General George Rogers Clark.
208. George Rogers Clark.—An expedition of even greater importance had been undertaken the previous year, still farther west, by George Rogers Clark.[[96]] Colonel Hamilton, commander of the British at Detroit, had planned a series of movements with the intention of taking possession of the whole western region north of the Ohio. Clark, a Virginian who had settled in Kentucky, had become thoroughly acquainted with frontier manners and methods. In the autumn of 1777, he learned of Burgoyne’s surrender. Divining the importance of the West, he at once sent scouts throughout the region known as the Illinois country. As a result of the information thus received, this adventurous frontiersman, only twenty-five years old, formed the bold project of conquering from the British the whole of the vast region extending from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi.
209. Clark’s Expedition.—Accordingly, having secured permission from the authorities of Virginia, Clark, taking a force of one hundred and eighty men, with boats and artillery, started in the spring of 1778, at Pittsburg, for a voyage down the river to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi. He had no difficulty in capturing Kaskaskia, a small post not very far north of the modern Cairo. Thence he sent messengers to Vincennes, which agreed to submit to him. Later, however, he learned that the British under Colonel Hamilton had retaken the fort. Sending his cannon on a boat to patrol the Ohio and the Wabash, Clark took his men across Illinois in a winter’s march, often through mud and water knee deep, and appeared before Vincennes. The village at once yielded, and the people united with Clark in assaulting the fort. Hamilton was soon obliged to surrender with his whole force. By this brilliant expedition, the frontier was extended to the Mississippi River. The importance of the movement could hardly be understood at the time, but the history of the next hundred years revealed it in many very interesting ways.
THE VICTORIES OF PAUL JONES.
210. Early Condition of the Navy.—Before the war the Americans had no navy, for there was no national government, and the individual colonies, under the Navigation Acts, had no opportunities for the development of foreign trade. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, however, Congress provided for arming vessels, not so much to fight the British warships as to prey upon British commerce. Franklin, as minister to France after 1778, was authorized by Congress to commission vessels to scour the waters for British prizes.
Captain John Paul Jones.
211. The Bon Homme Richard.—The most famous of these cruisers was a merchant ship that had been hastily fitted up for war and given the name of Bon Homme Richard. This vessel, commanded by John Paul Jones,[[97]] a Scotchman who had renounced his country and lived some years in America, made havoc among the British merchantmen, especially in the British and Irish Channels and off the east coast of Scotland. On the 23d of September, 1779, Jones, with two small accompanying vessels, met the British frigate Serapis, with similar support, convoying a small fleet of merchantmen, off Flamborough Head. The Serapis was slightly more powerful than the Richard, but Jones did not hesitate to attack, and the result was one of the most obstinate and bloody battles in all naval history. Jones received no assistance from his attendant ships, which even fired into the Richard. After both ships had been partially disabled, Jones ran alongside the Serapis and lashed them together. From that moment a terrible battle with canister, musket balls, hand grenades, and cutlasses went on, until more than half of all the men engaged were either killed or disabled. The Serapis finally surrendered, but it was immediately found that the Richard had been so riddled with shot that it was sinking, and Jones therefore was obliged to transfer his men to the other vessel. A few hours later the Richard went down.
212. Importance of Jones’s Victory.—This desperate naval battle was important for two reasons: first, it everywhere gave the Americans a reputation as sailors; and secondly, it led to an important international dispute. Jones took the Serapis into a port in Holland. The British at once demanded that the commander of the Richard should be given up to be tried as a pirate. The Dutch refused, on the ground that Jones had done only what the British had long been doing. This, with some other complications, led to war between Holland and Great Britain. The English, in consequence, were then at war with Holland, as well as with America and France. Spain was also drawn in as the ally of France. Russia had long been apparently on the point of joining in the contest, but the Empress Catherine, before taking a final step, wrote a personal letter of inquiry to Frederick the Great, who advised her to keep out of the trouble. Thus England, left without a single ally, found herself confronted by three of the most powerful naval forces of continental Europe. The united fleets of France and Spain, even without the help of Holland, were scarcely weaker than the British fleet, and they at once threatened, while the English were occupied in America, not only to destroy the commerce of England in the open seas, but also to recover Gibraltar, and to overwhelm all the English possessions in the West Indies. The influence of these alliances on the American war may be inferred from the fact that while in 1779 the British had three hundred and fourteen thousand men under arms, not a tenth of that number were at any time in America.