George Rogers Clark Day is Saturday
Saturday, Feb. 25 is George Rogers Clark Day in Indiana.
George Rogers Clark was a surveyor, soldier and militia officer. He was the highest ranking military officer on the northwestern front during the Revolutionary War as the leader of the Kentucky militia.
Clark was born on Nov. 19, 1752 in Albemarle County, Virginia, the second of ten children of John and Ann Rogers Clark. Of their six sons, five were officers in the Revolutionary War. The youngest son William was too young to fight in that war, but later gained fame as a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
George Rogers Clark’s grandfather trained him to be a surveyor, and he began his surveying career in western Virginia in 1771 at the age of nineteen. He first entered Kentucky in 1772, going down the Ohio River from Pittsburg. He spent the next two years surveying there in the Kanawha River area. He also assisted in helping the area of Kentucky to become a Virginia county in 1776 before its admittance to the Union as a state in 1792.
Clark began his military career in 1774, serving as a captain in the Virginia militia. Skirmishes there resulted in Lord Dunsmore’s War.
In 1777 the Revolutionary War intensified in Kentucky. The Continental army had no men to spare to defend the area. Clark spent several months leading the Kentucky militia.
In December, 1777 Clark presented a plan to Virginia governor Patrick Henry and asked for permission to lead a secret exhibition to capture the British-held villages of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes in the Illinois country. Permission being granted, Clark recruited volunteers for his militia. The regiment took on supplies at Fort Pitt and proceeded down the Ohio River.
In July, 1778 Clark led 175 men of the Illinois Regiment of the Virginia militia to Kaskaskia, capturing it on the night of July 4 without firing their weapons. The next day Cahokia was also captured without a shot being fired. The garrison at Vincennes surrendered in August. Several other villages and British forts were subsequently captured.
The British recaptured the garrison at Vincennes, which they called Fort
Sackville, with a small force in December, 1778.
Clark used his own resources and borrowed from his friends to continue his campaign after the initial appropriation had been depleted from the Virginia legislature. Some of his troops re-enlisted and he recruited additional men to join him. He planned another surprise attack on the fort in mid-winter, when no armies were expected to campaign. Clark left Kaskaskia on Feb. 6, 1779 with about 170 men, and began an arduous overland trek, encountering melting snow, ice, and cold rain along the journey. They arrived at Vincennes on Feb. 23 and besieged the fort.
The Battle of Vincennes was won by the Americans, with the British surrendering the garrison on Feb. 25. The winter expedition was Clark's most significant military achievement and the one that established his reputation. He was called the Conqueror of the Old Northwest.
On Dec. 17, 1783, Clark was appointed Principal Surveyor of Bounty Lands. From 1784 to 1788 Clark served as the superintendent-surveyor for Virginia's war veterans, surveying lands granted to them for their service in the war. He hosted his brother William and Meriweather Lewis prior to their famous expedition.
Clark passed away on Feb. 13, 1818 in Louisville, Kentucky and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery there with his family.