USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time > Part 4
USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time, centennial ed. > Part 4
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Historic Indiana
men were astounded when Napoleon proposed to them the sale of the whole province. This was so far beyond their instructions, and even their fondest dreams, that they were dumbfounded. But such a vast ac- quisition of territory in the heart of the continent being too great a prize to lose by delay, or waiting for power from Congress, they closed the sale forth- with, for sixty million francs, and the fate of the Mississippi navigation was settled forever. Fiske says of this dramatic moment that the payment of a few million dollars, a few strokes of the pen, a discreet silence until the proper moment, and then prompt action, secured what twenty years later could not have been bought with all the treasure of the nation. Jefferson was President at the time, but he had nothing to do with this purchase. In the meantime the col- onists in the far-off Mississippi Valley were expecting the French to assume control, not even being asked by your leave in all these transactions, which so vitally affected their interests. In the spring, a French Commandant came over to New Orleans, and was received in state by the Spanish Governor. With great pomp, and surrounded by his soldiers in full uniform, with the whole populace crowded into the streets, the flag of Spain was lowered and the flag of France went up. It was only as a matter of form to mark the transfer of dominion. On the following December 17th (1803), the French Governor Laussat delivered the province, in the name of France, to Gov- ernor Claiborne, the representative of the United States; and the foreign rule of Louisiana was over forever.
Spain was furious when she learned that Napoleon had violated his pledge not to cede Louisiana to any
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How Spanish Rule Affected Indiana
other Power and only her weakness prevented her going to war with France, but upon the great territory had finally been bestowed a permanent government with the heritage of freedom and independence. The traffic from the Indiana country could go down the rivers unvexed to the sea, and her settlers be relieved of Spanish interference with trade. For many decades Spain had possessed parts of the territory of the United States along the Gulf and was constantly a power to be reckoned with in any advance in that direction. Our colonial ambassadors had many times "cooled their heels" impatiently in the anterooms of the court at Madrid trying to obtain justice for the frontier, yet after all this history the imprint of that nation was soon effaced. Only along the borders towards Mexico are there any traces of Spanish lan- guage and customs. There were few architectural monuments left to bear record of her sway, the rem- nants of the population were absorbed by the later immigration, and only a few Spanish names are extant in the geography of Indiana or in the families of the State.
CHAPTER V
AMERICAN CONQUEST
B Y the time that the colonies had engaged in the War for Independence, Kentucky and the Ohio River had become the front door of the Northwest Territory; of which Indiana formed a part, and all of which was claimed by Virginia. Settlers from the tidewater colonies were going over the mountains to the fertile valleys beyond, and some of these pioneers were looking towards the rich lands of southern Indiana and Illinois. Many of these daring frontiersmen were of the best families in the coast colonies. Among the foremost of these young spirits must be named George Rogers Clark, whose life be- came so closely identified with Indiana, and whose career is the next phase of her history.
Clark was only nineteen when he crossed the moun- tains to locate lands for himself, and at the same time act as surveyor for other settlers. Three years later he writes home, "I have engaged as a deputy surveyor under Captain Hancock Lee, for to lay out lands on ye Kentuck, for ye Ohio Company at ye rate of 8of per year, and ye privilege of taking what land I want." A richer or more beautiful country had never been seen in America, he said. After this sur- veying journey Clark revisited his Virginia home, and
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American Conquest
in the spring of 1776 returned to Kentucky, resumed his residence, and soon became a leader. His bi- ographer, Mr. English, describes him as brave, ener- getic, bold, prepossessing in appearance, of pleasing manner, with all of the qualities, in fact, calculated to win a frontier people. The unorganized and chaotic condition of the country needed such a man, and the man had come. In common with other Virginia emigrants his first object was the desire to secure productive lands, but those lands were of no use un- less the inhabitants were safe from the incursions of the savages. George Rogers Clark developed into a political and military leader; it was he who secured the organization of Kentucky into a county of Vir- ginia, and persuaded that State to furnish powder for the defence of this outlying possession. He had served in the Dunmore war, and now he organized and com- manded the irregular militia, for the defence of the meagre settlements against the savages, and did most effective work in their protection. At the same time, his alert mind grasped the situation of the whole North- west. The Revolutionary War was in progress, and the bloodthirsty raids into Kentucky by the Indians were prompted by the British, as well as from their own hatred of the settlers. The order had gone out :
"It is the King's command that you should direct the Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton to assemble as many of the Indians of his district as he conveniently can, and placing a proper person at their head to conduct their parties, and restrain them from committing violence on the well-affected, inoffensive inhabitants, employ them in making a diversion and exciting an alarm on the frontier of Virginia and Pennsylvania." 1
1 Dunn, J. P., History of Indiana, page 131, from Haldimand Coll.
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Historic Indiana
To make them more docile, Hamilton made them an offer of a reward for the greatest number of scalps brought in, from the heads of Americans. 1 The price was one pound, in British money, for the scalp of each woman or child, or for them as prisoners; three pounds for a man's scalp, but no reward for him as a prisoner. They paid five pounds for young women prisoners, and secured by this means some of the comeliest daughters of the frontier as their victims. It was to put an end to this nefarious warfare that Clark and his compatriots enlisted. They were well aware that they had to face the combined forces of the British at the military posts and their savage allies. There is no reason to think that these men did not have visions of securing territory from the British, as well as stopping the Indian forays on their settlements. Certainly Clark moved directly forward along this line. He felt that with a few valiant men he could accomplish much more for the government than to join the army in the East. Nothing but ex- pedition and secrecy could give success to the enter- prise. Mr. Clark went to Virginia, took the Gov- ernor, Patrick Henry, and Jefferson, Wyeth, and Mason into his confidence, and secured the necessary au- thority to raise troops, a fund of 1200 pounds in money, and promises of land grants to the troops if successful.
Clark had left Kentucky in October. By the fol- lowing January, 1778, he had secured his authority and instructions, appointed his officers in Kentucky to enlist men, enrolled a little handful of 150 men in Virginia, and returned down the Ohio before six months had elapsed. In Kentucky the frontier re-
1 Cockrum, Wm. M., A Pioneer History of Indiana, page 26.
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American Conquest
cruits joined him. All were volunteers, clad in buck- skin, and armed with their own flint-lock rifles and tomahawks. Officers and men were guiltless of uni- form or badge. Loyalty to their leader, and hatred of Indians, was the bond which held them together and spurred them forward toward danger. By the last of May the little band of soldiers and followers dropped down the river to the falls of the Ohio, and encamped on Corn Island. Here they left their fami- lies and a guard, having only one hundred and seventy- five men to accomplish the great undertaking which they had in hand. Clark moved quickly forward on his desperate enterprise. In his account of this very dramatic journey in his own memoir, he says: "One bright June morning in 1778 our forces embarked in the boats prepared to transport them down the river. We left the little island, ran about a mile up the river in order to gain the main channel; and shot the Falls at the very moment of the sun being under a great eclipse, which caused various apprehensions among the superstitious. As I knew that British spies were kept on the river, below the town of the Illinois, I had resolved to march part of the way by land."1 Running the boats four days and nights, with relays of oarsmen, they landed three leagues below the mouth of the Tennessee, ran up into a small creek, and rested over-night. Not having enough men to leave a guard, they impressed some hunters, who came along the river from Kaskaskia, into their service as guides, and started across the Illinois country to that post, one hundred and twenty miles, through swamp and Clark's warriors had no wagons, pack wilderness.
Extract from Memoirs of Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark, to the Governor of Virginia. Dillon, page 121.
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Historic Indiana
horses, or other means of conveyance for their muni- tions of war or baggage.
Continuing Clark's own report of the campaign to the Governor of Virginia, we read 1:
"On the evening of the Fourth of July we got within three miles of the town of Kaskaskia, having a river of the same name to cross before we could reach the town. After making ourselves ready for anything that might happen, we marched after night to a farm that was on the same side of the river, about a mile above the town, took the family prisoners, and found plenty of boats to cross in, and in two hours transported ourselves to the other shore with the greatest silence. I immediately divided my little army into two divisions, ordered one to surround the town, with the other I broke into the fort, secured the governor, Mr. Rochblave, in his bed, in fifteen minutes had every street blocked. Sent runners through the town ordering the people on pain of death to keep to their houses, which they observed, and before daylight had the whole town disarmed. Thus were the British dis- possessed forever of this important military post, and of the old historic town of Kaskaskia, about which lingered so much romantic interest."
Bowman, one of the commanders, says that Roche- blave, the British commandant, was made prisoner, with all his instructions received from time to time, from the several governors at Quebec, to set the In- dians upon the Americans with great rewards for our scalps.
This is the simple recital of the night surprise and bloodless capture of the post, as told by the comman- ders. One historian says that Clark had no cannon or means of assaulting the fort, and therefore must 1 Extract from Memoirs of Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark, to the Gov- ernor of Virginia. Dillon, page 124.
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American Conquest
use stratagem. One of his aids and a small detach- ment of men entered the fort, and found an American within who conducted them to the very bedchamber of the sleeping governor. The first notice that Roche- blave had that he was a prisoner was Simon Kenton tapping him on the shoulder to awaken him. ยท Later the commandant was sent to Virginia and his goods confiscated. Another pretty story has always been told of this night; that there was a ball being given by the officers of the fort, and that the gay creoles, both men and girls, were surprised at the dance, when Clark and his men looked in on them. He had placed his men on guard, secured the exits, and was calmly leaning against the doorpost, looking at the dancers, when an Indian lying on the floor of the entry, looking up, saw a new pale face and sprang to his feet with the war-whoop. As the dancers rushed towards the door they encountered the commander, but Clark, standing unmoved and with unchanging face, grimly bade them continue their dancing, but to remember that they now danced under the flag of Virginia and not Great Britain. The story is so like the life at the French posts and the cool composure of Colonel Clark, that it is welcome as a reflection of the life and the persons concerned, whether true or not.
The fort, inmates, and stores secured, Clark sent a messenger back to Corn Island to give the good news of a bloodless conquest to those left behind. He then addressed himself to allaying the fears of the inhabitants of the post. The French inhabitants fully expected to be at least exiled from their for- est homes, and begged, through their good priest, only not to have their families separated, and to be allowed to take with them some provisions and
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Historic Indiana
clothing. To this Colonel Clark says that he replied vigorously :
"Do you mistake us for savages? My countrymen dis- dain to make war on helpless innocents. It was to prevent the horrors of Indian butchery upon our wives and chil- dren that we have taken arms and penetrated this remote stronghold of British and Indian barbarity; and not the despicable prospect of plunder. I further told them that the King of France had united his powerful arms with those of the Americans. . . . That their religion would not be a source of disagreement, as all religions were regarded with equal respect by American laws. And now to prove my sincerity you will inform your fellow- citizens that they are at liberty to conduct themselves as usual without the least apprehension. . Your friends who are in confinement shall be immediately released." 1
He soon made friends and allies of the impression- able French and easily attached them to his standard, as they were never in sympathy with their British rulers. Meantime Colonel Clark's assistant, Captain Bowman, with a detachment of thirty mounted men, was sent immediately up the Mississippi River the very night of Fort Kaskaskia's capture to surprise and take possession of the three other little towns, Prairie de Roche, St. Phillips, and Cahokia. Weary as they were, these determined patriots, without sleep for three more nights, secretly and swiftly marched to, and seized all the hamlets; and within ten days ad- ministered the oath of allegiance to three hundred inhabitants of those towns, where Captain Bowman remained to retain possession.
1 Memoirs from the copy in William H. English's Conquest of the Northwest, page 480. Indianapolis, 1896.
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American Conquest
Although the British claimed dominion at this time, all the inhabitants of the posts, were still French and their dislike of English rule greatly facilitated Clark's taking peaceful possession. Bowman says that as the towns of white people in the Illinois country east of the Wabash had now been secured Clark was looking with great anxiety to securing Post Vincennes, on the east bank of that river, which he regarded as the most important of all. Father Gibault, the beloved and honored priest of the district, who had labored with his little flock for twenty years, was ap- proached by Colonel Clark with overtures to conduct a peaceable occupation of Vincennes. He knew that the English Governor Abbott had left Vincennes a short time before, leaving the fort and town virtually in the possession of the French settlers. The priest offered to try to secure the feality of the post with- out a conflict; especially, as he could carry them the news of the new American alliance with France. Ten days after Major Clark's occupancy of Kaskaskia Father Gibault, a French gentleman named Lafont, and a retinue provided by Clark, which included one of his spies to insure fair play to the American forces, made the journey across the prairies of Illinois to the Wabash River, and accomplished the conciliation of the inhabitants of the post at Vincennes. They ad- ministered the oath of allegiance in the little log chapel, raised an American flag for the first time on Indiana territory, garrisoned the fort, and returned to Colonel Clark with the joyful news of the peaceful occupation, by the first of August! Every plan had worked out with amazing success. A bold commander with his handful of men, and a peace-loving missionary, had won an area fit for an empire. Captain Helm was placed
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Historic Indiana
in command at Vincennes. By securing the sworn allegiance of "Tobacco's son-The Grand Door of the Wabash," a Piankeshaw chief who ruled the tribes along the river, he soon extended the same amicable relations to the Indian towns up the Wabash, as far as the Post Quiatanon. The whole campaign so far had been a bloodless conquest.
After the British posts were thus secured, and the French habitants so peacefully reconciled to American control, Colonel Clark spent all his energies on making treaties with the surrounding Indians, who had been allied with the British. He showed great tact and sagacity as well as a consummate knowledge of the Indian nature in these negotiations.
When the marvellous news of the peaceful oc- cupation of all the western posts reached Virginia, it created the wildest enthusiasm. The Governor communicated the tidings to the members of the Con- tinental Congress, and planned to accede to Colonel Clark's urgent appeals for help, by sending new troops to the far off wilderness forts.
Two months later the British governor, Hamilton of Detroit, learning that the "American Rebels" had captured the Western outposts, enlisted the services of the Indians in his cause, and with a force of five hun- dred men of both races, four hundred of whom were sav- ages, came across Lake Erie and down the Wabash, on the six-hundred-mile journey, to recapture the lost posts. As the fort at Vincennes was so miserably weak, and manned by the French habitants, with only two Americans, it was obliged to capitulate on the 15th of December, 1778. But Hamilton did not pursue his advantage and push on to Kaskaskia, as the indomitable Clark would have done with such
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American Conquest
a force. He contented himself with sending Indian forces to the Ohio River to intercept any troops that might be sent to Clark's relief. By intercepting all messengers, Hamilton prevented Colonel Clark from re- ceiving any word of the recapture of Fort Vincennes by the British until January, when some of the Vincennes men deserted and crossed to Clark's post at Kaskaskia. Later, Colonel Vigo, a Spanish merchant travelling from Vincennes, gave Clark all the details of the strength of the post, and the news that Ham- ilton had gone back to Detroit to prepare for a spring campaign. He intended to recover the whole country from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi River. Of course, the little bands on the Mississippi were dis- tressed at the recapture by the British of Fort Vin- cennes, and immediately set about preparations for what proved to be the most spectacular relief expe- dition in the history of border wars.
Clark's records state that on the first of February men were put to work building a large boat, called a galley or bateau. This boat was to take army supplies and a detachment of troops down the Kas- kaskia and Mississippi, and up the Ohio and Wabash to a designated point below Vincennes, probably the mouth of White River, there to await further orders. The vessel was put in condition for use in a few days, and loaded with two four-pound cannon, four swivels, ammunition, provisions, and other army supplies. Nothing equal to this craft had ever been seen at Kaskaskia before, and this added to the already intense military excitement. On the fourth of Feb- ruary, The Willing, which was the name given the boat, dropped down the river, amid the cheers of the forty-six men on board, and the applause of four or
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Historic Indiana
five companies of soldiers on shore, and most of the men, women, and children of Kaskaskia. After the boat had left on its circuitous water route to Vin- cennes, the balance of the little force of soldiers, num- bering less than two hundred in all, started on foot across the country.
It was one hundred and sixty miles to the point where they were to join those who had gone by boat. The troops going overland had some pack-horses, but no tents, and the whole of this remarkable cam- paign was made in the worst possible February weather. It rained constantly, and the men were without shelter, or any suitable place to cook or rest. The journals left by the commander and his aide give a most graphic picture of the mid-winter journey. They tell of the constant rain, and the submerged country which only the early settlers, who have seen the Wa- bash out of its banks, can realize. He says that, after receiving a lecture and absolution from the priest, they crossed the Kaskaskia River with one hundred and seventy men. For a week, they marched over plains covered with water, and encountered incredible difficulties, until they came to the Little Wabash, which was swollen to an expanse of five miles. "I viewed this sheet of water," says Clark, "with dis- trust, but immediately set to work, without holding any consultation or suffering any suggestions, and ordered a pirogue to be built immediately."1 In a day it was finished and the baggage and the men ferried over the stream. The horses swam across and were reladened. For seven more days it was their lot to march through water, which in many places was three and four feet deep, or was still deeper where
Extract from Memoirs.
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American Conquest
they had to swim. The country was so drowned that no game was obtainable. The men were famished for food and growing weak and miserable. Stopping on a rise in the ground to rest, they made a rude canoe and sent men out in it to steal boats from the shores. The French volunteers wanted to return to Kaskaskia, and the boats were full of the sick and exhausted. Many times the indomitable Clark resorted to solemn or frivolous expedients to hearten his men and urge them on. Once when the water was appallingly deep and swift he set the little Irish drummer on the shoul- ders of a good-natured six-foot Virginian sergeant, and ordered an advance, with the drummer beating the charge from his lofty perch, while Clark, sword in hand, gave the command to forward march. Elated and amused the men followed and, holding their rifles above their heads, they reached the dry land. A canoe of Indian squaws coming up to town was dis- covered. The men gave chase, took the canoe, on board of which, it is told, was near half a quarter of buffalo, some corn, tallow, kettles, etc. This was a grand prize. Broth was immediately made and served out to the weakly with care.
Plodding along through further swamps and swollen streams, after eighteen days of this dreary, cold, dis- heartening, dangerous marching, they finally reached a spot of high ground overlooking the post.
"Our situation was now critical [writes Clark]. No possibility of retreat in case of defeat, and six hun- dred men in the fort. Our crew on the galley would now have been a re-enforcement of immense magnitude, but it had not come. The idea of being made prisoners was foreign to almost every man, as they expected torture
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Historic Indiana
at the hands of savage allies, if they fell into their hands. Nothing but the most daring conduct would insure success."1
Colonel Clark now rapidly made his preparations for the assault. He wrote and sent by a Frenchman, whom they had captured out hunting, a friendly proclama- tion to the French habitants, telling them that he was going to attack with a large force and warning them to stay in their houses on pain of death. Then with flying banners and many evolutions on the edge of the forest he deceived the villagers with the idea of great numbers of troops, and they gave no warning to the soldiers within the post. As dark came on, he divided his little troop and silently advanced. One detachment surrounded the little French town; the other swiftly advanced on the fort, completely sur- prising the garrison by a deadly rifle attack from behind trees, palings, and huts. So keen and deadly was the marksmanship of the concealed Americans that in a little while no Britisher dared man the cannon in the blockhouses. By morning the tide of battle was in their favor, and they stopped long enough to eat the first breakfast they had had in a week. Clark sent a vigorous and intimidating invitation to the fort to surrender, but it was declined by Hamilton and the fight was resumed. "These frontiersmen were at that time the best marksmen known to the world, and at these distances, from sixty to one hun- dred yards, a silver dollar was as large a target as they cared for."2 Whenever a figure appeared at a port- hole, there was one less defender within the fort. Naturally the British became discouraged, and a truce was asked for. After a parley between the officers,
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