529206
Jonathan M. Wainwright
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Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, 1883-1953. United States Army General; recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Near-mint condition 8" x 10" black-and-white portrait photograph inscribed and signed To Rosemary Wright / J. M. Wainwright / General USA.
This photograph has outstanding provenance. It comes from a collection originally assembled by Rosemary E. Wright (1890-1969), who spent some 35 years working for the Army, ultimately as Chief of the Army General Staff Assignment Section, before she retired in November 1953. Miss Wright handled all of the administrative work relating to officers assigned to the General Staff. She knew all of them—well enough to call Wainwright “Skinny,” Dwight D. Eisenhower “Ike,” and George S. Patton, Jr., “Georgie." She wrote of her years with the Army in The Generals Call Me “Mom,” which appeared in the March 15, 1952, edition of Collier's magazine.
Wainwright was a major general when he was transferred to the Philippines in 1940. Although he feared that he would miss out on the action already underway in Europe, fate intervened. Wainwright was commanding American and Filipino troops in northern Luzon when the Japanese attacked on December 8, 1941, the day after they attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. Wainwright's skillful series of holding actions helped to make the American stand on the peninsula of Bataan possible. On February 7, 1942, General Douglas MacArthur awarded Wainwright the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism.
Wainwright was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed command of all American and Filipino forces on Bataan—a futile situation—when MacArthur was ordered to leave for the safety of Australia on March 11, 1942. The Japanese high command issued an ultimatum on March 22, urging the defenders of Bataan to surrender in the name of humanity. Wainwright refused. Bataan fell on April 9, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized Wainwright to continue the fight or make terms as he saw fit. Wainwright chose to continue the battle from Corregidor, an island fortress in Manila harbor. “I have been one of the battling bastards of Bataan and I'll play the same role on the rock as long as it is humanly possible,” he said. “I have been with my men from the start, and if captured I will share their lot. We have been through so much together that my conscience would not let me leave before the final curtain."
Wainwright and 11,000 troops held on for nearly another month. On May 5, Wainwright wrote to MacArthur, “As I write this we are being subjected to terrific air and artillery bombardment and it is unreasonable to expect that we can hold out for long. We have done our best, both here and on Bataan, and although we are beaten we are still unashamed." The Japanese began landing on the island that night, and at noon the next day Wainwright called for terms. General Homma insisted that Wainwright surrender all remaining American and Filipino forces or risk the annihilation of his troops on Corregidor. Wainwright complied. MacArthur countermanded the order, but to no avail. MacArthur was livid. He later refused to endorse General George C. Marshall's recommendation that Wainwright receive the Medal of Honor.
Wainwright spent the next three years in Japanese prison camps in the Philippines, Manchuria, and Taiwan. Wainwright was little more than a skeleton when he was liberated on August 25, 1945, but he attended the Japanese surrender ceremonies aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. He was awarded the Medal of Honor and promoted to four-star general before he retired from the Army in 1947. He died on September 3, 1953.
This magnificent portrait shows Wainwright in his uniform as a four-star general. He has signed in his careful script across his chest in blue-gray ink. There are mounting traces on the back of the photograph, but they do not bleed through. The photograph is in near-mint condition.
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