-^-v^-^^ *•>'% .^^^H '^'oV^ Z^^'- "-^--O^" °^^K-. ^oV^'" -'d^S^^^^- '-^---^ ^■' \y » ,Asr A." ■^ t^ • caiiEa • %<. a** » j _ vf ^ 0^ , :- ■^^a'« -ffi^^^ia'- -^o^ ^°-n^. :« -^0^ i ^•^°<. .0 ^* '^'^'- %/ :^fc X/ ;^^ %/ :^^ \/ ■^' .: oVco^..."^o, /\.-;^/V /.\^;'^°o /.c;;^/"'-^ --o' •^0 5°^ >< o*,.^^J10k'- ^>bt.^ ."j^^^'- ^^0^ il^m^K' ^^& 'm!^>r.\ '-f^r.^ .^^°- v-o^ •VT' .v*^ ♦• o , -^ "^-^0^ f-^ * • • *> v^ . • • o- C "-..^' • • o, C MAJOR GENERAL n, Anthony Wayne, THIRD GENERAL-IN-CHIEF OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY SINCE THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. ■ BY BREV. MAJ. GEN. J. WATTS de PEYSTER, HONORARY MElVliER DIAGNOTHIAN LITERARY SOCIETY, FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE. REPRINTED FROM "THE COLLEGE STUDENT," FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE, LANCASTER, PA., OCOTBER, 1886. LANCASTER, PA. STEINMAN * HENSEL, rRINTERS, CENTRE SQUARE. 1886. "ROSE HILL" \r]^^=>'TIVOLI P.O. DUCHESS Co.. N. V 10 Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne. THIRU *GENERAL IN CHIEF OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY SINCE THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. " Unhlamf.d through life, lamented in the end." that is blameless in the eyes of all competent to judge and lamented by every cla.ss, it is questionable if the Thirteen Colonies, or States, produced or possessed a more trust- worthy executive -soldier, in the broadest sense of the term, than Anthony Wayne, or if Pennsylvania can boast of a finer represen- tative man. As an executive-soldier in the field he was ajjproached but by one, "the military genius of the Revolution," whose versatile instinctive capacity was acknowl- edged even by the Briti.sh, "the brilliant Arnold," "whose high military qualities were now [after Saratoga] generally recog- nized," (Lecky iv. 66,) who "fought, as he always did, with eminent courage and skill," (Ibid iv. 67). "To any one who atten- tively follows the letters of Washington, it will appear evident that there was no officer in the American army of whom for a long period he wrote in terms of higher, warmer, and more frequent eulogy. Arnold was in truth an eminently brave and skilful soldier, and in the early stages of the struggle his services had been of the most distinguished kind. In conjunction with Colonel Allen, he had obtained the first great success of the war, by capturing Ticonderoga and Crown Point, in the summer of 1775. He had fal- len wounded leading the forlorn-hope against Quebec on the memorable day on wiiich Montgomery was killed. In the gallant stand that was made at Ticonderoga in Oc- tober, 1776, he had been placed at the head of the American fleet, and his defence of •The FIRST General in Chief of the Armv was Lt.-Col.- Commandant of Infantry under the Confederation, Josiah Marnier, of Pennsylvania, Brev : Brig: Gen : by resolve of CoHRress 31 July, 1787. Defeated hy the N. VV. Indians 22 Oclr: 1790, and greatly blamed he resigneti i Jan'y, 1792. The HKCONI) (^.eneral in Chief of the Army was Continental Major Cieneral Arthur St. Clair, born in Kdinburg, Scot- land. Terribly defeated in a disastrous expedition against the N. W. Indians, in 1791, be resigned, slh March, 1792. On that date Coiilinenl,al Brig: Gen: Anthony Wayne, Esq., became Major General and Thiud General I'n Chief of the U. S. Army. Lake Champlain against overwhelming odds has been one of the most brilliant episodes of the American war. He took a leading part in the campaign which ended with the Capitulation of Saratoga, led in person that fierce attack on the British lines on October 7, 1777, which made the position of Bur- goyne a hopeless one, was himself one of the first men to enter the British lines [the sally- port of the " Great Western " or " Breyman Redoubt"], and fell severely wounded at the head of his troops." (Lecky iv. 145.) The only Pennsylvanian military man who is comparable to Wayne was Andrew Atkinson Humphreys, who commanded the combined 2d-3d corps at the close of the "Slaveholder's Rebellion," and was Chief of Staff of the Army of the Potomac for i6 months under Meade, and who, and no other general from that state, possessed equal com- bined comprehensive ability. The ancient wisdom of the Indian philosopher declares "It is Maya, the evil of deception which blinds the eyes of mortals" and thus blind- ed they are led about by public opinion, in most cases the the most wilfully erroneous guide as to the individual merit. Democracy wants to level every one down to its own low plane of mediocrity and only makes heroes of its creatures of accident or of those that pander to its suffrages. Wayne was not of this kind. His individuality was complete. " Ordinary men" remarks Pascal, "can not discover the difference between men." Ordinary men could not gauge Wayne. Wayne was destitute of the equanimity and in some respects exquisite policy of Washington ; of the clear-.sighted political judgment of Schuyler great in patient pre- paration ; and of certain remarkable re- cuperative ([ualities attributed to Greene. As continental generals, these three only, can enter into a comparison with Wayne. Major General Anthony Wayne. Still neither of them, after all said, accom- plished as great results as he did with as trifling forces and resources. Not even Washington's magnificent operations at Trenton and Princeton, which the great contemporaneous German, military writer and critic, declared were "alone sufficient to elevate him to the Temple of Immor- tality" are superior, totus in toto, to Wayne's campaign of 1782 in Georgia. "To reinstate, as far as might be possible, the authority of the Union within the limits of Georgia" Wayne had given him " 100 regular dragoons, 300 undiciplined Georgia militia, and about the same number of state cavalry." " The offer of a force, so obvious- ly inadequate to the purpose, would by most men have been certainly regarded as a hard- ship, and probably as an insult; but from Wayne not a syllable of complaint or objec- tion was heard. The command was accept- ed, not merely with professional submission, but with the almost alacrity ; when, substitut- ing activity for discipline and skill, and bold- ness for numbers, he in the short space of five weeks drove the enemy from all his interior posts, cut off Indian detachments marching to his aid, intercepted the forays of his main body, and, on the land side, penned him up in a great degree within the narrow limits of the town of Savannah." A general can display the grandest charac- teristics of his profession at the head of a few hundred men as well as if in command of thousands or myriads ; and Wayne truly showed himself greatest when he seemed the least, as at the South; and, here, let it be remarked that the South has always been saved, even from itself, by the North ; dur- ing the Revolution from Great Britain and through the " Slaveholder's Rebellion" from itself, for the South has profited more by the "Great American Conflict" than has the North, as time will show. Wayne was always equal to any emergency and never fell below himself. Very few heroes in the whole history of the world can show such an even, unstained, honorable record. Wayne is an almost unknown charac- ter to the American people ; as was observed by an able critic, "a warlike but not a mili- tary people." The very epithet or soubri- quet applied to Wayne, "Mad Anthony," proves how little he was understood. He was undoubtedly the spirit of "potential fight." "Where Wayne went there was a fight al- ways; that was his business." It might be said of him in petto, what was observed of Akbar (greatest king of all who sat on the throne of Moguls) xwtnagnifico, — "although constantly at war he never lost a battle." His were the principles of Cromwell and of Suworrow, "greatest soldier Russia has ever produced," whose watchword was " Stupay y bey," (advance and strike,) and yet Wayne also exhibited the tenacity of "our greatest and our best," George H. Thomas, "the Rock of Chicamauga;" ^ likewise the determination of that victor ") of that the only really decisive victory \ of the Rebellion, to prepare before striking in spite of popular and official clamor. Nevertheless, rare combination ! his striking valor was tempered by sound discretion. Every field on which he was engaged ex- hibited the clearest testimonies of his intre- pidity and alacrity; and, but not less so, of vigilance and prudence in "getting a good ready;" in every operation or expedition en- trusted to him his prudence was proved by extraordinarily wise preparation. He be- lieved on one occasion with Duke Valentine, who was wont to say : "The more time to prepare, the less [time is required] to exe- cute." His popularity and the nickname, "Mad Anthony," was derived from his cap- ture of Stony Point, in 1779. It was com- memorated in a Creed curious and almost blasphemous, showing the trust placed, at the time, by his countrymen in him and* the bayonets of his command. It was cer- tainly a bold feat, but honest critical exami- nation of the circumstances demonstrate that the achievement was grossly exaggerated. However it was most opportune and its moral effect was like a circle in the water at home and abroad. Washington, in a private letter, considered that at no time as yet had the affairs of the Colonies presented a more gloomy aspect than at this juncture. It was in this moment of darkness that a brilliant stroke was necessary, and Wayne by his meteoric success lighted up the obscurity thickened by "an almost unbroken series of misfortunes in the field." It was also hailed as an omen that in Wayne's column there were men from almost, if not from every one of the original Thirteen States. Every section could plume itself from the event. It was one of those cases to be taken ad- vantage of as Bonaparte did of his passage of tlie Bridge of Lodi, — on which, by the way, he himself was not present, although represented leading the charge, bearing the National colors. The astute Corsican sent to every Department (county) in France the names of the soldiers who hailed from it and had participated in the charge at Lodi, Major General Anthony Wayne. so that every locality would be interested in celebrating the event. Stony Point exerted ) a similar influence throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Nevertheless, in spite of all the glory of this "storm," Wayne's fame rests on far prouder and much firmer bases than the ephemeral brilliancy of his capture of Stony Point. He was greater in Canada in 1776; in New Jersey in 1777; where "in the summer of that year Wayne and Morgan bore off the honors"; on the Brandywine, at Chad's Ford ; near the Warren Tavern ; • in .saving all that was saved at Paoli; — where Wayne was not to blame for anything that was lost ; at Germantown ; at Monmouth, "where Washington and the whole army felt and acknowledged Wayne's services" ; even in the aff;iir of Fort Lee in 1780*; in sup- pressing the Mutiny of the Pennsylvania I.iiie in January 1781 ; at Green Springs in July 1 781 ; in Georgia in 1782 ; and against the Indians in i7g3-'4. Wayne's crushing defeat of the North- western Indians on the banks of the Miamis of the Lakes near the Rapids, 20th August, 1794, who had hitherto as crushingly worsted his predecessors, was his crowning glory and the last great act of his exemplary military career. About two years after- wards, Wayne died at Presqn' Isle, ijth December, 1796, sixteen days less tlian 52 years of age, regretted by the whole nation. Union or Confederacy, " in the full vigor of life, in the noontide of glory, and in the midst of usefulness. One of the acutest critics of our history pronounced "Wayne the most honest [or > disinterested] soldier in the Revolution" i and declared that "he saved the [second] administration of Washington by his man- agement of Indian affairs, and victory on the Miamis." *There are some curious circumstances connected with Wayne's attack u])oti a Block House at Bull's Ferry, near Fort Lee, in 17S0. .Major Andre liad written a sarcastic poem, poking itni at Wayne lor liis partial failure entitled the " Co7ii Cnasff" dated Klizahethtown, [New Jersey], 1st August. 17S0. It was divided into three cantos. The last was puhlished in /iivinj^ton's (Jazftlc, New York, on the vef y day that Andre was captured by men who properly lielonge'd to Wayne's command, and, it not mistaken, W.une was oriRinally assigned to, or intended as a member of that Court Martial which condemned Andre to be Imn^. *rlie concluding verse of the " Onv Chase " seemed al- most prophetic : " And now I've closed my epic strain, 1 tremble as I show it. Lest this same warrio-drover Wayne, Should ever catch the poet." Under the endorsement of Andre himself, to an original copy of the " Co7u Cliasr^' in his hand writing, some one after the execution of the author, appended the lour fol- lowing lines : " When t!ie epic strain was sung, The poet by the neck was hung ; And to his cost he finds too late, The dung-born tribe decides his fate." Wayne's Battle of the Miamis deserves to be placed among the decisive battles of American history, and therefore of the world. It determined the whole future history of the valley of the Ohio and of the Mississippi. Had it resulted differently the American Con- federacy (for as yet it could scarcely be .said to have become nationalized,) would have been confined to the region between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic ; if, indeed, failure in the contest with the Indians, backed by the English, had not led to its dissolution. It established Washington's second administration, and it is difficult to .see how any cflective government could have been formed which had not Washington at the head of it. The liberal Rockingham ministry of Great Britain, when it assented to American Independence, looked forward to a reunion of England and the Colonies at no distant date. The course which it pursued on our Western frontier is not recon- cilable with the idea that it cordially as- sented to American Independence. Wayne's victory on the Miamis changed forever the views of England in that quarter, overturned the British policy in connection with our Western frontier, clinched the question of American Independence and settled every- thing, everywhere, at once and forever. Michelet, in his philosophical history of France— in which almost every concrete sentence presents food for thought — remarks that the severe justice of history often re- verses the verdicts given by popular caprice, and the_ frivolous ojjinions too often the result of the passions and prejudices of con- temporaries. Honest history — because, with- out impartiality, it becomes degraded into the propagator of falsehood — should consti- tute it.self a guardian of the tomb and a pro- tector of the dead. In the murderous climate of Portugue.se India, there wa.s an official known as the "Administrator of the pro- perty of the deceased." Large or little, there is no one but leaves something, ma- terial or moral, which has a right to claim protection. In the former case, the law ste])s in ; in the latter, the magistrate is history ; and the dead are among those mis/'ra/'iks pcrsonce,\mior\.\\\ys{..aaiuii. >iiiii M.ihon, especially the latter, vi., 151-156, etc. nis well-set-uj) soldierly person he presented 8 Major General Anthony Wayne. a striking figure, and when aflame with the fire of battle he exerted an electrifying in- fluence. A gentleman in his instincts and chivalric in feeling, he was affable and agreeable and endowed with a spirit capa- ble of lifting his inferiors and associates to his own high level. Without being a Mar- tinet he was a strict disciplinarian and lov- ing style infused it into his command. Buffon observes " the style is the man," or " Style is the whole man," as the phrase reads in Montgaillard (vii. 321). He used the expression in a restricted sense. In its most comprehensive signification the apothegm is applicable to Wayne. His style was General Anthony Wayne. Perhaps the best illustration of the style of Wayne appears in a letter from Wayne 10 Washington, wherein he offers to waive rank, if necessary, and serve on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief or anywhere his services can be useful to his country. Again, Wayne was a vir auctoritatis, that is a man not only ordering matters di- rectly by authority, but exercising power indirectly, more by personal influence than by what is almost universally understood of the term which in its comprehensive bearings exhibits one of the peculiar nice- ties of the Latin language. Finally Wayne was truly a man of com- mon sense, which " common sense is a measure of the possible ; it is composed of experience and provision ; it is calculation applied to life." This is Amiel's defini- tion. Wellington's is better : " Common sense ! that is most uncommon sense." No doubt of that. This sketch of Wayne would be incom- plete without a few details and dates with which having to fit in a Procrustian bed it will conclude. Wayne's ancestry belonged to York- shire, England. His grandfather emigrated to County Wicklow, Ireland ; held a com- mand in the Dragoons at the Boyne ; emi- grated again to Pennsylvania, and settled in Chester county. His youngest son, Isaac Wayne, died in 1774. The only son of this Isaac, General Anthony Wayne was born in Easttown, Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, ist January, 1745. After a bois- terous youth, at 18, in 1763, Wayne began professional life as a land surveyor. In 1765 he was sent as agent and surveyor by a wealthy association to Nova Scotia. At 21, 1766, he married Mary Penrose; in 1774 he was one of the Provincial Deputa- tion and Member of the Pennsylvania Convention. In 1774-75 '""^ represented his native County, Chester, in the Colonial Legislature. Wayne was chosen Colonel of the 1st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- teers, which he disciplined and organized for service, and when war became certain Congress accepted the regiment as Third of the four constituting the Pennsylvania Line. In 1776 Wayne was in Canada and distinguished himself. In January, 1777, Wayne was created Brigadier General and commanded at Ticonderoga. In May, 1777, Wayne joined Washington in New Jersey. His subsequent services have al- ready been set forth or alluded to so far as space will permit. As stated, he died at the U. S. Military post at Presqu' Isle, after an active public life, civil and mili- tary, of ^^ years, of which the majority were devoted to the service of his country and about ten passed in the field. The forgetfulness of this people as to Wayne recalls a sentiment expressed by James Thomson, 1744, in his "Tancred-& Sigismunda," " The death of those distinguished by their station, But 6y their virtue more, awal^es the mind To solemn dread, and strilies a sadd'ning awe ; Not that we grieve for them, but for ourselves Left to the toil of life — and yet the best Are, by the playful children of the world. At once forgot, as they had never been.''' J. Watts de Pevster, Brev. Major General, S. N. Y. Honorary member of Diagnothian Literaiy Society of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. Note — Supplementary : Lying before the writer is a veiy rare and curious book, entitled " A Com- pendium of Military Duty, adapted for the Militia of the United States," by Jonathan Rawson, Esq , late Aid-de-Camp to General Sullivan, printed at Dover, New Hampshire, in 1793, dedicated "To the Hon- orable Anthony Wayne, Esq., Major General of the Army of the United States of America, as a Testi- mony of Respect to his person and Esteem of his Military Abilities." o {• <5> ' . ' ilf^ O 1/ <* '. o '-^0* •^ov^ vV. .*^ ^'- u ^^ •' V^^'\/^ V*'^'^''/ V'*^'\/ "°^"''' L". <*„ .c,'* ♦Qffl^' ''tj. A^ ♦rAsfAo "^ ^v »^3iS^' ^ A^ 'rfT .' -.W^-. -- >° .-i^--- \/ ;^^, V„. ;. •n.o^ : 0* ^'^' ^-o^^^' .^'\ ' A ^ ♦.-^s- A ...* ,0 o, ♦.TTv* A '^- '^''^s^/ .-^ 5 .i:nL'» ^ «V * My t: %/ yMak- \./ .-"Jfe'-- %.** .7 • • • .\. o V- »p^ .'i:^'* '> c-i" »* •I o v^ , • • - ^ " q,. •''rr,.'\,o^ -*•, lO^ 'L'oL' " • . '««:*. ,0^ . 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