Unlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America

Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America is a nonfiction history by Mary Stockwell. Perhaps the content is not so appealing to many, but I’m originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, which was named for “Mad” Anthony. Although since grade school at Anthony Wayne Elementary, I’ve been aware that Wayne defeated the great Indian Chief Little Turtle at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794). But, that’s really all I knew, and I’ve never before seen a biography of Wayne. This book was released last month – I could not resist.

Wayne was a controversial man, accused of being a spendthrift, an alcoholic, emotionally unbalanced, and a womanizer. He abandoned his own marriage in order to pursue his military career. However, he was an important general under George Washington, a close friend of Lafayette, and they were all together at Valley Forge, the famous low point of the Revolutionary War. In April 1793, it was Washington who appointed Wayne to be commander in chief of the legion which fought against the Indians who were not ready to give up their territory. I did not know that a prior general, St. Clair, had marched into the same territory where he lost a decisive battle, was killed, and his troops were massacred. Although frequently ill with gout and malarial fevers, and often times horrible depressed, Wayne was also a disciplinarian who subjected any deserters to a firing squad. He drilled his troops relentlessly so they would be ready for battle when it finally happened – and his troops were ready.

There’s much more to the story, but Stockwell’s writing was not the best. The chronology of Wayne’s life did not move smoothly forward. Rather, time and again, it jumped back and forth from Wayne’s early life to later life. Stockwell did assert that Wayne had come to hate military life as a result of the violence in which he was involved, which Wayne referred to as a “horrid trade of blood.” This book contained a lot of good information that I’m glad to have, so if you’re interested in the revolutionary period and the immediate post-revolutionary era, then this is a book for you.