Catalog Reference

Adams-Bentley 5
A.J.N., IX, 27
Julian MI-3

One need not be a military mastermind to look at a map and understand the strategic importance of the Hudson River. From New York City's seaward port to the Canadian border, the Hudson River acts as a wet superhighway, navigable for all but a 12 mile overland portage from the falls of the Hudson to the southern tip of Lake George, whose northern end connects to Lake Champlain at Fort Ticonderoga. Control of this waterway could effectively cleave New England from the mid Atlantic states and thus manage the entire Northern theatre of the American Revolution.

When two minor forts along the Hudson fell into British hands in May 1779, Washington was alarmed. Sir Henry Clinton's forces captured Verplanck's Point and Stony Point, across the river from each other at a narrow choke point 12 miles downriver from West Point. The forts themselves weren't of great importance, but they represented the termini of Kings Ferry, the main commercial path across the Hudson in the region. With West Point fortified to command the river, and Washington's main army in the area, it was important to retake what was lost.

Washington worked quickly, asking Pennsylvania Line commander Gen. Anthony Wayne to lead an expedition against Stony Point, on the west side of the river. The British position was atop a hilly peninsula that was accessible only from the low swampland to the west. Wayne built a small force of infantry and engineers to retake Stony Point. The 1,150 men of the Light Infantry gathered in the middle of the night under a veil of darkness and silence; Wayne is said to have had dogs in the neighborhood killed so none would sound an alarm. Muskets were unloaded and bayonets were fixed, giving Wayne not only the advantage of a quiet approach, but also a chance to avenge the bayonet massacre near his Pennsylvania home that became known as the Battle of Paoli. "Remember Paoli" became one of the rallying cries of his force as they put their bayonets to use at Stony Point.

Wayne commanded the full body of troops, while the right and left advance guards were commanded by the patrician French engineer Lt. Col. Francois De Fleury and Major John Stewart, respectively. De Fleury was the first to breach the fort's earthworks and grab the British flag, yelling "The fort's our own!" When Wayne wrote to Washington at daybreak to report the victory, he told the general "our officers and men behaved like men who are determined to be free."

Wayne and his men had captured valuable supplies, more than 500 British soldiers, and 15 artillery pieces in 25 minutes of brisk action, losing just 15 killed. This was not a major battle, nor was it a major victory, but its success nonetheless delighted Washington and the members of the Continental Congress, none of whom had gotten much good news during the 1779 campaign season. Wayne, De Fleury, and Stewart were all voted medals just days after the taking of Stony Point.

The Resolution:

Resolved, unanimously, That Congress entertain a proper sense of the good conduct of the officers and soldiers under the command of Brigadier General Wayne, in the assault of the enemy's works at Stoney Point, and highly commend the coolness, discipline and firm intrepidity exhibited on that occasion.

Resolved, unanimously, That Lieutenant Colonel Fleury, and Major Stewart, who, by their situation in leading the two attacks, had a more immediate opportunity of distinguishing themselves, have, by their personal achievements, exhibited a bright example to their brother soldiers, and merit in a particular manner the approbation and acknowledgment of the United States.

Resolved, unanimously, That Congress warmly approve and applaud the cool, determined spirit with which Lieutenant Gibbons and Lieutenant Knox led on the forlorn hope, braving danger and death in the cause of their country.

Resolved, unanimously, That a medal, emblematical of this action, be struck:

That one of gold be presented to Brigadier General Wayne, and a silver one to Lieutenant Colonel Fleury and Major Stewart respectively and that five thousand of copper be struck for Congress.

- Continental Congress Resolution of July 26, 1779

The Wayne medal - or at least the Wayne medal as we know it - was among the last of the Comitia Americana medals to be finished. Among the three medals awarded for Stony Point, the medal for Lt. Col. De Fleury was the first completed by nearly a decade. Within a few months of the action at Stony Point, De Fleury was already pestering Benjamin Franklin, then a resident of Paris. Wayne, a soldier's soldier, had better things to do and seems not to have noticed when his medal got left on the back burner.

On May 31, 1780, Franklin wrote to the President of the Continental Congress, Samuel Huntington, that De Fleury's medal had been delivered and "I shall get the others prepared as soon as possible by the same Hand if I cannot find a cheaper equally good." Franklin's next relevant missive was to the Secretary of the Board of Treasury, the Continental Congress's purse strings, on August 10, 1780:

I received the Letter you wrote me by Order of the Board of Treasury, dated Sept. 29. 1779. requesting me to procure Medals to be struck here agreeable to the Several resolutions of Congress you inclosed to me. I have got one of them finished, that in Silver for Colonel Fleury; & two others, with the same Devices relating to Stony Point, one for Major General Wayne in Gold and one for major Steuart in Silver. They are well done, by the king's medallist; But the Price is high, each Die costing 1000 Livres. Col. Fleurys is delivered to his Order here, he being returned to America. The other two will go by the first good Opportunity.

In summary, Franklin noted that De Fleury's medal was done, and that those awarded to Wayne and John Stewart had been designed by Duvivier and merely awaited the creation of the dies. But he did not tell those back home in the Continental Congress everything. Duvivier had, at Franklin's request, struck extra De Fleury medals and had - instead of creating expensive new dies - planned to take the rather gauche step of merely tooling off De Fleury's name, then engraving Wayne's and Stewart's. Franklin was sticking to Poor Richard's adage that a penny saved was a penny earned and risking a bad decision that would harm both his legacy and those of two heroes.

Adams and Bentley cite Franklin's account book from July 10, 1780 to prove that these make-do medals were produced, even before Congress was informed. Either out of shame or just lack of concern, Franklin remained in possession of the first draft gold Wayne and silver Stewart medals until 1784, when he gave them to Henry Laurens following the Treaty of Paris negotiations to carry back to America. Laurens reported receiving from Franklin "a gold medal voted by Congress to Major Gen'l Wayne which I had the honor of delivering at his request to the General in person."

Wayne was apparently non-plussed. Not only did Thomas Jefferson set about creating a properly unique medal for Wayne before returning from Paris in 1789, but that first gold medal was deaccessioned from the Wayne family holdings within a few decades. In the February 1851 auction of the Dr. Lewis Roper Collection, considered the first important numismatic auction ever held in the United States, lot 22 1/2 was described as "Gold Medal - Storming of Stony Point, value in gold $30." It brought $38 and has not been seen since.

Wayne's proper gold medal was designed by Nicolas-Marie Gatteaux, using an obverse design that was basically a mirror image of that created at the same time for Col. John Stewart. Jefferson described its devices in a personal memo drafted about February 1789, and it was completed in time for Jefferson to carry home with him on his return to the United States in September 1789. Jefferson delivered Wayne's gold medal, along with the silver striking in Washington's cased set, to President Washington soon after his arrival. He likely carried most of the bronze strikes with him as well.

President George Washington was busy on March 25, 1790. Aside from attending the consecration of the new Trinity Church in lower Manhattan (best known today as the final resting place of Alexander Hamilton), Washington took the time to mail four Comitia Americana medals to their recipients: William Washington and John Eager Howard for their exploits at Cowpens, and John Stewart and Anthony Wayne for their heroism at Stony Point.

Sir,

You will receive with this, a Medal struck by order of the late Congress in commemoration of your much approved conduct in the Assault of Stoney Point - and presented to you as a mark of the high sense which your Country entertains of your services on that occasion.

This Medal was put into my hands by Mr. Jefferson; and it is with singular pleasure that I now transmit it to you.

I am,

Sir,

With very great esteem,

Your Most Obdt. Servt.

George Washington

The best narrative on the modern history of the gold Wayne medal was written by David Enders Tripp as the preface of our Ford XX catalog, October 2007. From the arrival of the gold medal on Tripp's desk in early 1977, through John J. Ford's insistence that it was a restrike, over Tripp's extensive research and comparison with the silver specimen at the Massachusetts Historical Society, and arriving at Ford's 1978 auction-day admission that the medal was original, Tripp tells the story masterfully through its denouement: "Of course, Ford had known all along."

The original transmittal letter remained with Wayne's gold medal at his country seat in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was docketed in the spring of 1817 by Anthony Wayne's son, Isaac Wayne, to mark a visit paid to the medal by a noteworthy local numismatist. "Dr. Mease of Phila. last summer had a view of this Medal for the purpose of describing it in his catalogue of American Medals, a description can be obtained from him. March 1817."

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the John W. Adams Collection of Comitia Americana Medals Sale, where it realized $84,000.