Why did the once-ardent hero of the American Revolution become its most scandalous general??
In the spring of 1792, President George Washington chose &;Mad&; Anthony Wayne to defend America from a potentially devastating threat. Native forces had decimated the standing army and Washington needed a champion to open the country stretching from the Ohio River westward to the headwaters of the Mississippi for settlement.
A spendthrift, womanizer, and heavy drinker who had just been ejected from Congress for voter fraud, Wayne was an unlikely savior. Yet this disreputable man raised a new army and, in 1794, scored a decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, successfully preserving his country and President Washington&;s legacy. Drawing from Wayne&;s insightful and eloquently written letters, historian Mary Stockwell sheds light on this fascinating and underappreciated figure. Her compelling work pays long-overdue tribute to a man&;ravaged physically and emotionally by his years of military service&;who fought to defend the nascent American experiment at a critical moment in history.
