James Wilkinson |
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| Born | 3/24/1757 in Benedict, Maryland |
| Died | 12/28/1825 in Mexico City, Mexico |
Biography |
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Early lifeJames Wilkinson was born about three miles northeast of Benedict, Maryland, on a farm south of Hunting Creek, 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. Revolutionary War actionsWilkinson 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. 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. Kentucky venturesAfter 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. Second military careerLieut. Colonel-commandant Wilkinson's Report, August 24, 1791 Quasi-War with FranceWilkinson 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.[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. Connections with Aaron BurrIn 1804-05, he exchanged communications with Aaron Burr, possibly regarding Burr's conspiracy to set up an independent nation in the west. 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. He sent Zebulon Pike on an expeditions to the Southwest in 1805, and 1806. 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. 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. War of 1812Wilkinson 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 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. Some of his descendants used the surname Wilkerson, which appears in Southern Alabama and Eastern Louisiana. |
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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 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.