Anthony Wayne, Historic Waynesborough’s Most Famous Resident

Anthony Wayne began his military career as the colonel of the Fourth Battalion of the Continental Army in 1776. The following year he was promoted to Brigadier General and saw action at all the major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign 1776-1777.  He won a decisive victory at Stony Point, NY in July, 1779 and he was with the Continental Army when the British surrendered at Yorktown, VA in 1781.  In 1784 he was promoted to Major General.  He was commissioned Commander in Chief of the Legions of the United States by President Washington in 1792 and ordered to the Northwest Territory (today Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and part of Michigan) with the assignment of raising and training an army to defeat the united Indian nations under the leadership of Little Turtle.  His important victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and the subsequent Treaty of Greeneville the following year,  secured that area for the new United States, opening a gateway to westward expansion.  General Wayne died in 1796 on his way home from an inspection tour of the western forts and was buried at Presque Isle, PA.

Click on portrait to see full image of Anthony Wayne pointing to the Treaty of Greeneville. The oil portrait was painted by Jean Pierre Henri Elouis from life in 1796 not long before Anthony Wayne’s death.