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 5
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 5
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
and tied him in the street, and taking their places behind him for a breastwork, opened fire upon the posts. Being discovered by an officer, they were ordered to untie their prisoner and take him to the guard, which they did. "But," says Clark, "they took part of his scalp on the way." A little before daylight the troops were withdrawn from their positions about the fort, except a few parties of observation, and these were instructed by Clark to make no alarm if La Motte and his party approached, as it was the design of Clark to get all the active forces, if possible, within the walls. And although the garrison was provisioned for a month, and this re-enforcement would count heavily against the weak besiegers, he confidently believed he could force a surren- der. In ten minutes La Motte and his followers entered the fort by ladders flung from the inside. As they mounted the walls, the concealed Americans who had witnessed the approach set up a shout, which so terrified the re-enforcers, that many of them fell to the ground, some inside and some out. Immediately, the whole line moved to the assault, and a continual blaze outlined the walls in flame, until the rising sun made every part of the fort a target, and the use of the cannons through the ports an impossibility. At 9 o'clock, while the starving men were being fed from the viands at the hands of the village ladies, Clark sent a flag with the following letter to Hamilton:
Sir :- In order to save yourself from the impending storm that now threat- ens you, I order you to immediately surrender yourself, with all your garrison, stores, etc., etc. For if I am obliged to storm, you may depend on such treat- ment as is justly due to a murderer. Beware of destroying stores of any kind, or letters that are in your possession, or hurting one house in town-for, hy Heavens ! if you do, there shall be no mercy shown you.
G R. CLARK.
The British commandant returned the following answer:
Lieut .- Gov. Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Col. Clark that he and his gar- rison are not disposed to be awed into any action unworthy British subjects.
The firing continued until toward evening, resulting in the wounding of three others within the fort. At 4 o'clock Hamilton sent a flag of truce to Clark with the following proposals:
Lieut .- Gov. Hamilton proposes to Col. Clark a truce for three days, during which time he promises there shall be no defensive works carried on in the gar- rison, on condition that Col. Clark shall observe on his part a like cessation of any defensive work; that is, he wishes to confer with Col. Clark as soon as can be, and promises that whatever may pass between them two, and another person
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
mutually agreed upon to be present, shall remain secret till matters be finished, as he wishes that whatever the result of the conference may be, it may tend to the honor and credit of each party. If Col. Clark makes a difficulty of coming into the fort, Lieut .- Gov. Hamilton will speak to him by the gate.
February 24, 1779.
HENRY HAMILTON.
Within three days the delayed boat would certainly arrive, yet so confident was Clark of his mastery of the situation that he determined to press his present advantage to the utmost. He returned the following answer to Hamilton's note:
Col. Clark's compliments to Lieut .- Gov. Hamilton and begs leave to inform him that he will not agree to any terms other than Mr. Hamilton surrendering himself and garrison prisoners at discretion. If Mr. Hamilton is desirous of a conference with Col. Clark, he will meet him at the church with Capt. Helm.
The conference occurred at the church. Gov. Hamilton and Maj. Hay, superintendent of Indian affairs upon the part of the British, and Col. Clark and Maj. Bowman, representing the American forces, with the prisoner, Capt. Helm, mutually selected as a witness. Hamilton produced articles of surrender, providing that the officers and men should be permitted to go to Pensacola on parole. Clark rejected the articles as a whole, and refused to propose any terms except to repeat the demand for an uncondi- tional surrender, already made. He said to Hamilton, "Your troops have behaved with spirit; they cannot suppose they will be worse treated in consequence of it. If you choose to comply with my demand, though hard, perhaps the sooner the better. It is in vain for you to make any proposition to me; you must by this time be sensible that the garrison will fall, and we must both view all blood spilt in the future by the garrison, as murder. My troops are already impatient and demand permission to tear down and storm the fort, and in such an event it will be out of the power of an American officer to save a single man." Capt. Helm interposed to soften the terms demanded. Clark said to him, " You are a British prisoner, and I doubt whether you can with propriety speak on the subject." "He is from this moment liberated and may use his pleasure," said Hamilton. "I cannot receive him on such terms. He must return to the garrison and await his fate," returned Clark. Clark then informed Hamilton that hostilities should not be resumed until five minutes after the drums gave the alarm. And thereupon the conference was declared at an end. A few steps outside of the church, Hamilton
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
asked Clark's reasons for refusing to surrender except at discretion. Clark replied, "I desire an excuse for putting to death some Indian partisans now within the fort. The cries of the widows and the fatherless on the frontiers now demand their blood at my hands. I will not be so timorous as to disobey the absolute com- mands of their authority, which I look upon as little less than divine. I would rather lose fifty men than not to empower myself to execute this piece of business with propriety. If you choose to risk the massacre of your garrison for the sake of these, it is your own pleasure. I may take it into my head to send for some of those widows to see justice executed." Maj. Hay quickly asked, " Pray, sir, who is it that you call Indian partisans?" "Sir," replied Clark, "I take Maj. Hay to be one of the principal." Pale and trembling, Hay sank back abashed, while his commander blushed.
THE CAPITULATION OF THE ENGLISH.
From that moment Clark's stern purpose relaxed. Sympathy for the gallantry of Hamilton softened the hard fate in store for the doomed fort. In the course of the afternoon of the 24th the following articles of capitulation were signed:
I. Lieut .- Gov. Hamilton engages to deliver up to Col. Clark Fort Sackville as it is at present, with all the stores, etc.
II. The garrison are to deliver themselves as prisoners of war, and march out with their arms and'accoutrements, etc.
III. The garrison are to be delivered up at 10 o'clock to-morrow.
IV. Three days time to be allowed the garrison to settle their accounts with the inhabitants and traders of this place.
V. The officers and garrison to be allowed their necessary baggage, etc.
Signed at Post St. Vincent, 24th of February, 1779. Agreed for the follow- ing reasons: The remoteness from succor; the state and quantity of provisions, etc .; unanimity of officers and men in its expediency; the honorable terms allowed; and, lastly, the confidence in a generous enemy.
HENRY HAMILTON,
Lieutenant- Governor and Superintendent.
Thus fell the strong fortress of Sackville; and on the 25th of February, 1779, with all of its dependencies, with all it repre- sented in territorial command, since carved into five free and independent States, with over 10,000,000 of people, passed to the possessions of the United States. Seventy-nine prisoners, twelve pieces of artillery and stores of the value of £50,000 fell to the captors. The American loss was one killed and three wounded. The British had four killed and nine severely wounded.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
VINCENNES FROM 1779 TO 1800-CEREMONIES OF THE SURRENDER OF SACKVILLE-CAPTURE OF THE ENGLISH FLEET-DISPOSAL OF THE DISTINGUISHED PRISONERS-PROMOTION OF CLARK AND BOWMAN- DEFEAT OF THE DELAWARES-THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COURT- LABALM'S EXPEDITION AND FATE-ATTACK OF THE PEORIAS-THE PURSUIT AND DEFEAT-BEAUTIFUL PEN-PICTURE OF VINCENNES.
THE ceremonies by which the post of Vincennes was again transferred to a foreign power occurred at 10 o'clock on the 25th of February, 1779. At that hour two companies, under Capts. Bowman and McCarthy, paraded along St. Louis Street on the left of the fort gate. The British ensign was slowly hoisted upon the staff above Sackville, while the American drums rolled a salute to its honor and to the courage of those who had defended it. When the drums ceased Hamilton ordered the flag lowered, and at the head of his command, just outside of the fort, stepped up to Clark and presented his sword: Col. Clark, at the head of Capts. Williams' and Worthington's companies, passed into the gate, followed by the color bearer, Nicholas Cardinal. As the Americal flag arose above this stronghold, all the fort guns were discharged in salute, followed by thirteen shots -one for each State-at intervals of a minute. Just at the last fire a battery magazine, containing twenty-six six-pound cartridges exploded, seriously wounding Bowman, Worthington and four privates.
CAPTURE OF THE ENGLISH FLEET.
Clark had received intelligence that a fleet from Detroit, with provisions and re-enforcements, was hourly due, and Capts. Helm and Henry and Maj. Legare were empowered to take fifty of the militia and proceed up the river to intercept the flotilla. A proc- lamation was prepared, duly rendered into the French language, and posted, calling for fifty volunteers from among the inhabitants for this expedition. In less than two hours after its appearance more than twice that number appeared, pressing to be employed
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
upon that service. On the afternoon of the 26th, with three boats, each armed with a swivel taken from the fort, with Bowman in command, the expedition started. At the foot of the island, near Bellgrade, on the evening of the 28th, Bowman tied his boats under the overhanging willows, and sent out a party in light ca- noes to explore the river above and give notice of the descent of the enemy. At Point Coupee, about sunrise the next morning, the descending fleet, consisting of seven batteaux (a long, flat- bottomed craft), was discovered. Frederick Mehl, one of the Virginia troops, who led the reconnoitering party, pulled rapidly back to Bowman and gave information of the strength of the ap- proaching fleet. On the evening of the 2d of March the unsus- pecting Canadians came into the narrow channel, between the island and main shore, where the American boats lay in ambush. A cry to " round to and come ashore" was the first intimation the party from Detroit received that an enemy lay in these waters of the king. The hail was quickly followed by a shot across the path of the descending fleet, and a demand for a surrender. Bowman sent out boats with Maj. Legare, who ordered those in charge to take out a line and make fast to the shore. When this was done, Adimar, a captain of the commissary, who was in com- mand, formally turned over the fleet, with thirty-eight private soldiers as prisoners, and all its stores of provisions and bale- goods, estimated to be of the value of $25,000. Among those on board was Mr. De Jean, the grand judge of Detroit, who, with a Mr. André, also of the party, was interested in the goods taken. On the 5th, with songs and shouts, calling the entire village, men and women, to the shore, this naval expedition, with its valuable prizes in tow, entered the long stretch above the town. Every- body became wild with excitement and zeal. The women ran more than a mile up the river, to be first to meet and convey the heroes into the town. Men waded and swam out into the river to be the first to hear the details, while a volley of queries from the shore was answered by good-natured, boasting replies. This display of prowess, and its rich fruits, kindled a flame. The love of distant adventure, the chivalrous courage of the French- man, which, in after years, led a great host to the shadow of the pyramids, was aroused, until it conceived the recovery of Quebec.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
Through the humble streets of this little village in the forest went the demand to be led against Detroit, in that same sublime confidence which, upon a Sunday morning nearly one hundred years afterward, filled all Paris with the cry: "A Berlin dans huit jours."*
DISPOSAL OF THE DISTINGUISHED PRISONERS.
On the 7th Capt. Williams and Lieut. Rogers with a detail of twenty-five men, having in charge the following distinguished prisoners, were sent by water to the Ohio Falls, Lieut .- Gov. Henry Hamilton, Maj. John Hay, Capt. LaMotte, Lieut. Shiflin, Monsieur De Jean, the grand judge of Detroit; Pierre André, his partner ; Dr. McEboth, Francis Maisonville and Mr. Bell Fenilb, together with eighteen privates. Lieut. Rogers had orders to conduct these prisoners to Williamsburgh, where, on the 18th of June, 1779, by order of the governor of Virginia, Hamilton, Hay, La- Motte and De Jean were "put into irons, confined in the dungeon of the public jail, debarred the use of pen, ink and paper and excluded all converse except with their keeper," and were so kept until the 29th of the following September, when they were ordered to Hanover Court House, where they were released on a parole to remain within certain limits. The order dispatching these prisoners was issued from "Fort Patrick Henry," the new name Clark had conferred upon Sackville in honor of the great orator of the Revolution.
CLARK'S PROMOTION AND SUBSEQUENT ACTS.
On the 27th of February, two days after the surrender, the batteau, which had preceded Clark from Kaskaskia, arrived, bear- ing William Myers, an express from Gov. Henry, who had been picked up on the Ohio. He carried dispatches assuring Clark of re-enforcements, and promoting, by commissions, Clark and Bow- man, the first to be a general and the other to be a major. The Indians now began to come into the town in large delegations to obtain some explanation of this surprising revolution. The Puans and Miamis waited upon Clark, and speaking, as they claimed, for all their brothers, assured him of their fidelity to the
*" To Berlin in eight days"-the shout of the Parisian populace in 1870, upon the arrival of the news of the discourtesy offered Louis Napoleon by the Emperor of Germany at Ems -Wash- burne.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
American cause and asked to be included in his protection. The privates taken on the boats with De Jean were now drawn up in line, as if preparatory to sending them to Virginia: Clark then addressed them to the effect that he had learned that many of them were torn from their fathers and mothers and forced on this expedition; others, ignorant of the true cause in contest, had en- gaged from a principal that actuates a great number of men, that of being fond of enterprise, that the United States are very strong, and instead of confining them in jail during the war, they should be privileged to return to Detroit in the boats in which they had come, and which they were to accept as a present.
On the 20th of March Clark appointed Lieut. Richard Brashears to command the garrison, which consisted of Lieuts. Bagley and Chapline; Capt. Leonard Helm, commandant of the town; Moses Henry, Indian agent; Patrick Kennedy, quarter- master, and forty picked men, and upon that same day set sail on board his galley, now made complete, attended by five armed boats and seventy men, for Fort Clark, at Kaskaskia, where he arrived to the great joy of Capt. George, who had succeeded Dillard.
ATTACK ON THE DELAWARES.
At the junction of the two forks of White River, there was settled a fragment of the Delaware nation of Indians, having their hunting grounds on the Ohio and Mississippi. Professing great friendship for the Americans upon their first arrival, they had entered into articles of peace with every manifestation of sincerity. About the 1st of May a party of five traders proceeding to the falls from Vincennes, were ambushed, killed and plundered by a party of these Delawares. Clark determined to make this conduct an example to all the other Indians by whom he was sur- rounded. Accordingly he sent orders to Vincennes to make war on the Delawares. A night attack upon the Indian village proved a complete surprise, many were killed, and others brought to the town and put to death, the woman and children only being spared. The effect of this prompt and plenary retaliation was in- stantly apparent everywhere, in the demeanor of the savages.
A COURT ESTABLISHED. On the 18th of May Col. John Todd, who had been created
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
lieutenant for the county of Illinois, arrived at Vincennes and organized a court consisting of Col. Le Gras, Louis Edeline, Pierre Gamelin, Pierre Quersez and Le Grand, who became its clerk. This court seemed to conceive its functions were sover- eign, and included the right to execute grants of the soil. Even in those days so tempting were the public lands that frauds were openly committed. This court granted to its own members over 12,000 acres of the common domain, the member to be ben- efited by the grant absenting himself from the sessions of the court upon the day it was entered, that the act might appear to be that of his fellows, in which he had taken no part.
LA BALM'S UNFORTUNATE EXPEDITION.
In August, 1780, Louis La Balm, who had served with St. Ange at St. Louis, crossed the Mississippi with a small band of adventurers and began to recruit at Cahokia a company for the reduction of the British post at Detroit. In a few days fifty brave spirits had enlisted under his banner, when he proceeded to Vin- cennes to obtain further recruits. On the 22d La Balm embarked upon the Wabash for the town of the Miamis (Fort Wayne), where he arrived on the 3d of September, and at once began to pillage the stores of the English traders stationed there. After securing what booty the town offered he encamped at the mouth of the river Aboite, where, on the night of the 3d of September, a party of savages led by one of the British merchants, who had been plundered, crawled stealthily through the long grass, almost to the encampment. Rembault, who had joined La Balm at Vin- cennes, discovered the approach of the foe, and gave a shout of alarm to his sleeping companions, and the next instant fell dead, cleaved with a tomahawk. The assault was so successful that the commander and forty-one of his followers were killed outright, while twelve were taken prisoners, and reserved for the more hor- rible fate of torture.
THE PEORIA ATTACK AND PURSUIT.
On the 4th of April, 1785, a band of Peorias, numbering sixty warriors, crossed the Wabash below Fort Patrick Henry, and proceeded to the River Duchee, where they encamped. Just
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
before daylight the next morning the cabin inhabited by a settler named Latroumelle, with his wife and two children, was attacked from the heavy woods surrounding the clearing in which stood the dwelling, and the roof fired. In a few moments the doors were broken in, Latroumelle killed and scalped, and the woman and children made prisoners. The Indian party then proceeded toward the Wabash, passing, without discovering it, a camp of two hunters, who immediately set out upon their ponies to give the alarm at Vincennes. By 9 o'clock the whole populace as- sembled in answer to the alarm given by the church bell. About eighty men hastily mounted, and under the leadership of Capt. John Small, proceeded down the west bank of the Wabash until they struck the trail of the retreating Indians, below the mouth of the Embarrass. Following the trail northwest to Blue Spring, near the south bank of the Embarrass, they came upon the sav- ages encamped about sunset. Small so disposed of his forces as to completely surround the party on three sides, with the river obstructing retreat upon the other. At a signal the whites opened fire upon the camp from every available tree, killing eleven, and wounding four so severely that they were left behind by their re- treating friends, who plunged into the Embarrass and swam out of harm. After tomahawking the wounded Indians Small caused their bodies to be thrown into the stream. The woman, with her two children taken from the cabin, was found bound to a tree, still unharmed. Small's party suffered a loss of two killed, An- toine Lafont and Ettrinne Patvin, and three wounded.
BEAUTIFUL PEN-PICTURE OF OLD VINCENNES.
The sea-board States poured their overflow, a restless, battling swarm of home-hunters, through the notches of the Alleghanies out upon the vast savannahs northwest of the Ohio. As the curtain rose, back of the dissolving line of untamed savages, the advancing Saxon and Celt, who in his American home, was un- accustomed to habitations within hail one with another, beheld with awe the mystery of Latin civilization upon the Wabash. Vincennes, a puzzle, a mystery, a curious thing, a marvel, "a page torn from some book of enchantment." A bit of Europe, a fragment from the gardens of Versailles, suddenly dropped in
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
his path, could scarce have awakened more of his astonishment. Long lines of gleaming white houses thatched with yellow straw, each with its arcade festooned with trailing vines and half hidden in season under the bloom of peach and pear, radiated like the spokes from the center of a wheel from a vast square, from which arose the frowning walls of a citadel, overlooking a belfried church; and a necropolis, entombing a century's dead, stood against his horizon, so unlike all his experience in the woods, so like a dream, a story of a vision, it seemed the work of magic. Its streets thronged with brightly dressed, dark eyed women, who familiarly chatted in the soft accents of a strange tongue with beaux who might have donned their dress in sunny France, so elegant it seemed; its stores crowded with island sweetmeats, silks and ribbons, flowers, laces, and fine cloths from the famous factories and looms of the world; upon the water floated vessels modeled upon the Seine, and the Loire, all presented a panorama of never ceasing wonder. Did he mingle with these strange people, their balls, festivals, holidays, saints' days; their fasts, penances and mortifications were inscrutable. In the church of Christ, the altar blazing with lights, before which robed priests chanted Latin prayers, and intoned the music of the uncompre- hended mass, bewildered while it enchanted his senses. Under such influnces, held as in the grip of a vice by race and religious prejudice, hard, dominant, alert, grasping and discourteous, as if thrown by a troubled sea of population upon its outer shore, as it slowly stilled from the great storm of revolution, fell the first adventurers of the English speaking race upon the ancient French habitan. And what of the Gaul and his beautiful civil- ization ? His race has withered away with its red companion, but the soft, elegant passion-subduing civilization, the tenderness of his creed, the sublimity of his devotions, the fortitude of his charity, his faithfulness and his joy, are all woven thick in the web and warp of "the cloth of gold," whereon American majesty impresses the world.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
CHAPTER V .*
GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY-THE SECTION OF STRATA-THE MEROM SAND- STONE-THE COALS-LOCAL DETAILS-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS- FOSSILS-LIMESTONE AND SANDSTONE-ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS -ANALYSIS OF COALS.
T
THE county of Knox is bounded north by Sullivan and Greene, east by Daviess, south by Pike and Gibson, and west by Illinois, and comprises about 540 square miles. White and Wabash Rivers, with their small tributaries, drain the entire county. Springs of good water abound, and eligible mill-sites are not infrequent. The bottoms along the rivers are from one to three miles wide, and are of surprising fertility, while back still farther are benches or terraces of gravel and fluviatile drift, former flood-planes of the river. A connected section of the county is as follows:
Soil and drift. varying.
Red and white soft ferriferous sandstone-the Merom and Fort Knox stone. 30 to 80 ft.
Shale and clod .2 to 8 ft.
Bituminous limestone. 3 ft.
Black coaly slate 1 to 4 ft.
Coal, rash 2 in. to $ ft.
Fire clay. 2 ft.
Flaggy sandstone with seams of limestone. to 23 ft.
Argillaceous or bituminous limestone. 4 to 6 ft.
Black slate and cannel coal. to 3 ft.
Caking coal N. (?). 2 in. to 1} ft.
Fire clay. .2} ft.
Gray argillaceous flaggy sandstone, sometimes
changing to limestone. 30 to 80 ft.
Yellow quarry sandstone. 4 to 23 ft.
Coal M, fat and caking. 2 to 4} ft.
Fire clay. 1 to 4} ft.
Gray sandy shales, or hardened soapstone, some- times changing to limestone 21 to 35 ft.
Black slate, soft and soapy. .8 in.
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