Description
General James Wilkinson is the subject of this painting, dating from late 1796 to early 1797, by Charles Willson Peale for the Philadelphia Museum. Wilkinson was in Philadelphia at that time testifying before Congress about his unsanctioned trading with Native Americans in the Ohio Territory. Wilkinson served in the Revolutionary War, the Northwest Indian War, the War of 1812, and briefly as governor of the new territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. His career was tainted, however, by a number of scandals.
