Cahokia: Peace or War with the Indians

The mural, "CAHOKIA: PEACE OR WAR WITH THE INDIANS", represents Clark offering to the Indian tribes of the then Northwest, two belts; red for war and white for peace. The war of the American Revolution had begun and the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic seaboard had declared their independence. The English plan of war combined campaigns along the coast with raids, chiefly from Detroit, by English partisans and Indians against the whole frontier. It seemed that the latter movement would exterminate the settlers in the "Great Valley," or drive them back east of the mountains.

George Rogers Clark conceived the desperate, but brilliant plan of a far-reaching, offensive expedition for the occupation of the posts held by the English north of the Ohio River. After overcoming the most disheartening difficulties and disappointments, he had led a force of less than two hundred Virginians and Kentuckians from Corn Island (Louisville) to the posts on the east side of the Mississippi below St. Louis. He took them entirely by surprise and without resistance occupied Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia.

At this time the only settlers in the Old Northwest were the French. England had won this region only recently, in the French and Indian War and by the Treaty of Paris. Before the outbreak of the Revolution it had been part of the Province of Quebec. In 1778 France had entered into and alliance with the United States and the French on the Mississippi and Wabash, apprised by Clark of this alliance, gladly changed their allegiance to "Virginia and the Continental Congress."

The Indians of this region, however, far outnumbered all the French settlers; the English and Clark's force put together. If, in 1778, as Clark reached Kaskaskia and Cahokia, they had combined against him, his little force would have been quickly destroyed. With bravado and apparent unconcern about the choice the Indians might make, Clark told them about the war between the United States and England, stated with apparent assurance that the Americans, the "Big Knives," were going to drive the English out, and told the Indians to decide whether they would fight the Americans or remain neutral.

His demeanor, his firmness, and his personal force decide the issue, which, had it reached the decision of arms would have been fatal. The Indians chose the white belt. During the rest of the war, while many of the Indians joined the English in raids upon the frontier, all of them held Clark in such awe that his presence and even his name was worth an army of occupation. His dealings with the French and with the Indians marked him as one of the great statesmen of the Revolutionary period.

Ezra Winter, Artist

Kentucky: Entering the Great Valley

This mural represents George Rogers Clark on a white horse leading a group of settlers down the west slope of the Allegheny Mountains. Its title "KENTUCKY: ENTERING THE GREAT VALLEY" symbolizes the entrance of settlers from the Atlantic seacoast into the Ohio Valley, which was the entering wedge for the occupation of the Mississippi Valley, the heart of the continent.

In the 1770's streams of settlers entered the valley by way of the Ohio River, by way of the road which Daniel Boone, in the employ of Judge Richard Henderson, cut from the mountain pass into the heart of Kentucky, and from North Carolina to what is now Tennessee.

The last mentioned was the first chronologically, but it was Clark's leadership in organizing the settlers at Harrodsburg, in forming the county of Virginia, and in securing provision for its defense by Virginia that insured the permanent occupation of the country south of the Ohio River.

Ezra Winter, Artist

Vincennes: The British Barrier to the west

This mural, "VINCENNES: THE BRITISH BARRIER TO THE WEST" depicts the attack on Fort Sackville (1779), continued in the early morning of February 24, after the beginning of firing the preceding evening. Clark's expert riflemen silenced fire from the fort and put the cannon out of action by shooting through the port holes wherever the defenders appeared.

Hamilton finally asked for a truce. Intimidated by Clark's vigorous statement of the situation, he agreed to an unconditional surrender. This was the culmination of Clark's campaign, in its conception, its execution, and its results comparable to Washington's Yorktown campaign two years later.

Nowhere in our history is there a greater exhibition of the power of a personal leadership to raise men to unsuspected heights of courage and endurance and to accomplish the impossible. In Clark's own words, inscribed in stone above the murals, "Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted."

Ezra Winter, Artist

St. Louis: The way opened to the Pacific

The last of the murals, "ST. LOUIS: THE WAY OPENED TO THE PACIFIC", shows the ceremony in which the United States took possession of the upper part of the Louisiana Purchase. Three flags are shown. In the background the flag of Spain, to which Louisiana belonged from 1763 to 1801, had been lowered to allow the French to salute their tri-color, which had not been formally flown at St. Louis, because Napoleon had not organized that part of Louisiana during the two years he nominally has possession of it.

The flag of France, in turn, was lowered to make way for the Stars and Stripes, Captain Amos Stoddard, United States commandant, stands at attention as the flag is raised amid the beating of drums. Beside him stands Merriweather Lewis, then on the point of departing with William Clark, brother of George Rogers Clark, on the famous expedition to the far northwest.

This mural forms a fitting conclusion to the series, for it was the acquisition of the Old Northwest which made the purchase of Louisiana necessary and which opened the way to the Pacific through both the far Northwest and the far Southwest.

Ezra Winter, Artist

Marietta: The Northwest a new territory

This mural, "MARIETTA: THE NORTHWEST, A NEW TERRITORY," brings out an additional result of Clark's campaigns. The great region he won as an officer of Virginia was ceded to the United States. Its possession by the Union of the States helped to hold that union together when it threatened to dissolve. The Continental Congress devised for its development a new political invention, the "territory", a temporary organization providing for gradual extension of self-government and final admission of the new states into the Union on absolute equality with the original ones.

The Northwest Ordinance July 13, 1787, in which this invention was embodied, also consecrated the region to freedom both of conscience and of labor. It provided the model for all subsequent territories. As a political document, it ranks in our history second only to the Constitution of the Untied States.

At Marietta, Ohio, on July 13, the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio was formally inaugurated. Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the territory, read the Northwest Ordinance to the New Englanders of the Ohio Company, who, at the junction of the Muskingum and the Ohio, had founded the first American City in the new region. Back of him in the mural stands Governor Arthur St. Clair, the English army officer, who had come to America to fight the French, and stayed here to fight against the English for independence. Friend of Washington, soldier and statesman of ability - in spite of his own defeat by Indians - his administration, begun on the day represented by the mural, merits everlasting remembrance.

The acquisition of the Old Northwest added to the United States the region which became the very heart of the nation. It now contains about a fifth of the population and of the wealth of the country. Of our six largest cities, three - Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland belong to it. From this region came Ulysses S. Grant, who won the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln, who saved the Union.

Ezra Winter, Artist

Wabash: Through Wilderness and Flood

This mural, "WABASH: THROUGH WILDERNESS AND FLOOD" depicts the terrible march from Kaskaskia to Vincennes in February 1779. Colonel Henry Hamilton, commander of the English forces in the West, in the fall of 1778 had come down from Detroit with a company of the King's Regiment, a company of Detroit militia, and some Indians. He took possession of Vincennes and rebuilt the old fort there, which he christened Fort Sackville.

Here he was in a position to cut off Clark's expedition from its base. He planned to annihilate the invaders in the spring and to roll back the American frontier to the mountains. This news, which Francis Vigo brought to Clark, caused general consternation.

The intrepid young Virginian, however, succeeded in organizing a force of about one hundred and thirty men, nearly half of them French recruits, for an attack upon the unsuspecting English. It was in Mid-winter. The last ten days of the march the army spent in crossing the flooded valleys of the Little Wabash, the Embarrass, and the Wabash River itself.

On February 22, Washington's birthday, though no one then knew that it would ever be observed as a holiday by a grateful country, Captain Joseph Bowman wrote, "Marched on in the water, those that were weak and faintish from so much fatigue went on in canoes. We came one league further, to some sugar camps, where we stayed all night. Heard the evening and morning guns from the Fort. No provisions yet. Lord help us."

Ezra Winter, Artist

Fort Sackville: Britain yields possesion

The surrender of Fort Sackville is the subject of several well known paintings, but there are no others on such a scale as Mr. Winter's "FORT SACKVILLE: BRITISH YIELD POSSESSION." The palisaded fort forms a background through which Colonel Hamilton and his regulars in full regimentals march out between Clark's soldiers on the right and the French inhabitants of Vincennes on the left.

The painting catches the spectacle of the moment Hamilton surrenders his sword to Clark. With the taking of Vincennes and the surrender of Hamilton and his force, the success of Clark's expedition was insured. While he was not able to go to capture Detroit, the English thereafter were never able to hold any of the Northwest very far south of the Great Lakes.

In the wake of the success of Clark's brilliant offensive campaigns, hundreds and even thousands of settlers poured into Kentucky. The English government, convinced that it could not hold the country south of the Great Lakes, in the Treaty of Peace agreed to the middle of the Great Lakes as the boundary of the new republic. Thus the Old Northwest became part of the United States.

Ezra Winter, Artist

Other sites in Vincennes

Historic Vincennes is a great place to live, work, and visit. The following links can provide a wealth of information.

Knox County History Information on the historic sites and visiting Vincennes. Page produced by students of South Knox Elementary School.

Grouseland The former home of William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory and later the 9th President of the United States, is magnificently preserved by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Enlightening candlelight tours are available during the Rendezvous.

Vincennes State Historic Sites The State of Indiana manages several historic sites within Vincennes including: The Indiana Territorial Capital, The log Cabin Visitors Center, The Stout Print Shop, The Maurice Thompson Birthplace, The Sugarloaf Mound, and Fort Knox II.

The Old French House This home built about 1806 was home of French fur trader Michel Brouillet. The house offers a look at what life may have been like in this remote frontier town.

The Old Cathedral is located adjacent to the Clark Memorial and is open to the public. This building dates to the early 1800s and is a significant part of the city and the regions history.

Les Habitants du Poste Vincennes1732 - 1778 A reenactment group based in Vincennes. Find information about the French and Indians of the area as well as a history of the town.