Essentials of United States history . fitted him for histask. He applied to Governor Patrick Henry and the legisla-ture of Virginia, and received such aid in men and money asthey could give him. His little army consisted of less thantwo hundred men. They went down the Ohio River in boatsto a point below the mouth of the Tennessee, and marched acrosssouthern Illinois to Kaskaskia; and on the night of July 4, 1778,they took the place by surprise, captured the British officer,and frightened the inhabitants into submission. These were VIRGINIA CAPTURES THE WEST 17 nearly all French. By kind treatm
Essentials of United States history . fitted him for histask. He applied to Governor Patrick Henry and the legisla-ture of Virginia, and received such aid in men and money asthey could give him. His little army consisted of less thantwo hundred men. They went down the Ohio River in boatsto a point below the mouth of the Tennessee, and marched acrosssouthern Illinois to Kaskaskia; and on the night of July 4, 1778,they took the place by surprise, captured the British officer,and frightened the inhabitants into submission. These were VIRGINIA CAPTURES THE WEST 17 nearly all French. By kind treatment they were led to espousethe American cause, and a number of them joined Clark intaking Cahokia, another post farther up the Mississippi. The Capture of Vincennes. — The next point of importancewas Vincennes, on the Indiana side of the Wabash. FatherGibault, a French priest, volunteered to go to Vincennes andsecure that place for the Americans. He quietly gathered theFrench inhabitants at Vincennes into the church and explained. On the March to Vincennes. what had happened at Kaskaskia. He also told them that theFrench king was assisting the Americans to gain their independ-ence. They then took the oath of allegiance to Virginia, ashad been done at Kaskaskia. The British officer being absent,the French inhabitants raised the American flag, and Vincennesbecame an American post. Clarks rapid movements and uniform successes, togetherwith the assistance of Father Gibault, made the Indians of allthat region seek the friendshijj of the American leader. General Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit, hear- 18 A SHORT SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF INDIANA ing what Clark had done, came down the Wabash with a forceof British and Indians, and on December 15, 1778, retook Vin-cennes for the British. Clark now marched with his force of one hundred and seventy\irginians and French across the country, a distance of onehundred and seventy miles, to recover the old post. It wasmidwinter, an
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