USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 20
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In this phase events drifted until January, 1779, Colonel Vigo, a wealthy and distinguished merchant of St. Louis, brought to Clark's headquarters at Kaskaskia the intelligence that Governor Hamilton had led an expedition from Detroit, late in December, and recaptured Vincennes, and reduced it to British power. The news was fully confirmed. It appeared that there was really but one other soldier besides the captain in the fort at the time of capture, by the name of Henry. When Hamilton approached with his forces, Captain Helm had a cannon well charged and placed in the open fort gate, while he stood by with a lighted match in his hand. When the British came in hailing distance, the American officer cried out, " Halt!" Hamilton stopped the movement, and demanded a surrender of the garri- son. "No man shall enter till I know the terms," responded Helm. "You shall have the honors of war," answered the English officer; and then the fort was surrendered. with its garrison of one captain and one private.
The information given by Colonel Vigo was important, as developing the plans and resources of the English. Hamilton had brought with his British troops some four hundred Indian auxiliaries, and had planned to march on Kaskaskia after capturing Vincennes. To keep these restless allies em- ployed, he had detached some to harass the Kentuckians, and others to watch the Ohio river, as the season was now too far advanced to attempt the march on Clark's fortified posts on the Mississippi. The arrest of further military operations on the part of the British for the present was necessi- tated by the impassable condition of the country. The territory lying east of the Mississippi, and including the Wabash river and nus tributaries, over Illinois and Indiana. was a vast prairie-land, with intervening growths of timber, and generally flat. The valleys of the streams draining this country, especially of the Wabash and its tributaries, were usually from one to five miles wide, and level with the banks of the rivers and creeks. At every unusual rainfall, these streams would fill the channels with their turbid waters, and overflow the valleys to the skirting banks of the table land. Even this level upland prairie, in the rainy seasons, was covered over with vast sheets of shallow waste water, for which there was not sufficient drain- age, rendering it most difficult and uncomfortable for the movement of bodies of men. These rainfalls even yet occur almost annually, and usually about the midwinter season, flooding the face of the country and inundating the lower valleys.
At midwinter, 1779, the flood was on, and Hamilton felt himself more secure at Vincennes, behind the barricades of water which spread over hun- dreds of obstructed miles between him and his enemy, than by the walls of
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his fort. 'In the meantime, from this double security he was planning and preparing for a sweeping campaign at the opening of spring, which aimed at no less than the obliteration of the Kentuckians and of Virginia authority west of the Alleghanies. These plans were correctly outlined by Colonel Vigo, who showed himself to be a true and worthy friend of the Americans. His statements were fully confirmed by the reports of spies, and by official documents that afterward came under the eye of Clark. With the British and Indian forces at Vincennes, Hamilton was to march on and capture Kaskaskia. "Here, he was to be joined by two hundred Indians from Michillimachinac, and five hundred Cherokees, Chickasaws, and other tribes of the South." With these combined forces, under orders from the com- mander-in-chief in Canada, he was "to penetrate up the Ohio to Fort Pitt, sweeping Kentucky on the way; and the more effectively to do this, a battery of artillery, composed of light brass cannon, was to be added to the military arm." Colonel Vigo imparted the important and pivotal fact, upon which future operations might mainly revolve, that Hamilton at that time had but eighty regular soldiers in garrison at Vincennes, and three cannon and some swivels mounted for the defense of the fort. 1
Colonel Clark formed his resolutions with that promptitude for which he was ever noted. His tactics were those of aggression, not defense, when- ever it was possible for him to employ them thus. "I would have bound myself," said Clark, "a slave for life for seven years to have had five hun- dred troops. I knew that if I did not take him, he would take me." Daunt- lessly, he determined to invade the wilderness of floods, and with what arms he had, and such as he could improvise, march on and besiege the British in their fortified position, and determine the wage of battle at the enemy's headquarters.
He immediately fitted up a large Mississippi boat as a galley, mounted it with two four-pounders and four swivels from the fort at Kaskaskia, and placed it in command of Captain John Rogers, with a company of forty-five men, with orders to force their way up the Ohio and Wabash, if possible, and station themselves at the mouth of White river, and suffer nothing to pass until further orders. Next, through the ardor of the French, he raised two companies from among the citizens of Kaskaskia and Cahokia: one in command of Captain McCarty, and the other of Captain Francoise Charle- ville. These, added to the Kentuckians, made the expeditionary force one hundred and seventy men. On the 7th of February, nine days after the receipt of the information brought by Colonel Vigo, this forlorn hope began its march over the drowned prairies and across the inundated valleys and swollen rivers.
To divert his men from the dreariness and fatigues of such a march, Col- onel Clark used many devices. He encouraged parties in hunting and in invitations successively to feasts of game, with war dances at night after the
Collins, Vol. II., p. 138. Butler, pp. 79-81 ; Clark's Memoirs.
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EXTRACT FROM MAJOR BOWMAN'S DIARY.
Indian manner, and other amusements. In this way they reached the Little Wabash on the 13th with comparatively not very serious obstruction. At this point the forks of the stream were three miles and the opposite banks five miles apart, the interval flooded with water from three to four feet deep. From a graphic description, by Mr. Bodley, of the remainder of this march, and its issues and results, copiously illustrated with quotations from the pre- served memoirs of Captain Bowman and Colonel Clark, we deem it of interest to our narrative to quote here :
"This aggressive march across the flooded flats of Illinois was the most desperate recorded in history. After days of trudging through rain and bog, and fording small streams, and night after night. wet, cold, without tents, without even a dry spot to lie upon, with only a little parched corn and the game they could kill for food. they at last reached the immediate valley of the Wabash, and their expected boat was not there. Here before them were miles and miles of water-two rivers swollen into one-and on the other side an enemy who, once warned of their approach, would fall upon and easily destroy them. Yet they did not falter. Their young com- mander, himself painfully aware of their desperate plight, had through these days of weary marching resorted to every device which the most prolific inge- nuity could suggest to keep up their spirits and cheer them on. They set to work, felled some trees, built a couple of canoes to carry their ammunition, and boldly pushed on into the deep and cold rivers at midwinter.
"One of the brave men, Major Bowman (afterward Governor of Illinois), left a small diary in which, from day to day, he had noted the doings of this little band of men. Singularly and fortunately, it was preserved through fire and flood, and it tells the thrilling story so simply and so well that we can not do better than briefly quote from it:
". February 16th .- (They had been marching nine days.) Marched all day through rain and water. Crossed the Fur river. Our provisions began to be very short.
"'February 17th .- Marched early; crossed several very deep runs; sent our commissary with three men to cross the Embarrass river, if possible, and steal some canoes to ferry us across the Wabash. Traveled till eight o'clock at night in mud and water, but find no place to encamp on. Still keep marching on. Found it impossible to cross the Embarrass river. We found the water falling from a small spot of ground, and stayed there the remainder of the night. Drizzly and dark weather.
"'February 18th .- At daybreak heard Governor Hamilton's morning gun. Set off and marched down the Embarrass river. At two o'clock came to the bank of the Wabash. Made rafts for four men to cross and go up to the town and steal boats, but they spent the day and night in the water to no purpose, for there was not one foot of dry land to be found.
"'February 19th .- Colonel Clark sent two men in the canoe down to meet the galley, with orders to come on day and night, that being our last
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hope, and we starving. Many of the men much cast down. No provision of any sort now two days. Hard fortune.
"'February 20th .- Camp very quiet, but hungry. Some almost in de- spair. One of our men killed a deer, which was brought into camp very acceptably-one deer for one hundred and seventy men.
"'February 21st .- At break of day began to ferry our men over the Wabash in two canoes to a small hill. The whole army being over, we thought to get to town that night; so plunged into the water, sometimes to the neck, for more than three miles, when we stopped on another hill, there being no dry land on any side for many leagues. Our pilots say we can not get along; that it is impossible. The whole army being over, we encamped. Rain all this day. No provisions.
"'February 22d .- Colonel Clark encourages his men, which gave them great spirits. Marched on in the waters. Those that were weak and fam- ished went in the canoes. We came to some sugar camps, where we stayed all night. Heard the evening and morning guns from the fort. No provis- ions yet. Lord, help us!
"'February 23d .- Set off to cross the plain, about four miles long, all covered with water breast high. Here we expected that some of our brave men must certainly perish, having froze in the night and so long fasting. Having no other resource but wading this plain, or, rather, lake of waters, we plunged into it with courage, Colonel Clark being first. In the midst of this wading rather than marching, a little drummer boy, who floated along on his drum-head, afforded much of the merriment that helped to divert the men from their hardships.'
"Clark, in his own brief memoir, a masterpiece of its kind, continues the story : 'A canoe was sent off and returned without finding that we could pass. I went into the water myself; found it as deep as my neck. I returned. The loss of so much time to men half starved was a matter of consequence. I would have given now a great deal for a day's provisions, or even for one of our horses. I returned but slowly to our troops, giving myself time to think. Every eye was fixed on me. I unfortunately spoke in a serious manner to one of the officers. The whole were alarmed without knowing what I said. I viewed their confusion one minute: whispered to those near me to do as I did; gave the war-whoop, and marched into the water without a word. They gazed and fell in, one after another, without saying a word. I ordered those near to me to begin a favorite song ; it soon passed through the line, and the whole went on cheerily. We reached a sugar camp and took up our lodging. This was the coldest night we had. The ice in the morning was from a half to three-quarters of an inch thick. A little after sunrise I lectured the whole. What I said to them I forget, but I concluded by informing them that passing the plain that was then in full view and reaching the opposite woods would put an end to their fatigue; that in a few hours they would have a sight of their long wished-for object;
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CLARK'S INGENIOUS DEVICE.
and immediately stepped into the water without waiting for a reply. A loud huzza took place. A little drummer boy, the pet of the regiment, was placed on the shoulders of a tall man and ordered to beat for his life. I halted and called to Major Bowman to fall in the rear with twenty-five men, and put to death any man who refused to march. as we wished to have none such among us. The whole gave a cry of approbation, and on we went. This was the most trying of all the difficulties we had experienced. I judged from my own feelings what must be those of others. Getting into the mid- dle of the plain, the water about mid-deep, I found myself sensibly failing; and as there were no trees nor bushes for the men to support themselves by I feared that many of the weakest would be drowned. I ordered the canoes to make the land, discharge their loading, and ply backward and forward with all diligence to pick up the men; and to encourage them I sent some of the strongest men forward, with orders, when they got to a certain distance, to pass the word back that the water was getting shallow, and when near the woods to cry out "land!" This stratagem had its desired effect. The men, encouraged by it, exerted themselves almost beyond their abilities, the weak holding by the stronger. The water never got shallower, but con- tinued deepening. Getting to the woods, where the men expected land, the water was up to my shoulders; but gaining the woods was of great conse- quence; all the low men and the weakly hung to the trees and floated on the logs until they were taken off by the canoes. The strong and tall got ashore and built fires. Many would reach the shore and fall with their bodies half in the water, not being able to support themselves without it. The end of the worst had come. To our inexpressible joy, on the evening of the 23d we got on terra firma. We were in full view of the fort and town. Every man now feasted his eyes and forgot that he had suffered anything, saying that all that had passed was owing to good policy and nothing but what a man could bear, and that a soldier had no right to think.'
"But still the final contest was not won, and mere fighting could not win it. Strategy alone could succeed against so strong an enemy, and failure meant torture and death. But Colonel Clark was never wanting in devices, and on this occasion his device was of the most audacious character. He made his men capture a Frenchman, and sent him with a letter to the French citizens, telling them that he would storm the fort that night; that they had the alternative of remaining quietly in their homes and receiving his friendly protection, or of repairing to the British fort and abiding the consequences. When this message was delivered he could see the whole town was in a com- motion-people running here and there. and many coming out to see. This was precisely what he desired. Some elevated ground lay between him and the town, and with beating drums and flying colors he marched and coun- termarched his men behind it in a circle, so that the townsmen could only see them and their banners passing at certain points, and counted each sol- dier a dozen times over and for a dozen men. The stratagem worked. The
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French citizens, overawed by what they supposed a large army from Virginia. determined to obey the injunction of Clark's letter and remain neutral. Night came on; the town was entered and guarded. and the British fort vig- orously besieged. All that night, and nearly all of the next day, the hot battle went on."
During the fire, the ammunition of the assaulting party ran alarmingly low. The value of the aid from the citizen allies now appeared. Colonel Legrass and Major Busseron had, on the approach of Hamilton, secreted a quantity of powder and balls outside the fort, which were of inestimable worth. The newly-converted friend, Chief Tabac, came forward and offered his services, with one hundred warriors. The warrior re-enforcement was declined, though the presence and counsel of Tabac were requested. The siege attack continued, the Kentuckians lying within thirty yards of the fort walls, feeling the more secure from the elevation of the guns of the fort. and picking off the gunners with their rifles whenever any part of a body was exposed. They at last clamored to storm the fort, but Clark refused, satisfied of his advantage.
In the evening. the commander sent a flag of truce, asking for three days' respite from assault. This Clark declined, and demanded a surrender at discretion. A meeting of the officers on both sides soon was arranged. Hamilton inquired of Clark his reasons for declining the surrender on the terms proposed? The reply was, "I know the principal Indian partisans from Detroit are in the fort, and I only want an honorable occasion of put- ting such instigators of Indian barbarities to death. The cries of the widows and orphans made by their butcheries require such blood at my hands. So sacred do I consider this claim upon me for punishment, that I think it next to divine; and I would rather lose fifty men than not to execute a vengeance demanded by so much innocent blood. If Governor Hamilton chooses to risk the destruction of his garrison for the sake of such miscreants, it is at his own pleasure."
Upon this, Major Hay exclaimed: "Pray, sir, whom do you mean by Indian partisans?"
Clark keenly and promptly replied: "I consider Major Hay one of the principal ones."
The change in Hay's countenance was instantaneous, as though he felt himself convicted of this horrible crime of murder of non-combatant men, and of innocent women and children, with all the atrocities of savage cru- elty, at the instigation of the English officers and with the approval of their Government. The wretched man turned pale, and trembled to such a de- gree that he could scarcely stand, while Hamilton hung his head in confusion and shame for an officer who disgraced not only his countrymen, but the civilization which he claimed to represent. Clark relented, and said to Gov- ernor Hamilton that they would return to their respective posts, and inform him of the conclusion.
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14E
RE-ENFORCEMENTS PROMISED.
On the 24th of February, the capitulation was agreed on, and the garrison received as prisoners of war. The stars and stripes were hoisted over the fort, and a salute of artillery fired in honor of the signal and important vic- tory. A few days after, Captain Helm was dispatched with a troop up the Wabash, to intercept, on the way down. stores of value to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, which were captured, together with forty prisoners. On their return down the river, with British flags left flying, the armed galley from Kaskaskia hove in sight, having just arrived, and was preparing to give a miniature naval battle, when the enemy's ensigns were hauled down by Captain Helm and the American flag run up. The forces on the little war vessel were regretful that they were too late to share in the contests and in the spoils of victory.
Colonel Clark next cast the covetous eye of conquest on Detroit, as recent information assured him that it was now defended by not exceeding eighty regular soldiers. He writes after: "Twice has this town been in my power ; had I been able to raise only five hundred men when I first arrived in the country ; or when I was at St. Vincent's, could I have secured my prisoners, and only have had three hundred good men, I should have attempted it." He was even meditating the hazardous move, when dispatches from Gov- ernor Henly, of Virginia, were received, promising a re-enforcement of another battalion, and it was deemed prudent to postpone. Governor Ham- ilton was sent a prisoner to the seat of government. in Virginia, while Clark was left complete master of the North-west. He soon after returned, upon his armed galley, to Kaskaskia, leaving Captain Helm in command of St. Vincent's, and in charge of all military and Indian affairs at that post. He went on making new treaties with the tribes, and established the American power so securely, from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, that it was never afterward shaken by the British. Well did he merit the eulogium of Mar- shall, that "these bold and decisive measures which, whether formed on a great or small scale, mark the military and enterprising genius of the man who plans and executes them."
To what extent the conquest of this country of the North-west affected the political destiny of Kentucky, the delineation of Virginia, the autonomy of a future citizenship, and the territorial adjustment between Great Britain and the United Colonies by the treaty stipulations, at the close of the revo- lutionary war, November, 1782, is left for curious and ingenious conjecture. It is not a violent supposition that from these mischievous, fortified posts there would have gathered composite armies of whites and Indians, under direction and equipment of the British, sufficiently strong to have carried out the plans of Governor Hamilton for the conquest and occupation of all the country from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. One such armed expe- dition of five hundred men, with a small battery of light artillery, and the military arts of siege and assault so well known to the English, would, in 1778, have captured every stockade fort in Kentucky, and marched with
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almost uninterrupted success to the investment of Fort Pitt, at the head of the Ohio river.
To have allied and leagued all these tribes in concerted war upon the uncovered frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania, disciplined and directed by the military skill of British officers, would have been as dangerous and disastrous as an assault upon the rear of a great army engaged at the front in battle. It is assuredly certain that without this North-west conquest, the territory north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi would have remained in the possession of the English at the close of the war, and, as in the case of Canada, England's claim to its retention would have been well nigh indis- putable. Her treaty at Stanwix with the Six Nations, who passed to her their acknowledged title of conquest to all this country west of the mount- ains, including Kentucky, for the consideration of ten thousand pounds, paid in 1768, and which was practically a confirmation of the title by the cession of France in the treaty of Paris in 1763, gave her as good a basis of demand for the retention of the North-west as she had for the retention of Canada and Acadia. The difference was, that she held possession of the latter; Clark had wrested from her the possession of the former. Otherwise, it is a question of doubt whether the close of the revolutionary contest would not have left the territory now embracing the Commonwealths of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin in the same relation with Canada-a colo- nial dependence of Great Britain.
The achievement of Clark broke the western arm of England's power, and the vast expanse of wilderness, instead of being subjected to the humil- ity and barrenness of a political dependent, became the fruitful matrix of empire out of which were born the sovereignties of five noble and inde- pendent Commonwealths.
We can see and appreciate with the sagacious Clark that his work, though of vital importance, was not a complete one. The Shawanees and confed- erate tribes, making up the warlike Miami family, inhabiting the Miami. Muskingum, and Scioto valleys in Ohio, were the most persistent and pestilent enemies of the Kentuckians. Their convenient location, their jeal- ousy at the encroaches on their old and pre-empted hunting-ground, and their revengeful hostility to the Virginia frontiersmen whom they had so often met in battle, made them well nigh irrepressible. Their communications were with the British authorities at Detroit and Sandusky; hence the capt- ure of Vincennes and Kaskaskia did not much affect them. Could Clark have followed out his entire programme, and added to his achievements the conquest of Detroit and Sandusky, the Miamis and a number of tribes in Northern Ohio and Michigan, whom the British instigated to continued mur- ders and atrocities on the weak and exposed border of Pennsylvania, would have been subdued and kept on comparatively harmless terms.
The intelligence of Clark's conquests and of the fortified establishment at Falls of Ohio gave new impetus to emigration to Kentucky, early in 1779,
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THE ATTACK ON CHILLICOTHE.
and the posts were strengthened as well as increased in number by these accessions. Still, the settlers were harassed continuously by the incursions of savages from the Ohio country, and it was determined to undertake an expedition to severely chastise them.
In the spring, Colonel John Bowman, lieutenant of Kentucky county, notified the people to finish planting their corn and other crops, and hold themselves in readiness to rendezvous in May at the mouth of Licking, the present site of Covington.1 Captain William Harrod, who commanded at the Falls of Ohio, was directed to join the expedition there with all the men he could raise. Captains Benjamin Logan, John Holder, and John Bulger, with recruits from St. Asaph's, Harrodstown, and Boonesborough, and Cap- tain Levi Todd, with some from Lexington and Bryan's station, were joined by others under Lieutenant John Haggin, from Martin's and Ruddle's. With Colonel Bowman chief, and Captain Logan second in command, they took up their line of March in May, and reached the mouth of Licking in due time. Here Captain Harrod joined them with a small company from the falls. The entire force now amounted to over two hundred. From the ren- dezvous they marched on to Chillicothe, which place they reached without giving the slightest alarm to the enemy. We continue the narrative from McClung's Sketches :
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