The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-11-20
George Rogers Clark
Story of Young Man Who Went
West For Uncle Sam........
sam...................

4 ~AniJs WIZ was Iueu OOV6ruOr
OF Virginia. He explained the i'm
portance of the mission he was about
to undertake, and the lasting effect
Its success must have upon the future
fortunes Of the republic which was
struggling desperately for independ-
ence.
| The British were closely pressing
| the Americans at that time, and no
troops could be spared to aid in this
enterprise. But Patrick Henry gave
Clark permission to enlist four COM
panies of volunteers, Of fifty men
each, for the expedition.
This had to be done secretly. Even
the men enlisted must not know upon
what service they were intended to
go. For If Hamilton, at Detroit,
should suspect Clark's purpose, he
might easily and certainly defeat 1t
by throwing re-enforcements into the
posts likely to be attacked.
With some difficulty Clark man.
| aged to raise his four companies, al
| though not one of them had its full
force of fifty men. In all, he secured
| considerably less than 200 men for
an enterprise for which 1000 would
not have been an excessive number
There were three French towns in
the region to be conquered, which
constituted the principal British posts
and the possession of which practi-
| cally determined the control of the
entire territory. One of them was
| Kaskaskia, in Illinois, not far from
the Mississippi, about thirty miles or
so below the Spanish town of St.
Louis. Another was Cahokia, which
| lay just across the Mississippi River
| from st. Louis. The third, and most
important, was Vincennes, on the
| Wabash, in what is now Indiana.
Clark decided to assail Kaskaskia
| and Cahokia first, although those
towns lay 200 or 800 miles further
west than Vincennes. Accordingly, he
embarked his little force of fighting
men on fiatboats and went down the
Ohio River to an island near the
| mouth of the Tennessee.
| There he landed and hid his boats,
and there he was joined by a little
company of Tennessee hunters who
| had recently visited the towns he
purposed to assail. From them he
learned that at Kaskaskia the fort
was strong, the militia was drilled
and we'll armed, with Indian allies all
about, and that the force which would
oppose his attack was much larger
than his own.
But George Rogers Clark faltered
not nor failed. Knowing himself to
be outnumbered by the enemy, he
saw clearly that his only hope of sue
cess lay in effecting surprise. He
therefore decided-instead of going
up the Mississippi in boats and thus
inviting discovery-to march secretly
! through the woods and swamps and
fall upon Kaskaskia unexpectedly.
On the night of July 4 Clark,
whose approach had not been sus-
pected, quietly slipped into Kaskas-
kia. He quickly disposed his men so
as to prevent the assembling of the
militia. He ordered all the French
| people to betake themselves to their
homes and to stay there Oh pain of
instant death.
These French people had heard
terrible stories of the cruelty and bru-
tally of the Kentucky Long Knives,
so they obeyed the command, glad of
even chance to escape with their
| lives.
The commandment of the place, a
Frenchman named Rocheblave, who
was devoted to the English cause,
was holding dance in the fort at
the time, with not hint or suspi-
cion that force of Long Knives was
approaching the town he was set to
guard. Thus even the fort itself was
! without sentinel on duty, and the
evening was given up to merrymak-
ing.
Having posted his men in such
fashion as to forbid the firing of an
alarm or the mastering of the defen-
sive force, Clark slipped into the fort
and stood in the doorway of the dane
ing hall looking on at the dance. Sud-
denly an Indian who had seen him
before recognized him and gave the
alarm. Instantly confusion seized
upon the assemblage, but Clark
quietly babe the people go on with
the dance, adding: "But remember,
you now dance under Virginia, not
| ,,pdar Craot pr;foin
His mastery of the situation was
already complete, and he promptly
made the most of 1t. The terrible
reputation the Long Knives had
among the French served Clark WE'LL
These people not only made no resist
ance to their conqueror, but they Of
fered to become slaves If he would
spare their lives. Their terror was
all compelling.
Then Clark assumed magnani-
nous role. He told them that the
American Republic was engaged, not
in enslaving men, but in setting them
free. He said that such of the people
of Kaskaskia as would swear alle-
glance to the United States should
Immediately have all the rights of
American citizenship.
To a Catholic priest who asked II
he might hold service in his church
Clark replied that he had nothing to
do with any church except to protect
it, and that under the United States
all religions were equally free. The
priest at once espoused the American