You might have never heard of Brigadier General James Wilkinson, because he never accomplished anything great, and he was also never held accountable for his many failures. But a chronicle of his military career is a long list of corrupt escapades.
1. Wilkinson was involved in a conspiracy to remove General George Washington from command during the Revolutionary War, yet Washington still appointed him to lead the Second Infantry Regiment in 1791.
2. During the Northwest Indian War, Wilkinson spent his time undermining his superiors in order to be promoted in their place.
3. In 1803, he was sent to New Orleans to receive the Louisiana Purchase from France. While there, he gave the US's plans for exploration of the new territory to the Spanish in exchange for cash.
4. Wilkinson conspired with Aaron Burr to grab some land for themselves to start a new country, then sold out Burr to President Jefferson.
5. He took the US Army to Louisiana in 1809 to defend it from the British, but in a series of bribes and kickbacks, lodged his army in a place where almost half of the 2,000-man army died, and another couple hundred deserted or resigned. It was the deadliest peacetime military disaster in US history.
Wilkinson survived court martial or any discipline in these incidents because there was incompetence from others involved, and the various governing authorities wanted to avoid a public scandal. Wilkinson racked up more shenanigans later in his career, but this list is already depressingly long. Read about the astonishing career of General James Wilkinson at Military History Now. -via Strange Company