Chapter 5

[1]For a sketch of the position of this campaign in the Revolution, and its leading details seeHistoric Highways of America, vol. vi, pp. 161-166.

[2]Our principal source of information concerning the Kaskaskia campaign is George Rogers Clark’sMemoir, written probably in 1791, the original of which is preserved in the Draper Manuscripts in the library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Extracts of such portions as refer to the march to Kaskaskia will be found in Appendix A.

[3]Page’sHistory of Massac County, p. 35.

[4]Draper MSS., xxi J, fols. 40, 44.

[5]Id., fol. 51.

[6]Id., fol. 27.

[7]Id., fol. 76.

[8]Id., fol. 83; xxii, fol. 6.

[9]Id., xxii, fol. 5.

[10]Id., xxi, fol. 42; cf. p. 65.

[11]Id., xxi, fols. 40, 42. Probably the route of the later St. Louis-Shawneetown trace; see p. 34.

[12]Id., xxii, fols. 11, 35.

[13]Id., xxii, fol. 35.

[14]Id., xxi, fols. 16, 27, 29, 51, 52; and xxii, fols. 30, 35.

[15]Id., xxii, fols. 30, 37. Cox’s Creek was crossed twice, the east fork in section 7, township 7, range 4, and the west fork in section 12, township 7, range 5.

[16]Id., xxi, fols. 80, 81; xxii, fol. 37.

[17]Id., xxii, fol. 37.

[18]Clark approached Kaskaskia by the route and the ford over the Kaskaskia River which he pursued on the Vincennes campaign in the February following. (English’sConquest of the Northwest, vol. i, p. 288.)

[19]Historic Highways of America, vol. vii, p. 168.

[20]A galley-batteau, armed with two four-pounders and four swivels, and carrying forty-six men, under the command of Captain John Rogers, left Kaskaskia February 4, for Vincennes by the river route. It was named “The Willing.”

[21]Probably at “a small branch about three miles from Kaskaskia” mentioned by Clark in his letter to Mason (English’sConquest of the Northwest, vol. i, p. 430).

[22]The map of Clark’s route from Kaskaskia to Vincennes in the standard work on his campaigns of 1778-79, English’sConquest of the Northwest(vol. i, pp. 290-291), gives only the later Kaskaskia trace of the eighteenth century—the modern route which it is sure Clark did not pursue.

[23]Draper MSS., xxv J, fol. 76. See map on page 21.

[24]It seems to the writer useless to spend time and space in attempting to place exactly Clark’s camping-spots. He has made several exhaustive schedules of these camps and all the contradictions discussed pro and con. At best, any outline of camps must be purest conjecture, and therefore not authoritative or really valuable. In certain instances the camping-spots are definitely fixed by contemporaneous records. Only these will be definitely described in this record—the others being placed more or less indefinitely.

[25]In possession of the Kentucky Historical Society; first published in theLouisville Literary News, November 24, 1840; see English’sConquest of the Northwest, vol. i, pp. 568-578, from which our quotations are made.

[26]Draper MSS., xxv J, fols. 37, 57, 58, 77.

[27]Id., fol. 78.

[28]Id., fol. 77.

[29]Id.

[30]Id.

[31]Id., xxiv, fols. 6-8.

[32]Id., xxv, fol. 50.

[33]Volney’sA View of the Soil and Climate of the United States of America(Brown’s translation) 1808, pp. 339-341.

[34]These are theMemoirand theLetter to Masonpreviously described.

[35]No explanation of “Cot plains” was offered to Mr. Draper by his Illinois correspondents. If the present writer be allowed a pure guess it would be that “Cot” was the American spelling of the FrenchQuatre, “four;” “Cot plains” would then be a “Four Mile Prairie” east or northeast of Skillet Creek. The Clay County route cut off a corner of Romaine Prairie just here—which may have been known as “Four Mile Prairie” in earliest days. It is not known that such was the case.

[36]See Appendix B.

[37]Draper MSS., xxv J, fol. 112. Clark’s men marched two leagues before reaching “Sugar Camp.” Mr. English’s map (Conquest of the Northwest, vol. i, p. 313) and Bowman’sJournalare therefore utterly at variance.

[38]Draper MSS., xxv J, fol. 91.

[39]The British Fort Sackville.

[40]Referring to the fact that Hamilton was accused of buying scalps of Americans from the Indians. The shrewdness of this communication is conspicuous, the result of the experiences at Kaskaskia.

[41]English’sConquest of the Northwestvol. i, p. 572.

[42]The author bases his remarks wholly on the belief, it will be observed, that Clark crossed the Little Wabash east of Clay City.

[43]See note 10.

[44]An interesting English version of Embarras—denoting the Creole pronunciation. On Hutchins’s old map of 1768 the Embarras is called the “Troublesome River”—see map, p. 35.

[45]The western branch of the Bonpas, or the Fox?

[46]All efforts to find any locality bearing this name have failed. Possibly it was a double bend of the Little Wabash, east of Clay City, which may resemble an ox yoke. “Ox Bow” is not an uncommon name for such reverse curves of rivers in several of our states.

[47]A well-known salt spring lies just west of the McCauley settlement crossing of the Little Wabash.—Draper MSS., xxv J, fol. 25.

[48]Mr. Draper suggests that this may have been near Enterprise, Wayne County, in keeping with the idea that the route here described was the route that Clark followed. The most definite point known on Volney’s route west of the Embarras was the Salt Spring, above mentioned, and this was on the more northerly route which crossed the Little Wabash east of Clay City. Slaves Gibbet must therefore have been just east of Xenia.

[49]Probably Harvey’s Point, six or eight miles southeast of Salem.

[50]Skillet Creek.

[51]At the crossing of “Petit Fork”—Adams tributary of Skillet.

[52]Near Walnut Hill.

[53]Perhaps on head of Big Muddy in Grand Prairie.

[54]There seem to have been two old-time routes around Grand Prairie; the points of junction seem to have been in Grand Prairie and Elkhorn Prairie. Pointe aux Fesses is identified as Elkhorn Point, northeast of Oakdale.

[55]In Grand Prairie.

[56]See note 54.

[57]Oakdale.

[58]Coultersville.

[59]Northwest of Steel’s Mills.

[60]Mr. Draper reduces these estimates to “probabilities,” giving as the total distance 156 miles (Draper MSS., xxv J, fol. 49).

[61]This point of junction is eighteen miles east of Salem, which is given as the point of junction on Mr. English’s map of Clark’s route.—Conquest of the Northwest, vol. i, pp. 290, 291. Salem is the junction of the modern route from Kaskaskia with the St. Louis Trace.

[62]Additional testimony to the same effect is found inDraper MSS., xxv J, fol. 76.

[63]Evans’sHistory of Scioto County and Pioneer Record of Southern Ohiocontains the best map of western Ohio extant.

[64]Historic Highways of America, vol. vi, p. 166.

[65]Josiah Morrow, to whom the author is indebted for much help in the study of Harmar’s route, affirms that in the land records of Warren County he has found reference to this as “Clark’s old war-road.”

[66]November 27, 1782.

[67]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 88.

[68]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 97.

[69]Id.

[70]Id.

[71]Id., pp. 93, 94; St. Clair to Knox,Id., p. 87.

[72]Id.

[73]Id.

[74]Id., p. 88.

[75]The authorities used in connection with Harmar’s route and march are: the Journal of Captain John Armstrong, of the Regulars (Dillon’sHistory of Indiana, pp. 245-248); Thomas Irwin’s account of Harmar’s and St. Clair’s campaigns, in theDraper MSS., iv U, fols. 3-17; Hugh Scott’s Narrative,Id., fol. 99, and David H. Morris’s Narrative, in the Troy (Ohio)Timesof January 29, 1840. Hereafter these will be referred to by name only. Harmar’s route out of Cincinnati is thus described by J. G. Olden in hisHistorical Sketches and Early Reminiscences of Hamilton County, Ohio: “Moved from Ft. Washington up the little ravine that runs into Deer Creek near what is now the head of Sycamore street, Cincinnati, thence through Mt. Auburn and along the general course of what is now the Reading turnpike to the little stream since known as Ross run where he encamped for the night in what is now Section 4 Mill creek township near where Four Mile tavern was built. The next day he moved, still on Clark’s old trace, now Reading turnpike, passing near where the school-house now stands in Reading, thence on to the little run east of where Sharonville now is, where he encamped for the [second] night.”

[76]An error for 1780. As noted, three well-known expeditions had gone northward from the present site of Cincinnati before Harmar’s: Bowman in 1779, Clark in 1780, and Clark again in 1782. In 1782 Clark passed northward on the watershed between the Miamis. It was therefore Clark’s route of 1780 which Harmar’s militia followed.

[77]Mt. Auburn. Dr. Daniel Drake, writing in 1801, says: “Main street, beyond Seventh, was a mere road nearly impassable in muddy weather which, at the foot of the hills, divided into two, called the Hamilton and the Mad-river road. The former took the course of the Brighton House; the latter made a steep ascent over Mount Auburn.”Of a later road on Harmar’s Trace we have this record: “1795 Road laid out from Main Street, Cincinnati, northeast nearly on Harmar’s trace (six miles) to the road connecting Columbia and White’s Station [Upper Carthage]” (History of Hamilton County, p. 223).

Of a later road on Harmar’s Trace we have this record: “1795 Road laid out from Main Street, Cincinnati, northeast nearly on Harmar’s trace (six miles) to the road connecting Columbia and White’s Station [Upper Carthage]” (History of Hamilton County, p. 223).

[78]Lick Schoolhouse, Deerfield Township, Warren County?

[79]History of Warren County(Chicago, 1882), p. 410.

[80]Josiah Morrow offers this correction for future editions of Armstrong’sJournal: “The printed journal of Armstrong’s makes the first ten miles of the third day in a northwest course. Even if this be understood as meaning west of north, it would take the army to the west of West Chester in Butler County. If we assume northwest to be an error for northeast, ‘the first five miles over a dry ridge to a lick’ would bring the army to the lick at Lick School-house in Deerfield township, Warren county; and the next ‘five miles through a low swampy country to a branch of the waters of the Little Miami’ would be over the swampy land of early times in the vicinity of Mason, and there is a tradition that the army stopped for a time on Little Muddy creek, on the farm formerly owned by Joseph McClung, north of Mason.”

[81]MSS. in possession of Josiah Morrow, Lebanon, Ohio.

[82]A western tributary of the Little Miami, down which Harmar is supposed to have marched to Fish-pot Ford, was formerly known as Harmar’s Run.

[83]Armstrong’s printedJournalreads Sugar Creek for Cæsar’s Creek. Either this was an older name or the result of a typographical error. As the name Cæsar comes from a negro who resided here with the Indians, it is probable that, as Josiah Morrow assumes, “the soldier wrote Seezar or Seizar, which the printer mistook for Sugar.”

[84]A station on the Big Four Railway, twelve miles northeast of Troy.

[85]In General Wayne’s campaign in 1794 a trace known as “Harmar’s Trace” was crossed just south of the St. Mary River in Mercer County (see p. 207). If Harmar recrossed the St. Mary and proceeded south of the river to “Shane’s Crossing” (Rockford, Mercer County) this is the only record of it.

[86]The Irwin MS. account of the operations of the army on the Maumee is intensely vivid, and, though incomplete, should be preserved in lasting form. It will be found in Appendix C.

[87]Historic Highways of America, vol. ix, ch. 2.

[88]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 129.

[89]Id., p. 171.

[90]Id., p. 172. This project was suggested by General St. Clair the year previous, but was not countenanced by the Government.American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 100.

[91]Id., p. 172.

[92]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 192. Officers who had orders from Butler to march were, in some instances, delayed nearly a week before they received the necessary provisions with which to do so.—St. Clair’sNarrative of the Campaign against the Indians(1812), p. 228.

[93]Id., p. 193.

[94]St. Clair’sNarrative, p. 12.

[95]Id., p. 207.

[96]Cummingsville—“six miles from the fort [Washington], along what is now ‘Mad Anthony Street.’”—History of Hamilton County, (Cleveland, 1881), p. 78.

[97]Knox to Washington, October 1, 1791,American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 244.

[98]The site of Fort Hamilton was in the present city of Hamilton, Ohio, and was described in 1875 as located on the ground reaching from Stable Street to the United Presbyterian Church, and stretching from the Miami River eastward to the site of the Universalist Church.

[99]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 173.

[100]Historic Highways of America, vol. ix, ch. 2.

[101]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 245. St. Clair had ordered Butler to proceed in three parallel paths each ten feet in width.

[102]Everts’sAtlas of Butler County, Ohio, p. 23.

[103]History of Preble County, Ohio (1881), p. 19.

[104]St. Clair Papers, vol. ii, p. 252.

[105]St. Clair Papers, vol. ii, p. 247. This letter may have been written at Fort Hamilton.

[106]St. Clair’sNarrative, p. 32. It is difficult to harmonize St. Clair’s own words concerning the width of the roadway with those of the editor ofThe St. Clair Papers, vol. ii, p. 292, note.

[107]Historic Highways of America, vol. v, p. 144. Cf. Harmar’s order of march p. 96.

[108]St. Clair’sNarrative, p. 31.

[109]Id., p. 32.

[110]The St. Clair Papers, vol. ii, pp. 251, 262.

[111]St. Clair’sNarrative, p. 210.

[112]The St. Clair Papers, pp. 254, 255.

[113]St. Clair wrote Hodgdon regarding supplies as follows: “Forty-five thousand rations of provisions should move with the army; ... twice in every ten days forty-five thousand rations should move from Fort Washington to the next post, until three hundred and sixty thousand rations were sent forward; ... forty-five thousand rations should again move with the army from the first post to a second, and an equal number twice in every ten days until the residue of the three hundred and sixty thousand were carried forward, and so on from post to post, still moving with forty-five thousand rations. They have failed entirely in enabling me to move with forty-five thousand rations, and from the letter above mentioned, the agent seems not to expect to move any beyond this place; for he says: ‘If you move from thence (meaning this place) shortly, and take ten days’ provisions with you, it will deprive us of the means to transport what may be necessary after that is exhausted.’ After, then, that you knowexactlywhat the contractors can do as to transportation, (for so far as they can do it, it is their business, and must not be taken out of their hands) you will take your measures so, as that, on the 27th instant, I may be able to move with three hundred horse-loads of flour, and that one hundred and fifty horse-loads succeed that every seven days; one hundred and fifty horses being sent back every seven days. For whatever expense may attend the arrangement, this shall be your warrant; and I am certain, from your personal character, as well as from your zeal for the public good, that no unnecessary expense will be incurred. It is to be observed, that our beef will be expended about the 5th or 6th of next month. When I left Fort Washington, the agent of the contractors informed me that he expected a drove of cattle very soon; whether they are arrived or not I am not informed. I have written to him on this occasion; but I request you to inform yourself, and, if necessary, to make provision there also; and, indeed, there is not a moment to lose about it, and to provide for any deficiency. He writes me that the measures he has taken will give a supply to the last of December or a month longer, but nothing must be left to hazard.”—The St. Clair Papers, vol. ii, pp. 248-249.

[114]St. Clair’sNarrative, p. 33.

[115]The St. Clair Papers, vol. ii, p. 257.

[116]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 137.

[117]Id., p. 137.

[118]See p. 89.

[119]St. Clair’sNarrative, pp. 213-219.

[120]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 138; St. Clair’sNarrative, p. 55.

[121]Albach’sAnnals of the West, p. 584.

[122]Atwater’sHistory of Ohio, p. 142.

[123]Captain Robert Buntin to Governor St. Clair, February 13, 1792 (Dillon’sHistory of Indiana, p. 283).

[124]Annals of the West, p. 590.

[125]MS. of Thos. Posey,Draper MSS., xvi U, vol. 3. Cf. page 203.

[126]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 227.

[127]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), pp. 234-236.

[128]MSS. in the New York State Library in Washington’s handwriting;Magazine of American History, vol. iii (February, 1879), pp. 81-88.

[129]Wayne to Knox, October 5, 1792,Draper MSS., v U, fol. 21.

[130]Id., Armstrong to Wilkinson, September 13, 1792.

[131]Journal of Thomas Posey,Draper MSS., xvi U, vol. 3. Hereafter this will be referred to merely by name.

[132]March 30, 1793.

[133]The fourth article was the objectionable one. It read: “The United States solemnly guaranty to the Wabash, and Illinois nations, or tribes of Indians, all the lands to which they have a just claim; and no part shall ever be taken from them, but by a fair purchase, and to their satisfaction. That the land originally belonged to the Indians; it is theirs, and theirs only. That they have a right to sell, and a right to refuse to sell. And that the United States will protect them in their said just rights.”American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), p. 338. No citizen of the United States had or has a right to refuse to sell land to the Government. Such a right could not be given to an Indian tribe.

[134]American State Papers, vol. iv (Indian Affairs, vol. i), pp. 323-324.

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