USA > Indiana > Knox County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 4
USA > Indiana > Daviess County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 4
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CLARK'S CONQUEST OF KASKASKIA.
On the evening of the 23d of June, 1778, Clark's command, consisting of four companies, numbering, rank and file, 308, par- aded upon Corn Island, at the head of the falls of the Ohio. These companies were commanded by Capts. Bowman, Helm, Harrod and Dillard. Clark now disclosed his daring designs against Post Vincennes and Kaskaskia, and that night a part of Capt. Dillard's company, under Lieut. Hutchings, recruited upon the Holston, deserted. The next day, all being in readiness, the boats were drawn up a few miles to obtain headway in shooting the falls, and moored to the bank, waiting the command to begin the voyage. In the afternoon the sun entered a total eclipse, a phenomenon inspiring the unlettered and simple backwoods sol- dier with terror and awe. Clark says: "I waited until the mo- ment of greatest totality, and then gave the command to cut loose." . While the youthful commander was inspired by visions of conquest, and led by the hope of immortality from founding a State, the sturdy pioneers behind him had fallen into his ranks, and now continued to follow his fortunes from far other mo- tives. Kaskaskia was founded shortly after the discovery of the Mississippi, probably as early as 1688, and had grown to be a capital of civilization and the seat of French power in the north- ern valleys of the Mississippi, before the advent of British authority west of the Alleghanies. Fort Chartres, within eight- een miles of the village, was once the strongest fortress, next to Quebec, on the North American continent. Built of stone, thor- oughly provided with armament, at a complete cost of 9,000,000
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
livres, from its casemates it had power to speak the destiny of the soil from the Blue Ridge to the Rocky Mountains, from the Ohio to the Lake of the Woods; and only in the despair born of igno- rance of strength was the royal signature appended to the treaty with England, after the disaster upon the Plains of Abraham, whereby this vast domain passed from Latin civilization.
Chartres liad been lapped by the ever shifting Father of Wa- ters; her huge stones and hollow engines of war tossed as toys in the sport of his waves, while the frail adobe church of the Im- maculate Conception, and the wooden Indian council-house, still gathered the good and the bad of the painted sons of the forest within the gates of this village in greater number than all of her distant neighbors. From around this favorite spot, instigated by English influences, often by public offers of bounties for scalps of American settlers, had gone out war parties, whose screams would soon be heard at night around the blazing cabin of the Kentucky settler. The dream of ambition, the glory of country, had fired the heart of the commander, but it was the cry of the babe, the white cheeks of the wife, that summoned the guns into the ranks.
Below the mouth of the Tennessee, the flotilla was drawn to the northern bank, and the march overland began. Two trap- pers, recently from Kaskaskia, were impressed as guides. One who professed himself familiar with the country, became con- fused and reported himself lost. Clark informed him that he suspected treachery, and that unless he found the road which he had professed to know of within two hours, he should suffer death. The frightened guide fell in a convulsion; the imperturb- able commander announced to the suffering man that his "time was going on." Presently he arose, and after "circling around a few moments found the path."
It was near sunset of the 4th of July, 1778, while halted in a pecan grove about three miles from the village, this little army heard the bell tolling the Angelus, announcing to it that a for- eign city, under a foreign flag, using a foreign language, garri- soned in unknown strength, defended by Great Britain, and suc- cored by a wilderness of savages, lay before it. Crossing the Kaskaskia in the darkness of the night, Clark sent one division of
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
his command to surround the village, while with the other he rapidly ascended the slight eminence upon which stood the fort. Breaking in the gates, with shouts which were the preconcerted signals to the party sent to take possession of the village, Clark stood in the presence of the British commander, Gov. Roche- blave. "The garrison are my prisoners. Give instant orders to destroy no papers or stores, at the peril of your lives," was the first salute the English officer received from his midnight in- truder. The battalion occupying the town dispersed through the several streets, commanding the inhabitants to remain in their houses, and answering each qui vive "the long knives, the long knives!" At daylight Clark sent out a detachment to ar- rest the principal inhabitants, whom he caused to be ironed in the presence of their families, and without explanation to be brought to the fortifications. In the morning Father Pierre Gib- bault waited upon the conquerers to prefer a petition. When ushered into the presence of the Americans, who, unshaven, their clothing spattered with mud and torn with thorns in their march, looked the uncouth ruffians their proceedings had already caused the terrified villagers to believe them. He glanced from one to another inquiringly. At last he asked, " Who is the commander ?" "I am," said the youngest-appearing of the group. " What do you wish?" The good priest, summoning all his English to his aid, said: "By the fortunes of war and through no fault of ours, we are your prisoners. Expecting the most rigorous treatment, I have come to ask one privilege for these poor people." "What is it?" sternly inquired the captor. "In all times of great ca- lamity we have been accustomed," answered the Father, "to par- take of the sacraments in the church. We request, before taking final leave of each other, to be allowed to assemble once more in our church." Clark remained silent a few moments, as if con- sidering the petition; and then said: "I am not ready to answer you yet. Return at noon." The priest retired, and the general gave private orders to have the bell rung at noon as usual. At the appointed hour the priest, with a number of the principal men of the town, appeared at the fort gate. Just then some awk- ward hand began the ringing of the bell in the manner of an alarm. The Father begged to be permitted to return to die with
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
his people. "What do you take us for ?" exclaimed Clark, "sav- ages? that we could put to death a whole village with its women and children? It is to save our wives and families we are here. The United States," he continued, "makes no war on any man's religion. All are free to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. Every one is free to go where he pleases. Those of you who desire to join the enemy shall have safe conduct out of the town; those who desire to remain shall be protected by the whole force of the United States. No sooner had they heard this than joy sparkled in their eyes, and they fell into transports of joy that really surprised me," wrote Clark to George Mason, of Gunston Hall, Virginia. But wherever those sublime words of religious tolerance (then first uttered on the river whose waters forever after sing them) go around this planet, they still bring to the eye "a light never upon sea or land;" to the heart a transport of joy not all the revelations which have parted the clouds can match.
That evening the streets were decked with pavilions and fes- tooned with garlands of flowers, Gen. Clark was escorted to the market place, where, around numerous bonfires and illumina- tions, the priest, this new-found friend of the States, explained the colonies' cause against Great Britain, and there by that savage light these sons of St. Louis lifted their hands in the oath of al- legiance to the republic of Virginia, beyond the eastern mount- ains. All records are challenged to find among our varied population a race more thoroughly patriotic, law-abiding and faithful than these Freuch inhabitants, won in this midnight conquest from beneath the ramparts of an English fort.
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THE CONQUEST OF VINCENNES.
Vincennes still engrossed the thoughts of Clark. He sent for Gibbault, and sought information from the priest as to the obstacles he must overcome to reduce that post. The Father as- sured him, that although secular matters did not pertain to his calling, yet if the General would commit the whole matter to him there need be no further uneasiness, for he might "give them such spiritual advice as would do the business." Accordingly upon the 14th of July, 1778, Gibbault with Dr. La Font as civil
.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
magistrate, Capt. Leonard Helm, representing the military and Moses Henry, interpreter and envoy to the Indians, the peaceful reduction of the post was undertaken. This commission was de- layed upon the route by the reported presence of a war party of Osages, led by Langlade, toward Detroit, and did not arrive at Vincennes until the 1st of August.
Sackville was then garrisoned by the militia under St. Marie Racine. Its magazine was abundantly supplied with munitions of war, and all its approaches protected by recently repaired defenses. Gov. Abbott had, the month before, thoroughly in- spected every part of its equipment and pronounced it impreg- nable against any force likely to be employed against it. He had gone to Detroit to assure the military officer in command there that with a small detail of troops and such Indian allies as could be readily enlisted the rumored demonstrations from the Ohio border must prove futile. The armament, size and location of the fortress have been described elsewhere. Around it · clustered nearly 400 houses, of uniform construction, from St. Jerome (now Perry) Street to Dubois and more densely from St. Peter's (now Broadway) to Church, between St. Honore (Second) and St. Louis (First) Streets. The gate of the fort opened into St. Louis Street at the present intersection with Vigo; the church stood near the northeast corner of the grounds of the present cathedral. On the 6th of August, all being ripe for the coup d'etat, Francis Bosseron, a trader residing at Vincennes, to whom the priest had imparted an account of what had occurred in the Illinois and the purpose of his visit to Vincennes, arose in the church at the close of the services, and in the presence of the de- tained audience, interrogated the holy father so skillfully con- cerning the power of the arms of Virginia and the justice of the colonies' cause against England, that all the assembly were at once inclined to make friends with this new power. "Then," said Bosseron, "why do we delay? Let us show Clark we are his friends; and if Virginia will receive us let us become her sub- jects." LaFont announced that he was authorized to accept their allegiance, and to pledge them the whole power of the con- federate colonies to protect them. Without a word more a roll of citizenship was displayed and each adult, attesting his name in
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
this American doomsday-book, had apportioned to him and his posterity from that time forward the inestimable treasures of civil and religious liberty as members of the great republic. Crowd- ing around the old altar built by the pious hands of Mermet, where Vinsenné had knelt, where Senat had prayed, where St. Ange had partaken of the sacraments, the "ancient inhabitant" repeated after his pastor a vow of fidelity to republican institu- tions, which, even under the persecutions of the mad hours of political and religious intolerance which have since sometimes afflicted the land, has never waned or broken. The assembly with great joy, after electing Helm to command, with drums and instruments of music marched into the fort and received from its willing commander the master keys. In a few hours the glitter- ing stars and blazing stripes climbed the bastions of Sackville and floated out in the summer air to the astonishment of the Indians, who were told that their old father, the French king, had come to life again .*
THE BRITISH OCCUPATION.
The surprised Indians soon conveyed an account of the revo- lution at Vincennes to the authorities at Detroit. Langlade was dispatched to assemble the tribes in the northwest with instruc- tions to rendezvous the 1st of March at L' Arbre Crochet. Lieut .- Gov. Henry Hamilton began preparations for descending by boat from Detroit. In the first week of October, with a company of British soldiers under the immediate command of Maj. Hay, numbering eighty-four, and 100 Indian allies, he set out for the reoccupation of Vincennes, and the destruction of Clark at Kas- kaskia. Suddenly on the morning of the 6th of December, the river was darkened by the fleet of descending batteaux and canoes. Capt. Helm and Indian Agent Henry were the sole occu- pants of Sackville. "Let us prepare for defense," said Helm. "We can make our lives cost them something," replied his com- panion. Pressing from the landing up to the fort gate, which was swung open to reveal the intrepid soldier within, standing by a loaded gun match in hand, the British came to a halt across the line of the street. "I demand the surrender of the works,',
*I hsve in my possession an account rendered hy Francis Bosserun against Col. Clark fer stores furnished and money advanced to the garrison in the summer ef 1778, one item of which translated is as follows: "August 8th paid te Madame Geddare for making the fing, ton livres."_ Author.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
Hamilton said. Helm lifted the burning match and answered, "By heaven! no man enters here until I know the terms." "You shall have the honors of war," said Hamilton. And, then, as the British army, at parade rest, saluted the lowering flag, the officer, with his command of one single man, in military precision marched out of the fortifications.
CLARK'S DESPERATE POSITION.
Clark's position in the Illinois became now untenable. Par- ties were sent out by Hamilton to make him a prisoner by sur- prise, giving directions for his treatment highly creditable to the humanity and generosity of the enemy. The terms of enlistment of the troops from Virginia and Kentucky had expired, and their places were now to be filled by the new citizens gained from conquest. Clark was anxious to hear authentically from Vin- cennes. Francis Vigo, a Sardinian by birth, a trader at the town of St. Louis, a settlement established by St. Ange Belle Rive, after his evacuation of Vincennes, had already rendered inestim- able services to the American army at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, at the former of which places Vigo had a branch store or trading house. When Clark set out from Virginia his sole supply of money consisted of £1,200 in Virginia currency. It was kept at par only by the personal guarantee of Vigo in the Illinois, and Bosseron at Vincennes.
About the holidays, at the request of Col. Clark, Vigo, with one servant, started to ride to Vincennes to obtain information of the situation there. At the Embarrass, nine miles west of the town, he was made prisoner and taken to the fort, where he was kept under strict guard, until upon the demand of the citizens, after about two weeks of incarceration, he was liberated upon parole "to do nothing inimical to Great Britain on his way to St. Louis." He embarked in a pirogue, and passing down the Wabash and Ohio he ascended the Mississippi, passing within a few miles of Kaskaskia, to St. Louis, where, without stopping to exchange greetings, with any one, he re-embarked and proceeded down to Kaskaskia, and communicated to Clark the knowledge of the continued fidelity of the inhabitants to the American cause, the weakness of the garrison, and that Hamilton was expecting Langlade with his Indian forces early in April.
3
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
THE VINCENNES CAMPAIGN.
This news determined Clark at once. He set about raising troops among the villages in the Illinois; and soon the American colors waved above more recruiting stations than ever again seen in these once populous streets, until eighty-three years had brought on its new generations, with undiminished love of the Republic. All preparations had been made. A boat manned by twenty-five men, armed with four pieces of artillery, taken from the fortifications at Kaskaskia, with clothing and provisions, had been dispatched to proceed by water down the Mississippi and up the Ohio or Wabash to the mouth of White River, where it was to meet the land forces upon their march across the country. After a solemn absolution at the church and the bless- ing of these many banners by the priest, on the afternoon of the 4th of February, 1779, this little army, numbering 172, crossed the Kaskaskia River, and began a march the most memorable for its herorism, for its hardships and sacrifices, the most dauntless in the courage of it, and the most important in the cause of inde- pendence and freedom, of greater consequences to the destiny of the American people, of any that made glorious the period of the Revolution. The glory, the majesty of this nation was achieved in the West. Histories have all been written on the sea-board. There will come a time when the splendor of this conquest shall be fully made known to the world, and then Lexington, Bunker Hill, Monmouth and even great Yorktown will be seen of less consequence than the assault of Vincennes.
The companies recruited in the Illinois, were commanded by Capts. McCarty and Francis Charleville. William Worthington, of the Light Horse, had succeeded Capt. Harrod, and Capt. Dillard remained in command of Fort Jefferson, at Kaskaskia. On the 13th the Little Wabash was reached, which although three miles from another stream of that name, was one with it, "the flowed water between them being at least three feet deep, and in many places four: Being near five miles to the opposite hills. This would have been enough to have stoped any set of men that was not in the same temper that we was," says Clark in the letter already quoted from. Three days were consumed in crossing the Little Wabash, and in the evening of
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
the 17th the low lands of the river Embarrass were reached, be- tween which and Vincennes lays a sheet of deep water nine miles in width. Passing down the Embarrass on its southwest side, the Wabash was reached at the point where the Vincennes and St. Francisville road passes nearest the river. The boat with provisions and artillery was delayed; game, which had served as his sole subsistence upon this march of 240 miles, could not be obtained from the watery plain. On the evening of the 23d Clark encamped upon the hills to the south of the elevation known as Buuker Hill, then callel Warrior's Island, and from there despatched by the hands of Gabriel Hunat, whom he had captured at the crossing of the Wabash, the following proclamation:
TO THE INHABITANTS OF POST VINCENNES.
Gentlemen: Being now within two miles of your village with my army, deter- mined to take your fort this night, and not being willing to surprise you. I take this method to request such of yon as are true citizens, and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, to remain still in your houses. And those, if any there be, that are friends to the king, will instantly repair to the fort and fight like men. And if any such as do not go to the fort shall be discovered, they may depend on severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are true friends to liberty may depend on being well treated; an 1 I once more request them to keep out of the streets, for every one I find in arms on my arrival { shall treat him as an enemy.
G. R. CLARK.
Clark anxiously viewed this messenger until he entered the town, and in a few minutes could discover by his glasses, some stir in every street; great numbers were seen running or riding out into the commons to view the invaders. A little before sun- set, Clark took up the line of march in full view of these curious crowds. The commander felt that he was plunging into certain destruction or success-" there was no midway thoughtof." Across the undulating prairie, then filled with long lakes, alternating with ridges seven or eight feet higher than the sunken plain, usu- ally running in an oblique direction, he slowly and silently moved until he reached the elevation just west of the present Catholic Cemetery, behind which he halted. As the young Frenchmen in the command had decoyed and taken several hunters with their horses, while encamped upon Warrior's Island, soldiers were now mounted upon those horses, and rode back and forth upon this elevation "like officers giving their commands," while the various flags, to the number of "ten or twelve pair," presents to the young
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
volunteers from the ladies of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Prairie de Rocher, were displayed upon long poles at different points, as if to mark separate commands. At dark, Capt. Charleville crossed the low ground followed by Willow Street, east of Sixth, and moved to the heights, at Ninth and Vigo; Bowman, with McCarthy and Worthington, taking a position some 200 yards nearer the fort at Sixth and Church. This marching and counter-marching was intended to impress the sentries at Sackville with the strength of the besiegers, but it entirely failed of its purpose. The confi- dent soldiery within Sackville never dreamed of a freak so mad, of a march so impossible, as an assault from the Mississippi at such a season, they did not see a single one of these impressive maneuvers, nor would the inhabitant, faithful to his vow of alle- giance, even hint to the garrison the danger the night would bring to it. At about 8 o'clock that night Clark detailed Lieut. Bagley, with fourteen selected men, to march directly under the fort and open fire upon its port holes.
INVESTMENT OF FORT SACKVILLE.
At the first fire Charleville quickly moved down and took up a position among the houses at the rear of the fort, from whence he opened fire on the barracks. Bowman brought the remainder of the command to the river bank at the foot of Busseron Street. Lieut. Bagley was quickly re-enforced, and the attack was opened upon the front, flank and rear of the fortress. The garrison be- lieved the firing to proceed from a party of drunken Indians, and did not reply. A British soldier was shot down at a port-hole. Capt. Helm, who was a prisoner, sitting with Hamilton, suddenly leaped to his feet and with an oath exclaimed: "That is Clark." Hamilton ordered the drums sounded, and the long roll of alarm emptied the barracks of the men, who, passing over the parade to reach the port-holes, became a fair mark for Charleville's French company, now largely recruited, in spite of Clark's objec- tions, by the young men of the village. The boat containing the precious stores of ammunition and food still lay somewhere in the lower rivers, and the besiegers, famishing for food, were al- most without ammunition. But fortunately it had been a short time before circulated that all the goods in the town were to be taken by Hamilton for the king's use.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
Col. LeGras and Maj. Bosseron had succeeded in burying the greater part of their stores of powder and ball. These were now produced by their patriotic owners and given to Clark. The In- dian chief Tobaccos mustered thirty of his warriors, came to Clark, and said: "Let these young men go to the front. They will climb in." Clark thanked him for his friendly disposition, and assured him that he was strong enough without assistance; that there were a great many Indian enemies in and near the town, and in the darkness confusion was likely to occur; but he hoped that the chief would give him his company and counsel during the night, which was agreeable to the Indian.
In the meantime the women were busy cooking a breakfast for the hungry Americans, which was the next morning distrib- uted in the "street behind the Church, the first food we had tasted," says Clark, "for two days." All night long the firing continued, the cannon of the fort shattering the houses, but almost useless against woodsmen covered by houses, palings, ditches, and the banks of the river. The embrasures of their cannon had to be frequently shut, for the trained riflemen among the besiegers learned from the flash their location, and made the working of these guns extremely hazardous. Two of the Amer- ican troops were wounded in this night attack, while the enemy suffered the loss of seven-three killed and four wounded. The besiegers sought to aggravate the garrison into opening these port-holes; if successful, instantly fifty rifles would be leveled at the opening. Sometimes an irregular fire, as hot as possible, was kept up for a few minutes, and then only a continual scatter- ing fire at the ports as usual, and a great noise and laughter im- mediately commenced from all parts of the town, as if the firing was by parties regularly relieved. Bowman began the entrench- ment of his position by a line along Main Street, and prepared to blow up the magazine when the artillery should arrive from some works constructed on the river bank at Vigo. Capt. La Motte, with twenty hostile Indians, hovered about the town try- ing to make his way into the fort, to re-enforce Hamilton. Par- ties sought to surprise him. A few of his forces were taken, among them Maisonville. Two French lads of the village brought him down to the intersection of Main and First Streets,
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