On February 5, 1779, Colonel George Rogers Clark and 120 determined American soldiers, left Kaskaskia and began an arduous winter trek eastward to capture the British post of Fort Sackville on the Wabash River, near the town of Vincennes. Many days were spent wading through frigid water, at times up to their necks. To compound matters, their pack horses all died and their provisions dwindled to what the men could carry on their backs.

After capturing Kaskaskia and Cahokia in July 1778, Colonel George Rogers Clark set his sights on the strategically critical British post of Fort Sackville, 200 miles to the east. Clark sent a local delegation to Vincennes who convinced its French inhabitants, never too fond of the British, to switch their allegiance to the American cause. Clark also sent Captain Leonard Helm and a small detachment to safeguard this newest American possession. Word of Clark’s daring exploits reached Fort Detroit, the main British outpost in the region. Its commander, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, assembled a relief force and headed south.

In 1778, Colonel George Rogers Clark presented a plan to Virginia Governor Patrick Henry and his executive council of Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and George Wythe to conquer the Illinois Country, part of the Province of Quebec. Clark proposed capturing British forts at Kaskaskia and Cahokia to access badly needed supplies from Spanish Louisiana and force the British to focus their attention away from Kentucky. Incredibly, Clark’s audacious plan to capture these distant British outposts would succeed without firing a shot.

The largest colony in British North America was the Province of Quebec, extending from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi and south to the Ohio. A debate ensued regarding whether Indians should be supplied and enlisted to help crush the rebellion in the colonies. In 1776, George Rogers Clark was living in a remote part of Virginia and helped petition Virginia’s Assembly to declare this area, known as Kentucky, to be a separate county. The priority of the county was to establish a militia to defend against Indian attacks and Clark became the acting commander of the Kentucky militia. In March 1777, a decision was finally made, and orders were issued by Lord George Germaine, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to commence what would prove to be a ruthless frontier Indian war.

On the eve of the American Revolution, the lands west of the Appalachians were ripe for conquest as the area was lightly defended by the British. All that was needed to exploit the situation and takeover this vast territory was an intrepid man with a vision. That leader would emerge in the person of George Rogers Clark. Born on November 19, 1752, on the family farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, George was not a great student. Recognizing his natural restlessness precluded farming as an occupation, father and son agreed George should learn surveying, and he proved to be an eager pupil. By age nineteen, with a head full of knowledge, some surveying equipment, and a rifle, George Rogers Clark headed west to make it on his own.