USA > Indiana > The history of Indiana > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
67
CLARK CAPTURES VINCENNES
was no real hurry and Clark made the mistake, almost fatal, of reaching the Wabash before his gunboat, the "Willing," could reach its destination. As soon as the little army got clear of the settlements, discipline was relaxed, and for a week there was more the appearance of a hunting party than of serious war.
The troops left Kaskaskia February 5 and in ten days reached the Embarrass, near where Lawrence- ville, Illinois, now stands. They found this river im- passable and, turning to the right, struck the Wabash eight or ten miles below Vincennes. The commander of the "Willing" found the Wabash at flood and the main current, which he had to follow on account of the timber, very swift. It was thus impossible to get to the appointed rendezvous on time. In the meantime Clark's army was reduced to the point of despair. The bottom lands were drowned and there were no boats. While the men were making dugouts, preparatory to crossing the river, some Frenchmen from Vincennes, presumably duck hunters, were captured-or very probably they were Clark's friends. With the canoes thus captured and the dugouts they had built, the men crossed over to the east side of the Wabash. This was on February 22. Except for one deer, the army had had no provisions for three days. The horses had either been killed or left on the Illinois side of the Wa- bash. In vain did Colonel Clark send down the river to learn tidings of his boat. He had hoped to reach Vincennes by a half-day's march after crossing the Wabash ; but now an endless waste of water was all his eyes could see, with here and there at intervals of three or four miles the crests of hills rising above the flood. The Frenchmen discouraged Clark's men by saying that it was utterly impossible to get to Vincennes without boats. Something, however, had to be done, so the little army set out in Indian file, Clark in the van, Bowman in the rear, and after wading three miles in water
68
HISTORY OF INDIANA
waist deep, reached a few acres of dry land and camped for the night. There was not a bite to eat. Morning brought only a renewal of the toilsome struggle. This day's march led them through a growth of underbrush almost covered with water, which made the wading doubly difficult. Finally they came to a place where the water gradually deepened. The men in the dugouts reported it too deep to wade. There was no hope in return. The men gathered around their commander, and it seemed their expedition was at an end. Colonel Clark hestitated only for a moment, then pouring out some powder in his hand, wet it, blackened his face, and in desperate mockery gave the Indian war-whoop as he plunged into the water. His followers struck up a song. The water was already up to their chins, when some of the soldiers, perhaps Frenchmen who were well acquainted with the land, found a path with their feet. This led them over the highest ground, thus enabling them to wade to a hill on which was an old sugar camp. Here they found half an acre of dry land on which they camped for the night. Their courage was well nigh gone. There was no food and the night was cold.
The morning sun rose bright and clear. Instead of breakfast the men listened to a spirited appeal from their captain. Vincennes was in sight but separated from them by six miles of water, covered in many places by a thin crust of ice. Clark did not wait for parley, but when he had finished his harangue, drew his sword and led the way. The water was shoulder deep. There were no trees nor brush to support the weakened soldiers. Major Bowman, with twenty Vir- ginians, instructed to put to death any man who re- fused to march, brought up the rear. The lake before them was the Horseshoe Plain, four miles wide, covered with three or four feet of water. On the other side was a forest. Toward this the soldiers worked their
69
CLARK CAPTURES VINCENNES
way. The canoes and dugouts plied along the line picking up the weakest. Each strong man was sup- porting a weaker. Finally they reached the timber only to find the water deeper. A few of the staunchest were able to make this last short distance, where the water came to their chins. The others clung to trees and logs till they were picked up by the boats. Many when out of the water were unable to stand. The leaders built fires as soon as they reached the land, and as the others came ashore they were alternately exercised and warmed until they regained their strength. To add to their good fortune, a canoe in charge of some squaws was seen and overhauled. Some buffalo meat, tallow, corn and kettles to cook them in were thus obtained, and a light meal of broth prepared. The spirits of the soldiers revived with the passing of the danger. Vincennes lay in full view across a nar- row plain.
The lower parts of this intervening plain were cov- ered with water. Some Frenchmen were out on the water shooting ducks. A party of Clark's creoles brought into camp one of these fowlers, from whom Clark learned the conditions at Vincennes. So far, the coming of the Americans had not been discovered. There were about 200 white men in Vincennes and an equal number of Indian warriors. The situation as it presented itself to Clark was not without difficulty. An indiscriminate attack on the town would throw all its inhabitants together into an opposing force more than double the Americans. A surprise was risky even if it could be effected. It would leave those who sym- pathized with the Americans, and Clark knew they were numerous, in doubt as to what to do.
Clark did the only sensible thing under the cir- cumstances. He sent a letter by the captured fowler to his friends in Vincennes, apprising them of his arrival and warning them to keep off the streets and out of
70
HISTORY OF INDIANA
the way of harm until he captured the fort. The tone of his letter led them to believe that there was no doubt of his success. Under these conditions it seems no one took either the trouble or the risk of Clark's dis- pleasure to warn the garrison.
Clark immediately marshalled his little battalion and followed close upon his messenger. By the time the curious creoles had gathered at the edge of the town to see if the report was really true, Clark was marching into the town. The attacking column formed in two divisions. One under Bowman marched direct to Fort Sackville and shut up the garrison. The other, under Clark himself, took possession of the town. The Frenchmen, referred to by Clark as prisoners, acted as guides, and every movement was carried out with pre- cision.
Fort Sackville, it is thought, stood near the river bank between the present Vigo and Barnet streets, facing St. Xavier church, which stood in what is now Church street. The fort was in a good state of defense except for a garrison. The French militia, on whom Hamilton had largely depended, now deserted him.
The first division of the Americans took up a posi- tion in front of the main gate of the fort, where, under cover of darkness, they hastily threw up a barricade. The other Americans took up their positions cautiously around the fort, and a desultory fire was kept up on the blockhouses throughout the night. After dawn the battle opened in good earnest. The accurate fire of the frontiersmen, many of whom were only fifty yards from the fort, prevented the British from manning their guns, and after six or eight men had been hit they gave it up entirely. The French militia now joined the Americans boldly. The Piankeshaw chief also offered to aid Clark with 200 warriors, but the offer was courteously declined, although Clark availed him- self of the chief's counsel during the night. About
71
EFFECTS OF THE CAPTURE
nine o'clock in the morning, February 24, Clark sent in a demand for surrender. While this flag of truce was passing, Clark's men ate breakfast, which was kindly furnished them by the women of Vincennes. Hamilton, who was no coward, promptly refused the demand for an unconditional surrender.
In the afternoon the spirits of the British began to fail. The superior marksmanship of the back-woods- men was telling on the garrison. Hamilton had only about sixty trusty British regulars, the rest being De- troit volunteers. Of the regulars, eight or ten were already killed or wounded. With his garrison half mutinous and an assault on the works imminent, Ham- ilton sent out a flag to ask for terms. A conference followed at the church. While this was being held, some Indians, who had been captured a few hours be- fore, were led down the street to the river bank in front of the fort gate, tomahawked and their bodies thrown into the river. The miserable wretches had been taken red-handed as they returned from a scalp- ing raid to Kentucky. Their brutal butchery by Clark's men is not to be condoned, but the sight of it completely unnerved Hamilton, and terms of surrender were quickly arranged. Thus culminated one of the romantic exploits of the Revolution. Its results have been as far-reaching as those of any other achievement of that war save the achievement of Independence itself.
Historians have not failed to point out the great advantage which the capture of Vincennes gave to our peace commissioners at the Treaty of Paris, but they have neglected to emphasize its immediate effect on the Revolutionary War itself by completely breaking up the British campaign for 1779. The city of Savan- nah had just been stormed and a British base of opera- tions established there. Agents from this place had gone among the southern Indians and raised them against the back settlements. Arms and other supplies
72
HISTORY OF INDIANA
of war, to the value of $100,000, had been sent to the Cherokees, who were making their war camp at Chicka- mauga. From the north, Hamilton had come down from Detroit, had recaptured Vincennes and was spending the winter there repairing the fort. He re- garded Clark as a mere frontier raider, who, in the presence of an organized force, would offer about as much resistance as Helm had at Vincennes. This was his fatal mistake. He had sent most of his soldiers among the tribes to prepare for the big council of all the western Indians, from the Chickasaws and the Cherokees on the south to the Menominees and Ottawas on the north, to be held in the spring at the mouth of the Tennessee. With a force of 1,000 Indians and British, provided with brass cannon to batter down the stockade forts in the valley, Hamilton intended to sweep up the Ohio, break up the settlements of Ken- tucky, capture Pittsburgh and devastate the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania. At the same time a British army would advance from the south. Thus, with Howe at Philadelphia, they would attack Penn- sylvania and Virginia on all sides and end the war. Virginia never did herself more honor than when these dangers hovered on her borders. While one of her sons drove Howe to the seacoast at New York, another, Col. Isaac Shelby, gathered up a small army and fell upon the Cherokee camp at Chickamauga, destroying all their stores, killing many warriors and demoralizing the tribe; a third, as has been noted, captured the British general, Hamilton, at Vincennes. Not only did the winter campaigns of Clark and Shelby save the frontier from Indian depredations and allow the back- woodsmen to fight at King's Mountain and Cowpens, but it kept open the western way to New Orleans, whence many of the supplies for the Virginia troops came.
Colonel Clark learned from his captives that a de-
73
HAMILTON'S SUPPLIES CAPTURED
tachment of Hamilton's troops was already on its way to Vincennes with a large amount of stores for the Indian council at the mouth of the Tennessee and for the ensuing campaign. The next day after the sur- render, February 26, he sent fifty men in three boats up the river to intercept this party before it should learn the fate of the garrison at Vincennes. The com- mand was given to Captain Helm, but most of the men were Vincennes militia under their own officers, Francis Bosseron and J. M. P. Legras. They advanced rapidly for about one hundred and twenty miles, when the scouts announced the approach of the enemy. These latter, commanded by a commissary named Adhemar, were surprised in camp at night and then taken with- out a struggle. There were forty of the British in seven boats and fifty of the Americans in three. The mails from Detroit, with dispatches to Hamilton, were all captured, showing that the surprise was complete. There was great rejoicing among the creoles when the party returned. The captured stores were valued at $50,000.
Clark was thinking seriously of continuing his march against Detroit; and, but for the prisoners with which he was encumbered, might have made the at- tempt. The prospect of success was encouraging. There were only eighty soldiers in the dilapidated fort at Detroit. The Indians were overawed. The citizens prepared a public feast when they heard that Hamil- ton was captured, and they laid up stores against the time when Clark should make his appearance at their post. Clark thought it best, however, not to risk all in a desperate venture that was not absolutely neces- sary.
On March 7 Hamilton and eighteen other British prisoners were sent to Virginia and the rest of the captured men were either paroled or voluntarily took the oath of allegiance. Forty men, under Lieut. Rich-
74
HISTORY OF INDIANA
ard Brashers, were left to garrison Fort Sackville, whose name they changed to Fort Patrick Henry ; Cap- tain Helm was made civil commandant of the town. With the rest of his troops, Colonel Clark embarked on his little fleet for Kaskaskia, March 20, 1779.
It is extremely unfortunate that Clark was unable to capture Detroit at this time. The long, bloody Indian wars that followed, lasting twenty-five years, are in- separably connected with the British occupation of that post. The Miami Indians might have been saved had it not been for British interference. As it was, their minds were poisoned against the Americans so much that they fought until they were ruined.3
§ 15 CIVIL GOVERNMENT UNDER VIRGINIA
AN account of Clark's victory at Kaskaskia reached Virginia in October, 1778. On the recommendation of the governor all the lands northwest of the Ohio were organized as the county of Illinois. John Todd, Jr., was chosen county lieutenant to establish the authority of Virginia in the new conquest. He reached Kaskaskia in May, 1779, soon after Clark returned from his cam- paign against Vincennes. His instructions required him to show every possible respect to the French and cultivate the good will of the Indians. He had no authority either to make grants of land to settlers or purchase it from Indians. He was to give the people
3 The best source for the details of Clark's Campaign is the George Rogers Clark Papers, published 1912, by the Illinois State Historical Library, Prof. James Alton James, of Northwestern University, editor. In this volume are all the papers relating to Clark's campaign. Good accounts are by William H. English, The Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio; by Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West; Dunn, Indiana ; and numerous authors of lesser note. Mann Butler, History of Kentucky, and Humphrey Marshall, History of Kentucky, both wrote while many of Clark's soldiers were living. Roosevelt used some traditional evidence in his account.
75
GOVERNMENT UNDER VIRGINIA
all the self-government compatible with military occu- pation and their exposed position.
Soon after his arrival, perhaps in June, he ordered an election. The details of this early election would be interesting, but we do not have them. In June, either by this election or by appointment, a civil and criminal court was constituted at Vincennes. Col. J. M. P. Legras and Maj. Francis Bosseron were the lead- ing citizens at Vincennes. The former became com- mandant of the post, while the latter, who was the wealthiest of the inhabitants, ruled the council or court, as it was called. The chief activity of the command- ant as well as the court was to make grants of land, especially to the new settlers, many of whom followed in Clark's wake. This power was not conferred on court or commandant, as has been stated, and its use soon led to trouble. Lieutenant Todd soon returned to Virginia on business of the new government, leaving the French to carry on their government to their own liking. There is no evidence that he was ever in Vin- cennes. 4
Left without the support of the Virginians, the government at the French posts rapidly melted away into anarchy. There was no power to regulate the In- dian trade and the visits of the Indians were the occasions for drunken debauchery and robbery. The usual results followed. The outraged Indians meted out their vengeance to the exposed farmers. Murders were a daily occurrence. The orderly class of people in the villages undertook to drive the lawless traders away and in the struggle organized government dis- appeared. The trade with Canada was entirely ruined by Clark's success and that with New Orleans soon
4 The Record Book and Papers of John Todd are given in num- ber thirty-five, Fergus Historical Series, edited by Edwin G. Mason, 1890.
76
HISTORY OF INDIANA
ceased because the Indians resorted more and more to Detroit, where they were better treated by the British.
The Virginians flooded the Illinois and Wabash set- tlements with paper money which soon depreciated and became worthless.5 Several of the best friends of the conquerors were financially broken by accepting this in payment for their property. The priests strove to set a barrier to the flood of vice. The letters of Father Gibault to his bishop at Quebec give us a terrible pic- ture for Vincennes. According to him the condition of the little village was much more vicious and lawless than the Miami towns higher up on the Wabash. The Virginia legislature soon realized its own inability to garrison and govern the distant settlements and turned the whole conquest over to the national government, which did not find itself able to furnish a stable admin- istration for the next ten years. During this time the soil of Indiana was devoted to violence and savage wars.
Before leaving this chapter of western history the generous recognition of the services of her soldiers by Virginia must be noted. A beautiful and costly sword, engraved appropriately, was voted the victorious Colonel Clark. Besides this and the formal thanks of the legislature, a tract of land was donated to the little army. The land was selected by Clark, and the other officers appointed for that purpose, on the north bank of the Ohio river just above the Falls. This tract of 150,000 acres, in Clark, Scott and Floyd counties, is known as "Clark's Grant," or the "Illinois Grant." It was the first land surveyed in the State and, with the Vincennes tract, forms the only considerable exception to the general survey in the State. It was divided into lots of 500 acres each. A town site of 1,000 acres was
5 See letter of J. M. P. Legras in the Todd Papers, Fergus His- torical Series, No. 33, p. 198. The French farmers had sold all their produce to Clark for these worthless bills.
77
CLARK'S ARMY
set aside by the State of Virginia and named Clarks- ville. Here the gallant general and many of his men made their homes, and the cities they founded here at the Falls, Louisville, Clarksville, Jeffersonville, are their appropriate monuments.6
6 There is a vast amount of literature on the subject of Clark's conquest, but by far the best is the monograph written by William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1896. There is a good sympathetic account in The Winning of the West, by Theodore Roosevelt. The documents are all given in the George Rogers Clark Papers, edited by James Alton James, 1912, which is the final authority on this period. John B. Dillon, History of Indiana, wrote his accounts from original docu- ments in the Lasselle Collection at Logansport.
CHAPTER IV
CLOSING CAMPAIGNS OF THE REVOLUTION, 1780-1783
§ 16 INDIANS OF INDIANA
A HISTORY of the Indian inhabitants of Indiana can scarcely be kept in geographical bounds, since the In- dians were nomadic in their habits. All the tribes, which, at any time, had their homes on the soil of the State or hunted in its forests, belonged to the Algon- quin stock, unless we except the Mingoes, who were a branch of the Iroquois and had homes for a time in Ohio. It is difficult to form an adequate notion of these primitive peoples. They left no records, and the un- tamed Indians seem to have been a puzzle to the first whites who visited them. Usually morose, calm and cold, they would at times break out into expressions of wrath or grief. Usually they were masters of their feelings, so that they could withstand the severest trials of cold and hunger without a murmur, or, tied to the post of torture, could sing their death-song like martyrs. But at times, such as the death of a chief, or the destruction of their village, they would moan and sob like children.
Their thoughts were primarily of war and the chase. Their senses were keen but their reason rudi- mentary. They believed in sorcery and witchcraft; spirits, friendly and unfriendly, animated everything around them. Powerful giants contended with the forest and dashed to the ground the stalwart oaks. The frost king came down from the north and blew his breath on the grass and trees and they died ; he laid his icy hands on the lakes and rivers and forthwith they
78
79
INDIANS OF INDIANA
were still in death. The shaggy bear sought shelter in the hollow trees; the deer and bison fled from the prairies beyond the reach of the Indian arrow. The pike and trout, at the frost king's approach, withdrew to the deepest pools. The tribes then divided up into small parties who pitched their bark tents in the shelter of some protecting pines. They were fortunate if all escaped death by cold and hunger through the long winter.
Spring brought its bounties of fish, berries and game. The sufferings of the winter were forgotten in the balmy sunshine. But the Indians learned little by experience. Their squaws prepared the fields and planted the corn, beans and pumpkins. In the harvest time they lived care-free, only to meet the coming winter as unprepared as before. Nature was too much for their simple thought and the work of natural forces seemed to them the work of spirits. Their reverent, childlike minds were lost in the confusion.
No Indians made homes in the hunting grounds of Kentucky. It was the border-land of the Cherokees, Miamis and Iroquois. The Miamis, who visited it oftenest, did not dare to take their squaws and papooses there for fear of the hostile Cherokees, whose homes were in the mountain valleys of Tennessee. Likewise they did not make the upper Ohio Valley their home for fear of the predatory Iroquois. But around the west- ern end of Lake Erie, in the valley of the Maumee, on the Wabash and its branches, the Mississinewa, the Eel and the Tippecanoe, on the Elkhart, and the St. Joseph, was a numerous population. The strength of these combined tribes, the Wyandots, Mingoes, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Munsees, Pottawattomies, Kicka- poos, Weas, Piankeshaws, and the various bands of Lake Indians, that sometimes visited the northern boundaries of Indiana, is variously estimated at from 5,000 to 25,000 warriors. Stretched in a chain of towns
80
HISTORY OF INDIANA
from Lake Erie to the lower Ohio they formed an im- passable barrier to the further progress of western settlement.
Under their system of confederation it was next to impossible for any leader to weld the tribesmen into an army. There was no bond uniting the tribes, other than a feeling of kinship. Though open war never happened between whole tribes, such as was carried on between Iroquois and Hurons in the earlier days, there were bickerings and petty quarrels, ending in murder and consequent reprisals, going on all the time. Inter- tribal quarrels were liable to blaze out at any time and break up a large Indian army. The constant encour- agement of the English at Detroit also helped to hold the tribes more firmly together than was customary. Likewise the steady pressure of the white settlers threw the tribes back upon each other, making con- certed opposition to a mutual enemy easier. The soil of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana was the last great bat- tleground of the natives with the settlers. There the remnants of the broken tribes rallied around the native Miamis. They never retreated from this stronghold. When the wars were over, they were so completely con- quered they never again united in a war against the whites. It will give a clearer idea of this Indian people to sketch briefly, in review, the legendary history of each separate tribe.1
In the early days the Hurons, of whom the Wyan- dots are the descendants, occupied the basin of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Valley down to Que-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.