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Show El Jislf 4 Sf 1 A' -azt -s 0 zzogzrs f? vy i i iscbNsi f "( '.T "K 1 'ILLINOI j INDIANA o H I O ST.LOUIS?cAHOKIA jjL-VINCENNES (NSj . f MlSSOURl s'fif? louctiue WEST WCSaskaskiaC f jir . boonsborough V IsfOZ HARR0D5BURG V VIRGINIA I CLARK'S. ROUTE I ) jrr KKNTUCKY 111 ' 7 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON i "'JULY 4, 1778. The sun has T gone down behind the Mis-1 Mis-1 J sourl hills across the Uis- E , slssippi river from the lit- 1 ca tie French town of Kas-1 Kas-1 55 kaskia tn what is now the 1 IP state of Illinois, and the t$$ JUS? soft evening light is spreading over the low I SX rambling houses and the" 6 orchards and -gardens. From the belfry of the little lit-tle stone church in the center of the village, a sweet-tonad bell rings to vespers. ves-pers. Dark settles down and in a little lit-tle while lights begin to twinkle In the Windows. A scene of peace in strange contrast to the warlike sounds which are soon to shatter the stillness when that little army, which now lies in the timber that lines the bluffs above Kas-kaskia, Kas-kaskia, shall sweep down upon the village and raise the dreaded war-cry of the "Long Knives of Kentucky." ' For stirring events are about to take place in this sleepy little town, events which in the light of the century and a half that have intervened, we now realize were history making. But let the leader of the invaders tell his own story, as he does In the . boci "The Capture of Old Vincennes "--The Original Narratives of George Rogers Clark and of His Opponent, Gov. Henry Hamilton," edited by Milo M. Quaife and published recently by i the Bobbs-Merrill company, in the fol lowing words : On the evening of July fourth we ar-- ar-- rived within a few miles of the town, where we threw out some scouts In advance and lay until nearly dark. We then resumed our march and took possession pos-session of a house on the bank of the Kaskaskia river, about three-quarters of a mile above the town, occupied by a large family. We learned from the Inmates that the people had been under un-der arms a few days before but had concluded the alarm to be groundless and at present all was quiet, and that there was a large number of men In town, although the Indians were for the most part absent We obtained from the man boats enough to convey us across the river, where I formed my force In three divisions. I felt confident confi-dent the inhabitants could not now obtain ob-tain knowledge of our approach in time to enable them to make any resistance. re-sistance. My object was now to get possession of the place with as little confusion as possible, but to have it if necessary at the loss of the whole town. I did not entirely credit the Information given us at the house, as the man seemed to contradict himself, informing us among other things that a noise we heard in the town was caused by the negroes at a dance. I set out for the fort with one division, ordering the other two to proceed to different quarters of the town. If I met with no resistance, at a certain signal a general shout was to be given and a certain part of the town was to be seized immediately, while men from each detachment who were able to talk French were to run through the streets proclaiming what had happened hap-pened and Informing the townsmen to remain In their houses on pain of being be-ing shot down. These arrangements produced the desired de-sired effect, and within a very short time we were in complete possession of the place, with every avenue guarded to prevent any one from escaping and giving the alarm to the other villages Various orders not worth mentioning had been issued for the guidance of the men in the event of opposition. Greater silence, I suppose, never reigned among the inhabitants ef a town than In Kaskaskia at this Junc-" Junc-" ture; not a person was to be seen or a word to be heard from them for some time. Meanwhile our troops purposely kept up the greatest possible noise throughout every quarter of the town, while patrols moved around it continually con-tinually throughout the night, as it was a capital object to intercept any messenger mes-senger that might be sent out. In about two hours all the Inhabitants were disarmed, dis-armed, and Informed that any one who should be taken while attempting to Ik rji All pictures from "The Capture of Old Vincennes," courtesy Bobbs-Mer-riil company. : escape from the pfece would immediately immedi-ately be put to death. Mr. Rocheblave -was secured, but some time elapsed before he could get out of his room. I suppose he delayed to tell his wife what disposition to make of his public papers, but a few of which' were secured se-cured by. us. In this matter-of-fact manner does George Clark tell the story of the events of that Independence day far out on the fringe of the western wilderness. wil-derness. If he recognized the appropriateness appro-priateness of the occasion, there is no Indication of it In his writing. It Is doubtful if he did, however, for the significance of that red-letter day In American history was not yet apparent appar-ent to the men who had the most -to do with putting it In our calendar. American Independence from the mother country had been declared only two years and It was yet a question ques-tion whether the - Revolution would succeed or fail. Neither could he foresee what lay before him Ills easy capture of Ca-hokia Ca-hokia and Vincennes1, the loss of the latter place to "Hair-Buyer" Hamilton, the British governor of Detroit, the terrible march which he was to lead across the Drowned Lands the next year to recapture Vincennes, the diplomacy, di-plomacy, the tact, the boldness, the daring, and the master skill which he must employ to win the French Inhabitants Inhab-itants of the Illinois country from their sworn allegiance to the British flag and to overawe the Indian tribes so that his slender force could hold the country which they had conquered. Least of all could he foresee the mighty consequences of his ambitious plans and the sufferings which he and his men were to be called upon to endure en-dure before he had accomplished his designs. We can look back now and see that had It not been for George Rogers Clark, the western boundary of the new republic at the close of the Revolution would most likely have been the Aileghenles and the great states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, to say nothing of the whole vast territory west of the Mississippi, might not now be a part of the United States. For It Is not venturing too wild a guess to declare that had Clark's attempt at-tempt to capture Kaskaskia that Independence In-dependence day a hundred and fifty years ago by some chance resulted In failure Instead of success, the whole course of American history might have been changed. It is often upon such slender threads as this that the destiny des-tiny of nations haogs. In view of the importance of Clark's coDquest of the British posts in the West, it would be natural to suppose that a grateful na- I f tion would have enshrined his memory as one of her greatest heroes. Instead In-stead it has been a matter of shame to historians who have recognized the full Indebtedness of the United States -to this great Virginian that our nation allowed him to die In poverty and neglect, neg-lect, his last years embittered by the ingratitude of a "republic which forgets," for-gets," Recently, however, some recompense, tardy though It is, has been made for the many years of neglected honor to the name and fame of George Rogers Clark. Last year the first organized tribute of the Old Northwest to the man who made It a part of the United States was offered In a pilgrimage made by a large number of citizens of the six states to his birthplace at Charlottesville, Va., on November 19, the one hundredth seventy-fifth anniversary anni-versary of his birth. ' Further honors to the memory of Clark were also projected during the sessions of congress this year In the introduction of various bills. One waa to authorize the construction of a George Rogers Clark memorial lighthouse light-house on the Ohio river near Louisville, Louis-ville, Ky. ; another provided for the construction of a memorial on the site of Fort Gage (Kaskaskia) In Randolph Ran-dolph county, Illinois. But most important of all was the recent passage of a bill providing an appropriation of $1,000,000 for the construction of a historical museum on the the site of Fort Sackvllle at Vincennes, Ind., and the participation of the federal government In the Clark ' sesquicentennial celebration to be held there next year. This celebration celebra-tion which will open next February on the one hundredth and fiftieth anniversary an-niversary of the capture of Fort Sackvllle Sack-vllle by Clark will be the most Impressive Impres-sive gesture of honoring the conqueror of the Old Northwest that has yet been made. Initiated by the people of that section, the whole nation will be invited to participate because It Is the whole nation which owes a debt of gratitude to Clark. The celebration will have a special significance since It will also mark the one hundredth and fiftieth anniversary of the first time the Stars and Stripes were raised over that section of the country. For when the British flag was hauled down from over Fort Sackville, after Hamilton's surrender of the fort, tt was the new flag of the new nation, one of the several stands of colors which the French Inhabitants Inhabi-tants had presented to Clark's men and the volunteers who accompanied them on their expedition against Vin- i cennes, which was run up Id its place. ' Some historians have stated that Clark first unfurled the Stars and Stripes on the soil of Illinois before setting out for Kaskaskia, but Clark's narrative, In the book quoted above, makes no mention of this fact, and It is probable that Vincenne3 and not Kaskaskia first had a sight of Old Glory. It would have been a final touch of patriotic appropriateness If the Stars and Stripes had been displayed on July 4, 1778. But even though It was not, the events of that day were significant sig-nificant enough, and on Independence day this year, when Americans are remembering re-membering the men on the Atlantic seaboard who, on July 4, 1776, signed the Declaration of Independence, they should also remember the little group of backwoodsmen who holped make that Declaration good by their daring and the privations they endured un der the leadership of George Rogers Clark. |