School students want their history lessons to be relevant. They want to know why the events of the past matter. One wonders, then, how many teachers in Ohio and Wisconsin tell their pupils that if it were not for George Rogers Clark, they might be Canadians.
“With just 150 volunteers,” Eric Sterner tells readers in his much-needed biography, Clark “paddled, rode, and walked from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi through all kinds of weather to seize the largest white settlements in the…Illinois Country. Combining speed and surprise with a mastery of psychological warfare, skill at maneuvering and the political gaps among various groups, and a healthy dose of luck, the small force accomplished the unexpected.”
“With just 150 volunteers,” Eric Sterner tells readers in his much-needed biography, Clark “paddled, rode, and walked from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi through all kinds of weather to seize the largest white settlements in the…Illinois Country. Combining speed and surprise with a mastery of psychological warfare, skill at maneuvering and the political gaps among various groups, and a healthy dose of luck, the small force accomplished the unexpected.”
Clark’s adventure in Illinois is a great story and an essential part of our national history, yet few Americans are aware of it. The obvious reasons are that George Washington was not involved in it, and it occurred far from eastern population centers. Its place in the Revolutionary story also requires some explaining: It was a Virginia enterprise, entirely independent of Congress or the Continental Army. Clark’s men were not Continental soldiers, State regulars, nor even militia. They were simply volunteers hoping for a vaguely promised reward.
Mr. Sterner explains that Henry Hamilton, the Canadian lieutenant governor at Fort Detroit, initially hoped to sway western settlers toward the Crown. Hamilton published his overture in a printed broadside.
Mr. Sterner explains that Henry Hamilton, the Canadian lieutenant governor at Fort Detroit, initially hoped to sway western settlers toward the Crown. Hamilton published his overture in a printed broadside.
I do assure all such as are inclined to withdraw themselves from the Tyranny and oppression of the rebel Committees, & take refuge in this Settlement, or any of the Posts commanded by His Majesty’s Officers, shall be humanely treated, shall be lodged and victualled, and such as come off in arms & shall use them in defence of his Majesty against Rebels and Traytors, ’till the extinction of this rebellion, shall receive pay adequate to their former Stations in the rebel service, and all common men who shall serve during that period, shall receive his Majesty’s bounty of two hundred acres of Land.
Never likely to persuade, the proclamation was most often found next to the bodies of murdered settlers and consequently perceived as a declaration of “all out war.” Governor Patrick Henry secretly authorized Clark to recruit men and take that war to the enemy on the north side of the Ohio. Through a remarkable sequence of heroic deeds, Clark’s little army not only captured three French-speaking settlements but also Governor Hamilton himself.
Mr. Sterner’s treatment of Clark is superior to its predecessors in part because it makes a clear-eyed assessment of its subject. Clark was no diplomat. He viewed repeated treaty negotiations with hostile Indian tribes as telegraphing fear and weakness. When he convened his own such meeting, he declared, “I am a man and a Warriour and not a councillor. I carry in my Right hand war and Peace in my left.” When Winnebago leaders offered him a peace pipe and a belt of wampum, he smashed them with his sword. Hamilton’s surrender followed Clark’s theatrically gruesome tomahawking of prisoners outside the fort at Vincennes. With just a small force at his disposal, Sterner explains, Clark relied on psychological warfare to succeed.
After Clark’s success against Hamilton, the north side of the Ohio was organized as Illinois County, Virginia. His men, too, were organized (if they enlisted) as the Illinois Regiment of Virginia state regulars. As peace neared, the possession and governance of territory became increasingly important. Nathanael Greene prioritized square miles over urban centers in the south and won the Carolinas and Georgia for the United States. The Illinois Regiment’s tenuous control over the West led to the acquisition of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. It is an important story and one that needed to be told right. Mr. Sterner has done that in Till the Extinction of This Rebellion: George Rogers Clark, Frontier Warfare, and the Illinois Campaign of 1778-1779.
Since the 1876 centennial, Revolutionary War historiography has been inappropriately focused on the northeast and the career of Washington (which was also mostly in the northeast). John Buchanan, Michael Cecere, and Andrew Waters are among the authors who have helped correct the north-south imbalance. Eric Sterner, also the author of Anatomy of a Massacre and The Battle of Upper Sandusky, 1782, is valiantly working to correct the much deeper east-west imbalance.
Mr. Sterner’s treatment of Clark is superior to its predecessors in part because it makes a clear-eyed assessment of its subject. Clark was no diplomat. He viewed repeated treaty negotiations with hostile Indian tribes as telegraphing fear and weakness. When he convened his own such meeting, he declared, “I am a man and a Warriour and not a councillor. I carry in my Right hand war and Peace in my left.” When Winnebago leaders offered him a peace pipe and a belt of wampum, he smashed them with his sword. Hamilton’s surrender followed Clark’s theatrically gruesome tomahawking of prisoners outside the fort at Vincennes. With just a small force at his disposal, Sterner explains, Clark relied on psychological warfare to succeed.
After Clark’s success against Hamilton, the north side of the Ohio was organized as Illinois County, Virginia. His men, too, were organized (if they enlisted) as the Illinois Regiment of Virginia state regulars. As peace neared, the possession and governance of territory became increasingly important. Nathanael Greene prioritized square miles over urban centers in the south and won the Carolinas and Georgia for the United States. The Illinois Regiment’s tenuous control over the West led to the acquisition of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. It is an important story and one that needed to be told right. Mr. Sterner has done that in Till the Extinction of This Rebellion: George Rogers Clark, Frontier Warfare, and the Illinois Campaign of 1778-1779.
Since the 1876 centennial, Revolutionary War historiography has been inappropriately focused on the northeast and the career of Washington (which was also mostly in the northeast). John Buchanan, Michael Cecere, and Andrew Waters are among the authors who have helped correct the north-south imbalance. Eric Sterner, also the author of Anatomy of a Massacre and The Battle of Upper Sandusky, 1782, is valiantly working to correct the much deeper east-west imbalance.
GABRIEL NEVILLE is the author of The Last Men Standing: The 8th Virginia Regiment in the American Revolution.
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