Wayne, Anthony

Wayne, Anthony (1745–1796) U.S. army officer and Congressman. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Anthony Wayne earned the nickname of “Mad Anthony” for his boldness and courage in battle during the Revolutionary War. He was commissioned colonel of the of the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment in January 1776. During that year he saw action at Three Rivers and commanded Fort Ticonderoga. He took part as a brigadier general in the battles around Philadelphia in 1777, distinguishing himself at Germantown. He fought at Monmouth in June 1778, and was later given command of a new corps of light infantry. In July 1779 he took the British post at Stony Point in a brilliant night bayonet attack that boosted American spirits while demoralizing the British. In 1781 he was sent south to reinforce American forces there, participating in the Yorktown campaign and later liberating Georgia and Charleston. He served in the Pennsylvania assembly before moving to Georgia, where he was elected once to the U.S. House of Representatives. In April 1792 President George Washington recalled him to duty as the senior officer in the army. Wayne was given the mission to pacify Indians in the Ohio Valley who were being encouraged by the British and had already defeated two previous American expeditions. Wayne organized and trained his “Legion” well. They built a line of forts as they approached the Indian strongholds, and then won the decisive battle of the campaign at Fallen Timbers in August 1794. The next year he dictated the Treaty of Greenville to the pacified chiefs, which opened much of the Old Northwest to settlement. In 1796 he was sent back to the region to take possession of British forts being relinquished according to the terms of Jay's Treaty. He died returning from that mission.