History of Lieutenant-Colonel George Rogers Clark's conquest of the Illinois and of the Wabash towns from the British in 1778 and 1779

Front matter

CONSUI. WILSHIRE BUTTERFIELD.

HISTORY of

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL

Chapter I

TO resist the tyranical acts of the Mother country was the firm determination of a large portion of the people living upon the waters of the Ohio when the all-absorbing questions so deeply agitating the Colonies generally, were, early in 1775, fairly understood.

Swiftly traveled the news to Philadelphia and then to the westward in the latter days of April, that the controversy had, upon the soil of Massachusetts, ripened into actual war. It flew along Forbes's road — the main thoroughfare in Pennsylvania over the mountains west at that period — as if upon the wings, of the wind, and was heard in Hannastown, county seat of Westmoreland county, that State, in breathless astonishment ; so, too, the next day at Pittsburgh. Then Pennsylvanians in Westmoreland county, and Virginians and Pennsylvanians in Augusta county (Virginia, as claimed by the former) took counsel together. Meetings were called for the sixteenth of May. Invitations were sent into all the trans-Alleghany settlements; and, on that day, there gathered together borderers from far and near to give their views concerning British aggressions, and to concert measures such as the crisis s'eemed to demand. Neighboring discords caused by an unrun boundary Hue between the two Provinces, ceased. Patriotism very generally obliterated partisan hatred; for the liberties of the whole people were alike threatened.

As early as the fall of the year 1774, a number of North Carolinians, afterward known as the Transylvania Company, began arrangements which ended in the following March in their purchasing from the Overhill Cherokee Indians, among other lands, the whole territory south of the Kentucky river, included within the present limits of the State of Kentucky.

The Company, of whom Richard Henderson was the head, proceeded immediately to make extensive preparations for the settlement of their Kentucky domain, resulting in the commencement of Boonesborough, at the mouth of Otter creek, on the south side of the Kentucky river, about one hundred and fifty miles up that stream, on the first day of April 1775. A fev/ days previous, Harrodsburg, now county-seat of Mercer county, Kentucky, had been started independent of the claim O'f Henderson and Company.

But there was an Indian population (very thinly scattered it is true) northwest of the Ohio, which, if it became hostile, it was quickly seen, would be to the border settlements more terrible than a civilized army. An Indian war the year previO'Us ended in a treaty not yet fully ratified, and there were just apprehensions of renewed hostilities ; but prompt action on part of Virginia and the holding of a council in Pittsburgh, in October, 1775, with Mingoes, Shawanese, Wyandots, Ottawas and Munceys, averted the threatened storm. Meanwhile, Congress, in order to preserve peace and friendship with the savages generally, created three Indian Departments — the Northern, Middle and Southern. The West was included in the Middle Department.

Settlements down the Ohio in the Kentucky country — Harrbrdsburg (first known as "Harrodstown"), Boonesborough and other stations — were growing apace. Brave men and true were James Harrod,

Daniel BoO'ne, and many more, thus to make this (then) distant and wilderness region their homes. And there was one among them transiently, and to most unknown, who, of all others, for some years thereafter, in that country, occupied the largest part of public attention. To him is now to be given that consideration which the annals of the West seem to demand.

George Rogers Clark was born the nineteenth of November, 1752, near Monticello, Albermarle county, Virginia, where he was a neighbor and favorite of Thomas Jefferson. He enjoyed some educational advantages from a noted Scotch teacher, Donald Robertson, in King and Queen county, among whose pupils was James Madison. He fitted himself for a surveyor, and, at the age of twenty, practiced for a short time his profession on the upper Ohio, though really more fond of roving than surveying, he having, in 1772, in the summer, gone on a journey ''towards Kentucky." He was spoken of by the one with whom he traveled on that occasion, as "a young gentleman from Virginia, who inclined to make a tour in this new world."

In April, 1774, a party of eighty or ninety Virginians made a rendezvous at the mouth of the Little Kanawha, with the intention of descending the Ohio and beginning a settlement in Kentucky. Clark was one of the party. Reports of Indian hostilities broke up the meeting. Finally, actual war was brought on the events leading to which were afterward set forth by Clark (as he understood them) in a letter to one of the professors of Transylvania University.*

*This letter was published in The Hesperian (Columbus, O.: 1839), vol. II, p. 309; also in Jacob's Life of Cresap

Clark took part in this conflict of arms, and was commissioned a captain. His company belonged to the right wing of the army commanded by Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, in person. He was engaged in little if any actual fighting, and at the close of the war was offered by Dunmore a commission in the English service ; but the political troubles, already become very serious, induced him to decline the offer. "Lord Dunmore's War," as this contest is termed, was carried on between Virginia on the one side, and the Shawanese and Mingoes, principally, on the other. It terminated in favor of Virginia after a hard-won victory at Point Pleasant, where the Great Kanawha empties into the Ohio.

In the spring after the Virginia governor had dictated the terms of peace to the Shawanese and Mingoes beyond the Ohio, Clark again turned his thoughts to the region down that river and to the south of it, as one inviting — if not to the adventurer, at least to the surveyor; so it was that he journied to the Kentucky woods to practice for interested parties the art he had chosen as his calling for life. He remained in the wilderness until fall when for the first time he visited the incipient Kentucky settlements.

Many are the errors perpetuated not only in tradition but in history concerning Clark while in the Kentucky country in 1775. Prominent among these is the statement that he was placed in command of the militia there; but the answer to this is, there was no organization of militia in that country until 1777. If

(Cincinnati Re-print: 1886), pp. 154-158; and in Mayer's Logan and Cresap, p. 149. It is printed nearly entire in DeHass's History of the Indian Wars of Western Virginia, pp. 147-149.

any men were previously embodied in a military way, it was only for the time being and because of the presence (actual or reported) of hostile savages. Then a few settlers would volunteer for offensive or defensive operations. But, in none of these undertakings did he take part so far as known.* Again : it is often repeated that he became at once the most prominent man in the settlements. Documentary evidence conclusively shows the fallacy of this. As he left Kentucky in the fall of 1775 and returned to his home, it is altogether certain that little if any mention would have been made of his visit in after years but for the events which subsequently took place in the West in which he was a prominent actor.

It was at this period and in the dense forests south of the Ohio, that Clark first began to have some practical aspirations — some thoughts of paying attention to. the interests of the country in which were the few infant settlements he was visiting. He soon learned that Henderson and Company were taking great pains to ingratiate themselves in the favor of the people ; but, too soon for their own interests, they began to raise on their lands, which caused many to complain. A few gentlemen made some attempts to persuade the people to pay no attention to them. Clark was not slow in perceiving that they would work their own ruin ; as the greatest security they had for success would be that of making it the interest of the people to support their claim. f

* Appendix, Note 1.

■\ Memoir of General George Rogers Clark, Composed by Himself at the United Desire of Presidents Jefferson and Madison — Dillon's Indiana (ed. of 1859) , p. 115. That Henderson and Company had raised on the price of their

A deep impression was doubtless made on Clark's mind by the course which had been pursued during the Spring by the Proprietors in attempting' to form a colonial government independent of Virginia — the new colony to be known as Transylvania. Delegates to a Convention were chosen — "for the town of Boonesborough, six members ; for Harrodsburg, four ; for the Boiling Spring settlement, four ; for the town of St. Asaph, four" — to meet on the twenty-third of May. The "House," after passing several laws, adjo'urned to the first Tuesday of September. This effort to establish a Proprietary government was decidedly in opposition to the wishes of a portion of the settlers; and so rapidly did the disaffection increase that no further attempt was made toward organization. That Clark was one of the opposers when he came to know what had been done, is certain.

Conceraiing Clark's return home from this his first visit to the Kentucky country, no' particulars have been preserved. Reasons for his leaving have sometimes been given by writers, but these are wholly conjectural. And, if true, that it was because of his intention to join the patrio't army,f would be nothing to his discredit.

And now that the youthful Virginia surveyor and wanderer has returned to his father's fireside to recount the wonders of Western wilds to (it may be presumed) his interested parents, it is there we will

lands as stated by Clark, is confirmed by a letter of John Williams to the Proprietors from Boonesborough, January 3, 1776. (Hall's Romance of Western History, p. 387.) Concerning Clark's Memoir just cited, see^ Appendix to our narrative, Note II.

^Harper's Magasine, vol. XXII, pp. 785, 786.

leave him for a season, to record events taking place far from his home ; which occurrences, in the end, as our narrative discloses, have a bearing upon those hereafter to- particularly engage our attention.

The ending of Lord Dunmore's War had left a zealous friend of the Royal Governor in command at Fort Pitt — or as he would have it called, "Fort Dunmore" — formerl}^ a British fortress at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, but, in 1775 mostly in ruins. Its site then joined the village of . Pittsburgh, but is now included within the city's limits. The favorite spoken of, of the Virginia Executive, was John Connolly. He proved to be an arch tory and laid extensive plans to assail the Trans-Alleghany region in order to restore British authority by force. He was commissioned "a Lieutenant Colonel of the Queen's Royal Rangers" and given full power to raise a battalion and as many independent companies as he could, to assist him in his projects. He had left Fort Pitt to confer with Dunmore previous to this, and now started for Detroit where he was to be greatly aided. Captain Hugh Lord, in command of the Illinois country, which lay on the east bank of the Mississippi and included Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, St. Philips . and Cahokia — towns occupied mostly by French Canadians — was to join him from the village first mentioned ; however, the would-be Lieutenant-Colonel was captured in Maryland, and his career of military glory abruptly terminated.

Soon after his confinement, he began to make himself busy in conjecturing what would be the probable operations authorized by the American Congress, so far as the war was concerned. He imagined a body of men would be -sent down the Ohio to capture the small garrison at Kaskaskia (principal town of the Illinois), as he had information, which, however, was erroneous, that there was a great want there of stores and ordnance. He therefore wished very much to inform Captain Lord, commanding the post, of (this was his firm belief) the imminent danger which threatened him, and to advise him to quit the country. He afterward contrived to write two letters to the Captain and, putting them into the hands of John Smyth, one of his captured companions, found means to start the latter for the Illinois ; but Smyth was retaken and the communications fell into the hands of the Americans,* who were not slow in publishing them, thereby calling public attention to that remote region.

"You must, agreeable to General Gage's order and Lord Dunmore's," were Connolly's words to the Illinois commandant, "proceed down the Mississippi and join Lord Dunmore at Norfolk, and the Fourteenth [regiment] which is now there. Lose no time, for fear the rebels should be upon you from Pittsburgh." And in the other letter he wrote : "Though your remote situation may have prevented you from hearing many particulars relative to the state of the Colonies, you yet must know enough to discover your own dangerous situation. You were to have joined me at Detroit, by the Wabash communication, and it was expected, by your advice and assistance, that we would have been able to penetrate through the colony of Virginia, and thus have divided the Southern from the Northern Governments, "f

* See Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. XII, pp. 416, 417; also Smyth's Tour in the United States of America, vol. II, p. 269.

t Connolly must have had discretionary orders as to Cap-

HISTORY OF CLARK'S CONQUEST, ETC.

"I was made a prisoner," he says, in a letter which he also sent by Smyth to Captain Richard Berringer Loernoult, in command at Detroit, "on my way through the Government to your post, where I expected to have afforded you some assistance, and to have ordered Captain Lord, of the Eighteenth [regiment], to join us there also. I am now to inform you that I much fear his Majesty's enemies may attack you early in the Spring, and as Montreal is in their hands, I dread the consequences." "You were ordered," continues Connolly, "to raise all the French you could, which I hope you have done." "Take care," concludes the writer, "that there is not an improper correspondence carried on between your post and Pittsburgh."

Notwithstanding Captain Lord received no intimations of Connolly's designs, or commands, it was soon evident from advices at hand from Carleton, in whose jurisdiction the Illinois then was (it being, as claimed by Great Britain, a part of the Province of Quebec), that the disasters to the royal arms upon the St. Lawrence caused by the invasion of Colonial soldiers would make it necessary to have the Fort in Kaskaskia — Fort Gage, the British military post "upon the Mississippi" — evacuated by the regular soldiers stationed there; but, for the time, the Captain continued his force in that country.*

tain Lord's retirement. In the first place it was his idea to have that officer meet him with his command at Detroit; but now that he (Connolly) was a prisoner, he would have the Captain go down the Mississippi and take vessel to Norfolk.

* See as' to Fort Gaze, Appendix to our narrative, Note XLVIII.

The War of the Revolution had but fairly commenced when the British Government turned its attention to the savage nations to the northward, westward and southward, of the Colonies. In previous contests between England and France in America the employment of Indians on either side as auxiliaries had been customary; and the idea of the British General, Thomas Gage, Commander-in-chief in America, who, writing to Sir Guy Carleton, just as the latter was to arrive at Quebec as Governor of Canada, asking to know what measures would be most efficacious to raise a body of Canadians and Indians to form a junction with the king's forces, was in accordance with these precedents ; but it is clear that a remorseless savage war was not what he intended to suggest.

On the ninth of June, 1775, Sir Guy proclaimed the American borderers to be rebellious traitors. He established martial law. He summoned the French peasantry to serve under the old colonial nobility. He would have the converted Indian tribes and the savages of the Northwest take up the hatchet against New York and New England. Still it is doubtful if the Canadian governor contemplated in this anything beyond the service of the savages with British troops in legitimate warfare. La Corne Saint-Luc acted for the government generally, while Jacques Duperon Baby sent belts and strings of wampum to the various tribes, to join the British army. In this, he was assisted by Captain Lernoult, commanding the Detroit garrison. The savages were visited by British emissaries or harrangued at British posts to the southward and southwestward of Lake Erie and to the westward and northward of Lake Huron, even to the waters of

Lakes Michigan and Superior. Thus the Indians of the West began to hear of the trouble between Great Britain and her American colonies ; and they had it made known to them that there was actual war existing in New England. But they were not urged to go in war parties against the border settlements.

The office of Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs had already been created for some of the most distant posts in Canada. It was a new office — unknown before in the West. It was believed by the British ministry that the Indians could by such offices, be made more powerful allies than by ^ those having immediate command of garrisons. Henry Hamilton in April, of the year last mentioned, was appointed for Detroit and its dependencies at a salary of two hundred pounds sterling. The appointment was made by the Earl of Dartmouth as Colonial Secretary (Secretary of State for the Colonies), who was succeeded in that office by Lord George Germain (George Sackville) the next November. The Lieutenant Governor was to act under instructions from Governor Carleton, the Commander-in-chief of the Province of Quebec. The paramount idea was, that the savages were to be worked upon by him in such manner that they would be in readiness always to join the armies of Great Britain ; his duties, however, being soon extended to aiding the Indians in making war, as will soon be seen, on the frontier settlements.

"At the time General Carleton thought proper to send me up [to Detroit]," wrote Hamilton subsequently, ''the rebels had entered Canada, and I crossed the island of Montreal in a Canadiaij dress, and got the fourth day, in a wooden canoe, to Oswegatchie

[now Ogdensburg] unprovided with (I may say) everything."*

Hamilton arrived out on the ninth of November, 1775. t He was immediately importuned by the Indians in the vicinity of his post for his "assent to their making inroads upon the frontiers of Pennsylvania"; but this, he declares, he declined, giving as a reason his ''not having received orders on the subject. "J The desire of the savages, however, conclusively shows that their war-spirit had already been aroused against the settlers of the Trans-Alleghany country.

Hamilton was under the necessity of acting discretionary for a time after his arrival, because intercourse with the lower part of the Province of Quebec had been cut ofif ''by the rebels possessing themselves of Montreal," and he could not therefore confer with Governor Carleton. He did not feel authorized to advise the Indians (much less. to assist them) to take up the hatchet then against the "rebels." Still, his talk was calculated (notwithstanding his counsel to them was to sit still for the present) to promote their thirst for war ; and there were some braves, whose desire for plunder was so great that they marched to Sandusky on their way to strike the settlements to the eastward, but were turned back by the importunities of John Dodge at that place.°

The Lieutenant Governor had had considerable experience in military matters. He had been a lieuten-

t Hamilton to the Earl of Dartmouth, Aug. 29 — Sept. 2, 1776. — Haldimand MSS.

* Hamilton to the Earl of Dartmouth, Aug. 29— Sept. 2, 1776. — Haldimand MSS. (See Appendix, Note HI.)

X Hamilton to. Haldimand, July 6, 1781, Germain MSS.

° Dodge's Narrative Alman's Remembrances (1779), vol. VIIL (See Appendix to our narrative, Note IV.)

ant in the Fifteenth Regiment of Foot, but had left the army upon the conclusion of peace between France and England, in 1763. Immediately on his arrival at Detroit, he appointed as his secretary, Philip Dejean, who was, besides, justice of the peace, judge, notary, auctioneer, and receiver of public money.

As, under the Quebec Act of 1774 — the one organizing the Province of Quebec, Canada — "all commissions, to judges and other offices were revoked, annulled and made void, from and after the first day of May, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five,"''' the acting as judge by Dejean after that date, even had he previously sufficient warrant for officiating in that capacity, was, notwithstanding the orders and approval of Hamilton, clearly illegal. Nevertheless, he continued to act, — he having in December, after all commissions had been by the law abrogated, caused a man to be apprehended for murder, sentenced him to death, and carried the sentence into execution, — the Lieutenant Governor aiding, by ordering out a guard of soldiers upon the occasion.

Far to the northward where the waters of Lake Michigan meet and mingle with those of the Huron lake, situated on the south side of the straits, was the post of Michilimackinac, in command of which, in the Spring of 1775^ was Captain Arent Schuyler De Peyster, having a garrison composed of two companies of the Eighth regiment. His duties were not onerous. His time was divided between looking after the fur traders, holding long "talks" with the savages, and

"^ British Statutes at Large (London, 1776), vol. XII, pp. 184-187, where the Quebec Act is printed in full. It may be foundalso in the Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. XI, pp. 53-60.

in ''courting the muses" — he wrote some creditable poetry.* He had been advised of the appointment of Patrick Sinclair as Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs of his post and its dependencies.

But Sinclair, who was commissioned on the seventh of April, upon arriving at New York, was taken prisoner and on the third of August following was summoned before Congress on the charge of being commissioned to employ the Indians in the Northwest in coercing the Colonies. He was sent to Long Island as a paroled prisoner and the next year allowed to return to England. As no other person was appointed in Sinclair's place, it was a necessity for De Peyster to act as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the duties of which office he had already attended to.

Pie was slow to enter upon the policy of arousing the Indians and inflaming them on the British side as against the Americans, being content at first to urge them only to a close friendship with his Government. His post and its dependencies were far removed from the strife on the seaboard. The Pottowattomies were scattered from near St. Joseph (formerly a French post of some note a considerable distance up the river of the same name emptying into Lake Michigan) to the mouth of the stream on which it was located, thence around Lake Michigan to the site of the present city of Chicago and to that of Milwaukee ; and there had as yet appeared no one from Michilimackinac or Detroit with belts and wampum to excite them against the "rebellious Colonies ;" so also the Winnebagoes around Winnebago lake, and the Menomonees upon

* See his Miscellanies , passim.

Green bay, had not been advised to hold themselves in readiness to go to war against the Americans. But the Chippewas were already aroused by the representatives of La Corne Saint-Luc ; and the "talks" of their chiefs, with De Peyster during the first half of 1776, served to increase among them and contiguous nations the thirst for war ; for it had been determined to raise warriors in that region to march to the St. Lawrence : and soon a band was on the march thither. But these savage allies were to aid the regular British forces; they were not to march against unprotected settlers.

On the same day of the appointment of Sinclair as Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Michilimackinac and its dependencies, Captain Mathew Johnson was named for a like office at the Illinois; but he was "never able to attend to his duty" there; indeed he did not reach his post at all, — for reasons, however, satisfactory to the British government, as he continued to draw his salary (two hundred pounds sterling) during the war.*

At the beginning of the Revolution, there were British armed vessels - — an incipient navy — upon Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan, which materially aided the military forces, gave efficiency to the labors of Indian agents, and everywhere on those waters protected the fur-trade. On the lake first mentioned were four armed schooners, built at Detroit, and four sloops. There was also one sloop on Lake Huron and one on Lake Michigan.

* Haldimand to Grey Cooper (Secretary of the Treasury) , July 8 and the letter of the latter of. May 8, 1781. — Haldimand MSS. The Receiver General's accounts, in May, 1782, also show a charge of £100, as "Lieutenant Governor of the Illinois" — being for 6 months salary.

The schooners on Lake Erie were the Gage, built in 1772, mounting sixteen carriage-guns and six swivels, requiring for her crew forty-eight men including officers; — the Dunmore, built the same year, carrying twelve guns and four swivels, requiring for her complement of men, thirty-six, including officers; the Hope, built in 1771, and taken into the King's employ on the twenty-fifth day of August, 1775, mounting four four-pounders, and two two-pounders, requiring a crew of eighteen men, including officers; and the Faith, built in 1774, carrying four swivels, and requiring for her complement, ten men, including officers. The sloops on that lake were the Chippewa, four swivels ; the Angelica, six ; the Felicity, number unknown ; the Adventure, four. The sloop on Lake Huron was the Welcome ; on Lake Michigan, the Archangel.

Early in the year 1776, Congress, in hopes of keeping quiet the various Indian nations of the West, appointed George Morgan to be Indian Agent for the Middle Department, Richard Butler having previously acted in that capacity.

At Detroit, the opening of Spring was followed by

/considerable activity. Hamilton busied himself in

sending to surrounding tribes invitations to a treaty,

accorded by De Peyster at Michilimack, who urged

those near him to attend.

It was late in August before the savages assembled at Detroit at the Lieutenant Governor's call, deputies being present from the Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots, Shawanese, Senecas, Delawares, Cherokees and Pottawattomies. Five days were consumed and many speeches made. The conclusion of the Indians was (they being of course guided in this by Hamilton) that the "rebels" had imposed upon them by falsely stating the cause of the dispute between them and the British ; that they had misrepresented their own abiUty to cope with the mother country; and that they v. ere not really well-disposed towards the several nations of savages, members of which were then deliberating. The Lieutenant Governor told the Indians to content themselves with watchfully observing the enemy's motions; that if the "Virginians" attacked them he would give notice to all the tribes ; and that an attack on one was to be followed by all uniting against them.

Morgan, at Pittsburgh, was early informed of Hamilton's determination to assemble the Western Indians in council at Detroit and he resolved to thwart the Lieutenant Governor so far as lay in his power, by visiting a number of the nations within reach. He went as far beyond the Ohio as the Scioto and saw chiefs of the Delawares and Shawanese. Early in July, he left the lower Shawanese town on his way back to Pittsburgh. Deputies from some of the most friendly nations met commissioners at Fort Pitt, late in October ; and the "talks" to some extent neutralized the efforts Hamilton had made with these Indians.

While at the lower Shawanese village, Morgan had other plans revolving in his mind beside those relating to the Detroit council. He had friends in the Illinois and he knew the previous condition of affairs in that country ; besides, he had received a full account of Connolly's letters to Captain Lord. He wrote to two of his acquaintances at Kaskaskia, asking them as to the "exact situation of affairs" in that country; "and what quantity of flour and beef" they "could furnish a company or two of men with," on the twenty-fifth of the next December. The letter he entrusted to an Indian who was known as "Silver Heels." Morgan added that he would depend on his two friends for the desired information by the return of Silver Heels, ''who ought to be at Pittsburgh as early in September as possible, as there is a great treaty to be held in that month with all the Western nations. If one of you could come along with him, it may be much to your advantage but you should be very secret with respect to your business."*^

It is doubtful if any man in the Trans-Alleghany region was better qualified to lead "a company or two of men" to the Illinois country than Morgan. His long and intimate acquaintance there, and his knowledge of the best method to adopt to have approached undiscovered the different settlements, peculiarly fitted him for successfully carrying forward an expedition against the Illinois towns. And that he should have planned such an undertaking clearly shows that he had a full understanding of the defenceless condition of those villages and the feasibility of their capture with a comparatively small force. However, his letter fell into unfriendly hands ; for at least one of the parties addressed, was in sympathy with the Mother country; hence, no answer was received giving the desired information as to supplies obtainable at Kaskaskia; and the undertaking was abandoned.