How Colonel Clark Won The Northwest
On the evening of the 4th of July, 1778, a merry dance was taking place
at the small settlement of Kaskaskia, in that far western region
afterward known as Illinois. It must not be imagined that this was a
celebration of the American Independence day, for the people of
Kaskaskia knew little and cared less about American independence. It was
only by chance that this day was chosen for the dance, but it had its
significa
ce for all that, for the first step was to be taken there that
day in adding the great Northwest to the United States. The man by whom
this was to be done was a brave Kentuckian named George Rogers Clark. He
came of a daring family, for he was a brother of Captain William Clark,
who, years afterward, was engaged with Captain Lewis in the famous Lewis
and Clark expedition across the vast unknown wilderness between the
Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean.
Kaskaskia was one of the settlements made by the French between the
Great Lakes and the Mississippi. After the loss of Canada this country
passed to England, and there were English garrisons placed in some of
the forts. But Kaskaskia was thought so far away and so safe that it was
left in charge of a French officer and French soldiers. A gay and
light-hearted people they were, as the French are apt to be; and, as
they found time hang heavy on their hands at that frontier stronghold,
they had invited the people of the place, on the evening in question, to
a ball at the fort.
All this is by way of introduction; now let us see what took place at
the fort on that pleasant summer night. All the girls of the village
were there and many of the men, and most of the soldiers were on the
floor as well. They were dancing away at a jovial rate to the lively
music of a fiddle, played by a man who sat on a chair at the side. Near
him on the floor lay an Indian, looking on with lazy eyes at the
dancers. The room was lighted by torches thrust into the cracks of the
wall, and the whole party were in the best of spirits.
The Indian was not the only looker-on. In the midst of the fun a tall
young man stepped into the room and stood leaning against the side of
the door, with his eyes fixed on the dancers. He was dressed in the garb
of the backwoods, but it was easy to be seen that he was not a
Frenchman,--if any of the gay throng had taken the trouble to look at
him.
All at once there was a startling interruption. The Indian sprang to his
feet and his shrill war-whoop rang loudly through the room. His keen
eyes had rested on the stranger and seen at a glance that there was
something wrong. The new-comer was evidently an American, and that
meant something there.
His yell of alarm broke up the dance in an instant. The women, who had
just been laughing and talking, screamed with fright. All, men and women
alike, huddled together in alarm. Some of the men ran for their guns,
but the stranger did not move. From his place by the door he simply
said, in a quiet way, "Don't be scared. Go on with your dance. But
remember that you are dancing under Virginia and not under England."
As he was speaking, a crowd of men dressed like himself slipped into the
room. They were all armed, and in a minute they spread through the fort,
laying hands on the guns of the soldiers. The fort had been taken
without a blow or a shot.
Rocheblave, the French commandant, was in bed while these events were
taking place, not dreaming that an American was within five hundred
miles. He learned better when the new-comers took him prisoner and began
to search for his papers. The reason they did not find many of these was
on account of their American respect for ladies. The papers were in
Madame Rocheblave's room, which the Americans were too polite to enter,
not knowing that she was shoving them as fast as she could into the
fire, so that there was soon only a heap of ashes. A few were found
outside, enough to show what the Americans wanted to make sure of,--that
the English were doing their best to stir up the Indians against the
settlers. To end this part of our story, we may say that the Americans
got possession of Kaskaskia and its fort, and Rocheblave was sent off,
with his papers, to Virginia. Probably his wide-awake wife went with
him.
Now let us go back a bit and see how all this came to pass. Colonel
Clark was a native of Virginia, but he had gone to Kentucky in his early
manhood, being very fond of life in the woods. Here he became a friend
of Daniel Boone, and no doubt often joined him in hunting excursions;
but his business was that of a surveyor, at which he found plenty to do
in this new country.
Meanwhile, the war for independence came on, and as it proceeded Clark
saw plainly that the English at the forts in the West were stirring up
the Indians to attack the American settlements and kill the settlers. It
is believed that they paid them for this dreadful work and supplied them
with arms and ammunition. All this Clark was sure of and he determined
to try and stop it. So he made his way back to the East and had a talk
with Patrick Henry, who was then governor of Virginia. He asked the
governor to let him have a force to attack the English forts in the
West. He thought he could capture them, and in this way put an end to
the Indian raids.
Patrick Henry was highly pleased with Clark's plan. He gave him orders
to "proceed to the defence of Kentucky," which was done to keep his real
purpose a secret. He was also supplied with a large sum of money and
told to enlist four companies of men, of whom he was to be the colonel.
These he recruited among the hunters and pioneers of the frontier, who
were the kind of men he wanted, and in the spring of 1778 he set out on
his daring expedition.
With a force of about one hundred and fifty men Colonel Clark floated
down the Ohio River in boats, landing at length about fifty miles above
the river's mouth and setting off through the woods towards Kaskaskia.
It was a difficult journey, and they had many hardships. Their food ran
out on the way and they had to live on roots to keep from starvation.
But at length one night they came near enough to hear the fiddle and the
dancing. How they stopped the dance you have read.
Thus ends the first part of our story. It was easy enough to end, as has
been seen. But there was a second part which was not so easy. You must
know that the British had other strongholds in that country. One of them
was Detroit, on the Detroit River, near Lake Erie. This was their
starting-point. Far to the south, on the Wabash River, in what is now
the State of Indiana, was another fort called Vincennes, which lay about
one hundred and fifty miles to the east of Fort Kaskaskia. This was an
old French fort also, and it was held by the French for the British as
Kaskaskia had been. Colonel Clark wanted this fort too, and got it
without much trouble. He had not men enough to take it by force, so he
sent a French priest there, who told the people that their best friends
were the Americans, not the British. It was not hard to make them
believe this, for the French people had never liked the British. So they
hauled down the British ensign and hauled up the Stars and Stripes, and
Vincennes became an American fort.
After that Colonel Clark went back to Kentucky, proud to think that he
had won the great Northwest Territory for the United States with so
little trouble. But he might have known that the British would not let
themselves be driven out of the country in this easy manner, and before
the winter was over he heard news that was not much to his liking.
Colonel Hamilton, the English commander at Detroit, had marched down to
Vincennes and taken the fort back again. It was also said that he
intended to capture Kaskaskia, and then march south and try and win
Kentucky for the English. This Hamilton was the man who was said to have
hired the Indians to murder the American settlers, and Clark was much
disturbed by the news. He must be quick to act, or all that he had won
would be lost.
He had a terrible task before him. The winter was near its end and the
Wabash had risen and overflowed its banks on all sides. For hundreds of
square miles the country was under water, and Vincennes was in the
centre of a great shallow lake. It was freezing water, too, for this was
no longer the warm spring time, as it had been in the march to
Kaskaskia, but dull and drear February. Yet the brave colonel knew that
he must act quickly if he was to act at all. Hamilton had only eighty
men; he could raise twice that many. He had no money to pay them, but a
merchant in St. Louis offered to lend him all he needed. There was the
water to cross, but the hardy Kentucky hunters were used to wet and
cold. So Colonel Clark hastily collected his men and set out for
Vincennes.
A sturdy set of men they were who followed him, dressed in
hunting-shirts and carrying their long and tried rifles. On their heads
were fur caps, ornamented with deer or raccoon tails. They believed in
Colonel Clark, and that is a great deal in warlike affairs. As they
trudged onward there came days of cold, hard rain, so that every night
they had to build great fires to warm themselves and dry their clothes.
Thus they went on, day after day, through the woods and prairies,
carrying their packs of provisions and supplies on their backs, and
shooting game to add to their food supply.
This was holiday work to what lay before them. After a week of this kind
of travel they came to a new kind. The "drowned lands" of the Wabash lay
before them. Everywhere nothing but water was to be seen. The winter
rains had so flooded the streams that a great part of the country was
overflowed. And there was no way to reach the fort except by crossing
those waters, for they spread round it on all sides. They must plunge in
and wade through or give up and go back.
We may be sure that there were faint hearts among them when they felt
the cold water and knew that there were miles of it to cross, here
ankle- or knee-deep, there waist-deep. But they had known this when they
started, and they were not the men to turn back. At Colonel Clark's
cheery word of command they plunged in and began their long and
shivering journey.
For nearly a week this terrible journey went on. It was a frightful
experience. Now and then one of them would stumble and fall, and come up
dripping. All day long they tramped dismally on through that endless
waste of icy water. Here and there were islands of dry land over which
they were glad enough to trudge, but at night they often had trouble to
find a dry spot to build their fires and cook their food, and to sleep
on beside the welcome blaze. It was hard enough to find game in that
dreary waste, and their food ran out, so that for two whole days they
had to go hungry. Thus they went on till they came to the point where
White River runs into the Wabash.
Here they found some friends who had come by a much easier way. On
setting out Colonel Clark had sent Captain Rogers and forty men, with
two small cannon, in a boat up Wabash River, telling them to stop at the
White River fork, about fifteen or twenty miles below Vincennes. Here
their trudging friends found them, and from this point they resumed
their march in company. It was easy enough now to transport the cannon
by dragging or rowing the boat through the deep water which they had to
traverse.
The worst of their difficult journey lay before them, for surrounding
the fort was a sheet of water four miles wide which was deeper than any
they had yet gone through. They had waded to their knees, and at times
to their waists, but now they might have to wade to their necks. Some of
them thrust their hands into the water and shivered at the touch, saying
that it was freezing cold. There were men among them who held back,
exclaiming that it was folly to think of crossing that icy lake.
"We have not come so far to turn back now," said Colonel Clark, sternly.
"Yonder lies the fort, and a few hours will take us there. Follow me,"
and he walked boldly into the flood. As he did so he told one of his
officers to shoot the first man who refused to follow. That settled the
matter; they all plunged in.
It was the most frightful part of their journey. The water at places, as
we have said, came at times almost to their necks. Much of it reached
their waists. They struggled resolutely on, almost benumbed with the
cold, now stumbling and catching themselves again, holding their guns
and powder above their heads to keep them from becoming wet, and glad
enough when they found the water growing shallower. At length dry land
was reached once more, and none too soon, for some of the men were so
faint and weak that they fell flat on the ground. Colonel Clark set two
of his men to pick up these worn-out ones and run them up and down till
they were warm again. In this way they were soon made all right.
It was now the evening of the 18th of February, 1779. They were near
enough to the fort to hear the boom of the evening gun. This satisfied
the colonel that they were at the end of their journey, and he bade his
men to lie down and sleep and get ready for the work before them. There
was no more wading to do, but there was likely to be some fighting.
Bright and early the next morning they were up and had got their arms
and equipments in order. They were on the wrong side of the river, but a
large boat was found, in which they crossed. Vincennes was now near at
hand, and one of its people soon appeared, a Frenchman, who looked at
them with as much astonishment as if they had dropped down from the sky.
Colonel Clark questioned him about matters in the fort, and then gave
him a letter to Colonel Hamilton, telling the colonel that they had come
across the water to take back the fort, and that he had better surrender
and save trouble.
We may be sure that the English colonel was astounded on receiving such
a letter at such a time. That any men on earth could have crossed those
wintry waters he could hardly believe, and it seemed to him that they
must have come on wings. But there they were, asking him to give up the
fort, a thing he had no notion of doing without a fight. If Colonel
Clark wanted the fort he must come and take it.
Colonel Clark did want it. He wanted it badly. And it was not long
before the two cannon which he had brought with him were loaded and
pouring their shot into the fort, while the riflemen kept them company
with their guns. Colonel Hamilton fired back with grape-shot and
cannon-balls, and for hour after hour the siege went on, the roar of
cannon echoing back from woodland and water. For fourteen hours the
cannonade was kept up, all day long and far into the night, the red
flashes from cannon and rifle lighting up all around. At length both
sides were worn out, and they lay down to sleep, expecting to begin
again with the morning light.
But that day's work, and the sure shooting of the Kentucky riflemen, had
made such havoc in the fort as to teach Colonel Hamilton that the bold
Kentuckians were too much for him. So when, at day dawn, another
messenger came with a summons to surrender, he accepted as gracefully as
he could. He asked to be given the honors of war, and to be allowed to
march back to Detroit, but Colonel Clark wrathfully answered, "To that I
can by no means agree. I will not again leave it in your power to spirit
up the Indian nations to scalp men, women, and children."
Soon into the fort marched the victors, with shouts of triumph, their
long rifles slanting over their shoulders. And soon the red cross flag
of England came down and the star-spangled banner of America waved in
its place. Hamilton and his men were prisoners in American hands.
There was proof enough that this English colonel had been busy in
stirring the Indians up to their dreadful work. His papers showed that.
And even while the fight was going on some of the red demons came up
with the scalps of white men and women to receive their pay. The pay
they got was in bullets when they fell into the hands of the incensed
Kentuckians. Colonel Hamilton and his officers were sent as prisoners to
Williamsburg, Virginia, and were there put in fetters for their
murderous conduct. It would have served them right to hang them, but the
laws of war forbade, and they were soon set free.
We have told this story that you may see what brave men Virginia and
Kentucky bred in the old times. In all American history there is no
exploit to surpass that of Colonel Clark and his men. And it led to
something of the greatest importance to the republic of the United
States, as you shall hear.
It was not long after that time that the war ended and the freedom of
the colonies was gained. When the treaty of peace was made the question
arose, "What territory should belong to the new republic and what should
still be held by England?" It was finally decided that the land which
each country held at the end of the war should be held still. In that
way England held Canada. And it would have held the great country north
of the Ohio, too, if it had not been for George Rogers Clark. His
capture of Kaskaskia and his splendid two weeks' march through the
"drowned lands" of the Wabash had won that country for the United
States, and when the treaty was signed all this fine country became part
of the territory of the United States. So it is to George Rogers Clark,
the Virginian and Kentuckian, that this country owes the region which in
time was divided up into the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
and Michigan, and perhaps Kentucky also, since only for him the British
might have taken the new-settled land of Daniel Boone.