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George Rogers Clark ( November 9, 1752– February 13, 1818) was the preeminent American military leader on the northwestern frontier during the American Revolutionary War. Clark was once regarded as one of the great American military heroes—hailed as the conqueror of the Northwest Territory at the apex of his fame—but his star has since faded considerably. He is now sometimes confused with his younger brother William of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
George Rogers Clark was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, not far from the home of young Thomas Jefferson. Clark attended Donald Robertson 's school with James Madison and John Taylor of Caroline, eventually becoming a farmer and surveyor.
In 1772Events February 17 First partition of Poland, by Russia and Prussia, later including Austria May Watauga Association formed in East Tennessee as the first independent Anglo-American government. June 9 British vessel Gaspee is burned off of Rhode Island., as a twenty-year old surveyor, Clark made his first trip into what would become KentuckyCommonwealth of Kentucky ( In Detail) (Full size) State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U. States Capital Frankfort Largest City Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher Area Total Land Water % water Ranked 37th 104,749 km˛ 102,989 km˛ 1,760 km˛ 1. 7% Populatio, one of thousands of whites moving into the area. Whites believed they had a right to settle the Kentucky lands as a result of the Treaty of Fort StanwixTwo different treaties between Native Americans and European-Americans were signed at Fort Stanwix, which was located near present-day Rome, New York. In 1768, Sir William Johnson negotiated an important treaty at Fort Stanwix between the British governme of 1768, but Native Americans living in the Ohio CountryThe Ohio Country (sometimes called the Ohio Territory was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie. One of the first frontier regions had not been party to that treaty, which ceeded their Kentucky hunting grounds. The violence that resulted eventually culminated in Lord Dunmore's War, in which Clark played a small role.
During the Revolutionary War, the Kentucky settlements (then part of Virginia) were at war with militant bands of Indians in Ohio, particularly the Shawnee, MingoThe Mingo people were an Iroquois group that migrated west to the Ohio River Valley in the mid-eighteenth century 1750s and formed their own distinct identity there. This conflicted, however, with the hordes of white settlers, who vied with them for contr, and Wyandot. Working on behalf of Virginia, Clark helped to raise a militia and to organize the defense of the region. He was selected as a delegate to the Virginia Convention and managed to obtain supplies of ammunition there that he used to repel attacks on Harrodsburg, Kentucky in 1777. After sending spies into the Illinois Country, he developed a plan to capture it. Receiving support from Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, Clark was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given authority to raise troops to carry out the plan.
On June 24, 1778, Clark led 175 volunteers from Fort Pitt to begin the secret mission. They landed at the abandoned Fort Massac . Seeking to surprise the British soldiers occupying Fort Kaskaskia , they walked overland and arrived in the night on July 4. They captured the fort and city without firing a shot. Clark resupplied and intended to hold the fort. He sent the French Priest Father Pierre Gibault to Fort Sackville located near the city of Vincennes, Indiana to influence and secure the inhabitants of Vincennes and secure Fort Sackville. Clark then placed Capt. Leonard Helm in command of Fort Sackville.
Early in 1779, Clark received word from Fort Sackville that the Lieutenant Governor of Canada, Henry Hamilton, had retaken that outpost for Great Britain. On February 5, Clark lead 170 volunteers from Fort Kaskaskia 210 miles over "drownded country" in the dead of winter in 18 days to capture Fort Sackville from Hamilton. Upon arrival at Fort Sackville on February 23, Clark ordered all of the company's flags out to give the illusion of not 200 men, but 600 men. He then opened fire upon the surprised soldiers and threatened to storm the fort and give no quarter. Hamilton formally surrendered on February 25.
Clark's ultimate goal during the Revolutionary War was to seize the British stronghold of Fort Detroit and claim all lands west of the Appalachians for the American Revolutionaries (or perhaps for Viginia), but he could never recruit enough men to make the attempt. (The Kentucky militiamen generally preferred to defend their homes by staying closer to Kentucky, rather than making a long and potentially perilous expedition to Detroit.) However, Clark's capture of Governor Hamilton and occupation of the Illinois Country helped to reduce British effectiveness in the Northwest Territory.
At the Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended the Revolutionary War, Great Britain ceded the Northwest Territory to the United States. Many traditional accounts credit Clark's efforts with winning that vast territory. However, historians now question whether Clark's "conquest" played any significant role in the treaty negotiations.