The Winning of the West, Volume Two by Theodore Roosevelt

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Fortunately at this time an Indian canoe, paddled by some squaws, was
discovered and overtaken by one of the dug-outs. In it was half a
quarter of a buffalo, with some corn, tallow and kettles. This was an
invaluable prize. Broth was immediately made, and was served out to the
most weakly with great care; almost all of the men got some, but very
many gave their shares to the weakly, rallying and joking them to put
them in good heart. The little refreshment, together with the fires and
the bright weather, gave new life to all. They set out again in the
afternoon, crossed a deep, narrow lake in their canoes, and after
marching a short distance came to a copse of timber from which they saw
the fort and town not two miles away. Here they halted, and looked to
their rifles and ammunition, making ready for the fight. Every man now
feasted his eyes with the sight of what he had so long labored to reach,
and forthwith forgot that he had suffered any thing; making light of
what had been gone through, and passing from dogged despair to the most
exultant self-confidence.

Between the party and the town lay a plain, the hollows being filled
with little pools, on which were many water-fowl, and some of the
townspeople were in sight, on horseback, shooting ducks. Clark sent out
a few active young creoles, who succeeded in taking prisoner one of
these fowling horsemen. From him it was learned that neither Hamilton
nor any one else had the least suspicion that any attack could possibly
be made at that season, but that a couple of hundred Indian warriors had
just come to town.

Clark was rather annoyed at the last bit of information. The number of
armed men in town, including British, French, and Indians about
quadrupled his own force. This made heavy odds to face, even with the
advantage of a surprise, and in spite of the fact that his own men were
sure to fight to the last, since failure meant death by torture.
Moreover, if he made the attack without warning, some of the Indians and
Vincennes people would certainly be slain, and the rest would be thereby
made his bitter enemies, even if he succeeded. On the other hand, he
found out from the prisoner that the French were very lukewarm to the
British, and would certainly not fight if they could avoid it; and that
half of the Indians were ready to side with the Americans. Finally,
there was a good chance that before dark some one would discover the
approach of the troops and would warn the British, thereby doing away
with all chance of a surprise.

After thinking it over Clark decided, as the less of two evils, to
follow the hazardous course of himself announcing his approach. He
trusted that the boldness of such a course, together with the shock of
his utterly unexpected appearance, would paralyze his opponents and
incline the wavering to favor him. So he released the prisoner and sent
him in ahead, with a letter to the people of Vincennes. By this letter
he proclaimed to the French that he was that moment about to attack the
town; that those townspeople who were friends to the Americans were to
remain in their houses, where they would not be molested; that the
friends of the king should repair to the fort, join the "hair-buyer
general," and fight like men; and that those who did neither of these
two things, but remained armed and in the streets, must expect to be
treated as enemies. [Footnote: Clark's "Memoir."]

Surprise of the Town.

Having sent the messenger in advance, he waited until his men were
rested and their rifles and powder dry, and then at sundown marched
straight against the town. He divided his force into two divisions,
leading in person the first, which consisted of two companies of
Americans and of the Kaskaskia creoles; while the second, led by Bowman,
contained Bowman's own company and the Cahokians. His final orders to
the men were to march with the greatest regularity, to obey the orders
of their officers, and, above all, to keep perfect silence. [Footnote:
In the Haldimand MSS., Series B., Vol. 122, p. 289, there is a long
extract from what is called "Col. Clark's Journal." This is the official
report which he speaks of as being carried by William Moires, his
express, who was taken by the Indians (see his letter to Henry of April
29th; there seems, by the way, to be some doubt whether this letter was
not written to Jefferson; there is a copy in the Jefferson MSS. Series
I., Vol. I.). This is not only the official report, but also the
earliest letter Clark wrote on the subject and therefore the most
authoritative. The paragraph relating to the final march against
Vincennes is as follows:

"I order'd the march in the first division Capt. Williams, Capt.
Worthingtons Company & the Kaskaskia Volunteers, in the 2d commanded by
Capt. Bowman his own Company & the Cohos Volunteers. At sun down I put
the divisions in motion to march in the greatest order & regularity &
observe the orders of their officers. Above all to be silent--the 5 men
we took in the canoes were our guides. We entered the town on the upper
part leaving detached Lt. Bayley & 15 rifle men to attack the Fort &
keep up a fire to harrass them untill we took possession of the town &
they were to remain on that duty till relieved by another party, the two
divisions marched into the town & took possession of the main street,
put guards &c without the least molestation."

This effectually disposes of the account, which was accepted by Clark
himself in his old age, that he ostentatiously paraded his men and
marched them to and fro with many flags flying, so as to impress the
British with his numbers. Instead of indulging in any such childishness
(which would merely have warned the British, and put them on their
guard), he in reality made as silent an approach as possible, under
cover of the darkness.

Hamilton, in his narrative, speaks of the attack as being made on the
22d of February, not the 23d as Clark says.] The rapidly gathering dusk
prevented any discovery of his real numbers.

In sending in the messenger he had builded even better than he knew;
luck which had long been against him now at last favored him. Hamilton's
runners had seen Clark's camp-fires the night before; and a small
scouting party of British regulars, Detroit volunteers, and Indians had
in consequence been sent to find out what had caused them. [Footnote:
Hamilton's "brief account" in the Haldimand MSS. The party was led by
Lt. Schieffelin of the regulars and the French captains Lamothe and
Maisonville.] These men were not made of such stern stuff as Clark's
followers, nor had they such a commander; and after going some miles
they were stopped by the floods, and started to return. Before they got
back, Vincennes was assailed. Hamilton trusted so completely to the
scouting party, and to the seemingly impassable state of the country,
that his watch was very lax. The creoles in the town, when Clark's
proclamation was read to them, gathered eagerly to discuss it; but so
great was the terror of his name, and so impressed and appalled were
they by the mysterious approach of an unknown army, and the confident
and menacing language with which its coming was heralded, that none of
them dared show themselves partisans of the British by giving warning to
the garrison. The Indians likewise heard vague rumors of what had
occurred and left the town; a number of the inhabitants who were
favorable to the British, followed the same course. [Footnote: Haldimand
MSS. Series B., Vol. 122, p. 337. Account brought to the people of
Detroit of the loss of Vincennes, by a Captain Chene, who was then
living in the village. As the Virginians entered it he fled to the woods
with some Huron and Ottawa warriors; next day he was joined by some
French families and some Miamis and Pottawatomies.] Hamilton, attracted
by the commotion, sent down his soldiers to find out what had occurred;
but before they succeeded, the Americans were upon them.

About seven o'clock [Footnote: Clark's letter to Henry.] Clark entered
the town, and at once pushed his men on to attack the fort. Had he
charged he could probably have taken it at once; for so unprepared were
the garrison that the first rifle shots were deemed by them to come from
drunken Indians. But of course he had not counted on such a state of
things. He had so few men that he dared not run the risk of suffering a
heavy loss. Moreover, the backwoodsmen had neither swords nor bayonets.

Most of the creole townspeople received Clark joyfully, and rendered him
much assistance, especially by supplying him with powder and ball, his
own stock of ammunition being scanty. One of the Indian chiefs
[Footnote: A son of the Piankeshaw head-chief Tabae.]offered to bring
his tribe to the support of the Americans, but Clark answered that all
he asked of the red men was that they should for the moment remain
neutral. A few of the young Creoles were allowed to join in the attack,
however, it being deemed good policy to commit them definitely to the
American side.

The Attack on the Fort.

Fifty of the American troops were detached to guard against any relief
from without, while the rest attacked the fort: yet Hamilton's scouting
party crept up, lay hid all night in an old barn, and at daybreak rushed
into the fort. [Footnote: Hamilton's Narrative. Clark in his "Memoir"
asserts that he designedly let them through, and could have shot them
down as they tried to clamber over the stockade if he had wished. Bowman
corroborates Hamilton, saying: "We sent a party to intercept them, but
missed them. However, we took one of their men, ... the rest making
their escape under the cover of the night into the fort." Bowman's
journal is for this siege much more trustworthy than Clark's "Memoir."
In the latter, Clark makes not a few direct misstatements, and many
details are colored so as to give them an altered aspect. As an instance
of the different ways in which he told an event at the time, and thirty
years later, take the following accounts of the same incident. The first
is from the letter to Henry (State Department MSS.), the second from the
"Memoir." I. "A few days ago I received certain intelligence of Wm.
Moires my express to you being killed near the Falls of Ohio, news truly
disagreeable to me, as I fear many of my letters will fall into the
hands of the enemy at Detroit." 2. "Poor Myres the express, who set out
on the 15th, got killed on his passage, and his packet fell into the
hands of the enemy; but I had been so much on my guard that there was
not a sentence in it that could be of any disadvantage to us for the
enemy to know; and there were private letters from soldiers to their
friends designedly wrote to deceive in cases of such accidents." Firing
was kept up with very little intermission throughout the night.

His whole account of the night attack and of his treating with Hamilton
is bombastic. If his account of the incessant "blaze of fire" of the
Americans is true, they must have wasted any amount of ammunition
perfectly uselessly. Unfortunately, most of the small western historians
who have written about Clark have really damaged his reputation by the
absurd inflation of their language. They were adepts in the
forcible-feeble style of writing, a sample of which is their rendering
him ludicrous by calling him "the Hannibal of the West," and the
"Washington of the West." Moreover, they base his claims to greatness
not on his really great deeds, but on the half-imaginary feats of
childish cunning he related in his old age.] At one o'clock the moon
set, and Clark took advantage of the darkness to throw up an
intrenchment within rifle-shot of the strongest battery, which consisted
of two guns. All of the cannon and swivels in the fort were placed about
eleven feet above the ground, on the upper floors of the strong
block-houses that formed the angles of the palisaded walls. At sunrise
on the 24th the riflemen from the intrenchment opened a hot fire into
the port-holes of the battery, and speedily silenced both guns.
[Footnote: Clark's letter to Henry.] The artillery and musketry of the
defenders did very little damage to the assailants, who lost but one man
wounded, though some of the houses in the town were destroyed by the
cannon-balls. In return, the backwoodsmen, by firing into the ports,
soon rendered it impossible for the guns to be run out and served, and
killed or severely wounded six or eight of the garrison; for the
Americans showed themselves much superior, both in marksmanship and in
the art of sheltering themselves, to the British regulars and French
Canadians against whom they were pitted.

Early in the forenoon Clark summoned the fort to surrender, and while
waiting for the return of the flag his men took the opportunity of
getting breakfast, the first regular meal they had had for six days.
Hamilton declined to surrender, but proposed a three days' truce
instead. This proposition Clark instantly rejected, and the firing again
began, the backwoodsmen beseeching Clark to let them storm the fort; he
refused. While the negotiations were going on a singular incident
occurred. A party of Hamilton's Indians returned from a successful
scalping expedition against the frontier, and being ignorant of what had
taken place, marched straight into the town. Some of Clark's
backwoodsmen instantly fell on them and killed or captured nine, besides
two French partisans who had been out with them. [Footnote: _Do_. In the
letter to Mason he says two scalped, six captured and after-wards
tomahawked. Bowman says two killed, three wounded, six captured; and
calls the two partisans "prisoners." Hamilton and Clark say they were
French allies of the British, the former saying there were two, the
latter mentioning only one. Hamilton says there were fifteen Indians.]
One of the latter was the son of a creole lieutenant in Clark's troops,
and after much pleading his father and friends procured the release of
himself and his comrade. [Footnote: The incident is noteworthy as
showing how the French were divided; throughout the Revolutionary war in
the west they furnished troops to help in turn whites and Indians,
British and Americans. The Illinois French, however, generally remained
faithful to the Republic, and the Detroit French to the crown.] Clark
determined to make a signal example of the six captured Indians, both to
strike terror into the rest and to show them how powerless the British
were to protect them; so he had them led within sight of the fort and
there tomahawked and thrown into the river. [Footnote: Hamilton, who
bore the most vindictive hatred to Clark, implies that the latter
tomahawked the prisoners himself; but Bowman explicitly says that it was
done while Clark and Hamilton were meeting at the church. Be it noticed
in passing, that both Clark and Hamilton agree that though the Vincennes
people favored the Americans, only a very few of them took active part
on Clark's side.] The sight did not encourage the garrison. The English
troops remained firm and eager for the fight, though they had suffered
the chief loss; but the Detroit volunteers showed evident signs of
panic.

Surrender of the Fort.

In the afternoon Hamilton sent out another flag, and he and Clark met in
the old French church to arrange for the capitulation. Helm, who was
still a prisoner on parole, and was told by Clark that he was to remain
such until recaptured, was present; so were the British Major Hay and
the American Captain Bowman. There was some bickering and recrimination
between the leaders, Clark reproaching Hamilton with having his hands
dyed in the blood of the women and children slain by his savage allies;
while the former answered that he was not to blame for obeying the
orders of his superiors, and that he himself had done all he could to
make the savages act mercifully. It was finally agreed that the
garrison, seventy-nine men in all, [Footnote: Letter to Henry.
Hamilton's letter says sixty rank and file of the 8th regiment and
Detroit volunteers; the other nineteen were officers and under-officers,
artillerymen, and French partisan leaders. The return of the garrison
already quoted shows he had between eighty and ninety white troops.]
should surrender as prisoners of war. The British commander has left on
record his bitter _mortification_ at having to yield the fort "to a set
of uncivilized Virginia woodsmen armed with rifles." In truth, it was a
most notable achievement. Clark had taken, without artillery, a heavy
stockade, protected by cannon and swivels, and garrisoned by trained
soldiers. His superiority in numbers was very far from being in itself
sufficient to bring about the result, as witness the almost invariable
success with which the similar but smaller Kentucky forts, unprovided
with artillery and held by fewer men, were defended against much larger
forces than Clark's. Much credit belongs to Clark's men, but most
belongs to their leader. The boldness of his plan and the resolute skill
with which he followed it out, his perseverance through the intense
hardships of the midwinter march, the address with which he kept the
French and Indians neutral, and the masterful way in which he controlled
his own troops, together with the ability and courage he displayed in
the actual attack, combined to make his feat the most memorable of all
the deeds done west of the Alleghanies in the Revolutionary war.
[Footnote: Hamilton himself, at the conclusion of his "brief account,"
speaks as follows in addressing his superiors: "The difficulties and
dangers of Colonel Clark's march from the Illinois were such as required
great courage to encounter and great perseverance to overcome. In
trusting to traitors he was more fortunate than myself; whether, on the
whole, he was entitled to success is not for me to determine." Both
Clark and Hamilton give minute accounts of various interviews that took
place between them; the accounts do not agree, and it is needless to say
that in the narration of each the other appears to disadvantage, being
quoted as practically admitting various acts of barbarity, etc.] It was
likewise the most important in its results, for had he been defeated we
would not only have lost the Illinois, but in all probability Kentucky
also.

Capture of a Convoy from Detroit.

Immediately after taking the fort Clark sent Helm and fifty men, in
boats armed with swivels, up the Wabash to intercept a party of forty
French volunteers from Detroit, who were bringing to Vincennes bateaux
heavily laden with goods of all kinds, to the value of ten thousand
pounds sterling. [Footnote: Letter to Henry.] In a few days Helm
returned successful, and the spoils, together with the goods taken at
Vincennes, were distributed among the soldiers, who "got almost rich."
[Footnote: "Memoir."] The officers kept nothing save a few needed
articles of clothing. The gun-boat _Willing_ appeared shortly after the
taking of the fort, the crew bitterly disappointed that they were not in
time for the fighting. The long-looked-for messenger from the governor
of Virginia also arrived, bearing to the soldiers the warm thanks of the
Legislature of that State for their capture of Kaskaskia and the promise
of more substantial reward. [Footnote: One hundred and fifty thousand
acres of land opposite Louisville were finally allotted them. Some of
the Piankeshaw Indians ceded Clark a tract of land for his own use, but
the Virginia Legislature very properly disallowed the grant.]

Disposal of the Prisoners.

Clark was forced to parole most of his prisoners, but twenty-seven,
including Hamilton himself, were sent to Virginia. The backwoodsmen
regarded Hamilton with revengeful hatred, and he was not well treated
while among them, [Footnote: In Hamilton's "brief account" he says that
their lives were often threatened by the borderers, but that "our guard
behaved very well, protected us, and hunted for us." At the Falls he
found "a number of settlers who lived in log-houses, in eternal
apprehension from the Indians," and he adds: "The people at the forts
are in a wretched state, obliged to enclose the cattle every night
within the fort, and carry their rifles to the field when they go to
plough or cut wood." He speaks of Boon's kindness in his short printed
narrative in the _Royal Gazette_.] save only by Boon--for the
kind-hearted, fearless old pioneer never felt any thing but pity for a
fallen enemy. All the borderers, including Clark, [Footnote: Clark, in
his letter to Mason, alludes to Hamilton's "known barbarity"; but in his
memoir he speaks very well of Hamilton, and attributes the murderous
forays to his subordinates, one of whom, Major Hay, he particularly
specifies.] believed that the British commander himself gave rewards to
the Indians for the American scalps they brought in; and because of his
alleged behavior in this regard he was kept in close confinement by the
Virginia government until, through the intercession of Washington, he
was at last released and exchanged. Exactly how much he was to blame it
is difficult to say. Certainly the blame rests even more with the crown,
and the ruling class in Britain, than with Hamilton, who merely carried
out the orders of his superiors; and though he undoubtedly heartily
approved of these orders, and executed them with eager zest, yet it
seems that he did what he could--which was very little--to prevent
unnecessary atrocities.

The crime consisted in employing the savages at all in a war waged
against men, women, and children alike. Undoubtedly the British at
Detroit followed the example of the French [Footnote: See Parkman's
"Montcalm and Wolfe," II., 421, for examples of French payments, some of
a peculiarly flagrant sort. A certain kind of American pseudo-historian
is especially fond of painting the British as behaving to us with
unexampled barbarity; yet nothing is more sure than that the French were
far mote cruel and less humane in their contests with us than were the
British.] in paying money to the Indians for the scalps of their foes.
It is equally beyond question that the British acted with much more
humanity than their French predecessors had shown. Apparently the best
officers utterly disapproved of the whole business of scalp buying; but
it was eagerly followed by many of the reckless agents and partisan
leaders, British, tories, and Canadians, who themselves often
accompanied the Indians against the frontier and witnessed or shared in
their unmentionable atrocities. It is impossible to acquit either the
British home government or its foremost representatives at Detroit of a
large share in the responsibility for the appalling brutality of these
men and their red allies; but the heaviest blame rests on the home
government.

The Country Pacified.

Clark soon received some small reinforcements, and was able to establish
permanent garrisons at Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia. With the
Indian tribes who lived round about he made firm peace; against some
hunting bands of Delawares who came in and began to commit ravages, he
waged ruthless and untiring war, sparing the women and children, but
killing all the males capable of bearing arms, and he harried most of
them out of the territory, while the rest humbly sued for peace. His own
men worshipped him; the French loved and stood in awe of him while the
Indians respected and feared him greatly. During the remainder of the
Revolutionary war the British were not able to make any serious effort
to shake the hold he had given the Americans on the region lying around
and between Vincennes and the Illinois. Moreover he so effectually
pacified the tribes between the Wabash and the Mississippi that they did
not become open and formidable foes of the whites until, with the close
of the war against Britain, Kentucky passed out of the stage when Indian
hostilities threatened her very life.

The fame of Clark's deeds and the terror of his prowess spread to the
southern Indians, and the British at Natchez trembled lest they should
share the fate that had come on Kaskaskia and Vincennes. [Footnote:
State Department MSS. [Intercepted Letters], No. 51, Vol. II., pp. 17
and 45. Letter of James Colbert, a half-breed in the British interest,
resident at that time among the Chickasaws, May 25, 1779, etc.]
Flat-boats from the Illinois went down to New Orleans, and keel-boats
returned from that city with arms and munitions, or were sent up to
Pittsburg [Footnote: The history of the early navigation of the Ohio and
Mississippi begins many years before the birth of any of our western
pioneers, when the French went up and down them. Long before the
Revolutionary war occasional hunters, in dug-outs, or settlers going to
Natchez in flat-boats, descended these rivers, and from Pittsburg craft
were sent to New Orleans to open negotiations with the Spaniards as soon
as hostilities broke out; and ammunition was procured from New Orleans
as soon as Independence was declared.]; and the following spring Clark
built a fort on the east bank of the Mississippi below the Ohio.
[Footnote: In lat. 36 deg. 30'; it was named Fort Jefferson. Jefferson MSS.,
1st Series, Vol. 19. Clark's letter.] It was in the Chickasaw territory,
and these warlike Indians soon assaulted it, making a determined effort
to take it by storm, and though they were repulsed with very heavy
slaughter, yet, to purchase their neutrality, the Americans were glad to
abandon the fort.

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