The Winning of the West, Volume Two by Theodore Roosevelt

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Boon and Kenton have always been favorite heroes of frontier story,--as
much so as ever were Robin Hood and Little John in England. Both lived
to a great age, and did and saw many strange things, and in the
backwoods cabins the tale of their deeds has been handed down in
traditional form from father to son and to son's son. They were known to
be honest, fearless, adventurous, mighty men of their hands; fond of
long, lonely wanderings; renowned as woodsmen and riflemen, as hunters
and Indian fighters. In course of time it naturally came about that all
notable incidents of the chase and woodland warfare were incorporated
into their lives by the story-tellers. The facts were altered and added
to by tradition year after year; so that the two old frontier warriors
already stand in that misty group of heroes whose rightful title to fame
has been partly overclouded by the haze of their mythical glories and
achievements.

CHAPTER II.

CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE ILLINOIS, 1778.

Kentucky had been settled, chiefly through Boon's instrumentality, in
the year that saw the first fighting of the Revolution, and it had been
held ever since, Boon still playing the greatest part in the defence.
Clark's more far-seeing and ambitious soul now prompted him to try and
use it as a base from which to conquer the vast region northwest of the
Ohio.

The Country beyond the Ohio.

The country beyond the Ohio was not, like Kentucky, a tenantless and
debatable hunting-ground. It was the seat of powerful and warlike Indian
confederacies, and of clusters of ancient French hamlets which had been
founded generations before the Kentucky pioneers were born; and it also
contained posts that were garrisoned and held by the soldiers of the
British king. Virginia, and other colonies as well, made, it is true,
vague claims to some of this territory. [Footnote: Some of the numerous
land speculation companies, which were so prominent about this time,
both before and after the Revolution, made claims to vast tracts of
territory in this region, having bought them for various trinkets from
the Indian chiefs. Such were the "Illinois Land Company" and "Wabash
Land Company," that, in 1773 and 1775, made purchases from the
Kaskaskias and Piankeshaws. The companies were composed of British,
American, and Canadian merchants and traders, of London, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Quebec, etc. Lord Dunmore was in the Wabash Company. The
agents of the companies, in after years, made repeated but unsuccessful
efforts to get Congress to confirm their grants. Although these various
companies made much noise at the time, they introduced no new settlers
into the land, and, in fact, did nothing of lasting effect; so that it
is mere waste of time to allude to most of them. See, however, the
"History of Indiana," by John B. Dillon (Indianapolis, 1859), pp.
102-109, etc.] But their titles were as unreal and shadowy as those
acquired by the Spanish and Portuguese kings when the Pope, with empty
munificence, divided between them the Eastern and the Western
hemispheres. For a century the French had held adverse possession; for a
decade and a half the British, not the colonial authorities, had acted
as their unchallenged heirs; to the Americans the country was as much a
foreign land as was Canada. It could only be acquired by force, and
Clark's teeming brain and bold heart had long been busy in planning its
conquest. He knew that the French villages, the only settlements in the
land, were the seats of the British power, the head-quarters whence
their commanders stirred up, armed, and guided the hostile Indians. If
these settled French districts were conquered, and the British posts
that guarded them captured, the whole territory would thereby be won for
the Federal Republic, and added to the heritage of its citizens; while
the problem of checking and subduing the northwestern Indians would be
greatly simplified, because the source of much of both their power and
hostility would be cut off at the springs. The friendship of the French
was invaluable, for they had more influence than any other people with
the Indians.

Clark Sends Spies to the Illinois.

In 1777 Clark sent two young hunters as spies to the Illinois country
and to the neighborhood of Vincennes, though neither to them nor to any
one else did he breathe a hint of the plan that was in his mind. They
brought back word that, though some of the adventurous young men often
joined either the British or the Indian war parties, yet that the bulk
of the French population took but little interest in the struggle, were
lukewarm in their allegiance to the British flag, and were somewhat awed
by what they had heard of the backwoodsmen. [Footnote: The correctness
of this account is amply confirmed by the Haldimand MSS., letters of
Hamilton, _passim_; also Rocheblave to Carleton, July 4, 1778; and to
Hamilton, April 12, 1778.] Clark judged from this report that it would
not be difficult to keep the French neutral if a bold policy, strong as
well as conciliatory, was pursued towards them; and that but a small
force would be needed to enable a resolute and capable leader to conquer
at least the southern part of the country. It was impossible to raise
such a body among the scantily garrisoned forted villages of Kentucky.
The pioneers, though warlike and fond of fighting, were primarily
settlers; their soldiering came in as a purely secondary occupation.
They were not a band of mere adventurers, living by the sword and bent
on nothing but conquest. They were a group of hard-working,
hard-fighting freemen, who had come in with their wives and children to
possess the land. They were obliged to use all their wit and courage to
defend what they had already won without wasting their strength by
grasping at that which lay beyond. The very conditions that enabled so
small a number to make a permanent settlement forbade their trying
unduly to extend its bounds.

He Goes to Virginia to Raise Troops.

Clark knew he could get from among his fellow-settlers some men
peculiarly suited for his purpose, but he also realized that he would
have to bring the body of his force from Virginia. Accordingly he
decided to lay the case before Patrick Henry, then Governor of the State
of which Kentucky was only a frontier county.

On October 1, 1777, he started from Harrodsburg, [Footnote: In the
earlier MSS, it is called sometimes Harrodstown and sometimes
Harrodsburg; but from this time on the latter name is in general use.]
to go over the Wilderness road. The brief entries of his diary for this
trip are very interesting and sometimes very amusing. Before starting he
made a rather shrewd and thoroughly characteristic speculation in
horseflesh, buying a horse for L12, and then "swapping" it with Isaac
Shelby and getting L10 to boot. He evidently knew how to make a good
bargain, and had the true backwoods passion for barter. He was detained
a couple of days by that commonest of frontier mischances, his horses
straying; a natural incident when the animals were simply turned loose
on the range and looked up when required. [Footnote: This, like so many
other incidents in the every-day history of the old pioneers, is among
the ordinary experiences of the present sojourner in the far west.] He
travelled in company with a large party of men, women, and children who,
disheartened by the Indian ravages, were going back to the settlements.
They marched from fifteen to twenty miles a day, driving beeves along
for food. In addition the scouts at different times killed three buffalo
[Footnote: One at Rockcastle River, two at Cumberland Ford.] and a few
deer, so that they were not stinted for fresh meat.

When they got out of the wilderness he parted from his companions and
rode off alone. He now stayed at the settler's house that was nearest
when night overtook him. At a large house, such as that of the
Campbell's, near Abingdon, he was of course welcomed to the best, and
treated with a generous hospitality, for which it would have been an
insult to offer money in return. At the small cabins he paid his way;
usually a shilling and threepence or a shilling and sixpence for
breakfast, bed, and feed for the horse; but sometimes four or five
shillings. He fell in with a Captain Campbell, with whom he journeyed a
week, finding him "an agreeable companion." They had to wait over one
stormy day, at a little tavern, and probably whiled away the time by as
much of a carouse as circumstances allowed; at any rate, Clark's share
of the bill when he left was L1 4_s_. [Footnote: The items of expense
jotted down in the diary are curious. For a night's lodging and board
they range from 1s. 3d. to 13s. In Williamsburg, the capital, they were
for a fortnight L9 18s.] Finally, a month after leaving Harrodsburg,
having travelled six hundred and twenty miles, he reached his father's
house. [Footnote Seventy miles beyond Charlottesville; he gives an
itinerary of his journey, making it six hundred and twenty miles in all,
by the route he travelled. On the way he had his horse shod and bought a
pair of shoes for himself; apparently he kept the rest of his backwoods
apparel. He sold his gun for L15 and swapped horses again--this time
giving L7 l0_s_. to boot.]

After staying only a day at his old home, he set out for Williamsburg,
where he was detained a fortnight before the State auditors would settle
the accounts of the Kentucky militia, which he had brought with him. The
two things which he deemed especially worthy of mention during this time
were his purchase of a ticket in the State lottery, for three pounds,
and his going to church on Sunday--the first chance he had had to do so
during the year. [Footnote: When his accounts were settled he
immediately bought "a piece of cloth for a jacket; price, L4 15_s_;
buttons, etc., 3_s_."] He was overjoyed at the news of Burgoyne's
surrender; and with a light heart he returned to his father's house, to
get a glimpse of his people before again plunging into the wilds.

Clark and Patrick Henry.

After a week's rest he went back to the capital, laid his plans before
Patrick Henry, and urged their adoption with fiery enthusiasm.
[Footnote: Clark has left a full MS. memoir of the events of 1777, 1778,
and 1779. It was used extensively by Mann Butler, the first historian
who gave the campaign its proper prominence, and is printed almost
complete by Dillon, on pp. 115-167 of his "Indiana." It was written at
the desire of Presidents Jefferson and Madison; and therefore some
thirty or forty years after the events of which it speaks. Valuable
though it is, as the narrative of the chief actor, it would be still
more valuable had it been written earlier; it undoubtedly contains some
rather serious errors.] Henry's ardent soul quickly caught flame; but
the peril of sending an expedition to such a wild and distant country
was so great, and Virginia's resources were so exhausted, that he could
do little beyond lending Clark the weight of his name and influence. The
matter could not be laid before the Assembly, nor made public in any
way; for the hazard would be increased tenfold if the strictest secrecy
were not preserved. Finally Henry authorized Clark to raise seven
companies, each of fifty men, who were to act as militia and to be paid
as such. [Footnote: Henry's private letter of instructions, January 2,
1778.] He also advanced him the sum of twelve hundred pounds (presumably
in depreciated paper), and gave him an order on the authorities at
Pittsburg for boats, supplies, and ammunition; while three of the most
prominent Virginia gentlemen [Footnote: Thomas Jefferson, George Mason,
and George Wythe.] agreed in writing to do their best to induce the
Virginia Legislature to grant to each of the adventurers three hundred
acres of the conquered land, if they were successful. He was likewise
given the commission of colonel, with instructions to raise his men
solely from the frontier counties west of the Blue Ridge, [Footnote: 3
Butler, p. 48; but Henry's public instructions authorized Clark to raise
his men in any county.] so as not to weaken the people of the seacoast
region in their struggle against the British.

Clark alone Organizes the Expedition.

Thus the whole burden of making ready the expedition was laid on Clark's
shoulders. The hampered Virginian authorities were able to give him
little beyond their good-will. He is rightfully entitled to the whole
glory; the plan and the execution were both his. It was an individual
rather than a state or national enterprise.

Governor Henry's open letter of instructions merely ordered Clark to go
to the relief of Kentucky. He carried with him also the secret letter
which bade him attack the Illinois regions; for he had decided to assail
this first, because, if defeated, he would then be able to take refuge
in the Spanish dominions beyond the Mississippi. He met with the utmost
difficulty in raising men. Some were to be sent to him from the Holston
overland, to meet him in Kentucky; but a combination of accidents
resulted in his getting only a dozen or so from this source. [Footnote:
Four companies were to be raised on the Holston; but only one actually
went to Kentucky; and most of its members deserted when they found out
about the true nature of the expedition.] Around Pittsburg the jealousy
between the Virginians and Pennsylvanians hampered him greatly.
Moreover, many people were strongly opposed to sending any men to
Kentucky at all, deeming the drain on their strength more serious than
the value of the new land warranted; for they were too short-sighted
rightly to estimate what the frontiersmen had really done. When he had
finally raised his troops he was bothered by requests from the different
forts to aid detachments of the local militia in expeditions against
bands of marauding Indians.

He Starts Down the Ohio.

But Clark never for a moment wavered nor lost sight of his main object.
He worked steadily on, heedless of difficulty and disappointment, and
late in the spring at last got together four small companies of
frontiersmen from the clearings and the scattered hunters' camps. In
May, 1778, he left the Redstone settlements, taking not only his
troops--one hundred and fifty in all [Footnote: Clark's letter to George
Mason, Nov. 19, 1779. Given in "Clark's Campaign in the Illinois"
(Cincinnati, 1869), for the first time; one of Robert Clarke's excellent
Ohio Valley Historical Series.]--but also a considerable number of
private adventurers and settlers with their families. He touched at
Pittsburg and Wheeling to get his stores. Then the flotilla of clumsy
flatboats, manned by tall riflemen, rowed and drifted cautiously down
the Ohio between the melancholy and unbroken reaches of Indian-haunted
forest. The presence of the families shows that even this expedition had
the usual peculiar western character of being undertaken half for
conquest, half for settlement.

He landed at the mouth of the Kentucky, but rightly concluded that as a
starting-point against the British posts it would be better to choose a
place farther west, so he drifted on down the stream, and on the 27th of
May [Footnote: This is the date given in the deposition, in the case of
Floyd's heirs, in 1815; see MSS. in Col. Durrett's library at
Louisville. Clark's dates, given from memory, are often a day or two
out. His "Memoir" is of course less accurate than the letter to Mason.]
reached the Falls of the Ohio, where the river broke into great rapids
or riffles of swift water. This spot he chose, both because from it he
could threaten and hold in check the different Indian tribes, and
because he deemed it wise to have some fort to protect in the future the
craft that might engage in the river trade, when they stopped to prepare
for the passage of the rapids. Most of the families that had come with
him had gone off to the interior of Kentucky, but several were left, and
these settled on an island near the falls, where they raised a crop of
corn; and in the autumn they moved to the mainland. On the site thus
chosen by the clear-eyed frontier leader there afterwards grew up a
great city, named in honor of the French king, who was then our ally.
Clark may fairly be called its founder. [Footnote: It was named
Louisville in 1780, but was long known only as the Falls. Many other men
had previously recognized the advantages of the place; hunters and
surveyors had gone there, but Clark led thither the first permanent
settlers. Conolly had laid out at the Falls a grant of two thousand
acres, of which he afterwards surrendered half. His grant, covering much
of the present site of the city, was on July 1, 1780, declared to be
forfeited by a jury consisting of Daniel Boon and eleven other good men
and true, empanelled by the sheriff of the county. See Durrett MSS. in
"Papers Relating to Louisville, Ky."]

Clark at the Falls.

Here Clark received news of the alliance with France, which he hoped
would render easier his task of winning over the habitants of the
Illinois. He was also joined by a few daring Kentuckians, including
Kenton, and by the only Holston company that had yet arrived. He now
disclosed to his men the real object of his expedition. The Kentuckians,
and those who had come down the river with him, hailed the adventure
with eager enthusiasm, pledged him their hearty support, and followed
him with staunch and unflinching loyalty. But the Holston recruits, who
had not come under the spell of his personal influence, murmured against
him. They had not reckoned on an expedition so long and so dangerous,
and in the night most of them left the camp and fled into the woods. The
Kentuckians, who had horses, pursued the deserters, with orders to kill
any who resisted; but all save six or eight escaped. Yet they suffered
greatly for their crime, and endured every degree of hardship and
fatigue, for the Kentuckians spurned them from the gates of the wooden
forts, and would not for a long time suffer them to enter, hounding them
back to the homes they had dishonored. They came from among a bold and
adventurous people, and their action was due rather to wayward and
sullen disregard of authority than to cowardice.

When the pursuing horsemen came back a day of mirth and rejoicing was
spent between the troops who were to stay behind to guard Kentucky and
those who were to go onward to conquer Illinois. On the 24th of June
Clark's boats put out from shore, and shot the falls at the very moment
that there was a great eclipse of the sun, at which the frontiersmen
wondered greatly, but for the most part held it to be a good omen.

Clark had weeded out all those whom he deemed unable to stand fatigue
and hardship; his four little companies were of picked men, each with a
good captain. [Footnote: The names of the four captains were John
Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm, and William Harrod. Each
company nominally consisted of fifty men, but none of them was of full
strength.] His equipment was as light as that of an Indian war party,
for he knew better than to take a pound of baggage that could possibly
be spared.

He Meets a Party of Hunters.

He intended to land some three leagues below the entrance of the
Tennessee River, [Footnote: At the old Fort Massac, then deserted. The
name is taken from that of an old French commander; it is not a
corruption of Fort Massacre, as has been asserted.] thence to march on
foot against the Illinois towns; for he feared discovery if he should
attempt to ascend the Mississippi, the usual highway by which the fur
traders went up to the quaint French hamlets that lay between the
Kaskaskia and the Illinois rivers. Accordingly he double-manned his oars
and rowed night and day until he reached a small island off the mouth of
the Tennessee, where he halted to make his final preparations, and was
there joined by a little party of American hunters, [Footnote In his
"Memoir" he says "from the States"; in his letter to Mason he calls them
"Englishmen," probably to show that they were not French, as they had
just come from Kaskaskia. He almost always spoke of the English proper
as British.] who had recently been in the French settlements. The
meeting was most fortunate. The hunters entered eagerly into Clark's
plans, joining him for the campaign, and they gave him some very
valuable information. They told him that the royal commandant was a
Frenchman, Rocheblave, whose head-quarters were at the town of
Kaskaskia; that the fort was in good repair, the militia were well
drilled and in constant readiness to repel attack, while spies were
continually watching the Mississippi, and the Indians and the coureurs
des bois were warned to be on the look-out for any American force, if
the party were discovered in time the hunters believed that the French
would undoubtedly gather together instantly to repel them, having been
taught to hate and dread the backwoodsmen as more brutal and terrible
than any Indians; and in such an event the strength of the works and the
superiority of the French in numbers would render the attack very
hazardous. But they thought that a surprise would enable Clark to do as
he wished, and they undertook to guide him by the quickest and shortest
route to the towns.

The March to Kaskaskia.

Clark was rather pleased than otherwise to learn of the horror with
which the French regarded the backwoodsmen. He thought it would render
them more apt to be panic-struck when surprised, and also more likely to
feel a strong revulsion of gratitude when they found that the Americans
meant them well and not ill. Taking their new allies for guides, the
little body of less than two hundred men started north across the
wilderness, scouts being scattered out well ahead of them, both to kill
game for their subsistence and to see that their march was not
discovered by any straggling Frenchman or Indian. The first fifty miles
led through tangled and pathless forest, the toil of travelling being
very great. After that the work was less difficult as they got out among
the prairies, but on these great level meadows they had to take extra
precautions to avoid being seen. Once the chief guide got bewildered and
lost himself; he could no longer tell the route, nor whither it was best
to march. [Footnote: Even experienced woodsmen or plainsmen sometimes
thus become lost or "turned round," if in a country of few landmarks,
where they have rarely been before.] The whole party was at once cast
into the utmost confusion; but Clark soon made the guide understand that
he was himself in greater jeopardy than any one else, and would forfeit
his life if he did not guide them straight. Not knowing the man, Clark
thought he might be treacherous; and, as he wrote an old friend, he was
never in his life in such a rage as when he found his troops wandering
at random in a country where, at any moment, they might blunder on
several times their number of hostile Indians; while, if they were
discovered by any one at all, the whole expedition was sure to miscarry.
However, the guide proved to be faithful; after a couple of hours he
found his bearings once more, and guided the party straight to their
destination.

The Surprise of Kaskaskia.

On the evening of the fourth of July [Footnote: So says Clark; and the
Haldimand MSS. contains a letter of Rocheblave of July 4th. For these
campaigns of 1778 I follow where possible Clark's letter to Mason as
being nearly contemporary; his "Memoir," as given by Dillon, comes next
in authority; while Butler, who was very accurate and painstaking, also
got hold of original information from men who had taken part in the
expedition, or from their descendants, besides making full use of the
"Memoir."] they reached the river Kaskaskia, within three miles of the
town, which lay on the farther bank. They kept in the woods until after
it grew dusk, and then marched silently to a little farm on the hither
side of the river, a mile from the town. The family were taken
prisoners, and from them Clark learned that some days before the
townspeople had been alarmed at the rumor of a possible attack; but that
their suspicions had been lulled, and they were then off their guard.
There were a great many men in the town, but almost all French, the
Indians having for the most part left. The account proved correct.
Rocheblave, the creole commandant, was sincerely attached to the British
interest. He had been much alarmed early in the year by the reports
brought to him by Indians that the Americans were in Kentucky and
elsewhere beyond the Alleghanies. He had written repeatedly to Detroit,
asking that regulars could be sent him, and that he might himself be
replaced by a commandant of English birth; for though the French were
well-disposed towards the crown, they had been frightened by the reports
of the ferocity of the backwoodsmen, and the Indians were fickle. In his
letters he mentioned that the French were much more loyal than the men
of English parentage. Hamilton found it impossible to send him
reinforcements however, and he was forced to do the best he could
without them; but he succeeded well in his endeavors to organize troops,
as he found the creole militia very willing to serve, and the Indians
extremely anxious to attack the Americans. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Carleton to Hamilton, May 16, 1777; Rocheblave to Carleton, February 8,
1778; Rocheblave to Hamilton, April 12, 1778; Rocheblave to Carleton,
July 4, 1778.] He had under his orders two or three times as many men
as Clark, and he would certainly have made a good fight if he had not
been surprised. It was only Clark's audacity and the noiseless speed of
his movements that gave him a chance of success with the odds so heavily
against him.

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