Washington's Generals Lecture Series presents "I Will Storm Hell": The Man Behind Mad Anthony Wayne: Free Washington’s Generals Lecture Series on August 22, 2026

The nickname "Mad Anthony" conjures images of reckless bravado, the visual of someone who charges headlong into danger without thought or calculation. The truth of Anthony Wayne, however, is far more compelling. Wayne was a surveyor, a tanner's son. Eventually, he would become one of the most disciplined battlefield commanders in the Continental Army. Washington turned to him again and again, not in spite of his boldness, but because of the iron will beneath it.

From the nightmare at Paoli to the freezing fields of Germantown to the daring midnight bayonet assault at Stony Point, Wayne proved himself as someone who could absorb a defeat, rebuild his command, and come back sharper. When the Pennsylvania Line mutinied in the bitter winter of 1781, it was Wayne who held the crisis together through force of personal loyalty. When Washington needed a commander aggressive enough to pin Cornwallis in Virginia, he sent Wayne south to reinforce Lafayette, a decision that set the stage for the war’s culmination at Yorktown. After the war, Washington’s trust in his abilities would take Wayne to the wilderness of Ohio where he would found the city of Greenville, Ohio.

Join us on August 22, 2026, at 2PM as we continue Cait Clark’s Washington’s Generals Lecture Series with "I Will Storm Hell": The Man Behind Mad Anthony Wayne.