…Generals Produced the Deadliest Peacetime Military Disaster in U.S. History
"SOLDIERS enlist in the army with the full realization that they one day may have to face dangers to life and limb from hostile enemy action. What they do not expect however is to suffer illness, starvation or even death resulting from incompetence and corruption by their own commanders. Yet this is precisely what happened in 1809 when almost one half of the entire United States Army was lost, through sickness and desertion, as a result of one general's criminal negligence. The Terre aux Boeuf scandal remains the greatest peacetime loss of life in American military history. Military
The primary cause of the debacle was the disastrous leadership of Brigadier General James Wilkinson, the army's commanding general. For almost 20 years, Wilkinson had been the senior career officer in the United States army, and for over 10 years had been its commander. Wilkinson had achieved this position through the betrayal of virtually everyone he served for, with or even near.
Despite only being a staff officer during the Revolutionary War and having never led troops in battle, he was offered a commission by President George Washington to lead the newly created Second Infantry Regiment in 1791. It was an especially bewildering, even foolish, appointment considering that during the war, Wilkinson was directly involved in the secret plot to remove Washington from command of the Continental Army, a conspiracy known as the Conway Cabal. He was even forced to resign his brevet general officer commission as a result…"
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Armand
surprises her grandmother on her 80th birthday.
