CHAP. X. cation must be unsuccessful. These difficulties, 1778. which had escaped the attention of congress,

were adverted to by the commander in chief. He however took immediate measures for executing the resolution, should it be practicable, and for that purpose, put Clinton's brigade in motion. Apprehensive however that the season of the year must necessarily defeat the expedition, a council of general officers was called at Albany, consisting of generals Schuyler, Hand, and Clinton, at which governor Clinton also assisted, who unanimously declared against it. Their opinion was transmitted to congress, and November. the expedition laid aside for the present campaign.

Before the expedition against Chemung was Colonel Alden relinquished, a body of about five hundred men

surprised,

and with

some of his composed of Indians, tories, and a few regulars, party killed. broke into the Cherry valley settlement, where

colonel Alden was posted with a continental regiment. A sergeant with a small patrol was cut off, in consequence of which the colonel was completely surprised. In attempting to gain the fort, he was killed, with ten of his soldiers; and the lieutenant colonel, and two subaltern officers, were made prisoners. The fort was then assaulted; but a resolute defence being made, and it being understood that assistance was approaching, the enterprise was abandoned; and this party, after having repeated the horrors practiced in Wyoming, retired out of the settlement.

1778.

While the frontiers of New York and Penn- CHAP. X. sylvania were thus suffering the calamities incident to savage warfare, a fate equally severe seems to have been destined for Virginia. The western militia of that state had made some successful incursions into the country northwest of the Ohio, and had taken some British posts on the Mississippi. These, by an act of the legislature, were erected into a county, called the county of the Illinois; and a regiment of infantry with a troop of cavalry, to be commanded by colonel George Rogers Clarke, a gentleman whose great courage, uncommon hardihood, and capacity for Indian warfare, had given him repeated success in enterprises against the savages, were ordered to be recruited for its protection.

This corps was divided into several detachments, the principal of which remained with colonel Clarke at Kaskaskias. Colonel Hamilton the governor of Detroit, who was understood to have been extremely active in fomenting Indian hostility, was at St. Vincents, with about six hundred men, principally Indians, projecting an expedition, first against the post at Kaskaskias, and then up the Ohio to Pittsburg; after which, he proposed to desolate the frontiers of Virginia; when Clarke anticipated and defeated his design by one of those bold and decisive measures, which, whether formed on a great, or a small scale, with many thou

CHAP. X. sand, or a few hundred troops, mark the mili1778. tary and enterprising genius of the man who plans and executes them.

Clarke was too far removed from the inhabited country to hope for support, and was too weak to expect to maintain Kaskaskias and the Illinois against the regular force, aided by the whole body of Indians from the lakes to the mouth of the Ohio, by whom he was to be attacked at the first commencement of the season for action. Yet he made every preparation in his power for defence. While thus employed, he received unquestionable information from a Spanish merchant, that Hamilton, who supposed himself to be in a state of perfect security at St. Vincents, had detached his Indians to block up the Ohio, and to harass the frontiers, reserving at the post he occupied, only about eighty regular troops, with three pieces of cannon, and some swivels, mounted. Clarke 1779. at once resolved to seize this favourable moFebruary. ment for preserving himself from the impending

danger. He detached a small galley which he had fitted out, mounting two four pounders, and four swivels, manned with a company of soldiers; and having on board stores for his troops, with orders to force her way up the Wabash, and take her station a few miles below St. Vincents; permitting nothing whatever to pass her. Having made this arrangement, he set out in the depth of winter with

one hundred and thirty men, the whole force CHAP. X he could collect, to march across the country 1779. from Kaskaskias to St. Vincents. On this march, through the woods, and over high waters, sixteen days were employed. They were five days crossing the drowned lands of the Wabash, in the neighbourhood of the fort, and were under the necessity of wading about five miles in water frequently up to the breast. After subduing these difficulties, which had been supposed insurmountable, this little party Colonel appeared before the town, which was completely surprises surprised, and readily consented to change its and takes posmaster. Hamilton defended the fort a short time, and then surrendered himself and his garrison prisoners of war. With a few of his immediate agents and counsellors, who had been instrumental in the savage barbarities he had encouraged, he was by order of the executive of Virginia put in irons and confined in a jail.

This small expedition was very important in its consequences. It entirely broke the plan which threatened to pour destruction, the ensuing campaign, on the whole country west of the Alleghany mountains; it detached from the British interest very many of those numerous tribes of Indians south of the waters immediately communicating with the great lakes; and had, most probably, a material influence, in fixing the western boundary of the United States.

Clarke

St. Vincents,

session of it.

CHAP. X.

We have already seen that congress, actuated 1779. by their wishes rather than governed by a temperate calculation of the means in their possession, had, in the preceding winter, without consulting the commander in chief, planned a second invasion of Canada, to be conducted by the marquis de La Fayette, and that as the generals only were got in readiness for this expedition, it was necessarily laid aside. The design, however, seems to have been suspended, not totally abandoned. The alliance with France, by rendering success rather more possible, revived the latent wish to annex that extensive territory to the United States. Ambition, though an essential motive, was by no means the single one, which persuaded the government to this enterprise. By obtaining possession of Canada, not only the dominions of the United States would be greatly extended and other considerable advantages secured, but the cause of a perpetual and terrible savage war would be entirely removed; and a lasting peace to their northern and western frontiers completely secured. The conquest of Canada, therefore, was an object at all times contemplated with extreme solicitude.

Congress determine to attack

Canada, and the other

After the war had commenced between France and Great Britain, that favourite subject was again taken up in congress; and, towards autumn, a plan was completely digested America. for a combined attack to be made by the allied

British possessions in North