Details
WAYNE, Anthony ("Mad Anthony"), (1745-1796), Major General, Continental Army. Autograph letter signed ("Anty. Wayne") to his wife Mary Penrose ("Polly"), Ticonderoga, 1 September 1776. 2 pages, 4to, addressed by Wayne on verso, several tiny tears, discreetly silked from verso, otherwise fine.
"I THIS MOMENT HEAR CANNON DOWN THE LAKE." A vivid letter from Wayne, who had been sent with a Pennsylvania brigade in the spring of 1776 to reinforce the faltering Canadian expedition. After the retreat from the unsuccessful Trois Rivières campaign, in command at Fort Ticonderoga, he writes home to his wife, concerned for their son, who is ill: "I hope he is perfectly Recover'd and...will live to fill and Discharge with Honor the most Important Station in the gift of his Country." Regarding affairs at the fort: "We remain nearly in the same state as when I wrote you last...except that we have Rec'd a Reenforcement of near 11,000 men from the Eastward and are Anxiously wishing for the Approach of Gen. Burgoyne. Apropos, I this moment hear Cannon down the Lake. I pray god it may be him [Burgoyne]-- however I shall finish my letter and then Inquire the cause." He goes on to discuss matters concerning his father's estate and the education of his children "...don't neglect giving them the best of Education; whenever my boy is fit he must be sent to College. I would wish my little Daughter to excel in all the polite and necessary acts suited to a lady...it will be of the first Consequence to their future Station in life and without which they will not be fit for Society... Imbibe this Doctrine early into their young minds, give them a thirst for knowledge..." In a post script he adds "I have made an Inquiry and cannot yet find the meaning of the firing, and shall know it soon by express sent for the purpose."
Wayne's preoccupation with the education of his children--and especially his son--was a fairly common theme in his letters to his wife. Apparently, although Wayne wrote frequent updates on his position and the events of the war, theirs was a formal, strained relationship; after their wartime separation, the marriage "lapsed into a sort of distant and businesslike formality" (Nelson, Anthony Wayne, p.19). If the wind was right, the cannon firing Wayne heard may have been practice firing at Crown Point, 20 miles north of Ticonderoga. Burgoyne's expedition down the lake did not materialize until the following year, by which time Wayne had been ordered to Morristown.
"I THIS MOMENT HEAR CANNON DOWN THE LAKE." A vivid letter from Wayne, who had been sent with a Pennsylvania brigade in the spring of 1776 to reinforce the faltering Canadian expedition. After the retreat from the unsuccessful Trois Rivières campaign, in command at Fort Ticonderoga, he writes home to his wife, concerned for their son, who is ill: "I hope he is perfectly Recover'd and...will live to fill and Discharge with Honor the most Important Station in the gift of his Country." Regarding affairs at the fort: "We remain nearly in the same state as when I wrote you last...except that we have Rec'd a Reenforcement of near 11,000 men from the Eastward and are Anxiously wishing for the Approach of Gen. Burgoyne. Apropos, I this moment hear Cannon down the Lake. I pray god it may be him [Burgoyne]-- however I shall finish my letter and then Inquire the cause." He goes on to discuss matters concerning his father's estate and the education of his children "...don't neglect giving them the best of Education; whenever my boy is fit he must be sent to College. I would wish my little Daughter to excel in all the polite and necessary acts suited to a lady...it will be of the first Consequence to their future Station in life and without which they will not be fit for Society... Imbibe this Doctrine early into their young minds, give them a thirst for knowledge..." In a post script he adds "I have made an Inquiry and cannot yet find the meaning of the firing, and shall know it soon by express sent for the purpose."
Wayne's preoccupation with the education of his children--and especially his son--was a fairly common theme in his letters to his wife. Apparently, although Wayne wrote frequent updates on his position and the events of the war, theirs was a formal, strained relationship; after their wartime separation, the marriage "lapsed into a sort of distant and businesslike formality" (Nelson, Anthony Wayne, p.19). If the wind was right, the cannon firing Wayne heard may have been practice firing at Crown Point, 20 miles north of Ticonderoga. Burgoyne's expedition down the lake did not materialize until the following year, by which time Wayne had been ordered to Morristown.