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Wilkinson, James (1757-1825) U.S. army officer; Commanding General of the U.S. Army (1796-1812). Born in Benedict, Maryland, in 1757, James Wilkinson was educated by a private tutor and practiced medicine briefly before obtaining a commission as a captain in the Continental Army in 1776. He served at the siege of Boston and with Benedict Arnold's expedition to Montreal (1776), under Gen. George Washington at Trenton and Princeton (1776-1777), and under Gen. Horatio Gates at Saratoga (1777). He then served as secretary to the Board of War and Ordnance in 1778 and earned promotion to brigadier general. From 1779 to 1783 he served as Clothier-General of the army. In 1783, Wilkinson moved to Kentucky, laid claim to large tracts of land near present-day Louisville and Lexington, and became involved in opening the Mississippi to American commerce. The latter endeavor entangled him with the Spanish governor of New Orleans, but in 1791 President Washington offered him a commission as colonel in the U.S. Army and he accepted. Critical of the Army's leadership, he nevertheless served successfully under Mad Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers (1794) and received promotion to brigadier general. In 1796, Wilkinson was named to the position of Commanding General of the Army, in which position he served until 1812. Wilkinson had a penchant for intrigue and once again took up questionable conducts with Spanish authorities in New Orleans and quarreled with other senior officers and politicians. Aaron Burr attempted to implicate Wilkinson in his conspiracy (1805-1806), but Wilkinson apparently avoided the affair and remained loyal to President Thomas Jefferson. During the War of 1812, he commanded the unsuccessful second invasion of Canada (1813), and was subsequently shunted aside, retiring in 1815. He wrote a bitter memoir and settled near New Orleans as a sugar planter. In 1822, he went to Mexico to obtain a grant to colonize lands in Texas, an effort which was unsuccessful.
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| Biography: James Wilkinson |
James Wilkinson (1757-1825), an American army general and frontier adventurer, was deeply involved in western land intrigues with Spain and in Aaron Burr's scheme to disrupt the Union.
James Wilkinson was born in Calvert County, Md. His father, a successful planter, died when James was seven. After schooling with a private tutor, he studied medicine in Maryland and then in Philadelphia. In 1775 he returned to his home state and opened practice. Medicine, however, was too tame for the restless and ambitious Wilkinson. The American Revolution provided the opportunity to enter into the military and begin his permanent career.
Career in the Revolution
After some involvement with the Maryland militia, Wilkinson was commissioned captain in the Continental Army. He demonstrated a remarkable capacity for ingratiating himself with men of influence, and his rise through the ranks was meteoric. By December 1776 he was a lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to Gen. Horatio Gates, the commander of Continental forces in the Northern Department and a man who was to prove Wilkinson's frequent benefactor. Largely through the good offices of Gates, Wilkinson was named deputy adjutant general for the Northern Department. In November 1777, just 20 years old, he was appointed brigadier general. When Gates became head of the Continental Congress's Board of War, Wilkinson followed him as secretary. During the next several months, however, a rift developed as a result of rumors Wilkinson apparently spread concerning Gates. The immediate consequence was that Wilkinson resigned from the Board of War.
In July 1779 Wilkinson obtained the potentially lucrative post of clothier general for the Continental forces, but within a year he resigned under fire for suspected irregularities in accounts. In November 1778 he married and settled on a farm in Bucks County, Pa. During the next several years, he was returned for two terms to the Pennsylvania Assembly, the only political office he seems ever to have held.
Spanish Intrigue
By early 1784 Wilkinson had sold his Pennsylvania properties and moved to Kentucky, where he became involved in continuous and deepening controversy as he engaged in a series of intrigues with the Spanish authorities in New Orleans. His maneuvers were probably motivated mostly by his never-ending quest for financial gain and his compulsion to fashion roles of importance for himself.
Persuading Spanish authorities that certain American groups were conspiring to occupy Spanish territory in Louisiana and the Floridas, Wilkinson explained that opening the Mississippi River to western trade would encourage separatist tendencies among western settlers. If he was granted a monopoly of this trade, he suggested, he could promote Spanish interests. As a result, he briefly secured the monopoly, took an oath of allegiance to the Spanish monarchy, received the promise of an annual pension, and secured a permanent loan of $7,000. By 1791, however, the Spanish apparently suspected that his promises exceeded his capacity to deliver and revoked his trade monopoly.
His debts mounting rapidly, Wilkinson liquidated his personal affairs and returned to military life in March 1792 as brigadier general in the American army. In the fall of 1796 he became commandeer of all western forces. Though rumors of his Spanish dealings circulated back east, tangible proof of wrongdoing was lacking. Moreover, President George Washington wanted peace with Spain and believed Wilkinson might serve as an effective intermediary with the Spanish in the southwest.
By the end of 1796, Spain had dispensed some $32,000 to Wilkinson for his services (which included reporting on American troop movements and plans), but his personal finances remained shaky. Under fire for irregularities both in Army contracts and his personal land speculations, Wilkinson's luck nonetheless continued to hold. In 1801 he was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to deal with some of the southern Indian tribes and two years later helped take formal possession of Louisiana from France.
Burr Conspiracy
During the winter of 1804/1805, Wilkinson began his fateful relationship with Aaron Burr. His actual involvement in the Burr conspiracy to separate western lands from the Union remains somewhat unclear. It is known that he corresponded frequently with Burr and was privy to the vice president's plans. In 1805 he furnished Burr with a barge, escort, and letter of introduction to the Spanish officials at New Orleans. Later, in his position in St. Louis as governor of the upper Louisiana Territory, Wilkinson was visited by Burr and then kept in regular communication with him.
As Burr's intrigue deepened, however, and as Wilkinson found his own name listed in western newspapers as one of the conspirators, he pulled back. To disentangle himself, Wilkinson sent a rather frantic and effusive letter to President Jefferson, proclaiming his loyalty and warning of Burr's plans. In return, Wilkinson received an order to proceed to New Orleans, where, in a characteristically aggressive and high-handed manner, he readied the city's defenses, placed suspected Burrites under military arrest, and sent a small force upriver to intercept Burr himself.
At the trial following the collapse of the conspiracy, Wilkinson's involvement with Burr and the Spanish government came to the surface, and he narrowly escaped indictment. In several congressional investigations and courts-martial, he was formally acquitted, but the suspicions surrounding his career were too great, and he was removed from command.
Many of Wilkinson's last years were spent composing a turgid three-volume defense of his career. He died in Mexico City on Dec. 28, 1825.
Further Reading
Thomas R. Hay and M. R. Werner, The Admirable Trumpeter: A Biography of General James Wilkinson (1941), is the most balanced and judicious of the biographical studies. Useful for Wilkinson's military exploits is James R. Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior: Major-General James Wilkinson (1938). See also John E. Weems, Men without Countries: Three Adventurers of the Early Southwest (1969).
| Columbia Encyclopedia: James Wilkinson |
| Wikipedia: James Wilkinson |
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| James Wilkinson | |
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| In office December 15, 1796 – July 13, 1798 |
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| President | George Washington John Adams |
| Preceded by | Anthony Wayne |
| Succeeded by | George Washington |
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| In office June 15, 1800 – January 27, 1812 |
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| President | John Adams Thomas Jefferson James Madison |
| Preceded by | Alexander Hamilton |
| Succeeded by | Henry Dearborn |
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| In office 1805 – 1807 |
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| President | Thomas Jefferson |
| Preceded by | William Henry Harrison Governor of the District of Louisiana) |
| Succeeded by | Meriwether Lewis |
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| Born | March 24, 1757 Near Benedict, Maryland |
| Died | December 28, 1825 (aged 68) Mexico City, Mexico |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Biddle Wilkinson |
| Children | 2 |
| Profession | Military |
| Signature |  |
James Wilkinson (March 24, 1757 – December 28, 1825) was an American soldier and statesman, who was associated with several scandals and controversies. He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, but was twice compelled to resign. He was appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory in 1805[1] and commanded two unsuccessful campaigns in the St. Lawrence theater during the War of 1812. After his death, he was discovered to have been a paid agent of the Spanish Crown.[2]
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James Wilkinson was born about three miles northeast of Benedict, Maryland, on a farm south of Hunting Creek,[3][4] the second son of a respected Maryland merchant–planter. He received his early education from a private tutor; his study of medicine in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania was interrupted by the American Revolution.
Wilkinson first served in Thompson's Pennsylvania rifle battalion, 1775–76, and was commissioned a captain in September 1775. He served as an aide to Nathanael Greene during the Siege of Boston, participated in the seizure and placing of guns on the Dorchester Heights in March of 1776, and following the British abandonment of Boston, went with the rest of the Continental Army to New York where he left Greene's staff and was given command of an infantry company. Sent to Canada as part of the reinforcements for Benedict Arnold's intrepid little army besieging Quebec, he arrived just in time to witness the arrival of 8,000 British reinforcements under General John Burgoyne which precipitated the collapse of the American effort in Canada. He became aide to Arnold just prior to the final retreat and left Canada with Arnold on the very last boat out. Invasion of Canada (1775). Shortly thereafter, he left Arnold's service and became an aide to General Horatio Gates in August 1776.
When Gates sent him to Congress with official dispatches about the victory at the Battle of Saratoga, Wilkinson kept Congress waiting while he attended to personal affairs. When he finally showed up, he embellished his own role in the victory, and was brevetted as a brigadier general and appointed to the newly created board of war. The promotion over more senior colonels caused an uproar among Continental officers, especially because Wilkinson's gossiping seemed to indicate he was a participant in the Conway Cabal, a conspiracy to replace George Washington with Horatio Gates as commander-in-chief. Gates soon had enough of Wilkinson, and the young officer was compelled to resign in March 1778. In July 1779 he was appointed clothier general of the Army, but he was forced to resign in March 1781 amid charges of corruption.
After his resignation from the Continental Army, Wilkinson became a brigadier general in the Pennsylvania militia in 1782 and a state assemblyman in 1783. He moved to the Kentucky District in 1784 and was active there in efforts to achieve independence from Virginia.
In 1787, Wilkinson undertook a highly controversial trip to New Orleans, which was a colony of Spain. At that time, Americans were not allowed to trade in New Orleans. Wilkinson met with Spanish Governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró and managed to convince him to allow Kentucky to have a trading monopoly over trade on the Mississippi River; in return he promised to promote Spanish interests in the west. In August 1787, Wilkinson signed an expatriation declaration and swore allegiance to the King of Spain.
Upon returning to Kentucky in February 1788, Wilkinson vigorously opposed the new U.S. Constitution. Kentucky had very nearly achieved statehood under the old Articles of Confederation, and there was widespread disappointment when this was delayed because of the new constitution.
Leading up to Kentucky's seventh convention regarding separation from Virginia in November 1788, Wilkinson attempted to gauge the support for Kentucky to seek union with Spain. At the convention, Wilkinson was elected chair, and he advocated seeking independence from Virginia first, and then to consider joining the Union of states as a second step. For many, joining the Union was conditional upon the Union negotiating free navigation on the Mississippi with Spain, a contentious point which many Kentuckians doubted the eastern states would act upon.
Unable to gather enough support for his position at the convention, Wilkinson instead took his own initiative and approached Miró with a proposal to grant them 60,000 acres (243 km²) in the Yazoo lands at the junction of the Yazoo River and the Mississippi (near present-day Vicksburg, Mississippi). The land was to be payment for Wilkinson's efforts on behalf of Spain and also to serve as a refuge in the event he and his supporters had to flee from the United States. Wilkinson asked for and received a pension of $7,000 from Miro and also requested pensions on behalf of several prominent Kentuckians, including: Harry Innes, Benjamin Sebastian, John Brown, Caleb Wallace, Benjamin Logan, Isaac Shelby, George Muter, George Nicholas, and even Humphrey Marshall (who at one time was a bitter rival of Wilkinson's).
However, by 1788 Wilkinson had apparently lost the support of officials in the Spanish mainland. Miro was not to grant any of the proposed pensions and was forbidden from giving money to support a revolution in Kentucky. However, Wilkinson continued to secretly receive funds from Spain for many years.
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In the Northwest Indian War, Colonel Wilkinson led a force of Kentucky volunteers against American Indians at Ouiatenon in May 1791. He commanded a follow-up raid that autumn, highlighted by the Battle of Kenapacomaqua. In October he received a commission to the U.S. Army as lieutenant colonel, commandant of the 2nd U.S. Infantry. He was promoted to brigadier general and served on the frontier under General Anthony Wayne, commanding the right wing in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794. During this time, he secretly maintained contacts with the Spanish government and informed them of plans for General George Rogers Clark to attack New Orleans in 1793-94. He was appointed commander at Detroit in 1796 and partially redeemed himself by rejecting entreaties to lead a rebellion in the Natchez, Mississippi, area. Despite his treachery, upon Wayne's death, he became the senior officer of the U.S. Army from December 15, 1796 to July 13, 1798.
Wilkinson was transferred to the southern frontier in 1798. During the Quasi-War crisis of the late 1790s between France and the United States, he was given the third place in the United States Army behind George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Among other duties, he was charged by Hamilton with establishing a "Reserve Corps" of United States troops in the lower Ohio Valley who would seize the lower Mississippi River Valley and New Orleans in the event of war with France and her ally Spain. Despite the end of the crisis in mid-1800 and the fall of Hamilton from power, Wilkinson for unknown reasons continued the plan for the establishment of the base which he named "Cantonment Wilkinson" after himself. Located in southern Illinois, the base operated from January 1801 to late 1802 before finally being abandoned. Archaeologists from Southern Illinois University have recently located the remains of this base, which is producing much previously unknown information regarding the daily lives and artifacts of the frontier army.[5][dead link]
Wilkinson was again the senior officer of the United States Army, from June 15, 1800 to January 27, 1812. Along with Governor William C. C. Claiborne, he shared the honor of taking possession of the Louisiana Purchase on behalf of the United States in 1803.
In 1804-05, he exchanged communications with Aaron Burr, possibly regarding Burr's conspiracy to set up an independent nation in the west.[2] Some embittered associates[who?] later claimed that Wilkinson was the mastermind behind the plot of which Burr was accused.
In 1805, following the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Wilkinson governor of the northern Louisiana.[2] He was removed from office after being publicly criticized for heavy-handed administration and abuse of power.[citation needed] Noting the lack of support for his new nation with Burr, Wilkinson revealed Burr's plans to Jefferson.[2] Wilkinson testified at Burr's trial, resulting in public accusations against him and two congressional inquiries of his private ventures and intrigues. President James Madison ordered his court-martial in 1811. He was found not guilty on December 25, 1811.
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Wilkinson is the only man I ever saw who is from the bark to the very core a villain!
—John Randolph, at the trial of Aaron Burr
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Wilkinson was commissioned a major general in the War of 1812. In March 1813, Wilkinson and his soldiers occupied Mobile in Spanish West Florida. He was then assigned to the St. Lawrence River sector, after Henry Dearborn's reassignment. He led two failed campaigns (the Battle of Crysler's Farm and the second Battle of Lacolle Mills (1814) and was relieved from active service, but he was cleared by a military inquiry. He published his memoirs, Memoirs of My Own Times, in 1816 and visited Mexico in pursuit of a Texas land grant in 1821. While waiting for Mexican approval of his Texas scheme, Wilkinson died in Mexico City, where he was buried.
Wilkinson's Spanish involvement, although suspected, was not proven until 1854, with the publication by Louisiana historian Charles Gayarré of his correspondence with Rodríguez Miró, the Spanish governor of Louisiana.
Wilkinson married Ann Biddle of the Biddle family[6] on November 12, 1778, and had four children with her. After Ann's death, he married Celeste Laveau Trudeau on March 5, 1810, with whom he had two children.
Dying in 1825, he was buried in Mexico City, Mexico.[7]
Some of his descendants used the surname Wilkerson, which appears in Southern Alabama and Eastern Louisiana.[citation needed]
| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by Anthony Wayne |
Senior Officer of the United States Army 1796-1798 |
Succeeded by George Washington |
| Preceded by Alexander Hamilton |
Senior Officer of the United States Army 1800-1812 |
Succeeded by Henry Dearborn |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by William Henry Harrison (District of Louisiana) |
Governor of Louisiana Territory 1805-1807 |
Succeeded by Meriwether Lewis |
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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