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George Rogers Clark

George Rogers Clark (November 9, 1752–February 13, 1818) was a frontier General during the American Revolution. George Rogers is the elder brother to William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. George Rogers Clark is best remembered for capturing two forts occupied by soldiers from the Kingdom of Great Britain in what would be considered daring fashion.

As a youth, Clark was educated at the school of Donald Robertson along with his neighbors, James Madison and John Taylor of Caroline. Clark became a surveyor and farmer. His surveying work led him to the newly-opened lands of Kentucky where he soon became a major in the militia, fighting against the Shawnee. He was selected as a delegate to the Virginia Convention and managed to obtain supplies of ammunition there that he used to repel the later attacks on Harrodsburg, Kentucky in 1777. After sending spies into Illinois, he developed a plan to capture it. To carry out his plan, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given authority to raise troops.

On June 24, 1778, Clark lead 175 volunteers from Fort Pitt to capture the Illinois Country. They landed at the abandoned Fort Massac. Seeking to surprise the British soldiers occupying Fort Kaskaskia, they walked overland, instead of following the river 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 through the Spanish merchant and trader Francis Vigo that Lt. Governor 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 was to seize the British stronghold of Fort Detroit and claim all lands west of the Appalachians for the American Revolutionaries, but he could never raise enough manpower to make the attempt.

After the American Revolution, Clark became the principal surveyor for the land west of the Appalachians. He was also consulted with regards to American Indian activities in Ohio. Clark had financed the majority of his campaigns with his own funds. He was never able to obtain full repayment from Virginia or the United States Congress. He lived out the rest of his life at Louisville, Kentucky with his sister and brother-in-law. He died of a stroke at the age of 63 still attempting to repay men and merchants from his military campaigns.

On May 23, 1928, President Calvin Coolidge ordered a memorial to be erected in Vincennes to George Rogers Clark. Started in 1931 and completed in 1933 the George Rogers Clark Memorial now stands on what was then believed to be the site of Fort Sackville. A statue of Clark also stands at Fort Massac, Illinois, placed there by the Daughter of the American Revolution in the early 1900s.