“Mad” Anthony Wayne: The Story of The Revolutionary War Hero Who Defied and Defined His Nickname

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Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show.

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Speaker 2: Up next, a story.

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Speaker 1: About a famous general of the American Revolution, Mad Anthony Wayne. Here’s our own Monte Montgomery with the story.

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Speaker 3: Chances are, if you’re from the Midwest, you’ve probably heard of Mad Anthony Wayne before. Fort Wayne is named after him. Wayne County, where Detroit is located, is two. And there’s a bridge bearing his name in Toledo, Ohio.

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Speaker 4: But he’s a lot more than just his namesakes.

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Speaker 3: Here’s Doctor Mary Stockwell, author of “Unlikely General Mad Anthony Wayne in the Battle for America,” with why that is?

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Speaker 5: I can tell you my own experience. When I would tell people I’m writing a book about Anthony Wayne, and they would say, “Why? Why are you bothering? He was mad? He was a madman.” And his name is everywhere out here. We don’t just have a bridge about Anthony Wayne. We have Anthony Wayne vet clinics, and Anthony Wayne plumbing, and Anthony Wayne roofing, and all kinds of things. But in the mind of most people, I started to ask them, “What do you think about him?” And they would say, “Well, he was this wild, madman, and he loved war and all these things,” and that’s kind of who he is. Within the last century, Wayne has kind of come into the memory of the American Revolution. It’s just a wild man who loved to kill the British, and then he came out here and he just loved to kill the Indians. None of this is true. There’s no resemblance to the real Anthony Wayne. He was born on New Year’s Day, 1745, just outside of Philadelphia. He was very wealthy, might have been one of the wealthiest young men who would participated in the Revolution. His father trained him to be a lawyer, but Wayne wanted to be a soldier, and his father said, “We’re in the British Empire. You’re a young colonial. You’re never going to make it in the British army.” But he had a vivid imagination, and from the time he was little, he was swept up in stories of warfare, the glory of it all. Leading men in battle, he would later write, as he was fighting the Revolution, sometimes he would look ahead and he would say, “I can see myself on horseback and I’m riding into Philadelphia. And we won a great battle, and the laurels are on me the way they were on Caesar, and the golden light is upon me.” He loved that. He loved the camaraderie of being with his fellow men. He loved serving George Washington. But the dream was glory, and in his imagination it all seems so wonderful and so beautiful. You have to remember, too, that if a young boy was well educated in revolutionary times or pre-revolutionary times, he would have learned Latin. And to learn Latin, you would have read the great writers in Latin, ancient Romans. One of the greatest writers was Julia Season. So he read all his commentaries. He knew every battle, and in his imagination he ran it almost like a movie. “Someday I’ll be a part of this glorious enterprise, and to think, when fame and fortune, I’ll go down in the annals of my nation.” But his father got him a job as a surveyor. He said that, I think, if he can get out in the world and survey land, that will maybe get some of this energy off of him. What happens, though, is the American Revolution starts to get underway, and he joins the revolutionary cause. He becomes a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and he’s one of the very first people in the country who says it’s time to break away from Great Britain. And he says to anyone who will listen to him, either in the Assembly or in all the taverns outside of Philadelphia, he says, “We’re a de facto republic. We don’t have a king, we don’t have nobility. We are the people. We should rule ourselves.” He was on fire for the Revolution the way Thomas Paine was, the way John Adams was long before the Revolution started. And once the contin ironal army starts to form, this childhood dream he had to be a soldier can finally be realized, and he goes off to George Washington’s camp on Long Island in 1776. Again, a very handsome man, beautifully dressed. His father taught him to always look your part. He knew every battle Julius Caesar ever fought. He bounced into Washington’s camp. “I am here, I’m here to serve the Revolution. I’m here to serve my nation.” But he knew nothing really beyond what he had read in his ancient history books. But when Washington met him, he said, “Well, he’s got one thing at least in that’s enthusiasm.” It’s interesting. The very first thing George Washington gave him to do, he said, “Oh, well, this man’s a gentleman. How about you join us in a fox hunt?” But very quickly Wayne was given one assignment after another, and it becomes really better and better at it. The very first thing he was sent to do, he was sent with the American Army to a place called Three Rivers in Canada. Now, this is June 1776, and in this Battle of Three Rivers, the army is completely defeated. Who leads the retreat? Anthony Wayne. He releads the retreat of the army back into New York, and people say about him. He seems to snap to attention immediately once the battle begins. What he remembers, because he writes to his young wife about every battle he’s going into, and he tells her, he goes, “When I was heading to Three Rivers, the first thing I realized, all that glory and all that wonder of childhood is gone. I could possibly die in this horrible battle. What am I doing this for?” But once the battle begins again, he snapped to attention. So Washington learned very quickly if he needed somebody to help with a retreat, Wayne just naturally could move an army faster, get it out of danger.

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Speaker 1: And we’re listening to Doctor Mary Stockwell tell the story of Mad Anthony Wayne, the Unlikely General, and giving, well, a little more depth to the story. While, as Paul Harvey like to say, the rest of the story of this great man, he was, well, a dandy. He looked like a gentleman. But something happened to him in battle, and of course, he’d thought about it all of his life. He snaps to attention when the battle begins. That could be a kind of thing, as you could ever say about anybody. Because some people retrench once the battle begins, or they hide. He snaps to attention when the battle begins. More of Mad Anthony Wayne’s story here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America’s rich past, know that all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture, and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can’t get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.

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Speaker 2: Go to Hillsdale.edu to learn more.

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Speaker 1: And we’re back with Our American Stories and the story of Mad Anthony Wayne.

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Speaker 2: Let’s return to Doctor Mary Stockwell.

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Speaker 3: After losing the Battle of Three Rivers, Anthony Wayne would be sent to Fort Ticonderoga and hated every minute of it. He was out of the action, but the action would soon come.

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Speaker 5: He goes onto the Battle of Brandywine. Now, we’re in September 1777. Washington calls him back. This is now a frightening time because of the British armies coming to take the city of Philadelphia. So Washington puts all his men along Brandywine Creek to the west, trying to stop them. There, he puts Wayne right up on the bluff looking over Brandywin Creek, gets him the artillery. What’s interesting about Wayne at this time: he realizes on the battlefield something’s going wrong. Goes to Washington and said, “I don’t think we’re in the right position. I think the British are not crossing where we think they’re crossing. I think they’re coming north. They’re going to come around Brandywine Creek. They’re going to attack us from the rear. We’re going to be surrounded.” So we had an ability to figure out in the midst of a battle what was happening. George Washington made a terrible mistake. He told Wayne, “Go back up to that bluff. The British are crossing where we think they’re crossing.” Wayne was right. Count alarming, was almost surrounded, almost destroyed, but they got out of there.

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Speaker 3: But despite Washington’s mistake at Brandywine Creek, Anthony Wayne remained one of his greatest supporters, even though they had some major differences.

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Speaker 5: George Washington was the kind of person who always controlled his emotions. Anthony Wayne was a very enthusiastic, or as hard as a sleeve. He had no sense that anybody was greater or lesser than anyone else. He just befriended George Washington and was much warmer to him than probably Washington once to Wayne. Maybe the most wonderful things I’ve discovered was, well, Wayne was Washington’s cheerleader. Other people, again, they respected Washington, they kept him at a distance. Wayne didn’t feel that way. He felt they were friends. Before every battle, he would write George Washington a letter saying, “You’re gonna win. You’re in a great position. Yes, Caesar did it before, you can do it. You can win this battle.” And when it was over, and Washington didn’t didn’t win, he often lost the battle. Who would he get a letter from Anthony Wayne? And Wayne would say to him, “We’re in a better position than we were before he lost. We will get through this, you will get better.” And he said, “I want you to be the next Julius Caesar.” He realizes very quickly he’s not Julius Caesar. “This isn’t going to be a war of glorious battles. This is going to be a war of attrition and staying in the field and keeping the army in the film.” And finally Wayne realizes, well, I was disappointed, maybe up to Valley Forge, that he’s not Julius Caesar. But I realized this man that I love and respect so much, my elder brother, is a new kind of leader. He’s a political leader, he’s a moral leader. He’s got to keep the army in the field. This is what a modern Revolution looks like.

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Speaker 3: Wayne’s support for Washington would pay off, and he would work his way up the ranks in the Continental Army.

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Speaker 4: But the war wasn’t all glory.

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Speaker 3: For Anthony Wayne, and in fact, it became anything butt for him.

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Speaker 5: He’s remembered for three big mistakes that he made. Washington gives him an assignment. He said, in the middle of the night, “I want you to attack the baggage train of the British as they head east into Philadelphia. Just get the baggage train.” Wayne gets his men up on the road into Philadelphia in between the Paoli and the Warren Tavern. The people come to him and say, “The British, no, you’re here.” Then he said, “No, the British will not do this. I am not going to listen to farmers and children about where the British.” Well. In the middle of the night, the British did strike. It was called the Paoli Massacre. Many of his men were killed. He got them out of there. He retreated, which he was so good at. But if he had listened and stopped with his dreams and what he thought was going to happen, and listen to what was happening to him on the ground, that wouldn’t have happened.

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Speaker 3: Then, on January 1st, 1781, Wayne oversaw the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny, a situation that happened when countless men tired of war threw down their weapons and threatened to defect to the British Army. But it was a third failure that caused the press to apply nickname to him that had been used by his own men.

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Speaker 5: At a place called Green Spring Plantation, he’s convinced, “Oh, look, there’s a baggage train of Cornwallas going back to North Carolina.” “Well, I’ll attack it.” That kind of blood either nose. He lines his men up, and then he realizes, “Wait a minute, Cornwallas’s entire army is still here. What am I to do?” This man, who can think so quickly on his feet, set for the only time in his battle: he couldn’t remember what to do, because “I don’t know what to do.” “I don’t think Julius Caesar was ever in this position.” So finally he realized, at the Battle of Camden, which had happened in South Carolina, the American Army had been in a similar situation: they attacked to surprise the enemy, and then they retreated quickly. That’s what he did. He attacked kind of stun Cornwallas, and then they retreated away from Green Spring Plantation. He lost all his artillery, many of his horses, he lost many of his men. Again, Washington faulted him for that. And this is the first time you see the nickname Mad Anthony applied to him in the Northern press. He had been called mad just because of his terrible temper. He got the nickname because he had a spy, a little Irish spy who would help him. And the spy would come and go as he pleased. Well, one night, and his name was Jemmy. Jemmy the rover. Antony ways looking for him. “Where is Jemmy? I, I need information on the British,” and Jemmy’s gone. When Jemmy comes back to camp that night, they tell him, “Anthony, Wayne’s looking for you, and he’s, you know, he’s steaming, he’s angry.” And this is where the word mad comes from. The Irishman said, “Ah, that he’s mad. He’s mad. The general is mad, you know, the best that I go off and not confront him.” Jemmy was never seen again, even though Wayne told his wife, “See if you can find him.” That’s, that’s what the nickname was. But now people say, maybe he’s mad, a little bit crazy and reckless on the battlefield.

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Speaker 4: And Wayne would soon start to despair.

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Speaker 5: He goes through an immense transformation in the Revolution, and he gives a record of it in his really beautiful letters. He might start out in 1776. This is all glory, this is all wonderful, this is all fun. But as he watches his men suffer without clothes, without shoes, without food, without pay, always having to beg the political leaders and the people, the populace, for help, he begins to despair over the cause of the American cause, and it begins to wear on him. He shot before Yorktown. That wound never heals. He becomes sick, and he goes into depression. And his depression, he calls it, “It’s the blue damsel.” “So come in the night.” “How can this be happening to us? How can we be a turning point in world history?” And that people don’t support us. One of the most interesting things I discovered are his writings after Yorktown, when the Battle of Yorktown is one. Everyone is gloriously happy. I always think of Trumpell’s beautiful painting when everybody’s lined up at Yorktown. It’s so stunningly beautiful. And that’s not what happened. That’s not what Wayne remembered. Wayne remembered how the British had to walk with the Hessians on this thing called the Surrender. They walked out to the surrender field. You can see it in Yorktown today. When in the midst of all this jubilation, he never forgot, he looked across the way and they were the French, and their silks and satins. They were gorgeous. And he looked at his own men on the other side of the road and he said, “We’re barefoot.” “Some of my men couldn’t even stand here. They couldn’t even cover themselves. Their clothes are threadbare.” And that set him into a despair. “How can we be a nation that doesn’t understand what’s at stake?” And he begged Washington, “I’m going home.” It suddenly dawned on him, “Wait a minute. I have a little boy and a little girl. I left them as infants, Margaratta and Isaac. I have to get an education for Isaac and a trade. I’ve got to make a fine lady out of Margaratta. I’ve got to get her into school and get her married.” And he says, “I’m going home. I’ve had it.” And Washington says, “No, you’re going to Georgia. You’re gonna go fight with Nathaniel Green.” And in a terrible campaigned 1782 to 1783 that has completely forgotten today, Wing goes south and he’s given a 500-man army, and he’s told, “You got to bring peace to Georgia and make sure the government works in Georgia remains a state.” That’s where he really sinks into despair. That’s where he writes to his wife, who doesn’t even write to him anymore, and he says this: “I’m say shit of this war, a trait of blood. I can’t, I don’t want to do this anymore.” But he somehow secures Georgia.

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Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Doctor Mary Stockwell tell the story of the Unlikely General Mad Anthony Wayne. More of this remarkable story, a soldier’s story, a patriot’s story. Here on Our American Stories, and we’re back with Our American Stories in the story of Mad Anthony Wayne, brought to us by Mary Stockwell. When we last left off, Waine had just successfully secured Georgia from the British and the American Revolution was one. But Wayne could hardly celebrate the victory he’d fought so hard to help secure. Let’s continue with the story.

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Speaker 3: After the war, Wayne was at his lowest point. The British were defeated; he had secured Georgia, and his dreams of an independent United States were made reality. His life was shattered, and so was his marriage.

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Speaker 5: Anthony Wayne was again married when he’s very young to a girl named Mary, and he called her Polly. He had two children very quickly: a little girl, Margaratta; a little boy, Isaac. There were only about four too when he goes off to Philadelphia. It appeared to be a happy marriage. But as the war goes on and he is becomes a famous general, women begin to flock to him, and in the beginning he has flirtations with women, but as time goes on, he has actual romances with women. He falls madly in love with Nathaniel Green’s wife, Katherine Green. She was a beauty. She had a temperament like him, kind of witty, sarcast.