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James Wilkinson Approves Order for Iron for New Gunboat Bearing John Adams' Name
James Wilkinson Approves Order for Iron for New Gunboat Bearing John Adams' Name
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Wilkinson James

James Wilkinson Approves Order for Iron for New Gunboat Bearing John Adams’ Name

General James Wilkinson approves an order for bar iron for the new river galley President Adams, which he may have taken on his expedition to build Fort Adams in southern Mississippi as a port of entry for the United States.

JAMES WILKINSON, Manuscript Order Signed, to Quartermaster, August 2, 1798, Fort Massac, [Illinois]. Also signed by W. P. Smith. 1 p., 7.625" x 5". Folds; small hole; residue on verso from having been mounted.

Complete Transcript

Return for One Hundred and fifty lbs of Bar Iron for the purpose of fixing the Howitzers belonging to the Galley President Adams.

                                                                        W. P. Smith Lt 3d U.S. Regt

                                                                        Com S. Galley P. Adams.

Fort Massac Augt 2d 1798

            The Quarter Master will furnish the above Iron

                                                                        Ja: Wilkinson

[Endorsement in pencil:]

Sir / Please to deliver the above – Ben Shaunburgh

Mr Whitak

[Endorsement on Verso:]

Recd the within Iron

                                                                        W. P. Smith / Lt 3d Regt

Historical Background

By the terms of the 1795 Pinckney Treaty, Americans had the right of deposit in Spanish-held New Orleans, but three years later, Spain rescinded that concession. As Congress prepared for the possibility of war with Spain, it authorized the president to build or purchase up to ten war galleys and appropriated $80,000 for the purpose.

The oared gunboat President Adams was built in Pittsburgh and launched on May 19, 1798. Designed by Samuel Humphreys, the President Adams was fifty and a half feet long with a fourteen-foot beam and a draft of six feet eight inches. She had two masts with lateen sails, a single eighteen pounder cannon in the bow and four brass three-pounder swivel guns on the quarterdeck rail.

The French originally built Fort Massac in 1757 during the French and Indian War and named it in 1759 in honor of the French Naval Minister. At the end of the French and Indian War, the French left the fort, and the Chickasaw destroyed it sometime after 1763. In 1794, Americans rebuilt the fort during the Northwest Indian War.

In addition to troubles with Spain, tensions also ran high between the United States and France at this time, because the French had been seizing American ships on the high seas. In response, former President and Lieutenant General George Washington and Major General Alexander Hamilton developed a plan for a large military base or cantonment in the Ohio River Valley. If a war began, troops based there could move down the Mississippi River and capture New Orleans from the Spanish, who were expected to ally themselves with the French.

In August 1798, the month of this order, General James Wilkinson took four hundred men in a convoy of thirty boats, perhaps including the President Adams, down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers from Fort Massac to latitude 31 North, about forty miles south of Natchez and just north of the boundary with Spanish Louisiana. There, Wilkinson had Fort Adams constructed on Loftus Heights. It briefly became the port of entry for the United States on the Mississippi River until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 made New Orleans the American port of entry.

After Spain restored the right of deposit at New Orleans in 1799, the President Adams largely saw services as a revenue cutter on the lower Mississippi River. The Convention of 1800, signed on September 30 of that year, ended the Quasi-War with France and reasserted American neutral rights on the seas.

William P. Smith was commissioned an ensign in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment in May 1794 and had risen to the rank of lieutenant by 1798. He was promoted to Captain to fill Zebulon Pike’s position in 1801, when Pike was promoted from Captain to Major in the 3rd Regiment.

James Wilkinson (1757-1825) was born in Maryland, educated by a private tutor, and studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His studies were interrupted by the American Revolutionary War. He served in various capacities and was sent to Congress with news of the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. After inflating his own role, he was promoted to brigadier general but was compelled to resign in 1778. He moved to Kentucky in 1784 and aided attempts to make Kentucky independent of Virginia. In 1787, he traveled to New Orleans, where he discussed with Spanish colonial officials the possibility of Kentucky’s becoming a part of the Spanish empire. In 1791, he received a commission as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. After General Anthony Wayne (who had tried to court martial Wilkinson) died in December 1796, Wilkinson became the Senior Officer of the Army. In 1798, he was transferred to the southern frontier during the Quasi-War with France. Again the Senior Officer of the Army from 1800 to 1812, Wilkinson also became involved in Aaron Burr’s conspiracy to separate western states and territories from the United States to establish an independent nation. He turned on Burr and testified against him, but his testimony was so self-serving that he was nearly tried for treason himself. After he survived a military court of inquiry in 1811, he was commissioned a Major General during the War of 1812.  He also served as U.S. Envoy to Mexico from 1816-1825.  Theodore Roosevelt later wrote that “in all our history, there is no more despicable character,” and military historian Robert Leckie summed up Wilkinson as “a general who never won a battle or lost a court-martial.”

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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