James Wilkinson - Legacy

Legacy

• Some of his descendants used the surname Wilkerson, which appears in Southern Alabama and Eastern Louisiana.
• Historian Robert Leckie characterized him as "a general who never won a battle or lost a court-martial."
• Historian Frederick Jackson Turner called Wilkinson "the most consummate artist in treason that the nation ever possessed."
• George Rogers Clark biographer Temple Bodley said of Wilkinson, "He had considerable military talent, but used it only for his own gain."
• Frankfort, Kentucky's downtown was created from land owned by Wilkinson. He designed their layout and a major boulevard is named in his honor.
• Wilkinson County, Georgia, is named for Wilkinson. A Georgia historic marker on the courthouse square gives a brief biography of the General and states he is the namesake for the county.
• Wilkinson appears as a major character in the novel To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark, by Frances Hunter (2006 - ISBN 0-9777636-2-5), in which he draws explorer Meriwether Lewis into a conspiracy to separate the western territories from the United States.
• Wilkinson also appears as a major character in Janice Holt Giles's novel The Land Beyond the Mountains which deals extensively with Wilkinson's participation in the issue of Kentucky statehood.
• Wilkinson County, Mississippi is named for General Wilkinson, as well. It was there in the Old Natchez District that Wilkinson spent much of his time allegedly plotting the Burr Conspiracy, as Fort Adams (then a major U.S. Army post, located in present day Wilkinson County) was the most south-westerly point in the United States and the last stop on the Mississippi River before entering Spanish territory. It was also from these environs that Burr recruited his would-be revolutionaries, most notable amongst them a young Philip Nolan, famously remembered as "the man without a country" in literature and history.
• Wilkinson was an avid supporter of the military's short hair codes. So much so that Wilkinson was attempting to prosecute Colonel Thomas Butler for keeping his long hair. Colonel Thomas Butler died before the trials had closed. He did not cut his hair prior to his death.
• Wilkinson is the "hero" of Keith Thompson's Scoundrel!--a satirical novel in the tradition of Gore Vidal's Burr and George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels, which purports to be Wilkinson's "secret" memoirs (which Thompson claims to have just discovered).