American Revolution in the Midwest: How Parts of the War Were Fought in Illinois

EDITOR'S NOTE: Spelling and punctuation in portions of George Rogers Clark's diary entries contained in this article were corrected to ensure clarity.

As our nation marks its 250th anniversary, most of us remember what we learned in school about the American Revolution. Primarily our lessons focused on General George Washington and the Revolutionary War events that took place in the original 13 colonies. However, many events outside the 13 colonies helped defeat the British, including in parts of Illinois and Indiana.

Lt. Col. George Rogers Clark was born in Virginia and began his military career as a captain in the Virginia Militia. He led an expedition to what is today Kentucky to protect American settlements from Indian tribes. Years later, as the American Revolutionary War intensified, Clark sought approval of a plan from Virginia's Governor, Patrick Henry, to capture the British-held settlements of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes in the Illinois Territory.

"George Washington and his Army were headquartered for the winter at Valley Forge when on January 2, 1778 Patrick Henry ordered George Rogers Clark to take command of Kaskaskia and recruit seven companies of 50 men each," said Adriana Schroeder, Command Historian of the Illinois National Guard.

Schroeder said Kaskaskia is where the Illinois National Guard was founded. She is conducting research to find evidence linking the Illinois Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment, which is headquartered in Marion, Illinois, to Clark and the portions of the American Revolution that played out in Southern Illinois.

"Kaskaskia marks the spot where the Illinois National Guard began on May 9, 1723 under the French regime," said Schroeder. "That first muster happened when the area was French territory. The British wrested the area away from the French after the French and Indian War in 1763. Clark and his men defeated the British. Since the lineage of National Guard units are community-based, the one item needed to confirm the connection of the 130th Infantry to the militias Clark established in Kaskaskia and Cahokia during the Revolutionary War is a roster with the names of militiamen."

Clark was only able to raise less than four of the seven companies of men and set out for Kaskaskia from Louisville, Kentucky with 150 men on June 26, 1778.

"Clark documented everything in his diary and wrote letters to Henry and other acquaintances almost daily," said Schroeder. "As the group approached the Ohio River, they met a hunting party that had just left Kaskaskia and who offered to guide them. The group was within 3 miles of Kaskaskia by the evening of July 4."

In a letter to a friend Clark described how he took Kaskaskia and how the residents were misinformed about Americans and independence from Britain.

"We marched after night," wrote Clark. "I divided my little Army into two divisions. I ordered one to surround the town. With the other, I broke into the fort, secured the Governor, in 15 minutes had every street secured, and by daylight had the whole disarmed. Nothing could expel the confusion these people seemed to be in, being taught to expect nothing but savage treatment from the Americans. I told them I was sorry to find they had been taught to harbor so base an opinion of the Americans and their cause and explained the nature of the dispute to them in as clear a light as I was capable of. They were now convinced it was a cause they ought to espouse."

After a few days of deliberation, the residents of Kaskaskia took the Oath of Allegiance to America. It was the first step in Clark's plan to capture the Illinois country and the British western headquarters on behalf of the Continental Army. The next step in the plan was to take Cahokia, now called Cahokia Heights.

The Kaskaskians told Clark they could convince the residents of Cahokia to align with the American cause. Clark provided arms and equipment to the men and, not fully trusting them, put one of his captains in charge and sent them to Cahokia.

"These new friends of ours were so elated at the thought of the parade they were to make into Cahokia that they were too engaged in equipping themselves that it was night before the party moved," Clark wrote in his memoir. "It was late in the morning of the 6th before they reached Cahokia, detaining every person they met with. They got into the borders of the town before they were discovered."

With Cahokia secured, Clark turned his attention to Vincennes. He suspected a priest in Vincennes was "inclined to the American interest" and held great influence over the townspeople, so he sent for him.

"Clark and the priest met in Kaskaskia," said Schroeder. "The priest provided intelligence about the lack of British military presence in Vincennes, reported the governor was out of town for several weeks, and agreed to influence the residents to the American cause."

The priest left Kaskaskia on July 14 and returned in early August. The priest reported the people of Vincennes took the Oath of Allegiance to America in his church.

Clark dispatched Capt. Leonard Helm to take charge of Fort Sackville in Vincennes and named him Agent of Indian Affairs, ordering him to win over Native American tribes to the American side of the war.

Over the next few months Clark made his post in Kaskaskia, regularly corresponded with the captains he put in charge of Cahokia and Vincennes, reenlisted most of his men, and turned his attention to plans of taking the British headquarters in Detroit.

"In December, Clark didn't hear from Helm for more than two weeks and grew suspicious that the British might have retaken Fort Sackville and may be planning to march on Illinois," said Schroeder.

During the winter as General George Washington settled in at Ford Mansion in Morristown, New Jersey, and struggled to solve the problem of feeding and clothing his Army, Clark sent out spies to get eyes on Fort Sackville and began to prepare his men to take back the fort and Vincennes.

"Clark passed out new colors, arms and equipment to the company in Cahokia and reunited them with the company in Kaskaskia," said Schroeder. "The women of Cahokia and Kaskaskia prepared food for the harsh winter and the pending march across the Illinois territory to Vincennes."

On January 29 a merchant traveling from Vincennes informed Clark that the Governor had returned with 800 British Soldiers, retaken Fort Sackville, and were to receive reinforcements from Detroit in the Spring. Clark and his men needed to move immediately.

"The season of the year being also favorable as the enemy could not suppose that we should be so mad as to attempt to march 80 leagues [275 miles] through [swamp] country in the depth of winter," Clark wrote. "Orders were immediately issued for preparations. Every order was executed with cheerfulness by every description of the inhabitants."

Clark sent 50 men off to purchase a boat, fit it with artillery pieces, and hide out on the Wabash River north of Vincennes. He and 170 men began the march from Kaskaskia and Cahokia to Vincennes on Feb. 5.

Clark noted in his diary that weather conditions were wet, but not as cold as it could have been. Along the march the men slogged through water a few inches deep up to five feet deep. Clark wrote that spirits were high despite the conditions and that the men shot game and held cookoffs between the units.

"Along the way they built Pirogues, a flat bottom boat like a canoe, to ferry their equipment through the deeper waters," said Schroeder. "Some days it was icy. Some men fell through the ice and nearly drowned. For 18 days they slogged on, sometimes clinging to floating logs."

On Feb. 23 Clark and his men arrived at a place called Warriors Island where they could see Vincennes and Fort Sackville.

"Vincennes had partially flooded," said Schroeder. "Clark's men caught a local man who was hunting ducks. They took him prisoner, interrogated him for information, and sent him into town with a note for the residents."

In the note Clark explained he and his Army were determined to take back the fort. He advised citizens who were "friends to liberty" to remain in their houses and out of the way. His message for British loyalists was much different.

"Those (if any there be) that are friends to the King of England will instantly repair to the Fort and join his troops and fight like men," Clark wrote. "Every person found under arms on my arrival will be treated as an enemy."

Clark convinced the prisoner-turned-messenger that he had a thousand troops with him and sent him off with the note.

"Clark and his men anxiously watched the messenger through a spyglass," said Schroeder. "They saw the streets start to stir and people started to gather in the square."

Schroeder said Clark and his men weren't sure what to make of the activity. They couldn't tell, but the townspeople were elated. Some went to the fort under the guise of bringing food to the prisoners and informed them of the impending attack. The townspeople began digging up weapons and black powder they had previously hidden when the British retook control months earlier. The King forbade citizens from possessing weapons or ammunition.

"Nothing had yet happened that the appearance of the garrisons being alarmed," Clark wrote. "No drum nor gun. We began to suppose that the enemy already knew of us and was prepared. A little before sunset we moved and displayed ourselves in full view of the town. Crowds gazing at us. We were plunging ourselves into certain destruction. Or success."

The residents of Vincennes honored the oath administered to them by the priest the previous August and some joined Clark and his men. More than 100 Native American warriors who Helm had built relationships with also joined and by nightfall the fort was surrounded.

"The militia taunted the British," said Schroeder. "The British made several attempts to defend the fort by opening the door to fire their cannons, but each time Clark's men fired into the fort taking out several British each time."

The British surrendered the fort at 10 a.m. on Feb. 25. The other 50 men with the boat and artillery pieces arrived two days later and the area was fully in American hands.

Clark ordered the artillery and some men to stay while the rest returned to Kaskaskia and Cahokia shortly after taking Fort Sackville and Vincennes.

"Since your first declaration and attachment for the American Cause, until the glorious capture of Vincennes, I had doubted your sincerity," Clark told the villagers of Kaskaskia on May 12, 1779. "But in that critical moment you proved your faithfulness."

Clark asked them to remember their oath and be proud of their service.

"In a short time you will understand the American system, which you may think is strange in the beginning, but in the end you will find in it such peace and tranquility that you will bless the day on which you espoused the American cause," Clark told them.

Clark proceeded to draft several planned attempts to march on Detroit, but was never able to enlist enough men.

"He remained busy trying to keep peace with Native American tribes in the Illinois territory until the end of the American Revolution," said Schroeder. "However, in the summer of 1780 Clark ordered American Forces to destroy the village of Saukenuk on Rock Island. That operation is considered the westernmost military operation of the Revolutionary War."

Schroeder said historical markers dotted in Kaskaskia, Cahokia Heights, Vincennes and Rock Island tell the stories and mark the locations of the westernmost events of the American Revolution as well as other early events involving the Illinois militia.

Schroeder said Clark recorded the name of only one member of the Kaskaskia militia in his diary and memoir, but that is not enough evidence to connect the Revolutionary militias to the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment.

"A full roster of all the enlisted men from Kaskaskia or Cahokia has not yet surfaced," said Schroeder. "Researchers will continue to search, but while the Soldiers names are unknown, the history and deeds of the militia from Kaskaskia and Cahokia is known."

She said it's understandable that most of the militiamen wouldn't have kept a diary, but she's grateful that Clark was a prolific writer.

"This is great because as we celebrate America's 250th we have actual events that happened real close to home," said Schroeder. "The American Revolution was not isolated along the east coast in the original 13 colonies."