Events

President George Washington was determined to secure the Old Northwest—the region extending from the Ohio to the Mississippi—for American settlers, but a powerful Indian confederacy barred the way. Two successive military expeditions to take control of the region had ended in expensive and bloody disasters. Congressmen, reluctant to authorize a third, insisted that it was foolish “to send forth armies to be butchered in the forests.” Washington ignored them, and chose Anthony Wayne—a headstrong Continental Army veteran with a reputation for heavy drinking, womanizing and recklessness on the battlefield—to lead a new army into the western wilderness.

In Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America (Yale University Press, 2018), Mary Stockwell introduces us to this remarkable man and this extraordinary moment when the reputation of the president and the future of the West was at stake. Drawing on Wayne’s personal correspondence, she presents an insightful portrait of a controversial man whose choices shaped the future of the country.

The talk will last about 45 minutes, followed by a book signing and refreshments. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event.

About the Speaker

Dr. Mary Stockwell is a writer and former professor who has lived most of her life in the twelve-mile-by-twelve-mile-square reserve near the mouth of the Maumee River carved out by Anthony Wayne in the Treaty of Greenville. She is the author of numerous books and articles for adult and classroom audiences, including Interrupted Odyssey: Ulysses S. Grant and the Native Americans (2018), The Other Trail of Tears: The Removal of the Ohio Indians (2015) and Woodrow Wilson: The Last Romantic (2008). From 1996 to 2012, she was professor of American history at Lourdes University, and, for eleven of those years, chair of its Department of History, Political Science and Geography. She earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Toledo.