а a wooded fount, though the Bay is nearly open or the other This fermits a fair view of Mackinaw, about eight miles off- though Round Teland and Bois Blanc cannot be seen. In fronton the right, is TTA. Lt. Iquaw, and forther to the lift the Isband of St. Helena, The following shows the homits of the pros pect. Bay это у St. Helena Miles Pr. St. Iquace 3 miles Mackinaw CHAPTER XIII REMOVAL OF THE FORT TO MACKINAC ISLAND T HE most important event at the Straits of Mackinac during the American Revolution was the removal of the fort from Old Mackinaw on the south side of the Straits to Mackinac Island. This project was begun partly under the influence of fear of the Indians, which had not entirely died down since the massacre of 1763, and was accentuated by the exigencies of the Revolution, but the removal had its immediate impulse from the victories of the Virginian backwoodsman, George Rogers Clark, in the Ohio Valley. He first figured prominently in that region in 1778, as a defender of the American and French settlements from the British, particularly from the atrocities of the "hair-buying" General Hamilton, who commanded at Detroit. Clark "had come from a good family in Virginia, was but twenty-five years of age, and, for his day, had acquired a fair education, but from childhood had been a rover of the woods. Full six feet in height, stout of frame, possessed of 'red hair, and a black, penetrating, sparkling eye,' he was courageous even to audacity, and exhibited strong, often unbridled passions. Clark early became a backwoods surveyor, such as Washington was, and many another colonial gentleman of superior antecedents and training. With chain and compass, axe and rifle, he had in the employ of land speculators wandered far and wide D-The plant no corn AND FROM THE PLAINS BELOW-FROM THE RIDGE THE ELEVATION IS 36 FT FROM THE PLAINABOUT 46 FEET -This is a rising Slope acres in any part of the Island THIS ELEVATION IS NOT ROCK BUT SOIL EASILY REMOVED **********. RIDGE K17 FEET ABOVE THEX GROUND FROM THE RIDGE HUTS KHALDIMAND BAY Scale 200 Yards to an Inch to Judge of this inaccurate OUTLINE OF FORT MACKINAC AS PLANNED BY SINCLAIR (Accompanying a letter from Sinclair to Brehm. See Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., IX, 523 and X, opposite p. 390) through the border region, learning its trails, its fords, its mountain passes, and its aborigines, better than his books. In many ways, Clark was a marked character in a community of strongly accentuated types-heroes and desperadoes, saints and sinners. At the age of twenty-one he had served in the Dunmore war, and then settled as a Kentucky farmer at the mouth of Fish Creek, only again to be called out by an Indian uprising and obliged thereafter to take a leading part in the protracted defence of the 'Dark and Bloody Ground.'" 1 In the spring of 1777, Hamilton's Indians committed nameless horrors on the American settlements in the Ohio Valley. The centres about which the French and Indians rallied were the forts built for the fur trade, at strategic points on the Ohio and the Mississippi, at Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Cahokia. The forts were centres of British influence, because the Indians favoured King George's plan of keeping the interior a wilderness for the fur trade rather than the colonial plan of clearing the forests and settling the land for agriculture; and the same was true of the French at the beginning of hostilities, who were influenced also by their Indian wives. Clark, determined to conquer these posts for Virginia, found support in the Kentucky backwoodsmen, and in Patrick Henry, whose warm favour procured him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, together with money and supplies. His amazing successes, against overwhelming odds, could not but impress the Commandant at Old Mackinaw, especially when he should learn that the successes on the Ohio were regarded by Clark as only preliminary to an 1 Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark Won the Northwest, pp. 10-11. (A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.) The sketch of Clark is based on pp. 14 ff. advance upon Detroit. Establishing his headquarters at the site of the present Louisville, Clark had taken successively the forts at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes, within a few months with scarcely the loss of a man, and captured Hamilton,2 whom he sent to Virginia in irons. Several factors contributed to this phenomenal good fortune. Among others was the influence of Father Gibault who was among the prisoners taken by Clark at Kaskaskia. This worthy priest had for some time been stationed at Vincennes, and exercised a strong influence over the French and the Indians throughout a wide region. "He was a man of strong sympathies for the American cause and tendered to Colonel Clark both his allegiance and services. News that France had recognized the American cause and had entered into treaty relations with the colonists soon became known at Kaskaskia, and lent enthusiasm to the cause. Father Gibault soon tendered his services in ascertaining the sentiments of the inhabitants of Vincennes, which were gladly accepted. His visit to that place was fortunately timed, for he arrived there while the English lieutenant governor, Edward Abbott, was absent in Detroit. The good priest gathered his parishioners into the church and explained the events that had transpired. The whole population took the oath of allegiance to the commonwealth of Virginia. When Father Gibault left Vincennes late in July [1778], he had the satisfaction of seeing the stars and stripes waving above Fort Sackville, as the fort at Vincennes had been christened." 3 Not the least factor in Clark's success was his clear 2 For Hamilton's account of his expedition and capture see Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., IX, 489–504. 3 Hemans, History of Michigan, p. 80. Hammond Pub. Co., Lansing, Mich. |