Wilkinson, James

WILKINSON, JAMES. (1757–1825). Continental officer, scoundrel. Maryland. Wilkinson, who was born in Benedict, Maryland, had just finished his medical studies and opened a practice in Monocacy, Maryland, when the war began. As a volunteer in William Thompson's Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment from 9 September to 1775 to March 1776, he joined the forces investing Boston, where be volunteered to join Benedict Arnold's march to Quebec. In the course of the march he became friends with Arnold. Having been promoted to captain of the Second Continental Infantry in March 1776, Wilkinson remained with Arnold until December 1776, when the latter had reached Albany after the retreat from Canada. Briefly a member of General Horatio Gates's staff, Wilkinson was again promoted, this time to lieutenant colonel of Thomas Hartley's Continental Regiment on 12 January 1777 and served as deputy adjutant general of the Northern Department from 24 May 1777 to 6 March 1778. He figured in the actions at Ticonderoga in July 1777 and Saratoga on 7 October 1777.

Named by Gates to take the news of the Saratoga surrender to Congress, Wilkinson did not reach York, Pennsylvania, until 31 October, and did not make up his written report until 3 November 1777. The 20-year-old aide had stopped off in Reading, Pennsylvania, for some courting, and while at the headquarters of General William Alexander he dropped a bit of gossip that brought the Conway Cabal to a head. Wilkinson's degree of personal involvement in the cabal is not known.

Young Wilkinson was an unpopular man in York for having kept Congress writhing on a rack of suspense. They took a dim view of Gates's request that he be breveted brigadier general, but on 6 November they granted the request and tried to calm the outraged uproar in the army by appointing him secretary to the new Board of War In an effort to vindicate himself from the accusation of betraying the confidence of Gates, Wilkinson threatened to fight a duel with General Alexander, and a duel with Gates was called off at the last minute. Wilkinson resigned from the Board of War on 29 March 1778. His letter of resignation was so insulting to Gates that Congress ordered it destroyed.

Appointed clothier-eneral of the Continental army on 24 July 1779, Wilkinson resigned on 27 March 1781 because of irregularities in his accounts. While in uniform Wilkinson had proved himself guilty of intrigue and excessive drinking; now he added greed to the list of his vices. Just before resigning, he married Ann Biddle, daughter of the wealthy Quaker merchant, John Biddle.

After the war, Wilkinson entered into intrigue on an interstate and even international scale. He moved to Kentucky in 1784, using his wife's money to purchase land. He soon became prominent in trade and politics, supplanting George Rogers Clark as leader in that region. In the Spanish Conspiracy—the purpose of which may have been to set up a separate republic in the West allied to Spain, or may have been a plot to force the admission of Kentucky to the United States—he appears to have intrigued both with and against Spain. Wilkinson swore allegiance to the king of Spain, for which he received an annual pension of $2,000. Thinking they were aiding his efforts to attach Kentucky to their empire, the Spanish opened the Mississippi River to American traffic. In 1791 Wilkinson applied for a military commission, was made lieutenant colonel commanding the Second U.S. Infantry on 22 October 1791, and served as second-in-command to Anthony Wayne in his operations against the Indians. Appointed brigadier general on 5 March 1792, he intrigued against Wayne even while serving under his command during the campaign that culminated in the battle of Fallen Timbers (30 August, 1794), where Wilkinson demonstrated bravery. Wilkinson succeeded Wayne as commander in chief on Wayne's death in 1796, passing on information to the Spanish while commanding the American army. As governor of Louisiana (1805) he became involved in the Aaron Burr conspiracy, disclosed the plot in which he was an accomplice if not the originator, evaded the persistent efforts of Congress to prove his complicity, and in 1811 won acquittal at a court-martial (an outcome regretted by President James Madison). Restored to command, he was made a major general on 2 March 1813, but so mishandled the northern campaign of the War of 1812 that he was called before a court of inquiry. In 1815 he was exonerated, although not returned to duty, and on 15 June 1815 was honorably discharged.

Wilkinson settled in New Orleans after the war, where he ran through his remaining resources. In 1822 he went to Mexico City as an agent for the American Bible Society, but was actually seeking land grants in Texas. Wilkinson died there on 28 December 1825. As one writer put it: "It is not certain whether the Mexican climate or the use of opium did more to hasten his end" (Nickerson, p. 428).

SEE ALSO Arnold, Benedict.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hay, Thomas R., and M. R. Werner. The Admirable Trumpeter: A Biography of General James Wilkinson. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, & Company, 1941.

Jacobs, James. Tarnished Warrior: Major General James Wilkinson. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.

Nickerson, Hoffman. The Turning Point of the Revolution. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928.

Shreve, Royal O. The Finished Scoundrel. Indianapolis, In.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1933).

The Wilkinson Papers. The Chicago Historical Society.

                              revised by Michael Bellesiles