An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson

18 Grover court- martial: Washington to John Hancock, president of Congress, May 5, 1776, JCC.

19 For Benedict Arnold’s reputation, see Willard S. Randall’s Benedict Arnold, Patriot and Traitor.

20 “We are now in a sweet situation”: JW to General Nathanael Greene, May 24, 1776, Memoirs, 1:43–44.

20 “Captn Wilkinson . . . is truly alarming”: Washington to John Hancock, June 7, 1776, JCC.

20 “Captn Wilkinson’s Conjectures were not realized”: General Schuyler to Washington, June 10, 1776, JCC.

20 JW’s relationship with Arnold: Memoirs, 1:46–49.

21 JW and General Sullivan: Ibid., 1:51–59.

22 “a Gentleman who I have always esteemed as a friend”: General Wayne to James Wilkinson, June 16, 1792, quoted in Nelson, Anthony Wayne, Soldier of the Early Republic.

CHAPTER 3: WOOING GENERAL GATES

The first volume of JW’s memoirs provides the story of his relationship with General Horatio Gates. Despite JW’s unreliability, the depth of his feeling for Gates is unmistakable. For Gates’s character and career, see Nelson, General Horatio Gates: A Biography, and his “Legacy of Controversy: Gates, Schuyler, and Arnold at Saratoga, 1777.”

24 “my dear General’s affectionate friend”: JW to Gates, June 10, 1776, Memoirs, vol. 1.

24 “an old granny looking fellow”: Quoted in Nelson’s “Legacy of Controversy.”

25 “the intrepid, generous, friendly, upright, Honest man”: JW to Varick, quoted in James R. Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior.

26 “the first officer in Military knowledge”: Washington to Jack Washington, March 5, 1776, GWP.

26 “a certain great man is damnably deficient”: Lee to Gates, December 13, 1776, Memoirs, 1:108.

27 General Lee’s capture: Memoirs, 1:101–10.

27 JW’s account of the battle of Trenton: Memoirs, 1:125–31; also Ferling, Almost a Miracle.

29 Evidence of the interest Washington took in Wilkinson’s career appears in a letter from William Fitzhugh, Washington’s neighbor and friend: “With respect to Wilkinson, who I verily believe is a young Fellow of Great Merrit, I will Endeavor, as you are Pleas’d to Advise, to get Him Provided for in The Battalions to be rais’d Here.” Fitzhugh to Washington, October 17, 1776.

29 The diatribes against the militia: Quoted in Nelson, “Citizen Soldiers or Regulars.” 30 For the reorganization of the Continental Army, see Cress, Citizens in Arms, and Wright, Continental Army.

30 “to remedy his polite manners”: Memoirs, 1:156. Washington would have attached him to a regiment commanded by the notoriously rough-tempered Nathanael Guest had JW not protested, so Hartley represented the soft option.

31 Every recorded word written about Ann Biddle makes her sound adorable— adventurous, tenderhearted, generous- spirited—just as Peale painted her. For John Biddle and the Indian King, see Earle, “The Taverns of Colonial Philadelphia”; for other members of the family, see Hay, “Letters of Mrs. Ann Biddle Wilkinson,” and Radbill, “Quaker Patriots: The Leadership of Owen Biddle and John Lacey.”

CHAPTER 4: THE TRIUMPH OF SARATOGA

In addition to Nelson, General Horatio Gates, and his “Legacy of Controversy,” sources used include Wright, Continental Army; Upham, “Burgoyne’s Great Mistake,” and Hudleston’s Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne.

33 “My young heart leaped with joy”: Memoirs, 1:154.

33 “I would to God, gentlemen could for once know their own minds”: Ibid.

34 “John Burgoyne wagers”: Quoted in Frothingham, Washington: Commander- in- chief. 34 “The perfidy of mankind”: Memoirs, 1:172.

34 “It wrung my heart”: Ibid., 1:174–75. Gates’s order, issued on May 24, 1777, read in full, “Colonel James Wilkinson is appointed deputy adjutant- general to the army in the northen department; all orders written or verbal coming from him are to be considered as the orders of the general in chief.” Schuyler read a copy of JW’s letter to Gates and commented, “I admire warmth and affection in young gentlemen of your age . . . I hope you may find cause to give me a share of the regard you now bear General Gates.”

35 “these Mortals must be led and not drove”: Horatio Gates to Joseph Trumbull of Connecticut, quoted in Nelson, “Citizen Soldiers or Regulars.”

35 “Gates’ arrival raised us as if by magic”: Udney Hay to Governor Clinton, August 13, 1777, quoted in Nelson, “Legacy of Controversy.”

36 “He has great merit”: General St. Clair to Gates, quoted in Memoirs, 1:352.

36 “His conduct . . . endeared him to me”: Matthew Lyon, deposition to Ezekiel Bacon’s committee of the House of Representatives, 1811, ibid., 3:341.

37 “Such an explosion of fire I had never heard”: James Phinney Baxter, The British Invasion from the North: The Campaigns of General Carleton and Burgoyne with the Journal of Lieut. William Digby (Albany, NY: Munsell’s, 1887).

37 The battle of Freeman’s Farm: Memoirs, 1:263–66. JW’s account places him at the center of events from the days before the battle when he purportedly took out the reconnaissance party that found Burgoyne’s army and selected Bemis Heights as a strongpoint for Gates’s force. During the fighting at Freeman’s Farm, he also claimed to have gone to the battleground in person and strengthened the morale of the commanders Henry Dearborn and Daniel Morgan, the latter having been reduced to tears. Without corroboration it is impossible to know what degree of credibility, if any, should be attached to these claims. However, the angry accusation of Richard Varick, Arnold’s staff officer, confirms that JW’s intervention was responsible for effectively removing Arnold from his command.

39 “he is an old gamester”: October 4, 1777, Gates to Governor George Clinton, quoted in Nelson, “Legacy of Controversy.”

39 “Our cannon were surrounded”: Baxter, British Invasion.

40 “the likeliest young man I ever saw”: Lyon to Thomas Jefferson, August 12, 1802, TJP.

40 JW’s leading role in the negotiations for Burgoyne’s surrender are described in Memoirs, 1:290–317, and largely substantiated by Nelson and Hudleston. Burgoyne’s ascription of failure to “the fortune of war” rather than his own inadequacy was characteristic.

43 JW blamed his illness on “the strong excitements produced by the important scenes in which I had been engaged”: Ibid., 1:321.

CHAPTER 5: BETRAYING GENERAL GATES

Necessarily JW’s private quarrel with Gates is told without corroboration. But his role in the betrayal of the Conway cabal was very public, fully documented in the George Washington Papers, and both the Journals of the Continental Congress and the Letters of Delegates to Congress.

44 “The standing corps which I have seen are disciplined”: John Burgoyne, A State of the Expedition from Canada (London, 1780).

44 “to Coax, to wheedle and even to Lye”: Schuyler to Washington, November 22, 1776, quoted in Randall, Benedict Arnold, Patriot and Traitor.

44 “We can allow a certain Citizen to be wise”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, October 26, 1777, AFP.

44 “From a well-regulated militia we have nothing to fear”: John Hancock, 1774, quoted in Kohn, Eagle and Sword.

45 “We want you in different places”: James Lovell to Gates, November 22, 1777, quoted in June Lloyd’s “BeWare of Your Board of War,” Pennsylvania Historical Society, Pennsylvania Legacies, November 2008.

45 “The northern army has shown us”: Benjamin Rush (anonymously) to Patrick Henry, January 12, 1778, Letters of Benjamin Rush, vol. 1, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University