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In the year of the "Bloody '77s" Clark returned the gunpowder to Kentucky settlements. The settlements were attacked continually and had difficulty planting or harvesting crops to sustain them through the coming winter. Clark learned that the "hair buyer" Lt. Gov. Henry Hamilton was paying the Indians for prisoners and scalps in Detroit. After receiving reports from spies he sent to the Illinois country, Clark returned to Virginia to outline a plan of attack to Governor Henry. Secretly, Henry gave him written orders to attack Kaskaskia and other posts in the Illinois Country.
On June 26, 1778, 175 men left for Kaskaskia. They "shot the falls" of the Ohio River during a total eclipse of the sun. At the mouth of the Tennessee River they hid the boats and marched overland for six days. They surprised Kaskaskia on the night of July 4. Clark realized that his small force could not hold the Illinois posts if Hamilton was given sufficient time to gather his forces, and he boldly decided to move on Vincennes immediately during "the depth of winter." He wrote to Patrick Henry, saying that if he failed "this country and also Kentucky is lost."
On February 6, 1779, Clark led 172 men, nearly half of which were French volunteers, from Kaskaskia. They marched the 240 miles through flooded country, often shoulder high in water, sending out hunting parties for food and sleeping on the bare ground. It required 17 days to make what was normally a five or six day trip. Clark kept the spirits of the men high, encouraging them to sing, and regaling them with the actions of "an antic drummer boy who floated by on his drum."
On February 23, they surprised Vincennes. Clark ordered that all of the company's flags be marched back and forth behind a slight rise to convince the British that there were 600 men rather than under 200. They opened fire on the fort with such accuracy that the British were prevented from opening their gunports. On the morning of the third day, February 25, Hamilton surrendered and was sent to Williamsburg as a prisoner. The British never regained control of these posts. The British withdrew from Detroit, and the Great Lakes became the northern boundary of the United States.
Clark had assumed personal responsibility for many expenses incurred in his campaigns and was never able to obtain full repayment from Virginia or the United States Congress. He was hounded by creditors for the remainder of his life. In 1803 he built a two-room cabin overlooking the Falls of the Ohio, where he lived operating a grist mill. In 1809 he suffered a stroke, which necessitated the amputation of his right leg.
He lived thereafter at Locust Grove, eight miles from Louisville, KY, with his sister Lucy and her husband, Maj. William Croghan, until he suffered a third stroke and died at the age of 66 on February 13, 1818. His body was moved from the family plot to Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville in 1869.
In his funeral oration, Judge John Rowan said, "The mighty oak of the forest has fallen, and now the scrub oaks may sprout all around.... The father of the western country is no more."
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