The Adventures of George Rogers Clark Pt. 3

This historical story is a transcript for the We're All Stories Podcast. The episode cane be heard in all it's glory here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1685008/9086461

Welcome once again to Frontier America. Today is the final chapter on the Life and Times of George Rogers Clark. If you haven’t listened to our previous two episodes, Take this opportunity to stop here and go back. Spoilers.

Last time, Clark and his men just captured Fort Sackville from the British, taking the British Lieutenant Governor in the process. They at last reunite with the crew of the gun boat that had been sent out in episode, it’s crew bringing good news: men from the Kentucky militia were on their way! Clark had just sent a return missive, inquiring as to how many men were to be expected as he continues to weigh his options, still plotting how to take the ever elusive Fort Detroit.

After sending his inquiry last time,, George Rogers Clark received a return dispatch from the commandant of Kentucky,, promising three hundred men and preparations were under way to lay up supplies to prepare to receive these reinforcements. When June came, only half that number arrived because recruitment had slowed due to the failure of American paper money.

See, with the outbreak of the war, coins were being hoarded so as to make them extremely rare. This makes small,, day to day transactions,, such as someone buying a what would be needed to make dinner, or needle and thread,, anything for the household really, near impossible. No one had the small change needed for these transactions and if they tried to use a larger denomination, the merchant would be unable to produce the change. See the issue? In answer to this shortage, the American government began printing paper money to fill the void. Leading to the production of paper notes taking on the value of small denominations, filling the space coins have now, having the worth of cents. The general public distrusted this volatile paper currency in favor of cold hard cash so coin hoarding redoubled, increasing the value of European coins. I mean,, if the revolution fails,, this paper wouldn't be worth the small amount printed on it. And if the revolution was a success, what if no strong government could be cobbled together to give this paper worth? In answer to the increased scarcity of coins, the American government resorts to printing even more paper bills, saturating the market and rendering them virtually worthless. American paper bills as a currency collapsed as their value continued to plummet. People lost all faith in the paper money of this fledgling country and returned them to the treasury to cash them in for a fraction of their promised worth. Even today, due to the large amount of these bills, they hold very little value, even as a collectors item.

So you can imagine the amount of success the government had trying to recruit and pay soldiers with a stack of their worthless paper.

Anyway, this lack of reinforcements was disheartening but Clark was still hopeful. They continued to lay in supplies for their eventual trip to Detroit, hoping that something would turn around and the three hundred promised soldiers would materialize. A detachment did arrive, but it was thirty men, instead of three hundred. With that, they knew they would not reach Detroit.

Clark divides his men up between St. Vincent, (French Vincennes) Kaskaskia, Cahokia and the falls of the Ohio with himself taking up position at the falls to better oversee the whole territory while he put his officers in charge of the forts. all this shuffling around happened throughout the Summer, confusing the enemy. Clark put out a series of false reports to further confuse. The British did attempt an expedition into Illinois but when they received word of an American army marching on them, they abandoned the attempt.

As a result of the protection of George Rogers Clark and his men, more and more settlers swarmed into Kentucky, beginning to fill the frontier.

Clark stayed at the Falls through Spring of the following year. That summer. as paper money continued to devalue, goods could not be bought. Clark had his hunters out trying to lay up stores of meat but as the local Tribes allied with the British began to lose their awe of the American troops who were at this point cut off in the wilderness, unable to procure reinforcements or proper supplies, raids and skirmishes became common and they had little success in laying up stores to get them through the winter. Clark would maintain his position at the falls of the Ohio for the remainder of the war but he would never achieve his goal of marching on Detroit.

In June of 1780 the British sent a force of one hundred and fifty troops of the under the command of Captain Henry Bird along with one thousand warriors of the Shawnee, Wyandotte and Lenape tribes from Detroit into Kentucky with the goal of taking the western front for the British clear to the gulf of Mexico. The British intended a clean sweep of the countryside but because their Native American allies feared Clark and his long knives, they steered clear of him, attacking small forts and settlements.

On June 21st they took a small fort at Ruddle's station under the command of Isaac Ruddle. From here they moved to nearby Martin's station, under Captain John Martin, arriving the morning of June 26th. At the time, Captain Martin was out on a hunting trip and so was absent during the attack. Those left at the station had heard the commotion from Ruddle's station and so were not caught unawares. being able to hole up inside the fort for defense but in the face of the outrageous odds against them, they were forced to surrender without firing a shot. A small force of sixty men splintered off and attacked nearby Grant's Station under John Grant. The station was torched, killing three. All of these stations were in what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky.

The men wanted to continue to attack k Lexington but Bird called a halt, citing a lack of food and resources while the reduced waterfowl of the Licking River would have forced them to abandon their cannon. He returned to Detroit on August 4th.

In retaliation, Clark marched against the Shawnee, crossing the Ohio at what is now Cincinnati Ohio. They arrive at the Shawnee Chalawgatha village, finding it abandoned. Chalawgatha has been bastardized to Chillicothe. The site of this village is in modern Xenia, Ohio.

From there they march on the Shawnee capital, the village of Peckuwe. This has been bastardized as Pickaway and Piqua. This was in what is now Modern day Clark County, Ohio, just outside of Springfield. Clark and his men Arrive there on August 8th. The fighting is fierce. It is unknown how many died on each side but the end result was the Shawnee flee, abandoning their land to rebuild their village on the Miami river near what is now Piqua Ohio. Though the long knives were the ones left standing on the field, it was hard to consider it a victory due to the casualties sustained.

The site of the Battle of Piqua as it would come to be known is now George Rogers Clark Park. Where a young me twisted an ankle while participating in a service project to clean out the spillway in the park while carrying buckets or rocks and debris when I was 12. This was my first exposure to George Rogers Clark.

In 1781, Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson promotes Clark to brigadier general, making him the ranking officer in the west and putting him in charge of all of Kentucky and Illinois.

In August of that year, Clark prepares another campaign against Detroit. George Washington sends him a detachment of troops to aid in this but when they are intercepted by the British, the campaign is again cancelled.

Though Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered after the Siege of Yorktown on October 19th, 1781 marking the end of major hostilities between British and American troops and has been celebrated as the end of the war, fighting continued. especially in the frontier, being far removed from the front.

In example of this, in 1782 another coalition of one hundred and fifty British troops and eleven hundred of their Nstive American allies launch an expedition from Detroit under the command of Captain William Caldwell. Their intention was to take Wheeling, driving the American settlers out of Kentucky. This was called off when rumors spread that General George Rogers Clark was on his way with an army to meet them, causing the British and allies to flee in terror. Caldwell retreats to Mad River to brace for the attack, which never comes.

Caldwell is left with roughly one third of his original force. Approximately fifty British troops and three hundred Wyandotte warriors. Perhaps trying to save face and not wanting to leave empty handed, they lay siege to Bryan's Station in what is now Lexington Kentucky on August 15th. The siege is called off when they hear a group of Kentucky Militia is on the way.

The militia. approximately one hundred and eighty two men under the command of Colonel John Todd, assisted by Lieutenant Colonels Daniel Boone and Stephen Trigg as well as Major Hugh McGary arrive at the station on August 18th. An additional force from Lincoln County under Colonel Benjamin Logan was mustering, but had not yet arrived.

The Americans had two options. They could either pursue the much larger force with what they had or they could wait a day for the rest of their troops to arrive so they were on more equal footing but risk the retreating British making a clean getaway. Daniel Boone wants to wait but he is overruled. They catch up to them on August 19th at a place known as the Lower Blue Licks in what is now Nicholas County, Kentucky.

Daniel Boone, being an experienced woodsman, had for some time been suspicious of how easily they were able to follow the trail, almost as if it had been left that way deliberately, leading them into an ambush. The officers call a council and Colonel Todd, bowing to Boone's experience, asks him how best to proceed. Boone advises caution saying It's a trap Like Admiral Ackbar before being ambushed by the imperials when attacking the death star.

Major Hugh McGary was rather hot headed and impulsive. He demands they press on but being the lowest ranking officer present, he is vetoed. At this, he angrily jumps on his horse and in an insubordinate fit of rage yells for anyone who isn't a coward to follow him. The men, obeying the command of an officer and not wanting to be seen as cowards charge with the Major. Boone and the rest of the ranking officers are left helpless but to follow.

Todd and McGary take the center, while Trigg takes the right flank and Boone the left.

Just as Boone had predicted, Caldwell was waiting in ambush. As the hapless Americans matched into view, the British and their allies open fire. After all of five minutes the center and right columns are pushed back. Trigg and Todd are killed almost immediately, making Boone the ranking officer. Boones left column is the only group that has any success, managing to push forward against the British fire. In a panic, McGary, the one who started the whole mess to begin with, calls for a retreat and turns tail to flee. Yet Again, Boone is forced to clean up McGary's mess. Meanwhile the center and right columns are in full retreat. Having been flanked, they are fighting hand to hand with the enemy in their attempt to flee.

Seeing the turn the battle had taken, Boone seizes a horse and hoists his twenty three year old son Israel onto it, urging him to flee. His son is immediately shot through the neck and falls to the ground dead at his father's feet. At the death of his son, Boone becomes disheartened, giving up on his attack and joins in the retreat.

Though he wasn't there, General Clark receives blame for the disaster that would be known as the Battle of Blue Licks.

In retaliation, Clark leads a campaign against the Shawnee, who had not been involved at Blue Licks. The Shawnee refuse to take the field against Clark, abandoning their villages and retreating. Clark's men burn a number of these abandoned villages, including the newly rebuilt Piqua.

Four years later, Hugh McGary would confront the Shawnee Chief Moluntha during the Northwest Indian War. Moluntha had peacefully surrendered, waving an American flag to distinguish his people as allies of the Americans with a peace treaty in hand between his people and the United States government. McGary demanded to know if Moluntha had been at Blue Licks, though as Shawnee, Moluntha had not been involved McGary tomahawks the defenseless man to death, the peace treaty still clutched in his lifeless hand. McGary was relieved of command and court martialed. Though he was only stripped of his commission for one year and no other punishment was ever given him for this cold blooded murder in front of everyone.

Clark came to be lauded as the Conqueror of the Northwest. Through his work in the frontier, Clark is credited with doubling the size of the original colonies as the land he took from the British was ceded to the Americans as an article in the Treaty of Paris. 1783, the signing of which marked the close of the Revolutionary War.

Of the six Clark boys, five would become officers in the course of the war, though perhaps none so well known as George. The youngest brother, William, was too young to participate in the fighting, though he would become famous in his own way later in life.

On December 17th, 1783, Clark is appointed Principal Surveyor for this new territory and from 1784 to 1788 he acted as Superintendent Surveyor of lands given to Virginia Veterans for their service in the war.

During the Northwest Indian War of 1785-1795 Clark assists in early negotiations, being instrumental in the negotiations of the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Fort Finney in 1785 and 1786 respectively. In 1786. In one of the opening actions of the war, Clark leads a militia of approximately twelve hundred men but the endeavour comes to naught when a chunk of his men mutiny due to a lack of supplies, forcing a retreat.

A vicious rumor is started that Clark is constantly drunk and is unfit to lead. This rumour was started by a probably jealous James Wilkinson. Wilkinson was twice forced to resign during the war for his unseemly conduct. He would later go on to command two unsuccessful campaigns in the war of 1812, being the highlight of his military career. Wilkinson was involved in a number of scandals and embarrassments throughout his life. Including acting as a spy against his country in the employ of the Spanish. He is much despised and reviled by American historians and politicians. He has the dubious honor of being described by Theodore Roosevelt in this way: "In all our history, there is no more despicable character." So when he starts a nasty rumour, accusing a notable figure in scandal, you can take it with a grain of salt.

Despite this Clark is dishonoured and relieved from duty. The Governor of Virginia refuses Clark's appeal. Clark leaves Kentucky in disgrace to retire to the lands in Indiana that had been awarded him for his service in the revolution. 150,000 acres of land in Southern Indiana, known then as Clark's Grant, encompassing modern Clark County, Indiana as well as parts of Floyd and Scott Counties.

A portion of this land would become Clarksville in 1784, the first American town in the Northwest.

As I said before, pretty much all of the work Clark did during the Revolutionary War was done without funding by the government. After the war, when Clark turned in his receipts for reimbursement, they were denied by the new United States government in whose service he had been acting. They condemned his record keeping, claiming it wasn't pretty enough and intimated it was fraudulent. I mean, the guy had been at war in the wilderness for years, what did they expect?

As a result Clark's reputation was ruined as creditors hounded him mercilessly for what was owed on behalf of the government.

So Clark was left with a vast amount of land but no money with which to cultivate it.

Perhaps in an attempt to unsully his name, He writes his memoirs, which I have frequently cited, in and around 1791 but they are not published during his lifetime.

In 1793 Clark sees a way to redeem himself and obtain some much needed capital. To Americans in the west, the only route for easy trade over distance was via the Mississippi River but free access to this was denied by the Spanish. When the US government refuses to acknowledge the situation, French ambassador Edmond- Charles Genêt steps in on behalf of his country. He hires Clark as Major General in the Armies of France and Commander-in-chief of the French Revolutionary Legion on the Mississippi River. Clark begins putting together a force of men, recruiting and equipping them from his own meagre funds, investing over four and a half thousand dollars in the endeavour. Between seventy one and seventy two thousand dollars now. so definitely a considerable sum.

In 1794, President Washington issues a proclamation forbidding Americans from taking action in fighting between France and Spain. As a result, France pulls the plug on the endeavour, leaving Clark high and dry, refusing to reimburse him. Now Clark is even deeper in debt and his already besmirched honour is further tarnished as he is accused of colluding with France against the interests of his country.

After this debacle, even further in debt, his creditors begin hounding him even more viciously, seizing his lands as payment. He is able to sign over a chunk of his lands to friends and family to preserve it but Clark, who had been the largest landowner on the frontier now owns virtually nothing but a fragment of a plot in what was Clark's Grant.

In 1803 he builds himself a small cabin on this land overlooking the falls of the Ohio where he owns and operates a small gristmill with the help of two slaves.

Grist is the grain after it has been separated from the chaff, so a Grist mill takes this good grain and mills it into flour.

Though modest, Clark saw a number of visitors at his cabin as many people came to him to seek his unparalleled knowledge of the western territory, it's plants and animals, natural history and native tribes. Including John Pope and John James Audubon. It was also a first stop for Clark's youngest brother William and his companion Meriwether Lewis, the famed Lewis and Clark at the outset of their historic expedition. The elder Clark had been deemed too infirm at this point to participate but could still provide valuable knowledge and advice.

On August 24th, 1805, opportunity seems to come.knocking on Clark's door once again when Indiana commissions the first Indiana Canal Company to build a canal around the falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side of the river. As the preeminent expert on the area, Clark was named to the board of directors along with David Floyd and the infamous Aaron Burr. The company raised approximately $1.2 million worth around$21 million now. The company was disbanded with the arrest of Aaron Burr and David Floyd in the aftermath of the Aaron Burr Conspiracy in 1807.

What happened to the money? who knows. It disappeared in the midst of the scandal, never to be accounted for. You know who didn't have it? George Rogers Clark who was once again screwed over and left penniless.

For some time now, seeing himself as betrayed and neglected by the government he had given his health and best years to create and for his service, the thanks he received was to be hounded by creditors.

Clark falls into a deep depression and struggled with alcohol addiction. For real this time.

At this point, between years of alcohol abuse and failing health which his doctor attributed to his wilderness campaigns during the war, Clark was not doing well.

In 1809, Clark suffers a severe stroke, during which he fell into a fire. Though he survived, he suffered burns severe enough that his leg had to be amputated. This meant he could no longer operate his mill or care for himself. Following this, he moves back to Kentucky where he lives in the care of his younger sister Lucy and her husband at their farm in Locust Grove, right outside of Louisville.

In 1812, the US government at last acknowledges his contribution to the success of the revolution by presenting him with a ceremonial sword and awarding him a pension of $400 a year.

Six years later, on February 13th, 1818 Clark has another stroke, this one claims his life. On February 15th he is buried at Locust Grove Cemetery. On October 29th, 1869, Clark and many of his family members are exhumed and moved to Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, where they rest to this day.

Some time after his death, Virginia, acknowledging its debt to Clark, made a payment of $30,000 to his estate as a partial payment towards this debt. It would continue to do so until 1913.

All across the old Northwest, now the american Midwest, can be seen the legacy of George Rogers Clark including multiple towns and counties named after him, as well as a number of parks, statues and monuments.

In 1929, to celebrate one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the taking of Fort Sackville, the US postal service issues a commemorative stamp depicting Clark taking the fort.

In 1975, the Indiana General assembly declares February 25th, the day Fort Sackville was surrendered to Clark, to be George Rogers Clark day from then on in their state.

in 1979, to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the event, Indiana also issues special commemorative license plates.

Though in large part unrecognized and unappreciated during his lifetime, he is still celebrated as an American hero centuries later.

So that is the story of the life and death of General George Rogers Clark. Thank you for coming with me on this long and twisting journey through America's formative years to witness the contributions this man made.