Clark realized that the Americans must capture and maintain control of these forts if the Northwest Territory was to remain safe. In May 1778 he established the first English-speaking settlement of the area on Corn Island at the Falls of the Ohio. This island at the head of the falls provided protection from British and Indian attacks. Clark would later write in his journal of a solar eclipse. We left our little island, and Run about a mile up the River to gain the main Channel, and shot the Fall at the very moment of the sun being in a great eclipse which caused Various conjectures among the superstitious.
Astronomical records confirm the eclipse.
The boats must have passed over the Falls about 9 a.m. The expedition captured three British forts-Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes along with British general Henry Hamilton. After the capture of Hamilton at Vincennes Clark wanted to continue to Detroit, but his Kentucky contigent were diverted to Chillicothe, Ohio. Clark and his soldiers were awarded 150,000 acres for service to their country in 1783. This area was north of the Falls in present day Indiana.