ANTHONY WAYNE was born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, on 1 January 1745; attended his uncle Gilbert Wayne's private academy, 1761-1763; studied surveying and supervised a land settlement project in Nova Scotia, 1765; married Mary Penrose, 1766; settled on his father's estate and supervised the family tannery, assuming ownership upon his father's death, 1774; was appointed by Congress as colonel of the 4th Pennsylvania Battalion, January 1776; fought and was wounded in the attack of the British Army at Three Rivers, Quebec, June 1776; was promoted to brigadier general in the Continental Army, February 1777; commanded the Pennsylvania line under General Washington, serving with distinction at the battle of Brandywine, September 1777; requested and was cleared by a court-martial of responsibility for the defeat of his forces at the battle of Paoli; served with further distinction in the battles of Germantown (1777), Monmouth (1778), Stony Point (1779), and Yorktown (1781); was presented by Congress with a gold medal for the capture of the British garrison at Stony Point on the Hudson River; blocked the British occupation of West Point at the time of Benedict Arnold's defection, 1780; served with General Nathanael Greene in Georgia against British, Loyalist, and Indian opponents, defeating hostile Creek Indians and negotiating treaties with the Creek and Cherokee bands, 1782-1783; retired from active service as brevet major general, 1783; was a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly 1784-1785, and a member of the state ratifying convention on the federal Constitution, 1787; was a member of the United States Congress from Georgia, 1791-1792; was selected by President Washington to command the rehabilitated Army, 1791; was the senior officer of the United States Army, 13 April 1792-15 December 1796; defeated the northwestern Indians decisively at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, August 1794; died at Presque Isle (Erie), Pennsylvania, while en route home from frontier service, 15 December 1796.
The Artist
Peter Frederick Rothermel (1817-1895) was born in Nescopeck, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on 8 July 1817, supplemented his conventional schooling by studying surveying, and then opened his career as a sign painter in Philadelphia. At a friend's suggestion he studied drawing under John R. Smith, enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and later studied under Bass Otis. After serving as director of the academy from 1847 to 1855, he traveled and painted in Europe, lived for two years in Rome, exhibited in Paris, and returned home in 1859. His most ambitious canvas, The Battle of Gettysburg, hangs in the statehouse in Harrisburg. His portrait of Brevet Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne, completed some sixty-five years after his subject's death, may be based upon an engraving by Eugene Prud'homme. It is reproduced from the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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Anthony Wayne By Peter Frederick Rothermel Oil on canvas, 30" x 25", 1861 |
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Last updated 24 February 2006 |