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Reflections column: Illinois’ Revolutionary War heroes made sure we were part of the U.S. · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Reflections Column Illinois Revolutionary War heroes made sure we were
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  Speaker 1: part of the US, Written by Roger mattel Forshaw Local
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  Speaker 1: News Network. This article is being read by an automated
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  Speaker 1: voice brought to you by Everlett. True heroes of the
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  Speaker 1: Revolutionary War were not too hard to find. Several of
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  Speaker 1: them signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, right
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  Speaker 1: where King George could have easily found them had the
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  Speaker 1: British won the war. Many true Revolutionary War heroes participated
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  Speaker 1: in the better known events of the war, but others
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  Speaker 1: fought in areas far from the glory of the battles
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  Speaker 1: along the Atlantic coast in the thirteen original colonies. While
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  Speaker 1: these lesser known struggles may not have been as glorious
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  Speaker 1: or as celebrated as their Eastern counterparts, and certainly not
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  Speaker 1: as well known, they were no less important. One of
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  Speaker 1: the men who fought the war inarguably the most important
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  Speaker 1: of these little known areas the West today's Midwest, was
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  Speaker 1: George Rogers Clark. Clark was not only heroic, he was
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  Speaker 1: a true hero of the Revolutionary War. Clark came from
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  Speaker 1: an old line Virginia family in which heroism apparently was endemic.
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  Speaker 1: His brother William would one day accompany Meriweather Lewis to
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  Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean in the famous Lewis and Clark expedition.
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  Speaker 1: George Rogers was young when the Revolution began. He had
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  Speaker 1: served as a twenty two year old volunteer in Lord
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  Speaker 1: Dunmore's War against the Western Native tribes in seventeen seventy four,
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  Speaker 1: and was working as a surveyor in what is today
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  Speaker 1: Kentucky and West Virginia when the Revolution broke out in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six. Clark felt the destructive British inspired Native
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  Speaker 1: American raids against Virginia's sparse and vulnerable western settlements could
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  Speaker 1: only be stopped by striking at the source British trading
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  Speaker 1: and supply bases in the Illinois Country, the area north
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  Speaker 1: and west of the Ohio River and mostly west of
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  Speaker 1: the Wabash River. Primarily through his urging, Virginia's got Governor,
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  Speaker 1: Patrick Henry, funded an expedition to take the Illinois Country
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  Speaker 1: from the British. Clark was appointed lieutenant colonel in command
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  Speaker 1: of the small force. In seventeen seventy eight. Clark led
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  Speaker 1: his ragtag bunch of about one hundred and seventy five
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  Speaker 1: Virginia Militia down the Ohio River at the ruins of
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  Speaker 1: Fort Massak, constructed in what's now Illinois by the French
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  Speaker 1: during the French and Indian War. Near the confluence of
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Clark's soldiers left the river
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  Speaker 1: and marched across the tip of Illinois to Kaskaskia. The
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  Speaker 1: old capital of colonial Illinois was taken without a firing
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  Speaker 1: a shot on July fourth, seventeen seventy eight, and Illinois
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  Speaker 1: and the rest of the old Northwest, the area north
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  Speaker 1: and west of the Ohio River, was secured for the
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  Speaker 1: United States. In the weeks following Kaskaskia's capture, French towns
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  Speaker 1: at Cahokia, Prairie du Rochet, and Vincenne surrendered to the Americans.
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  Speaker 1: Clark immediately began working on public relations with Illinois French inhabitants,
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  Speaker 1: quickly turning them into converts to the revolutionary cause. In
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  Speaker 1: several councils with the Illinois Country's indigenous tribes, Clark was
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  Speaker 1: able to negotiate the tribe's neutrality in the conflict between
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  Speaker 1: the British and their former colonials. Although the British were
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  Speaker 1: caught napping by Clark's audacious invasion, they quickly responded. A
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  Speaker 1: counter attack by British call Henry Hamilton against Clark's supply
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  Speaker 1: lines at Vincennes along the Wabash River in present day
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  Speaker 1: Indiana was successful, but Clark's quick and decisive counter to
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  Speaker 1: Hamilton's move was even more so. It was the most
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  Speaker 1: decisive strategic victory of the Revolution in the West. Enlisting
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  Speaker 1: many of his new French allies in Virginia's cause, Clark
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  Speaker 1: left to attack Vincennes and its British garrison in February
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  Speaker 1: of seventeen seventy nine. The young Virginian marched his troops
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  Speaker 1: across the wet and frigid Illinois countryside, forded the Wabash River,
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  Speaker 1: which was about three miles wide due to lugood conditions,
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  Speaker 1: and took Hamilton ensconced in his comfortable fort by complete surprise.
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  Speaker 1: Since the British seldom fought in winter, Hamilton had impro
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  Speaker 1: prudently sent the bulk of his troops home until spring,
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  Speaker 1: and although diminished, Hamilton's forces still outnumbered Clark's tiny army.
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  Speaker 1: Deft use of psychological warfare and performative violence on the
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  Speaker 1: colonial's part, along with accurate shooting with their Kentucky Pennsylvania
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  Speaker 1: rye afleys, eventually saved the day for the Americans. Captain
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  Speaker 1: Leonard Helm of Virginia, who had been captured by Hamilton
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  Speaker 1: when Vincennes was taken, amused himself by regaling Hamilton and
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  Speaker 1: his officers with blood curdling tales of how Clark treated
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  Speaker 1: enemies who failed to surrender. After Hamilton's surrender, he was
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  Speaker 1: sent back to Virginia as a prisoner of war. Subsequently,
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  Speaker 1: the British made a few more ineffective, unsuccessful attempts at
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  Speaker 1: dislodging the Americans. Clark, through the use of diplomacy with
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  Speaker 1: Illinois resident Native American tribes, managed to keep them largely
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  Speaker 1: neutral from then on, including those living right here in
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  Speaker 1: what would one day become Kendall County. Virginia had adopted
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  Speaker 1: Illinois as a county of the state in seventeen seventy eight,
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  Speaker 1: but in seventeen eighty three the area was ceded to
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  Speaker 1: the US government. It was found to be too far
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  Speaker 1: away for Virginia to administer and had become a financial
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  Speaker 1: and governmental liability by then. Under the US government, Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: along with the rest of the huge area north and
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  Speaker 1: west of the Ohio River. It eventually comprised the states
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  Speaker 1: of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio was formed into
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  Speaker 1: the Northwest Territory. Illinois, under the terms of the ordinance,
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  Speaker 1: was established as a territory in its own right in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen oh nine, and then, with political chicken aary that
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  Speaker 1: would envied by twenty first century politicians, Illinois became a
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  Speaker 1: full state of the Union on December third, eighteen eighteen.
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  Speaker 1: This year, as the nation celebrates the two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we'll be hearing
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  Speaker 1: a lot about Lexington and Concord and Boston and Paul
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  Speaker 1: Revere and William Dawes. If you already haven't watched Ken
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  Speaker 1: Burns's excellent documentary on the war, but keep in mind
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  Speaker 1: that revolutionary things were also happening during that period of
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  Speaker 1: time from seventeen seventy six to seventeen eighty three, not
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  Speaker 1: only in Illinois as a whole, but right here in
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  Speaker 1: Kendall County as well. It's our Revolution two. This Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: April eighteenth, I'll be speaking at Oswego's Little White School Museum,
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  Speaker 1: about the earliest history of the Kendall County area, including
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  Speaker 1: what was going on here in seventeen seventy six up
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  Speaker 1: through the Civil War. Starting at one PM, admission as
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  Speaker 1: five dollars, with proceeds benefiting the museum. You're welcome to stop,
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  Speaker 1: buy and chat. Interested in more local history, visit