A history of the American people . me Colonel Hamilton, the Britishcommander at Detroit, came south into the forest witha motley force of five hundred men, mixed of regulars,Tories, and Indians, such as St. Leger had taken againstStanwix, and occupied Vincennes again, upon theWabash; but Clark struck once more, sending his boatsup the river and bringing his picked force straight acrossthe frozen forests from Kaskaskia by the Mississippi;and by the end of February, 1779, Colonel Hamiltonand all his levy were his prisoners. The Illinois coun-try was added to Virginia, and the grant of her ancien
A history of the American people . me Colonel Hamilton, the Britishcommander at Detroit, came south into the forest witha motley force of five hundred men, mixed of regulars,Tories, and Indians, such as St. Leger had taken againstStanwix, and occupied Vincennes again, upon theWabash; but Clark struck once more, sending his boatsup the river and bringing his picked force straight acrossthe frozen forests from Kaskaskia by the Mississippi;and by the end of February, 1779, Colonel Hamiltonand all his levy were his prisoners. The Illinois coun-try was added to Virginia, and the grant of her ancientcharter, up into the land, west and northwest, seem-ed made good again by the daring of her could have taken Detroit itself, Clark declared,with but a few hundred men. While he cleared the296 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE northern rivers of the British arms a force like his owndescended the Mississippi, seized Xatchez, and clearedthe southern reaches of the great winter had witnessed a sharp shifting of the. GEORGE CLARK S FINAL SUMMONS TO COLONEL HAMILTON TO SURRENDER scene of the war in the east. The British command-ers there had turned away from General Washingtonand the too closely guarded reaches of the Hudson totry for better fortune in the far south. In December,1778, Clinton sent thirty-five hundred men from New297 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE York to the southern coasts by sea, and on the 29thSavannah was taken, with comparative ease, therebeing but a scant six hundred to defend it. The townonce taken, it proved an easy matter, at that greatremove from the centre of the American strength, tooverrun the country back of it during the early weeksof 1779. But after that came delay again, and inac-tion, as of those who wait and doubt what next to new year saw nothing else decisive done on eitherside. In April Spain made common cause with Franceagainst England; but Washington waited in vainthe year through to see the fighting transferred to
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