was Over this portage they were obliged to carry their boats and baggage. The journey down the Wabash - (Ouabache) beset with many difficulties and obstacles. The water was shallow and often frozen over with a thin layer of ice, and the boats had to be lifted over or carried around the shoal places. When within a few days' journey of Vincennes they were met by a scouting party sent out from Fort Sackville, the fort lying partly within and protecting the town of Vincennes. Captain Helm was therefore warned of the enemy's approach. Helm's force, less than fifty soldiers, only two of whom were Americans, was utterly inadequate to defend the fort and town against the attack of Hamilton. The fort was a "wretched, miserable stockade without a well, barrack, platform for small arms, or even lock to the gate. Helm knowing he could not make a successful defense, determined to play a brave part, and this he did to an astonishing degree. Major Hay with a company advanced to the fort. Demanding admittance Captain Helm pointing a loaded cannon at the enemy ordered them to halt, exclaiming, "No man shall enter here until I know the terms." The reply was given, "You shall have the honors of war," whereupon Captain Helm surrendered and Fort Sackville and Vincennes was once more in the possession of the British. This was on December 17, 1778, seventy-two days after Hamilton had left Detroit. Two days after the occupation Hamilton required the inhabitants* to foreswear the oath of allegiance they had taken a few months before to the American cause, and to renew their fealty to the British. Thus the French victims of Vincennes were shifted from side to side as the fortunes of circumstances demanded. And to this shifting they seemed easily adjusted. They readily fell in with. the winning party. Hamilton restored the Fort to good condi *The citizens of all ages in Vincennes at this time were estimated by Hamilton to be 621, of whom 217 were qualified for military service. The oath to which they were obliged to subscribe was as follows: "We the undersigned, declare and aver that we have taken the oath of allegiance to Congress, and, in so doing, we have forgotten our duty towards God and have failed towards men. We ask the pardon of God, and we hope for the mercy of our legitimate sovereign, the King of England, and that he will accept our submission and take us under his protection as good and faithful subjects, which we promise and pray to be able to become before God and before men." -Butterfield manuscript. tion; built a guard house and barracks; sunk a well, erected two large blockhouses and embrasures above for five pieces of cannon. Hamilton now rested securely on his laurels. He felt no uneasiness over the situation. He knew Clark's force was paltry and widely scattered, he (Hamilton) with five times the number of Clark was safely intrenched at Vincennes which lay directly in the path between Clark's posts and his source of supplies in Virginia or Kentucky. In due time he could move on to the towns occupied by Clark and retake them. CLARK'S CAPTURE OF VINCENNES. Colonel Clark clearly understood that Hamilton would in due time move upon the American garrison at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. With Napoleonic nerve he decided to move on Vincennes. It was the extreme of bold determination. He had only about one hundred American soldiers. His French soldiers numbering about the same were uncertain in their courage and stability. The French settlers of the Illinois towns were scared and "shaky" in their allegiance. The Indians were wavering and susceptible of influences from the British. The way to Vincennes was long and the country flooded with the winter waters. None but a leader of indomitable pluck and consecrated patriotism would have entered upon such an undertaking against such desperate odds.* His resolve to push on to Vincennes was strengthened by the arrival of Francis Vigo from Vincennes. Vigo was an Italian, who had been a soldier in a Spanish regiment and was now a trader among the French, British and Indians and resided at St. Louis. He was made a prisoner by Hamilton and paroled. He hastened to Kaskaskiat and offered his services to Clark, in * Clark's soldiers and the citizens of both Cahokia and Kaskaskia were constantly in more or less of a panic, caused by rumors that Hamilton was coming. Clark was at a ball in Cahokia when the alarm was sounded that the British were without the city. A few days later similar false reports caused him to resolve to burn the fort at Kaskaskia, and he did tear down some of the adjacent buildings. At another time while going to Cahokia he barely escaped being captured by a party of Ottowas and Canadians scouts from Vincennes. +Vigo arrived at Kaspaskia January 27, 1779. He was caught by Hamilton's scouts while on his way to take supplies to Captain Helm, not then knowing Hamilton had repossessed Vincennes. forming the latter that Hamilton proposed to rest on his oars til spring and had sent his Indian allies out about the country in various foraging and devastating parties. Clark must start instanter. He summoned Captain, now Major Bowman, from Cahokia, who was to be second in command. He marshalled his land forces into three companies officered respectively by Captains Richard M'Carty, John Williams and Francis Charleville, the latter a Frenchman, with a company of Kaskaskia recruits. This army was augmented by a "navy" consisting of "a large boat prepared and rigged, mounting two four pounders (each), four large swivels with a fine company commanded by Lieutenant John Rogers." This "gunboat" was named the Willing and was manned by forty-six soldiers. "The vessel," says Clark, "when complete was much admired by the inhabitants as no such thing had been seen in the country before." The Willing was loaded with supplies and was to be rowed down the Kaskaskia river to its mouth at the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio and the Wabash to a designated point below Vincennes, probably the mouth of the White river and there await further orders. On the afternoon of February 4, (1779), the Willing cast her moorings and dropped down the river amid the cheers of her "crew" and the shouts of the soldiers on shore and the excited populace of Kaskaskia. On the 5th Colonel Clark with his force of one hundred and seventy men marched out of Kaskaskia, with Father Gibault's blessing, and the farewells of the citizens. It was to be a tedious tramp of two hundred and forty miles, as the route was selected, it being what was then known as the St. Louis trail or trace.* Both Clark and Bowman wrote accounts of this marvelous march. It is to be recalled that it was conducted in the late winter or early spring when the streams were swollen, the rains frequently interspersed with sleet and snow. The land was everywhere water soaked and more or less ice crusted. The fatigues, hard + Bowman's old company was probably captained by one of the Worthingtons, Edward or William, it is not certain which. Description from Clark's letter to Mason. *It led through the later sites of Sparta, Coultersville, Oakdale, Nashville, Walnut Hill, Salem, Olney and Lawrenceville. ships and privations of those plucky, patient, persistent and patriotic soldiers are not surpassed by the annals of any similar expeditions in history. It was the Valley Forge of the American Revolution in the Northwest, and of Clark's men, Bancroft might have written as he did of Washington's soldiers: "Love of country, attachment to their general, sustained the army under unparalleled hardships. Under any other leader the armies would have dissolved and vanished." Day after day for nearly three weeks they waded the creeks, the swamps, and the flooded districts, sleeping on the water-soaked or hard frozen ground; without sufficient food, often without any, frequently submerged to their waists and sometimes almost to their armpits, they struggled on. Clark, in his own account, says: "It was a difficult and very fatiguing march. My object was to keep the men in spirits. I suffered them to shoot game on all occasions and to feast on it like Indian war dancers. Each company by turns invited the others to the feasts, which was the case every night, as the company that was to give the feast was always supplied with horses. to lay up a sufficient store of wild meat in the course of the day, myself and personal officers betting on the woodsmen, shouting now and then and running as much through the mud and water as any of them. Thus insensibly, without a murmer, were those men led on to the banks of the Little Wabash which was reached on the 15th through incredible difficulties far surpassing anything that any of us had ever experienced." Often in wading the streams or wide fields of water is was necessary to stop and make boats or rafts with which they could transport their baggage and accoutrements. Captain Bowman, in his Journal, has the following: "16th. Marched all day through rain and water, crossed Fox river, our provisions began to be short. 17th. Marched early, crossed several runs very deep. Sent Mr. Kennedy our Commissary with three men to cross the river Embarrass,* if possible and proceed to a plantation opposite to Fort Vincennes in order to steal boats or canoes to ferry us across the Wabash. About an hour by sun we got near the river Embarrass, found the country all overflowed with water. We strove to * Embarrass was a stream running southeast and emptying into the Wabash about three miles below Vincennes. find the Wabash, traveling till eight o'clock (at night) in mud and water but could find no place to encamp on. Still kept marching on. After some time, Mr. Kennedy and his party returned. Found it impossible to cross Embarrass river. We found the water fallen from a small spot of ground; stayed there the remainder of the night. Drizzly and damp weather. And 18th. At break of day heard Governor Hamilton's morning gun; set off and marched down the river. About two o'clock came to the bank of the Wabash. Made rafts for four men to cross and then up to town and steal boats, but they spent * a day and night in the water to no purpose and there was not one foot of dry land to be found. 19th. * * Captain M'Carty's company made a canoe which was sent down the river to meet the batteau (the Willing) with orders to come on day and night that being our last hope and we starving. No provisions now of any sort for two days." On the 21st, the whole army was transported across the river "rain all day and no provisions," the continued exposure without suitable food, shelter or rest began to wear out the men, especially the French. Clark resorted to every ingenuity to keep up the spirits and strength of the soldiers. The sea of water seemed to be unending. Upon one occasion Clark employed the following amusing expedient. In Bowman's com |