Anthony
Wayne Flag
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THE LEGION OF THE UNITED STATES
1792-1796
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