The mystery of the boats

from hmdb.org
You ask me, that's a little boat. But yet, George Rogers Clark left us little clue as to the boats he used to get down the Ohio, other than the fact the guide John Saunders had to talk him out of sinking them when they got to Fort Massac(The image was taken from the Floodwall in Paducah, ky, just up the river.) But that does tell us something besides he wanted to leave no tracks. One of the other themes of the Vincennes expedition was that done on a bare bone budget, with Colonel Clark signing a string of IOU's with full faith and trust of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which he then had to pay back when he became General Clark and Virginia repudiated the notes. So what would be cheap, disposable, and carry a lot of cargo? The only disadvantage is that they are impossible to get upstream, but I imagine that Colonel Clark had planned on crossing the Mississippi and throwing himself on the mercy of the Spanish Governor there. At least that's how I wrote it.

How did he do it?

Well, by now you know that George Rogers Clark was a twenty-four year old Virginian who defeated a much more experienced British commander withe nearly triple the men available to him. But how did he do it? a big cannon? Sheer luck? No, Ol' George was a master of psychology. He talked him into it. For starters, he talked the men in his command into coming with him, despite the fact that he half of them. Then, he used the fact that residents of Kaskaksia thought little better of them than the Indians to his advantage, and talked them into joining. Then our story begins. He sent Leonard Helm to Vincennes to staff the fort. Captain Helm wound up surrendering the Henry Hamilton a little before Christmas, 1778, and word reaches Colonel Clark in late January via Francis Vigo. Back then, Armies stayed put in winter,so I'm sure that news hit him hard. So what does he do? He moves his army in winter!

They made it a though a flood, sieged the fort, and forced its surrender. The rest is history.

So, when did this take place?

Well, obviously during the American revolution, which was about 250  years ago. So it was a different time. You got around on a horse(if you were lucky), or walked:

and you made your food - that means you chopped the head off a chicken, or had your slaves do it for you (always hard to handle) And if you were in the wilderness, you had make sure Indians didn't kidnap you.
But technology was happening,  as witnessed by the old saw that the British were  defeated because they used muskets, wore those bright  red jacket, and stood in the open whereas the Rebels dressed in buckskin, used rifles, and always hid behind trees. While there is some truth to, but like most old truisms, there's more benath the surface. Witness Banastre Tarleton- a British General:

Not exactly a Red jacket, eh? And then there's Robert Rogers, along with the Ferguson Rifle And the most important battle of the war, that of Saratoga, was won by the Americans.
Similarly, The border lines between what became the United States and Canada were a little more fluid. Consider the lines at the start of The French and Indain wars, about twenty years before 1778:

The British were limited mostly to the coast, although they were pushing inland, mainly from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. While the land that became the Midwest changed from French to British or Spanish (depending on which side of the Mississippi you were on), the few European Settlement were French: Saint Louis, Sainte Genevieve, Detroit.
And the Settlers kept on pushing west, which made the Native Americans made. A conference was held at Fort Stanwix (modern day Rome, NY) and the line between White and Red men was codified thus:

only as can guess, we americans  couldn't be bound by no dadgum lines. Not to mention they lines confliceted - New York and New Hampshire both claimed Vermont, and both New York and Virgina claimed the old northwest:  Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.:

So  Colonel Clark was  acting partly to enforce a territorial claim. But more importantly, he wanted to protect the settlers who had made it over the mountains from the Indians , who were firmly in the British camp. He reckoned the best way to do this was to remove the British, and then deal with Indians, French, and Spanish fairly and honestly, What a concept, eh? Of course, how he did it is half the fun, and why i'm writing a novel on it.
And that past isn't far behind us. All you have to do is go to a re-enactment event:

Who was George Rogers Clark?

So who was this George Rogers Clark dude, anyways? Well, he was from near Charlottesville, VA and is now best known for being the Older Brother to William Clark of Lewis and Clark(The expedition, not the band) He was a surveyor, and was working in Kentucky County, Virginia(now know as just plain Kentucky) when the war broke out, he approached Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, with a cunning plan: He would take the British settlements in the land that Virginia claimed - the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. And yes, they had three of them he had in mind: Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and Detroit. He managed two of the three, and most folks credit him with the US actually being granted land west of the Appalachians. Unfortunately, that was the Zenith of his career. He financed the campaign with I.O.U.'s, and neither the Virginia or Federal Governments honored them. It's a real tragedy, and best left for another time. And of course, he had help:

The foremost of which was Father Pierre Gibualt. He was priest from Montreal, who switched careers from being a fur trader. He was the priest of Kaskaskia when Clark captured it, and the two became fast friends. Fr. Gibault also the charge of Vincennes, so he became a key ally, Ironically, like Colonel Clark, it was the apex of his career. When the war ended, he found himself reporting to the Bishop Of Baltimore instead of the Bishop of Montreal. The two did not see eye to eye(Fr. Gibault was not exactly strict when it came to following church doctrine), and Father Gibualt requested a transfer across the Mississippi to Spanish Territory, where he met a similar fate. The final indignity occurred after his passing when the Mississippi wiped out his grave in New Madrid, MO in the aftermath of the earthquake of 1812.

Another ally was Francis Vigo. He was trader in Saint Louis, who had interests in Vincennes. When Colonel had not heard from his adjunct in Vincennes, Leonard Helm, for a while, Francis went over and was promptly captured by the Shawnees and hauled before the new commandant of Vincennes: British Major Henry Hamilton. The two managed to convince Hamilton they had never met, and Vigo was let go, provided he go directly to Saint Louis, and not to Kaskaskia. Which he did, pausing long to change his clothes before heading off to tell Colonel Clark. By now, you probably realize why I like this tale: In the words of AM/PM: too much good stuff! He had loaned some money to Colonel Clark, and like him, never saw it come back. The only good thing was that he was well off enough that it didn't ruin him.

You do have to feel sorry for Hamilton, as he was duped not once, not twice, but three times. Like real life, he was assigned to be governor of Bermuda after he was pardoned. He didn't lose his shirt unless it was to collect a tan




And what Captian's Helm right hand man, Leonard Helm? As you mat have guessed, no known portrait survives. It was a little hard to make a slefie back then. And precious little evidence of him survives. I made him illiterate, only to find out he could read (len, my plot works better if you can't read. Trust me on this). And like the other 'Rebels', he was finically ruined by the whole affair. Anyway, enough for this installment. catch you next month!

Where is Vincennes?

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So, how did a little town in Southern Indiana become a focal point in the American Revolution?

Water - it was a place where one could ford (wade across)the Wabash. A lot of population patterns then were predicated on rivers, since they were the Interstates of the day. Albany, where I'm at now, is at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. Saint Louis is also situated near a river junction, that of the Mississippi and Missouri. The Indian's 'capital', Kekoinga (now Fort Wayne) is at a portage(Carry your canoe a few miles) between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River via the Wabash. If you know George's story, you know it also involves some more towns. Let's take a look at another: Kaskaskia, Illinois:

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You probably notice several things odd about this map, like how there appears to be no town there, and that the line between Missouri and Illinois doesn't follow the Mississippi river. Well, therein lies the tale. Kaskaskia was another town started by the French at what was then a major junction, the meeting of the Kaskaskia and Mississippi rivers. You've probably noticed the current location is nowhere near the two rivers. That's because it used to be up where the green spot to the north of town is on the map. The Mississippi did run down the state line, and the town was used to shortcut of the Oxbow(big bend) 'Old Man River' made here. In the flood of 1844, the Mississippi changed its course, wiping out the town. The townsfolk relocated to present location until the flood of 1993 turned it into a Ghost town. All's that left of the former capital of Illinois is the Church(with Moi in front):

and the Bell, which Father Gibualt rang in 1778:

There was some reminders of yesterday, when Kaskaskia had a Big Street:

And the final town I'm going to talk about was called Corn Island. It goes by a different name now:

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Louisville was the site of the Falls of the Ohio, a series of Rapids on the Ohio river. Once again, a natural junction and choke point. Colonel Clark built a fort here on an island. Like Kaskakia, the river moved, and now I-64 in downtown Louisville sits on Corn Island.

And the Falls? well, our friends from the Corps of Engineers got busy and built a Lock and dam over the falls to make the transit easier. Hope you enjoyed it, and see you next time. Jana

Why Vincennes?

I wish I could say that I started out writing about Colonel George Rogers Clark and his memorable victory, but I came to in a roundabout way. In 2010, I was still living in Southern California, and was busy writing a story about the founder of my hometown, Louis Lorimer. I had taken the point of view of the Shawnees that Mr. Lorimer had allied himself with and that had moved from Northwest Ohio to Southeast Missouri. Their journey had taken them down the Wabash and past Vincennes, and given it importance during that time period, I thought it worthwhile to schedule a visit. Once there, you run across a even more forgotten figure than Colonel Clark(if that is possible) Father Pierre Gibualt:

I knew something was odd when I walked over the Wabash Bridge and saw this:
Hmm, a message? Let's check in with George, shall we?
Flash forward to April 2011, I had taken a another trip to Fort Wayne, In. and was planning on another trip around Labor Day. I had planned on sitting down and picking some re-enactor's brains, and had found an event put on by the Northwest Territory Alliance at Fort Ouiatenon. I emailed and got a reply that If I was really serious, I should come to Vincennes on Memorial Day. So I did.



The basic plot came to me on the flights back to California. And it turned out to be providential I did that trip, since I lost my job in August of that year, and found myself in Albany, New York, and trying to care for my elderly mother by moving her to Memphis, Tennessee. Still, I managed to make about six chapters before I made a mess of it and this guy came along:

But that's another story. When Elvis gave me writer's block, I came back to George and found a way to untangle my mess. But that's a story for another day.Unless Google decides I'm a spambot for all my links.