Reminiscences.
_MAD ANTHONY WAYNE AND JEMMY THE ROVER._
In the year 1776 authority was given to employ extra post-riders between
the armies from the head-quarters to Philadelphia. These post-riders ran
many risks, as refugees were not rare at that day: hence the danger was
materially increased in consequence. The letters of General Wayne were
interrupted, as were those of others, and the utmost caution was
necessary for the purpose of securing a safe conveyance. Various plans
were adopted, and the postmaster was active in establishing a postal
communication with the armies. There was another mode, however, which
was even more successful, but equally dangerous to the parties engaged:
this was the spy system. Much valuable information was conveyed to the
commanders of the armies by it, which could not have reached them
through the regular post. In one of General Wayne’s letters, addressed
to his family in 1781, he makes allusion to one “Jemmy the Rover,” whom
he had employed as a spy. While our army was encamped at Valley Forge,
Jemmy was repeatedly sent within the British lines, and always returned
with correct and important information. With him originated the
appellation of “Mad Anthony” as applied to the general. “Jemmy the
Rover” was an Irishman by birth, and was a regularly-enlisted soldier in
the Pennsylvania line. The real name of Jemmy is not known. He was
subject to, or at least feigned, occasional fits of craziness, in which
state he often proved very noisy and troublesome, and in one instance
was ordered to the guard-house. Whilst the sergeant with a file of men
was conducting him thither, Jemmy suddenly halted, and asked the
sergeant by whose orders he was arrested. “By those of the general,” was
the reply. “Then forward!” said the Rover. In the course of a few hours
he was released. In the act of taking his departure, he asked the
sergeant whether Anthony (this being the only name he gave General
Wayne) was mad or in fun when he placed him under arrest. The answer
was, “The general has been much displeased with your disorderly conduct,
and a repetition of it will be followed not only by confinement, but by
_twenty-nine_ well laid on.” “Then,” exclaimed Jemmy, “Anthony is mad:
farewell to you; clear the coast for the commodore, Mad Anthony’s
friend!” He suddenly disappeared from the camp. In a postscript to a
letter General Wayne wrote to his family, he says, “Jemmy the Rover,
_alias_ the commodore, has absented himself from this detachment of the
army. Should he in his rambles pass your way, I hope that you will
extend towards him every hospitality which may be most likely to
minister to his comfort. I am convinced that, whether in his hours of
sanity or insanity, he would cheerfully lay down his life for either me
or any of my family.”
It is said by some who knew Jemmy that he was a man of good education
and extraordinary shrewdness: in fact, it was much doubted whether or
not Jemmy feigned derangement.
As every thing having any connection with the events of 1776, which led
to our independence, must be of interest, it may not be out of place
here to introduce the following remarkable prophecy, made in the eighth
century by Merlin, the celebrated Welsh astrologer. Its fulfilment in
almost every particular renders it the more interesting, as evidenced in
the American Revolution, to which reference seems to have been made. Had
this prophecy been published subsequent to the Revolution, its
authenticity might have been doubted, or at least questioned. But it is
copied from Hawkins’s work, published in the year 1530.
In connection with the prophecy, we also give the key, furnished by an
old citizen of Philadelphia to the editors of the “Columbian Magazine,”
published in this city, in the March number, 1787:—
“_SIBYLLINE ORACLE._
“Uttered by Merlin, some time during the eighth century, in
Wales, of which he was a native.