An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson (57 page)

I
NTRODUCTION:
A T
EST OF
L
OYALTY

The pivotal test of General James Wilkinson’s ( JW) uncertain loyalties received considerable publicity at Aaron Burr’s trials in the summer of 1807. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Cushing’s sworn affidavit was presented in court; see T. Carpenter’s
The Trial
of Colonel Aaron Burr on an Indictment of Treason
, and reprinted in JW’s
Burr’s Conspiracy
exposed and General Wilkinson vindicated against the slanders of his enemies on that important
occasion
. JW’s own reactions were recorded in
Burr’s Conspiracy
. The widespread belief that he was in the pay of Spain, a “Spanish pensioner,” provided the basis of Burr’s defense. In their words, “General Wilkinson had an interest with the king of Spain.”

C
HAPTER 1:
T
HE
P
ENNILESS
A
RISTOCRAT

The main sources for colonial Maryland’s aristocratic and tobacco culture are Aubrey C. Land’s rather old-fashioned
Colonial Maryland— A History
(Kraus International); Trevor Burnard’s
Creole Gentlemen: The Maryland Elite, 1691–1776
(New York and London: Routledge, 2002); and Arthur Pierce Middleton’s
Tobacco Coast: A Maritime
History of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era
(Newport, VA: Mariners’ Museum, 1953). The background of JW’s ancestry and upbringing is taken from his
Memoirs
and from his two earlier biographies; James R. Jacobs’s meticulously researched
Tarnished Warrior:
Major-General James Wilkinson
; and Thomas R. Hay and M. R. Werner’s
Admirable
Trumpeter: A Biography of General James Wilkinson
. None of these sources refer to the near bankruptcy of Joseph Wilkinson. Evidence for this appears in the colonial probate records in the Maryland State Archives, Liber 52, 54, and 86 with relevant folios; in Calvert County tax assessments for 1783, MSA 1437; and in genealogical records of the Wilkinson and Heighe families.

8 “these bold and indigent strangers”: Quoted in
The Conquest of the Old Southwest
by Archibald Henderson (New York: Century, 1920).

8 “The Manners of Maryland are somewhat peculiar”: John Adams diary, November 21, 1777, Adams Family Papers (AFP), Massachusetts Historical Society, (digital)
www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea
.

10 “The last words my father spoke to me”:
Memoirs
, 1:7–9.

12 For colonial Philadelphia, see
The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of Its
Growth
by Sam Bass Warner, Jr. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987).

12 “These inclinations were seconded” and JW’s time in Philadelphia:
Memoirs
, 1:11–13.

13 “The
Rage Militaire
”: quoted in Margaret Wheeler Willard, ed.,
Letters on the
American Revolution, 1774–1776
(Boston, 1925).

C
HAPTER 2:
C
ITIZENS AND
S
OLDIERS

The rivalry between supporters of militia and professional soldiers in the Revolutionary War has been the subject of extensive research. I have consulted the following: Lawrence D. Cress’s
Citizens in Arms:The Army and the Militia in American Society to the
War of 1812
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982), and his chapter “Reassessing American Military Requirements, 1783–1807” in
Against All Enemies:
Interpretations of American Military History from Colonial Times to the Present
, edited by Kenneth J. Hagan and William R. Roberts (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986); Ricardo A. Herrera, “Self-Governance and the American Citizen as Soldier, 1775– 1861,”
Journal of Military History
65, no. 1 ( January 2001); Paul David Nelson, “Citizen Soldiers or Regulars: The Views of American General Officers on the Military Establishment, 1775–1781,”
Military Affairs
43, no. 3 (October 1979); William B. Skelton, “The Confederation’s Regulars: A Social Profile of Enlisted Service in America’s First Standing Army,”
William and Mary Quarterly
, 3rd ser., 46, no. 4 (October 1989); and Skelton’s “Social Roots of the American Military Profession: The Officer Corps of America’s First Peacetime Army, 1784–1789,”
Journal of Military History
54, no. 4 (October 1990).

15 “the familiarity which prevailed”:
Memoirs
, 1:33–34.

16 “no Dependence can be put on the Militia”: General George Washington to John Hancock, July 10, 1775.

16 “When I look to the consequences of it”: Quoted in
The Correspondence of King
George the Third from 1760 to December 1783
, ed. John Fortescue (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1967).

16 “never desired to see better soldiers”: Quoted in Nelson, “Citizen Soldiers or Regulars.”

16 “A Standing Army, however necessary”: Samuel Adams to James Warren, January 7, 1776, Warren-Adams Letters, I.

16 “Our troops are animated”: Address of the Continental Congress to “The Inhabitants of the Colonies,” February 13, 1776, JCC.

17 “Men may speculate as they will”: Washington to John Banester, April 21, 1778,
Writings of George Washington
.

17 “The regiment was ordered for muster”:
Memoirs
, 1:34–35.

18 Grover court- martial: Washington to John Hancock, president of Congress, May 5, 1776, JCC.

19 For Benedict Arnold’s reputation, see Willard S. Randall’s
Benedict Arnold, Patriot
and Traitor.

20 “We are now in a sweet situation”: JW to General Nathanael Greene, May 24, 1776,
Memoirs
, 1:43–44.

20 “Captn Wilkinson . . . is truly alarming”: Washington to John Hancock, June 7, 1776, JCC.

20 “Captn Wilkinson’s Conjectures were not realized”: General Schuyler to Washington, June 10, 1776, JCC.

20 JW’s relationship with Arnold:
Memoirs
, 1:46–49.

21 JW and General Sullivan: Ibid., 1:51–59.

22 “a Gentleman who I have always esteemed as a friend”: General Wayne to James Wilkinson, June 16, 1792, quoted in Nelson,
Anthony Wayne, Soldier of the Early Republic
.

C
HAPTER 3:
W
OOING
G
ENERAL
G
ATES

The first volume of JW’s memoirs provides the story of his relationship with General Horatio Gates. Despite JW’s unreliability, the depth of his feeling for Gates is unmistakable. For Gates’s character and career, see Nelson,
General Horatio Gates: A Biography
, and his “Legacy of Controversy: Gates, Schuyler, and Arnold at Saratoga, 1777.”

24 “my dear General’s affectionate friend”: JW to Gates, June 10, 1776,
Memoirs
, vol. 1.

24 “an old granny looking fellow”: Quoted in Nelson’s “Legacy of Controversy.”

25 “the intrepid, generous, friendly, upright, Honest man”: JW to Varick, quoted in James R. Jacobs,
Tarnished Warrior.

26 “the first officer in Military knowledge”: Washington to Jack Washington, March 5, 1776, GWP.

26 “a certain great man is damnably deficient”: Lee to Gates, December 13, 1776,
Memoirs
, 1:108.

27 General Lee’s capture:
Memoirs
, 1:101–10.

27 JW’s account of the battle of Trenton:
Memoirs
, 1:125–31; also Ferling,
Almost a
Miracle.

29 Evidence of the interest Washington took in Wilkinson’s career appears in a letter from William Fitzhugh, Washington’s neighbor and friend: “With respect to Wilkinson, who I verily believe is a young Fellow of Great Merrit, I will Endeavor, as you are Pleas’d to Advise, to get Him Provided for in The Battalions to be rais’d Here.” Fitzhugh to Washington, October 17, 1776.

29 The diatribes against the militia: Quoted in Nelson, “Citizen Soldiers or Regulars.” 30 For the reorganization of the Continental Army, see Cress,
Citizens in Arms
, and Wright,
Continental Army
.

30 “to remedy his polite manners”:
Memoirs
, 1:156. Washington would have attached him to a regiment commanded by the notoriously rough-tempered Nathanael Guest had JW not protested, so Hartley represented the soft option.

31 Every recorded word written about Ann Biddle makes her sound adorable— adventurous, tenderhearted, generous- spirited—just as Peale painted her. For John Biddle and the Indian King, see Earle, “The Taverns of Colonial Philadelphia”; for other members of the family, see Hay, “Letters of Mrs. Ann Biddle Wilkinson,” and Radbill, “Quaker Patriots: The Leadership of Owen Biddle and John Lacey.”

C
HAPTER 4:
T
HE
T
RIUMPH OF
S
ARATOGA

In addition to Nelson,
General Horatio Gates
, and his “Legacy of Controversy,” sources used include Wright,
Continental Army
; Upham, “Burgoyne’s Great Mistake,” and Hudleston’s
Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne
.

33 “My young heart leaped with joy”:
Memoirs
, 1:154.

33 “I would to God, gentlemen could for once know their own minds”: Ibid.

34 “John Burgoyne wagers”: Quoted in Frothingham,
Washington: Commander- in-chief
. 34 “The perfidy of mankind”:
Memoirs
, 1:172.

34 “It wrung my heart”: Ibid., 1:174–75. Gates’s order, issued on May 24, 1777, read in full, “Colonel James Wilkinson is appointed deputy adjutant- general to the army in the northen department; all orders written or verbal coming from him are to be considered as the orders of the general in chief.” Schuyler read a copy of JW’s letter to Gates and commented, “I admire warmth and affection in young gentlemen of your age . . . I hope you may find cause to give me a share of the regard you now bear General Gates.”

35 “these Mortals must be led and not drove”: Horatio Gates to Joseph Trumbull of Connecticut, quoted in Nelson, “Citizen Soldiers or Regulars.”

35 “Gates’ arrival raised us as if by magic”: Udney Hay to Governor Clinton, August 13, 1777, quoted in Nelson, “Legacy of Controversy.”

36 “He has great merit”: General St. Clair to Gates, quoted in
Memoirs
, 1:352.

36 “His conduct . . . endeared him to me”: Matthew Lyon, deposition to Ezekiel Bacon’s committee of the House of Representatives, 1811, ibid., 3:341.

37 “Such an explosion of fire I had never heard”: James Phinney Baxter,
The
British Invasion from the North: The Campaigns of General Carleton and Burgoyne with
the Journal of Lieut. William Digby
(Albany, NY: Munsell’s, 1887).

37 The battle of Freeman’s Farm:
Memoirs
, 1:263–66. JW’s account places him at the center of events from the days before the battle when he purportedly took out the reconnaissance party that found Burgoyne’s army and selected Bemis Heights as a strongpoint for Gates’s force. During the fighting at Freeman’s Farm, he also claimed to have gone to the battleground in person and strengthened the morale of the commanders Henry Dearborn and Daniel Morgan, the latter having been reduced to tears. Without corroboration it is impossible to know what degree of credibility, if any, should be attached to these claims. However, the angry accusation of Richard Varick, Arnold’s staff officer, confirms that JW’s intervention was responsible for effectively removing Arnold from his command.

39 “he is an old gamester”: October 4, 1777, Gates to Governor George Clinton, quoted in Nelson, “Legacy of Controversy.”

39 “Our cannon were surrounded”: Baxter,
British Invasion.

40 “the likeliest young man I ever saw”: Lyon to Thomas Jefferson, August 12, 1802, TJP.

40 JW’s leading role in the negotiations for Burgoyne’s surrender are described in
Memoirs
, 1:290–317, and largely substantiated by Nelson and Hudleston. Burgoyne’s ascription of failure to “the fortune of war” rather than his own inadequacy was characteristic.