George Rogers Clark Memorial
In this podcast the author visits the southwestern Indiana city, Vincennes where we will visit an important national memorial to George Rogers Clark. It was Clark’s exploits during the early phases of the Revolutionary War that ensured that the vast territory now composed of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin was added to the fledgling United States at the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended America’s struggle for independence.
George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818)
John Clark and Ann Rogers Clark produced the second of their ten children on November 19, 1752. George Rogers Clark entered the world near Charlottesville, Virginia on the frontier. The family moved away from the frontier after the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754. Their new home was a 400-acre plantation that John Clark eventually increased to 2000 acres. His parents sent him to his grandfather’s home so he could attend Donald Robertson’s school. This famous school also educated James Madison and John Taylor, who attended at the same time as George Rogers Clark. His grandfather taught him how to survey land. At twenty, George joined a surveying team that traveled into Kentucky, which was part of Virginia at the time. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix had opened Kentucky to settlement and new settlers were flooding into the area. The Iroquois had signed the treaty had, but the various tribes that made up the rest of the area did not. British Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton encouraged the Amerindian tribes to raid American settlements in Kentucky. Clark headed up defensive attacks against these tribes. On October 1, 1777, Clark departed Kentucky to travel to Virginia to request permission to undertake a daring mission against the British outposts at Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Cahokia.
Clark Captures Fort Sackville
The expedition headed by George Rogers Clark captured Fort Sackville from the British on February 24, 1779 after a grueling, frigid mid winter march through prairie and a waterlogged landscape.
George Rogers Clark Legacy
The capture ensured Clark’s legacy as the “Conqueror of the Old Northwest”. The conquest ensured that the huge swath of land between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers would be controlled by the United States at the end of the Revolutionary War.
George Rogers Clark Memorial Murals
The George Rogers Clark Memorial features a series of murals depicting the story of Clark’s conquest. Continue reading Podcast – Indiana Road Trip – George Rogers Clark Memorial