An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson (61 page)

133 “to retard, disjoint and defeat the mediated irruption”: JW’s accounts presented to Carondelet, September 22, 1796, legajo 2375.

C
HAPTER 13:
P
OISONED
V
ICTORY

The sources here are also those of the previous chapter.

134 “two distinct Parties”: Nelson,
Anthony Wayne
, 251.

134 “I am unsettled in my purpose”: JW to Innes, March 12, 1794, Innes Papers, vol. 23.

134 “I owe so much to my own feelings”: JW to John Brown, August 28, 1794, Innes Papers, vol. 23.

135 Article signed “Army Wretched”: Nelson,
Anthony Wayne
, 255.

135 “During my stay I found him attending”: Ibid.

138 The Battle of Fallen Timbers: JW’s jaundiced account of the march and battle was conveyed in a long letter to John Brown written after the fighting, JW to Brown, August 28, 1794. See Quaife, “General James Wilkinson’s Narrative of the Fallen Timbers Campaign,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
, June 1929, 81–90.

C
HAPTER 14:
T
HE
B
ATTLE FOR
C
OMMAND

JW’s relentless battle for command and his desperate need for money from New Orleans swamped all other considerations, leaving the correspondence with Henry Knox and Carondelet as the major sources of information for this period in his life.

140 Official report on the battle: Wayne to Knox, August 29, 1794, American State Papers, 3rd Cong., 2nd sess., Indian Affairs, vol. 1.

140 “Yet the specious name of Victory”: JW to Brown, August 28, 1794, Innes Papers, vol. 23.

140 “The whole operation presents”: November 10, 1794, JW to Innes, ibid.

141 “a liar, a drunkard”: December 1794, JW to Innes, ibid.

141 “You must rest assured that your military reputation”: December 4, marked “private”; followed by December 5, 1794, Henry Knox to JW, WDP.

141 For the military costs involved, see Kohn,
Eagle and Sword
.

142 “I always indulged the Brigadier”: Wayne to Knox, January 25, 1795, quoted, with comments on Wayne’s surprise at JW’s animosity, in Nelson,
Anthony Wayne
, 276.

142 The Robert Newman affair was almost certainly contrived by Wayne to destroy JW’s connections to the British in Canada, which he believed had led to the sabotage of the Legion’s supplies. JW’s outrage, after Nolan tracked down Newman and got an inkling of what had happened, crystallized his hatred of Wayne.

143 Wilkinson’s claim for financial reward for defeating Clark: JW to Carondelet, April 30, 1794, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid, estado legajo 3898.

143 “Do not believe me avaricious”: JW to Carondelet, undated,
Papeles de Cuba
, legajo 2374.

144 The story of Owens, the silver dollars, and the arrest of his murderers was extensively covered in Clark’s
Proofs
, 17–19, and in the attached affidavit of Thomas Power,
Proofs
, 115.

147 The political campaign and Sedam’s remark “by many Genl. Wayne has been Sensured”: Nelson,
Anthony Wayne
, 277.

C
HAPTER 15:
D
EATH OF A
R
IVAL

In addition to the military sources already cited, the diplomatic background is detailed in Kukla’s
A Wilderness So Immense
, and JW’s double triumph in securing command of the army and silver from Carondelet is also sourced in War Department documents and Spanish archives.

148 “vile assassin”: Wayne to Knox, January 29, 1795, quoted in Jacobs,
Tarnished
Warrior.

149 JW’s replies to Knox’s private and public letters: JW to Knox, January 1 and January 2, 1795, WDP.

149 Of Timothy Pickering, David McCullough wrote in
John Adams
(Simon & Schuster, 2001), “In many ways, Pickering might have served as the model New Englander for those who disliked the type. Tall, lean, and severe looking with a lantern jaw and hard blue eyes, he was Salem-born and bred, a Harvard graduate, proud, opinionated, self- righteous, and utterly humorless,” 472.

150 “If my very damned and unparalleled crosses”: JW to John Adair, August 7, 1795, Clark,
Proofs
, notes 32. Polishing his frank, open guise, JW described himself as “a man of Mercury, whose heart and tongue are in unison.”

150 For the background to the San Lorenzo treaty, see Kukla,
A Wilderness So Immense.
151 In April 1790, JW specifically advised Miró to add a garrison of two hundred to the fort at New Madrid, and fifty oarsmen for the galleys. To the total of his treacherous assistance should be added his betrayal of a reconnaissance party under Major Doughty exploring a route from Kentucky to New Orleans in 1790. After JW warned Miró of their movements and suggested an armed response, Miró sent Creek warriors to attack them, and several in the party were killed. Cox, in “Louisiana-Texas Frontier III,” suggests JW also briefed the Spanish on the proper border to defend during the 1805 negotiations with Monroe and Pinckney.

151 Harry Innes’s correspondence with Gayoso, and his involvement in the Spanish Conspiracy, are covered in detail in Whitaker, “Harry Innes and the Spanish Intrigue: 1794–1795.”

152 Joseph de Pontalba’s memorandum and career in New Orleans, where he lived for eighteen years, are described in Gayarré,
History of Louisiana
. But his subsequent imprisonment and emotional torture of his wealthy daughter-in- law, ending in her murder and his suicide, is an operatic tragedy that falls outside Gayarré’s canvas.

152 “And G.W. can aspire to the same dignity”: Carondelet to JW, July 16, 1795, legajo 2374.

152 Clark’s
Proofs
and Power’s affidavit are the primary sources for Carondelet and Gayoso’s contacts with JW, but JW provides his own defensive gloss in
Memoirs
, volume 2, repeatedly between pages 37 and 219.

154 “This accomplished, you will most probably have me for a neighbour”: JW to Innes, September 4, 1796, Harry Innes Papers, vol. 23.

154 “determination to inculcate”: JW’s general order, December 13, 1795.

155 Power’s second visit to JW was again the subject of Clark’s
Proofs
and his own testimony and was again rebutted by JW’s
Memoirs
, vol. 2.

156 The military consequences of the three treaties, Jay, Greeneville, and San Lorenzo, are detailed in Kohn,
Eagle and Sword
, 183, and Cress,
Citizens in Arms
, 133.

157 “to get rid of Genl Wayne”: Quoted in Nelson,
Anthony Wayne
, 291.

157 The drama of smuggling $9,640 past Fort Massac to JW’s bank account was described by Thomas Power in note 36 in Clark,
Proofs.

159 “My views at Philadelphia”: JW to Carondelet, September 22, 1796, legajo 2375.

159 JW’s encounter with Andrew Ellicott was described in
The Journal of Andrew
Ellicott.

160 “I am proud of my little Sons”: Hay, “Letters of Mrs. Ann Biddle Wilkinson.”

160 “The fact is my presence with the army”: Wayne to James McHenry, July 28, 1796, quoted in Nelson,
Anthony Wayne
, 296.

161 “It is generally agreed that some cavalry”: Washington to the House of Representatives, February 28, 1797, PGW.

C
HAPTER 16:
T
HE
N
EW
C
OMMANDER IN
CHIEF

Despite its mendacity, JW’s
Memoirs
becomes the crucial text during the brief period when his public life as commanding general came close to coinciding with his private interests.

164 “You will endeavour to discover, with your natural penetration”: Carondelet to Power, May 26, 1797, Clark,
Proofs
, note 38.

164 “General Wilkinson received me very coolly”: Power to Carondelet and Gayoso, undated, Clark,
Proofs
, note 43.

166 James McHenry’s directive to General James Wilkinson: McHenry to JW, March 12, 1797, WDP.

166 “There is strict discipline observed”: Power to Carondelet and Gayoso, Clark,
Proofs
, note 43.

166 “In fact the American peasant”: Murray,
Travels in North America, 1834, 1835 &
1836
(New York: Harper, 1839), 2: 67–68, quoted in Prucha, “The United States Army as Viewed by British Travelers, 1825–1860.”

167 The challenge of peacetime soldiering in the period is detailed in Ricardo A. Herrera, “Self-Governance and the American Citizen as Soldier, 1775–1861.”

168 The fort “presents a frightful picture to the scientific soldier”: JW to Captain James Bruff, June 1797, quoted in Hay,
Admirable Trumpeter
, 163.

168 For JW’s disciplinary methods, see general orders issued from Fort Washington, May 22, 1797, and from Detroit, July 4, 20, and November 3, 10, 1797, cited in Hay,
Admirable Trumpeter
, 148.

169 Carondelet “ought not to be apprehensive”: Power to Carondelet and Gayoso, Clark,
Proofs
, note 43.

169 For Gayoso’s delaying tactics, see Ellicott,
Journal of Andrew Ellicott
, and Linklater,
Fabric of America.

170 “that there is too much ground to think”: Pickering to Winthrop Sargent, August 1797, quoted in Hay,
Admirable Trumpeter
, 171.

170 “was strongly attached to the interest and welfare of our country”: Ellicott,
Journal
of Andrew Ellicott.

170 “a child of my own raising”: JW to Gayoso, February 6, 1797, Clark,
Proofs
, 42.

171 “You have a warm place in my affections”: JW to Ellicott, September 13, 1797, quoted in Ellicott,
Journal of Andrew Ellicott.

171 “the chain of dependence”: JW to McHenry, August 1797. The argument continued through the end of the year, when McHenry proposed new regulations for the army. JW replied January 8, 1798, that they would result in “the destruction of subordination and Discipline.” McHenry then backed off, letting it be known that they were proposals only. WDP.

172 Ellicott’s dispatch to Pickering: Ellicott to Pickering, November 14, 1797, quoted in Catherine van C. Mathews,
Andrew Ellicott: His Life and Letters
(New York: Grafton Press, 1908), 161–63.

172 The Little Turtle saga, “Could I be made instrumental”: JW to John Adams, December 26, 1797, quoted in James Wilkinson (grandson), “Paper Prepared and Read,” and John Adams’s reply, Adams to JW, February 4, 1798,
The Works of John
Adams
, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown, 1856).

173 “I most sincerely wish an inquiry”: Wilkinson, “Paper Prepared and Read.”

173 “I esteem your talents”: Adams,
Works.

174 “How is the subordination of the military to the civil power to be supported?”: “Review of the Propositions of Mr. Hillhouse,” 1808, ibid., vol 5.

174 “that provisions will always be made at Headquarters”: JW to Samuel Hodgdon, July 7, 1797, WDP.

175 “My Ann unusually hearty”: JW to Owen Biddle, December 24, 1797, quoted in Hay,
Admirable Trumpeter
, 169.

175 Ellicott report on Captain Guion’s behavior: Ellicott to Pickering, February 10, 1798, Ellicott Papers, LoC.

175 “Observed everywhere, I dare not communicate”: JW to Gayoso, March 5, 1798, legajo 2374.

C
HAPTER 17:
E
LLICOTT’S
D
ISCOVERY

My admiration and affection for Andrew Ellicott led me to include a study of him in
The Fabric of America
, and together with his
Journal
and the Andrew Ellicott Papers in the Library of Congress, this provides much of the background to this chapter.