George Rogers Clark and the War in the West

Preface

Preface IHE AMERICAN REVOLUTION was fought on a small scale compared with several of the nation's later conflicts. Fewer than 7,000 soldiers died of battle wounds during more than six years of fighting, and even if those who perished in camps and British prisons are included, the total of just over 25,000 is small in relation to the size of the nation's population and the length of the struggle. But smallthough it was, the war in the East dwarfed the war in the West, along the Ohio Valley.The population in the West was so scant, and the harassed new government could devote so little attention to the lands beyond the mountains, that the conflict was waged there by forces that seldom merited the designation of army. Only occasionally , and onlytoward the end ofthe Revolution,could as many as a thousand Kentuckymilitiamen be gathered for a brief expedition, and George Rogers Clark's most spectacular exploits were carried out with forces numbering less than two hundred men. The war in the West differed from that waged in the East in another aspect also. Had the Revolution been suppressed, a few ofthe eastern ringleaders would probably have been executed as examples to other potential rebels, but the majority of the participants would have resumed their previous status with little disruption to their lives. In the West, however, the war was foughtfor survival; there was no civilian population. If the Americans living in Kentucky were defeated, their lives were likely to be lost—unless they were carried into captivity to be adopted into an Indian tribe or sold to British authorities for location in Canada. They could, of course, ix tA flee eastward across the mountains, a decision that would have rolled back the frontier and opened long-settled communities to attack. Knowing as we do the outcome of the American Revolution , it is difficult to realize just how precarious was the existence of the settlements in Kentucky during the desperate years that extended well beyond the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. The man who did most to save Kentucky during that perilous era was George Rogers Clark. It is the purpose of this essay to show the vital role that Clark played in the phase of the Revolution that centered on Kentucky and the Illinois country. Clark has been somewhat ignored by historians in recent years, perhaps in reaction to the hero-worshipping homage tendered him by some of his early biographers. Clark's exploits do not require romanticexaggeration; the man and his career are fascinating without the addition of myth and legend. He was the savior of Kentucky and one of the commonwealth's legitimate heroes. Unfortunately for his reputation, he lived too long, and his later failures were a pathetic aftermath to the brilliant accomplishments of his earlier years. Clark lived to be sixty-six; his reputation declined after he was thirty. George Rogers Clark wrote two accounts of his most successful campaign, a memoir and a lengthy letter to George Mason, and the Clark quotations in the text are taken from them unless another source is indicated. The restricted format ofthe Bicentennial Bookshelf precludes the extensive documentation that would be required to identify each one. When Clark did not employ the services ofa secretary his prose has a stream-of-consciousness quality with much use of disconnected clauses, a fine disregard for punctuation, and an erratic approach to capitalization . Most authors who have quoted from Clark's writings have made some changes for the sake ofclarity; I have done the same, while making every effort to retain his meaning. Also I have used "Kentucky" to denote the x area that later achieved statehood under that name, although at times there was no area legally so called. I owe particular thanks to the staffs ofthe Kentuckyand Helm-Cravens libraries at Western Kentucky University and The Filson Club in Louisville for their assistance during my research. The presence of the Temple Bodley collection of Clark materials at The Filson Club and the availability ofthe Draper Papers ofthe Wisconsin Historical Society on microfilm at Western Kentucky University greatly reduced the travel that otherwise would have been required. This page intentionally left blank ...