oath of allegiance to Virginia. Abbott, the British Governor of the post, was absent in Detroit, and his subordinates lost no time in leaving the country. The Indians, surprised by the sudden shifting of authority which they could not understand, were told that their old father and friend, the King of France, had come to life again; that he was angry with them for joining with the English in warfare, and that if they did not wish a desperate warfare in their land, they should be at peace with the new people who had come among them.

One of the first incentives to the expedition of Colonel Clark to the country beyond the Ohio River had been to make peace with the Indians for the protection of the scattered and struggling people in Kentucky. To accomplish this, after securing possession of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes, he held. conferences with the Indians, reporting in the meantime, after his military successes, that "our influence began to spread among the nations (Indians) even to the border of the States." The Indian of that day, as of this, respected power and had an admiration for the man who did things, which was a distinctive characteristic of George Rogers Clark. At the end of five weeks of negotiation which was. in the main successful, Colonel Clark leaving Capt, Bowman in command at Vincennes, returned to Kaskaskia. The period of enlistment of certain of his troops having expired, these were ordered back to the Falls of the Ohio, under command of Capt. William Linn, who was directed to establish a fort at the Falls.

Col. Henry Hamilton, the acting English Lieutenant Governor at Detroit, learning of the success of Colonel Clark in the Illinois country, began immediate preparations to recapture that territory and drive Clark and his brave followers back again to the southern banks of the Ohio. Hamilton was especially hated by the men with Clark, by reason of his

having offered to the Indians a money prize for the scalps of white persons among the early settlers of the new country. Colonel Clark shared this feeling and always referred to Hamilton as "the hair-buyer." Writing to Governor Patrick Henry from Kaskaskia, February 3, 1779, he thus refers to Hamilton and his own plans:

"A late maneuver of the famous hair buyer, Henry Hamilton, Esq., Lieutenant Governor of Detroit, hath alarmed us much. On the 16th of December last, he with a body of 600 men, composed of regulars, French volunteers and Indians, took possession of St. Vincent on the Wabash and what few men that composed the garrison, not being able to make the least defense. * * * Yesterday I fortunately got every piece of intelligence that I could wish for by a Spanish gentleman that made his escape from Mr. Hamilton. No attack is to be made on the garrison at Kaskaskia until the spring. Being sensible that without reinforcements, which, at present, I have hardly a right to expect, I shall be obliged to give up the country to Mr. Hamilton without a turn of fortune in my favor, I am resolved to take advantage of this present situation and risk the whole in a single battle. I shall set out in a few days with all the force I can raise of my own troops and a few militia that I can depend upon, amounting in the whole to only 170 men. * * * I know the case is desperate but, Sir, we must either quit the country or attack Mr. Hamilton. * * * In case we fail, this country and, I believe, Kentucky is lost."

Hamilton had 600 men; Clark had 170, but there was no hesitancy upon the part of the gallant American soldier. He had come to the parting of the ways. Either he or Hamilton must go. There was not room enough for both of them in the Illinois country, and the intrepid Clark determined that he would not go without one final struggle. To others and it may have seemed so to Colonel Clark,

there was but a forlorn hope that he would succeed and in that success win the Illinois country and what was equally or more important, the fair Kentucky for which he fought.

February 5, 1779, Clark and his intrepid little army-think of an army of but 170 men, in the enemy's country, a thousand miles from support or succor!-left Kaskaskia for their march to Vincennes one hundred and seventy miles distant, across uncharted plains, across icy streams in mid-winter. These men under Clark were of the stuff of which heroes are made, and it follows, as doth the night the day, that their descendants in Virginia and in Kentucky in later days and on other fields, wrote the imperishable record of the American soldier, than whom no better soldier follows now, nor has ever followed, the flag of any other country under the sun.

Previous to beginning his march, Colonel Clark had ordered Captain Rogers, with forty-six men and two four pounders, to proceed up the Wabash to the mouth of White river, there to await further orders. In the meantime, the land forces proceeded upon their way facing almost inconceivable hardships and dangerous delay. Wading through icy waters filled with floating ice which buffeted them at every step, they, like the Irish troops at Fontenoy, went "ever right onward still.”

Colonel Clark at their head, mounted on what has been described as "the finest stallion in the country," cheered his men, shared their sufferings and refused other than the scant rations on which they subsisted. From the diary of Bowman, under date of February 23d, the following extract is taken showing the difficulties encountered and overcome by as intrepid a body of American volunteers as ever marched to battle: "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 frozen 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, afforded much of the merriment that helped to divert the men from their hardship."

Of this intrepid little drummer boy, who had better been at his mother's knee, Colonel Clark says in his "Memoirs:" "A 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 to 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 command gave a cry of appreciation and we marched on."

Those

It is to the everlasting honor of these gallant men that not only did Bowman have no occasion to execute the command of his strenuous commander, but that the men gave to that order "a cry of appreciation." were nation builders who followed Clark, from the little drummer boy to the last private in the ranks, and the name of every one of them is worthy to be inscribed in the highest records of their country's history. It is a matter for regret that those names cannot now be given on this page, there to endure forever as a heritage for their descendants and an example worthy of the emulation of every American volunteer soldier.

When Colonel Clark had arrived within a few miles of Vincennes, knowing that an alarm would necessarily be given before he could attack the fort, he decided to use diplomacy. Knowing most of the people of Vincennes to be friendly to the Americans, he sent a messenger to them with the following address:

"TO THE INHABITANTS OF VINCENNES :-Gentlemen-Being now within two miles of your village, with my army determined to take your fort this night,

and not being willing to surprise you, I take this method to request of such of you as are true citizens and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, to remain still in your houses-and those, if there be any, that are friends to the king, will instantly repair to the fort and join the hair-buyer general and fight like men. And if any such as do not go to the fort shall be discovered afterward, they may depend upon severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are true friends to liberty may depend upon being well treated, and I once more request them to keep out of the streets. For every one I find in arms on my arrival I shall treat him as an enemy."

This proclamation caused the people of Vincennes to believe that the threatened attack was to be made by an army that had just come from Kentucky, as they considered it impossible that a force from the Illinois country could appear before their town in midwinter, so great were the obstacles in the shape of water and ice to be overcome. Terrified by the proximity of this new force as they deemed it, and unaware of the size of the "army" to which Colonel Clark had referred in his proclamation, not even the sympathizers with the English made known to the fort the near approach of the American forces.

Making his appearance before the fort, Colonel Clark so completely surprised Hamilton that the latter surrendered without an effort at defense.

In the afternoon of February 24, 1779, the following articles of capitulation were agreed

to:

"First.-Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton engages to deliver up to Colonel Clark, Fort Sackville, as it is at present, with all stores, etc.

"Second. The garrison are to deliver themselves as prisoners of war and march out with their arms and accouterments, etc.

"Third. The garrison to be delivered up tomorrow at 10 o'clock.

"Fourth. Three days' time to be allowed the garrison to settle their accounts with the inhabitants and traders of this place.

"Fifth. The officers of the garrison to be allowed their necessary baggage, etc.

"Signed at Post St. Vincent (Vincennes), February 24, 1779."

"Agreed for the following reasons: The remoteness from succor; the state and quantity of provisions, etc.; the unanimity of officers and men in its expediency; the honorable terms allowed; and lastly the confidence in a generous enemy.

"(Signed) HENRY HAMILTON, "Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent." Early in the morning of the next day, February 25, 1779, the surrender was consummated; the arms of the garrison secured; the British flag hauled down; the American flag raised in its place and the name of the fort changed to Fort Patrick Henry in honor of the Governor of Virginia who had authorized and enabled Colonel Clark to start upon the dangerous mission that day crowned with

success.

A portion of the prisoners were paroled, but in March, Hamilton and others of the garrison were sent as prisoners of war to Virginia. Hamilton was confined at the capital, Williamsburg, until October, 1780, when he was paroled and sent to New York. It is to the credit of the Americans that, though Hamilton was the author of the brutal offer of money for the scalps of those in opposition to English authority, there is nowhere a record of any indignity being offered him while in captivity, though the terms of that atrocious offer were sufficient to have removed him beyond the pale of recognition by any save those with the same brutal instincts as his own.

Two days after the surrender the boat "Willing" with its forty-seven men under command of Captain Rogers, arrived at Vincennes, after being delayed by the swift current of the Wabash. Accompanying this party was a messenger from Virginia who bore to Clark and his associates the thanks and congratulations of the assembly on the success that had attended his expedition to

the time when it was last heard from in Virginia. This messenger also bore two commissions, one of which promoted Clark from Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel, and Bowman. from Captain to Major, a deserved honor in each instance to men who had surely deserved well of their country.

Thus ended the most momentous campaign against the English and their Indian allies that has ever illumined the history of our country. Col. George Rogers Clark had not only protected Kentucky and saved it from the ravages of the Indians but he did more even than this. He had added to the domain of his country a magnificent territory out of which have since been carved the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and that part of Minnesota lying on the eastern shore of the Mississippi river. But for Clark and his genius and the indomitable spirit of himself and his men, that great territory would have been left as a possession of England and for aught the historian of today can say, may have remained to this day a portion of Canada. This is mere speculation; it is a certainty that Clark removed the

territory in question from the realm of uncertainty into that of fact.

Clark chafed under his inability, for lack of men and supplies, to reduce Detroit and Sandusky which he recognized as the bases of supplies, the heart of English occupancy and the points from which emanated the offers and inducements leading to Indian atrocities. "Had I been able to raise only 500 men," Clark afterwards stated, "when I first arrived in the country; or, when I was at St. Vincent (Vincennes) could I have secured my prisoners and have had only 300 men, I should have attempted it" (meaning the capture of Detroit and Sandusky). But he did not have the needed men and was forced to relinquish his plans.

Captain John Todd soon arrived in the captured territory to assume the governorship, after which Colonel Clark, after sending a courier to Virginia with dispatches for Governor Henry and Thomas Jefferson announcing the complete success of the expedition, left the great domain he had won for his country and returned to the Falls of the Ohio.

While Clark was engaged with his vast schemes looking to the conquest of the northwest and the driving therefrom of the English and their savage allies, events of moment were occurring in Kentucky.

In February, 1778, Daniel Boone and a party of thirty men were at the Blue Licks, on the Licking river, engaged in making salt for the settlements. Wandering in search of game from the camp of his associates, Boone was captured by a party of more than one hundred Indians who were en route to Boonesborough for an attack upon that station. It is probable that they had learned, through some of the means known only to the savage, that Boone was absent from the station and judged this to be an auspicious moment for an attack. Boone, in his autobiography, says that he was made a prisoner on February 7, 1778, which is probably the correct date. Of his captivity and his captors he writes: "They brought me on the 8th day to the Licks, where twenty-seven of my party were, three of them having previously returned home with the salt. I, knowing it was impossible for them to escape, capitulated with the enemy, and, at a distance, in their view, gave notice to my men of their situation, with orders not to resist but surrender themselves as captives."

The men at the Licks obeyed Boone and

soon joined him as captives. It is assumed that Boone knew the fort at Boonesborough not to be in condition for a siege and hoped, by offering himself and his men as hostages, the threatened attack might be averted. Had he not done this, Boonesborough must have fallen. Marshall, in his history of that period, perhaps correctly says: "Had the Indians, after taking Boone and his men prisoners, instead of returning home with their captives, marched on to Boonesborough they might either have taken the place by surprise or, using the influence their prisoners conferred on them, compelled a surrender of the garrison and, progressively acting on the same plan, it is probable that the two other forts would have fallen in the same way, and from the same advantage. It is hardly presumable that even if they had escaped surprise, they would have resisted a summons to surrender which might have been enforced by the massacre of the prisoners under their eyes."

Boone, knowing these matters intuitively, offered himself and his comrades willingly upon the altar of sacrifice in order that he might save the people of the three stations. from death or capture and the women therein from a worse fate than any death had to offer. He proved himself now, as ever before and after, the intrepid pioneer and sol