Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/262



tuekians, half-breed French, Creoles and stragglers that looked anything else than a military force to attack a fort defended by trained soldiers, amply sup- plied with cannon of that period, and full supplies of muskets and ammuni- tion. On the 7th of February, 1779, Clark marched his little army out of old Kaskaskia, the whole village escorting and encouraging the men, and the good Jesuit priest, Gibault, adding his blessing and absolution on all those brave volunteers. It was in the depth of winter and icy cold, in addition to which a con- tinued downpour of rain flooded the whole country and made an inland sea of the "Wabash river, which they had to cross at one place with only a few canoes, most of the men wading in ice cold water up to their arm-pits and carrying their guns and powder horns over their heads. But they finally reached their goal. To such men, nothing was impossible. Clark reached Vincennes with- out informing the town or fort of his approach. He surrounded the town in the night and after a short, sharp and decisive attack in the morning, the British general, Hamilton surrendered. Clark paroled the men, but sent Ham- ilton under guard, to Virginia, where he was kept in jail at Richmond for two years. Taken altogether, this exploit of George Rogers Clark was the most reckless, daring, dangerous and successful military expedition in the whole course of the revolutionary war, or of any war. And in its results it accom- plished more for the United States than any other one military movement or battle in the war. For without this successful venture of Clark's, the British would have held the Mississippi valley until the end of the war, and by the treaty of peace, England would have most surely secured everything west of the Al- leghany mountains. The success of Clark enabled our peace commissioners, Franklia, Jay and Adams, to claim that Clark had driven the British out of the Mississippi valley and successfully held it. So that the boundary line be- tween the American possessions and the English was established on the line of the great lakes west to the headwaters of the Mississippi river, instead of at the Alleghany mountains. By this grand coup in the western wilderness, Clark added to the United States all the territory out of which has been carved and populated the seven great states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and half of Minnesota. This was the first great advance of the American flag from the inhabited portions of the original col- onies, moving westward. And it was wholly and purely a movement to secure more territory, and wholly based on political reasons and not influenced by any commercial motive or interest.

It has been the puzzle of historical writers for more than a century to account for the attitude of Washington to George Rogers Clark. Washington was per- sonally acquainted with Clark and his family, of which none stood higher in old Virginia. Washington must have known and did know the splendid military abilities of Clark. No man was a better judge of what other men could accom- plish than Washington. With the exception of Greene, Washington had not a single general under his command that equaled George Rogers Clark ; and no one of all his major generals, Greene not excepted, accomplished as much for his country as Clark. Then why did Washington keep him in the western wilderness with a mere handful of riflemen to be called out as the desperate straits of de- fense against Indians or British might require ? The only answer to that long un- answered question is, that of all men possible to be sent or kept in the west to hold