[Sidenote: =Clark born in Virginia=]
[Sidenote: =A surveyor=]
=111. A Successful Leader against the Indians and the British.= George
Rogers Clark was born in Virginia in 1752. From childhood Clark liked
to roam the woods. He became a surveyor and an Indian fighter at the
age of twenty-one. Like Washington, with chain and compass, and with ax
and rifle, he made his way far into the wild and lonely forests of the
upper Ohio.
[Sidenote: =A scout=]
Clark was a scout for the governor of Virginia in the expedition which
defeated the great Shawnee chief Cornstalk at the mouth of the Kanawha.
[Illustration: INDIANS ATTACKING A FORT
_Again and again, when a surprise was not possible, the Indians from
safe hiding places picked off the men in a garrison_]
Two years later Clark made his way alone over the mountains and became
a leader in Kentucky, along with Boone. The Kentucky hunters chose
Clark to go to Virginia as their lawmaker.
[Sidenote: =In Kentucky=]
He told Governor Patrick Henry that if Kentucky was not worth defending
against the Indians, it was not worth having. At this the Virginian
lawmakers made Kentucky into a Virginia county and gave Clark five
hundred pounds of powder, which he carried down the Ohio River to
Kentucky.
[Sidenote: =Life at Harrodsburg=]
Clark lived at Harrodsburg where, for more than a year, he was kept
busy helping the settlers fight off the Indians. This was the very
time when Boonesboro and other settlements were so often surrounded by
Indians who had been aroused by the British officers at Detroit. These
officers paid a certain sum for each scalp of an American the Indians
brought them.
[Illustration: GEORGE ROGERS CLARK
_From a painting on wood by John Wesley Jarvis, now in the State
Library at Richmond, Virginia_]
[Sidenote: =Turns to Patrick Henry in time of need=]
After having seen brave men and women scalped by the Indians, Clark
decided to strike a blow at the British across the Ohio. But where
could he find money and men for an army? Kentucky did not have men
enough. Clark thought of that noble patriot across the mountains,
Patrick Henry. He mounted his horse and guided some settlers back to
Virginia, but kept his secret. In Virginia he heard the good news that
Burgoyne had surrendered.
Governor Henry was heart and soul for Clark's plan. He made Clark a
colonel, gave him six thousand dollars in paper money, and ordered him
to raise an army to defend Kentucky.
[Sidenote: =A colonel with a secret=]
=112. The Campaign against Old Vincennes.= In May, 1778, Clark's little
army of about one hundred fifty backwoodsmen, with several families,
took their flatboats and floated down the Monongahela to Fort Pitt.
Clark did not dare tell the riflemen where they were going, for fear
the British might get the word. Here they took on supplies and a few
small cannon.
[Sidenote: =Floating down the beautiful Ohio=]
On they floated, in the middle of the river to keep away from the
Indians who might be hiding in the deep, dark forests on the river
banks. At the falls of the Ohio, on Corn Island, Clark landed his
party. He built a blockhouse and cabins, and drilled the riflemen into
soldiers while the settlers planted corn. This was the beginning of the
city of Louisville.
[Sidenote: =Clark tells his secret=]
One day Clark called his men together and told them the secret--he was
really leading them against the British forts on the Illinois and the
Wabash rivers.
A few of the men refused to go so far from home--a thousand miles--but
the rest were willing to follow their leader.
[Sidenote: =A long march begun=]
In June, Clark's boats "shot the falls" and were soon at the mouth of
the Tennessee, where a band of hunters joined the party. There Clark
hid the boats and began the long march through tangled forests and
over grand prairies. But they did not know what minute the Indians
might attack, or some British scout discover them and carry the news to
General Hamilton at Detroit.
[Sidenote: =Kaskaskia, July 4, 1778=]
They reached the old French town of Kaskaskia at dusk on July 4. They
did not dare give a shout or fire a gun, for the British officer had
more men than Clark.
[Sidenote: =Surrounds the town=]
Clark sent part of his men silently to surround the town, while he led
the others to the fort, where they heard the merry music of the violin
and the voices of the dancers.
[Illustration: CLARK'S SURPRISE AT KASKASKIA]
[Sidenote: =Virginia, not Great Britain=]
[Sidenote: =The French settlers alarmed=]
Clark himself slipped into the great hall, folded his arms, and looked
in silence on the dimly lighted scene. An Indian lying on the floor saw
Clark's face by the light of the torches. He sprang to his feet, and
gave the terrible war whoop. Instantly the dancing ceased, the women
screamed, and the men rushed toward Clark. But Clark simply said: "Go
on with your dance, but remember that you dance under Virginia and not
under Great Britain!" The British general surrendered, and the French
inhabitants trembled, when they learned that the backwoodsmen had
captured the town. They sent their priest, Father Gibault, and other
chief men to beg for their lives. Imagine their surprise and joy when
Clark told them that not only were their lives safe, but that the new
republic made war on no church, and protected all from insult.
[Sidenote: =The treaty with France=]
He also told them that the King of France had made a treaty with the
United States and was sending his great war ships and soldiers to help
America. The town of Cahokia also surrendered.
[Sidenote: =Vincennes surrenders=]
Father Gibault went to Vincennes to tell the French settlers about the
doings of Clark and to give them the news that France had taken sides
with the Americans. The people rejoiced, and ran up the American flag.
Clark sent Captain Helm to command the fort.
General Hamilton at Detroit was busy planning to attack Fort Pitt and
to encourage the Ohio Indians to kill and scalp Kentuckians.
[Sidenote: =General Hamilton stirred up=]
[Sidenote: =Stays in Vincennes until spring=]
How astonished he was when he heard that the forts on the Illinois and
the Wabash had fallen! He gathered a mixed army of British, Canadians,
and Indians, crossed Lake Erie to the mouth of the Maumee, and "poled"
and paddled up that river to the portage. Down the Wabash they
floated, five hundred strong. Vincennes surrendered without a blow.
Hamilton decided to stay there for the winter and march against Clark
in the spring. This was a blunder. He did not yet know Clark and his
backwoodsmen.
"I must take Hamilton or Hamilton will take me," said Clark, when he
heard the news. He immediately set to work to build a rude sort of
gunboat, which he fitted out with his cannon and about forty men. He
sent the _Willing_, as it was called, down the Mississippi, around
into the Ohio, and up the Wabash to meet him at Vincennes.
[Sidenote: =Clark begins the march=]
All was excitement in the French towns. Forty or fifty French joined
Clark's riflemen. Father Gibault gave them his blessing, and the march
overland to Vincennes began.
[Sidenote: =On the march=]
Clark divided his men into parties. Each, in its turn, did the hunting,
and at night invited the others to sit around great camp fires to feast
on "bear ham, buffalo hump, elk saddle, and venison haunch." They ate,
sang, danced, and told stories. No doubt they often talked of their
loved ones far away in the cabins of Virginia and Kentucky.
[Illustration: CLARK'S MEN ON THEIR WAY THROUGH THE DROWNED LANDS OF
THE WABASH VALLEY]
[Sidenote: =The drowned lands=]
On they pushed till they came to the "drowned lands of the Wabash," and
there they saw miles and miles of muddy water. They made a rude boat to
carry them over the deepest parts. The horses had to swim.
[Sidenote: =The morning gun=]
Soon they were near enough Vincennes to hear the "morning gun" at the
fort, but they did not dare fire a gun themselves for fear of being
discovered by parties of hunters. Food grew scarce, game was hard to
find, and starvation threatened them.
[Sidenote: =Terrible suffering=]
Sometimes, after wading all day, they could hardly find a dry spot to
camp for the night. Some grew too weak to wade and were carried in
boats. The stronger sang songs to keep up the courage of the weak. When
they finally reached the opposite shore of the Wabash many fell, worn
out--some lying partly in the water.
[Illustration: THE BIG TROOPER CARRIED THE DRUMMER BOY]
Those who were well built great fires and warmed and fed the faint ones
on hot deer broth. But these brave men soon forgot their hardships and
again were full of fight.
[Sidenote: =Clark's letter=]
Clark now decided to take a bold course. He sent a letter to the people
of Vincennes telling them that he was about to attack the town. He
advised all friends of America to remain quietly in their homes, and
asked all friends of the British to go to the fort and join the "hair
buyer," as the backwoodsmen called Hamilton.
[Sidenote: =The attack=]
At dark, Clark's men charged into the town and attacked the fort. The
fight went on all night. As soon as it was daylight the backwoodsmen
fired through the portholes and drove the gunners from the cannon.
[Sidenote: =Hamilton surrenders=]
Clark's men begged to storm the fort. Only one American had been
wounded, but several British soldiers had been killed and others
wounded. In the afternoon Hamilton surrendered and once more the Stars
and Stripes floated over "old Vincennes."
The _Willing_ appeared in a few days. Her men were deeply disappointed
because they were too late to take part in the fight.
[Illustration: EXPEDITIONS TO THE WEST AND THE SCENE OF GEORGE ROGERS
CLARK'S CAMPAIGN]
Clark put men in the forts at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes, and
made peace with the Indians round about. But he was never able to
march against Detroit, as once he had planned to do.
[Sidenote: =Clark's Grant=]
Virginia rewarded the brave men who had followed Clark by giving to
each three hundred acres of land in southern Indiana. The land was
surveyed and is known to-day as "Clark's Grant."
Clark and his men had performed one of the greatest deeds of the
Revolutionary War. They made it possible for the United States to
have the Mississippi River for her western boundary when England
acknowledged our independence.
[Sidenote: =Clark unrewarded=]
George Rogers Clark was never properly rewarded. He spent his last days
in poverty at the falls of the Ohio, on Corn Island, and died in 1818.
In 1895 a monument was erected in honor of his memory in the city of
Indianapolis, Indiana.