IX
_VINCENNES_
"I will dispossess these Americans," said Governor Hamilton atDetroit. "I will recover Vincennes. I will punish Kentucky. I willsubdue all Virginia west of the mountains." And on the seventh ofOctober, 1778, he left Detroit with eight hundred men,--regulars,volunteers, and picked Indians.
The French habitants of Vincennes were smoking their pipes in theirrude verandas, when afar they saw the gleam of red coats. Vincennessank without a blow and its people bowed again to the British king.
"I will quarter here for the winter," said Governor Hamilton. Then hesent an express to the Spanish Governor at St. Louis with the threat,"If any asylum be granted the rebels in your territory, the Spanishpost will be attacked."
In their scarlet tunics, emblem of Britain, to Chickasaw and Cherokeehis runners flew. At Mackinac the Lake Indians were to "wipe out therebels of Illinoi'." Far over to the Sioux went presents and messages,even to the distant Assiniboine. Thousands of red-handled scalpingknives were placed in their hands. Emissaries watched Kaskaskia.Picked warriors lingered around the Ohio to intercept any boats thatmight venture down with supplies for the little Virginian army.
New Year's dawned for 1779. Danger hovered over Clark at Kaskaskia.
"Not for a whole year have I received a scrape of a pen," he wrote toPatrick Henry. Too small was his force to stand a siege, too far awayto hope for relief. He called his Kentuckians from Cahokia, and dayand night toiled at the defences of Kaskaskia. How could theywithstand the onslaught of Hamilton and his artillery?
But hark! There is a knocking at the gate, and Francis Vigo enters.Closeted with Clark he unfolds his errand.
"I am just from Vincennes. Listen! Hamilton has sent his Indian hordesin every direction. They are guarding the Ohio, watching thesettlements, stirring up the most distant tribes to sweep the country.But he has sent out so many that he is weak. At this moment there arenot more than eighty soldiers left in garrison, nor more than threepieces of cannon and some swivels mounted."
With inspiration born of genius and desperate courage Clark made hisresolve. "If I don't take Hamilton he'll take me; and, by Heaven! I'lltake Hamilton!"
But it was midwinter on the bleak prairies of Illinois, where to thisday the unwary traveller may be frozen stark in the icy chill. Clark'smen were almost entirely without clothing, ammunition, provisions. Cangenius surmount destitution? Clark turned to Vigo.
"I have not a blanket, an ounce of bread, nor a pound of powder. Canyou fit me out in the name of Virginia?"
Francis Vigo, a Sardinian by birth but Republican at heart, answered,"I can fit you out. Here is an order for money. Down yonder is aswivel and a boatload of powder. I will bid the merchants supplywhatever you need. They can look to me for payment."
In two days Clark's men were fitted out and ready. Clad in skins, theystepped out like trappers.
On the shore lay a new bateau. Vigo's swivel was rolled aboard, andsome of the guns of Kaskaskia.
"Now, Captain John Rogers," said Colonel Clark to his cousin, "withthese forty-eight men and these cannon you go down the Mississippi, upthe Ohio, and enter the Wabash River. Station yourself a few milesbelow Vincennes; suffer nothing to pass, and wait for me."
On the 4th of February the little galley slid out with Rogers and hismen.
"Now who will go with me?" inquired Clark, turning to his comrades."It will be a desperate service. I must call for volunteers."
Stirred by the daring of the deed, one hundred and thirty young menswore to follow him to the death. All the remaining inhabitants weredetailed to garrison Kaskaskia and Cahokia. The fickle weather-vanesof old Kaskaskia veered and whirled, the winds blew hot and cold, thencame fair weather for the starting.
It was February 5, 1779, when George Rogers Clark set out with his onehundred and thirty men to cross the Illinois. Vigo pointed out thefur-trader's trail to Vincennes and Detroit. Father Gibault blessedthem as they marched away. The Creole girls put flags in the hands oftheir sweethearts, and begged them to stand by "le Colonel."
"O Mother of God, sweet Virgin, preserve my beloved," prayed the Donnade Leyba in the Government House at St. Louis.
Over all the prairies the snows were melting, the rains were falling,the rivers were flooding.
Hamilton sat at Vincennes planning his murders.
"Next year," he exulted, "there will be the greatest number of savageson the frontier that has ever been known. The Six Nations havereceived war belts from all their allies."
But Clark and his men were coming in the rain. Eleven days afterleaving Kaskaskia they heard the morning guns of the fort. Deep anddeeper grew the creeks and sloughs as they neared the drowned lands ofthe Wabash. Still they waded on, through water three feet deep;sometimes they were swimming. Between the two Wabashes the waterspread, a solid sheet five miles from shore to shore. The men lookedout, amazed, as on a rolling sea. But Clark, ever ahead, cheering hismen, grasped a handful of gunpowder, and with a whoop, the well-knownpeal of border war, blackened his face and dashed into the water. Themen's hearts leaped to meet his daring, and with "death or victory"humming in their brains, they plunged in after.
On and on they staggered, buffeting the icy water, stumbling in thewake of their undaunted leader. Seated on the shoulders of a tallShenandoah sergeant, little Isham Floyd, the fourteen-year-old drummerboy, beat a charge. Deep and deeper grew the tide; waist deep, breasthigh, over their shoulders it played; and above, the leaden sky lookeddown upon this unparalleled feat of human endeavour. Never had theworld seen such a march.
Five days they passed in the water,--days of chill and whoops andsongs heroic to cheer their flagging strength. The wallets were emptyof corn, the men were fainting with famine, when lo! an Indian canoeof squaws hove in sight going to Vincennes. They captured the canoe,and--most welcome of all things in the world to those famished men--itcontained a quarter of buffalo and corn and kettles! On a littleisland they built a fire; with their sharp knives prepared the meat,and soon the pots were boiling. So exhausted were they that Clarkwould not let them have a full meal at once, but gave cups of broth tothe weaker ones.
On the sixteenth day Clark cheered his men. "Beyond us liesVincennes. Cross that plain and you shall see it."
On February 22, Washington's birthday, fatigued and weary they sleptin a sugar camp. "Heard the evening and morning guns of the fort. Noprovisions yet. Lord help us!" is the record of Bowman's journal.
Still without food, the 23d saw them crossing the HorseshoePlain,--four miles of water breast high. Frozen, starved, theystruggled through, and on a little hill captured a Frenchman huntingducks.
"No one dreams of your coming at this time of year," said theduck-hunter. "There are six hundred people in Vincennes, troops,Indians, and all. This very day Hamilton completed the walls of hisfort."
Clark pressed his determined lips. "The situation is all that I canask. It is death or victory." And there in the mud, half frozen,chilled to the marrow, starved, Clark penned on his knee a letter:
"TO THE INHABITANTS OF POST 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 such as are true citizens to remain still in your houses. Those, if any there be, that are friends of the King, will instantly repair to the fort, join the hair-buyer general, and fight like men. If any such do not go and are found afterwards, they may depend on severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are the friends of liberty may depend on being well treated, and I once more request them to keep out of the streets. Every one I find in arms on my arrival I shall treat as an enemy.
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK."
"Take this. Tell the people my quarrel is with the British. We shallbe in Vincennes by the rising of the moon. Prepare dinner."
The messenger flew ahead; upon the captured horses of otherduck-hunters Clark
mounted his officers. It was just at nightfall whenthey entered the lower gate.
"Silence those drunken Indians," roared Hamilton at the sound ofguns. But the Frenchmen themselves turned their rifles on the fort.
Under the friendly light of the new moon Clark and his men threw up anintrenchment, and from behind its shelter in fifteen minutes theskilled volleys of the border rifle had silenced two of the cannon.
"Surrender!" was Clark's stentorian summons at daylight.
Hamilton, with the blood of many a borderer on his head,--what had heto hope? Hot and hotter rained the bullets.
"Give me three days to consider."
"Not an hour!" was Clark's reply.
"Let me fight with you?" said The Tobacco's son, the principal chiefon the Wabash.
"No," answered Clark, "you sit back and watch us. Americans do nothire Indians to fight their battles."
Amazed, the Indians fell back and waited.
The fort fell, and with it British dominion in the northwestterritory. Then the galley hove in sight and the flag waved aboveVincennes.
"A convoy up de _riviere_ on its way with goods, from le Detroit,"whispered a Frenchman. Directly Clark dispatched his boatmen tocapture the flotilla.
"_Sur la feuille ron--don don don_," the _voyageurs_ were singing.
Merrily rowing down the river came the British, when suddenly out froma bend swung three boats. "Surrender!"
Amid the wild huzzas of Vincennes the Americans returned, bringing thecaptive convoy with fifty thousand dollars' worth of food, clothing,and ammunition, and forty prisoners.
With a heart full of thanksgiving Clark paid and clothed his men outof that prize captured on the Wabash.
"Let the British flag float a few days," he said. "I may entertainsome of the hair-buying General's friends."
Very soon painted red men came striding in with bloody scalps danglingat their belts. But as each one entered, red-handed from murder,Clark's Long Knives shot him down before the face of the guiltyHamilton. Fifty fell before he lowered the British flag. But from thatday the red men took a second thought before accepting rewards for thescalps of white men.
"Now what shall you do with me?" demanded Hamilton.
"You? I shall dispatch you as a prisoner of war to Virginia."