Wilkinson, James

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.