Having met and established friendly relations with the chiefs of the neighboring tribes, he placed Captain Helm in charge of the civil affairs of Vincennes, Lieutenant Brashear in command of the fort with a garrison of forty men, and embarked, on March 20, 1779, for Kaskaskia, on board "The Willing" and seven other boats. They made the trip of three hundred and fifty miles without casualty, and on arriving at Kaskaskia, after an absence of seven weeks, were welcomed by Captain Robert George, who, with his company of forty-one men, had come up from New Orleans, and was in command of the post.
The military conquest of the Illinois country now being complete, a civil government was forthwith established. The Assembly of Virginia was prompt to act as soon as the capture of Kaskaskia was known. In October, 1778, the territory northwest of the Ohio was constituted a county of Virginia, and was named the county of Illinois.[1519] On December 12th, Colonel John Todd was appointed county lieutenant. The governor in his letter of instructions directed Colonel Todd to coöperate with Colonel Clark in his military operations, to have care for the happiness, increase, and prosperity of the county, and to see that justice was duly administered. Colonel Todd's appointment was especially pleasing to Colonel Clark, who said, in writing to George Mason: "The civil department in the Illinois had heretofore robbed me of too much of my time that ought to be spent in military reflection. I was now likely to be relieved by Colonel John Todd. I was anxious for his arrival and happy in his appointment, as the greatest intimacy and friendship had subsisted between us. I now saw myself rid of a piece of trouble that I had no delight in."[1520] Colonel Todd arrived in Kaskaskia in May, 1779. Courts of justice and militia companies were immediately organized in Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes,[1521] and, from the lack of American citizens who were qualified, nearly all the official positions were filled by French residents.[1522] A complete civil government was organized and regularly administered in the Northwest territory until the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783. This local government became an important factor in the negotiations for that treaty, with reference to the question of boundaries.
Colonel Clark had promises of troops from Virginia and Kentucky for his Detroit expedition, and he was to meet them at Vincennes. Arriving there in July, 1779, he found only thirty from Kentucky of the three hundred promised him. There were no tidings of recruits from Virginia; and Major Bowman, his trusty companion in former campaigns, was fighting the Shawanese on the Ohio at a disadvantage.[1523] Clark, being very impatient, sent out officers to recruit in the settlements, and for this purpose went himself to the Falls of the Ohio. Here he received a letter from Jefferson, now the governor of Virginia, giving him new assurances of Virginia troops for the Detroit expedition, and stating that it was his intention to build a fort on the Mississippi, below the mouth of the Ohio, in order to strengthen the claim of the United States to the Mississippi as its western boundary. The duty of building this fort was later committed to and performed by Colonel Clark. The fort was completed in June, 1780, and was called Fort Jefferson.[1524]
At this time twelve hundred Indians and Canadians from Detroit, with artillery, under Captain Byrd, were coming silently down the Big Miami river to invade Kentucky and help carry out a scheme of conquest soon to be explained. They went up the Licking river, captured two stockades, which were defenceless against cannon, committed the customary British and Indian barbarities, and, although meeting with no opposition, retreated as rapidly as they came. In explanation of the sudden retreat it has been said that the British commander was shocked at the brutal conduct of his Indians, and would proceed no further.[1525] In view of the habitual practice of the British commanders at Detroit of paying the Indians for American scalps,[1526]—a practice Clark alludes to in the term "hair-buying general", which he applied to Governor Hamilton,—this explanation is charitable, but it seems hardly probable. It is more likely that Captain Byrd and his Indians heard the report that Colonel Clark had suddenly returned from his defence of St. Louis and the Illinois country against Sinclair's Indians, and was likely to make it a busy summer for the invaders in Kentucky. Clark with two companions proceeded to Harrodsburg to enlist troops. He there closed the land office, and soon had a thousand men with artillery at the mouth of the Licking, ready for an expedition across the Ohio. He moved rapidly upon Chilicothe and other Indian towns, which he destroyed, with their crops, and also a British trading-post where the Indians had been supplied with arms and ammunition.
Clark's favorite scheme of organizing an expedition for the capture of Detroit was delayed, and his spirit chafed under the disappointment. Jefferson was deeply interested in the project, and, Sept. 26, 1780, wrote an earnest letter to General Washington, urging him to furnish the means. "We have long meditated the attempt, under the direction of Colonel Clark, but the expense has obliged us to decline it. We could furnish the men, provisions, and every[thing] necessary, except powder, had we the money. When I speak of furnishing the men, I mean they should be militia, for such is the popularity of Colonel Clark, and the confidence of the Western people in him, that he could raise the requisite number at any time."[1527] On Dec. 15th he writes again, in more urgent terms, and says: "The regular force Colonel Clark already has, with a proper draft from the militia beyond the Alleghany, and that of three or four of our northern counties, will be adequate for the reduction of Fort Detroit, in the opinion of Colonel Clark.... I am the more urgent for an immediate order, because Colonel Clark awaits here your Excellency's answer by the express."[1528] Washington was also impressed with the military importance of Clark's expedition, and, Dec. 29th, instructed Colonel Brodhead, in command at Fort Pitt, to furnish Clark with the artillery and stores he required, and such a detachment of Brodhead's and Gibson's regiments as could be spared.[1529]
Colonel Brodhead did not acknowledge General Washington's instructions, which were placed in Colonel Clark's hands to deliver, until the 25th of February, and they did not reach him until the 21st.[1530] During this interval of nearly two months, Benedict Arnold, with fifteen hundred British troops, sailed up the James River, and was ravaging Virginia, which, from the absence of its Continental soldiers, was almost defenceless.[1531] In this emergency, Colonel Clark tendered his services to Baron Steuben in her defence, and with a small body of militia received the enemy in Indian and Western fashion. Jefferson, writing, Jan. 18, 1781, to the Virginia delegates in Congress, says: "Baron Steuben had not reached Hood's by eight or ten miles, when they [the enemy] arrived there. They landed their whole army in the night, Arnold attending in person. Captain Clark (of Kaskaskias) had been sent forward with two hundred and forty men by Baron Steuben; and, having properly disposed of them in ambuscade, gave them a deliberate fire, which killed seventeen on the spot and wounded thirteen."[1532]
Colonel Clark's outfit at Fort Pitt went on very slowly and with many embarrassments. Writing, with the rank of brigadier-general, to Washington, on the 26th of May, 1781, he says: "The invasion of Virginia put it out of the power of the governor to furnish me with the number of men proposed for the enterprise to the West."[1533] Colonel Brodhead did not feel that he could spare the troops at the fort which were promised. Clark's only hope was now in getting Continental troops. "But I have not yet lost sight of Detroit", he says, and wishes to set out on the expedition early in June. He was doomed to disappointment. The summer and autumn wore away, and the obstacles in his path increased. The troops he expected were employed elsewhere; the Western Indians again became hostile, and there was a general apprehension among the settlements of incursions upon them from Detroit by the British and their Indian allies. The opportunity of capturing Detroit had passed. General Irvine, in command at Fort Pitt, writing to Washington, Dec. 2, 1781, says: "I presume your Excellency has been informed by the governor of Virginia, or General Clark, of the failure of his expedition." He reports General Clark at the Rapids of the Ohio with only seven hundred and fifty men, and "the buffalo meat all rotten." "The general is apprehensive of a visit from Detroit, and is not without fears the settlement will be obliged to break up unless reinforcements soon arrive from Virginia."[1534]
At this point, George Rogers Clark, at the age of twenty-nine years, ceased to be a factor in Western history. His favorite scheme had failed under circumstances which he could not control. No command was offered him in the Continental army. With a feeling that he was neglected, that his eminent services were not appreciated, and with a sense of wrong that his private property had been sacrificed to pay public debts,[1535] his mind became depressed, and he fell into social habits which tended to increase his despondency. In November, 1782, he conducted a force of ten hundred and fifty men against the Indians on the Miami, took ten scalps and seven prisoners, burned their towns, destroyed their crops and the outfit of a British trading-post;[1536] but he displayed none of the brilliancy shown in his earlier campaigns. He was discharged from the service of Virginia July 2, 1783, with a letter of thanks for his services from the governor. The financial distress of the State was assigned as the motive for his discharge.[1537]