Clark, George Rogers, 1752–1818, American Revolutionary general, conqueror of the Old Northwest, b. near Charlottesville, Va.; brother of William Clark Clark, William, 1770–1838, American explorer, one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition , b. Caroline co., Va.; brother of George Rogers Clark . He was an army officer (1792–96), serving in a number of engagements with Native Americans.
..... Click the link for more information. . A surveyor, he was interested in Western lands, served (1774) in Lord Dunmore's War (see Dunmore, John Murray, 4th earl of Dunmore, John Murray, 4th earl of, 1732–1809, British colonial governor of Virginia, a Scottish peer.
..... Click the link for more information. ), and later went to what is now Kentucky for the Ohio Company Ohio Company, organization formed (1747) to extend settlements of Virginia westward. The members were mostly Virginia planters interested in land speculation and the fur trade.
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1776 he secured the Virginia legislature's assertion of sovereignty over the Kentucky region, thereby obtaining military and financial support. He returned in time to repel British and Native American attacks on Harrodsburg, Ky., and other posts.

In 1778, Clark made plans for aggressive action against the British in the Old Northwest and, going to Virginia, persuaded Gov. Patrick Henry Henry, Patrick, 1736–99, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Hanover co., Va. Largely self-educated, he became a prominent trial lawyer. Henry bitterly denounced (1765) the Stamp Act and in the years that followed helped fan the fires of revolt in
..... Click the link for more information. and his council to send an expedition. At its head, he swept into the Illinois country and took the British-held settlements of Kaskaskia Kaskaskia (kăskăs`kēə), small village, Randolph co., SE Ill.
..... Click the link for more information. , Cahokia Cahokia (kəhō`kēə), village (1990 pop. 17,550), St. Clair co., SW Ill., a residential suburb of East St.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Vincennes Vincennes (vĭnsĕnz`), city (1990 pop. 19,859), seat of Knox co., SW Ind., on the Wabash River; inc. 1814.
..... Click the link for more information. . The British under Gen. Henry Hamilton advanced from Detroit and retook Vincennes after Clark had left. Winter and Ohio floods halted Hamilton there, but Clark and his men, defying cruel conditions of cold and hardship, braved the flooded bottom lands to return to Vincennes. With the heroic aid of Francis Vigo Vigo, Francis (vē`gō, vī`gō), 1747–1836, American frontier trader and merchant, supporter of the American Revolution.
..... Click the link for more information. , François Bosseron, and Father Gibault Gibault, Pierre (pyĕr zhēbō`)
..... Click the link for more information. , he struck at the British fort and surprised and captured Hamilton and the garrison in Feb., 1779. After this, the greatest of his exploits, Clark hoped to capture Detroit, but adequate supplies never came from Virginia to the fort he had built (Fort Nelson, where Louisville now stands), and he remained inactive.

In 1782 the British and Native Americans disastrously defeated the Kentuckians in the battle of Blue Licks. The ensuing unrest led Clark, who had not taken part in the battle, to lead another expedition northward against the Native Americans and again establish control of the region. His services had been rewarded by the rank of brigadier general in the Virginia militia, and he was made an Indian commissioner. In 1786 he led another expedition against the Native Americans in Ohio. His own narrative of the capture of Vincennes is in Milo M. Quaife, ed., The Capture of Old Vincennes (1927).

Bibliography

See biographies by J. A. James (1928, repr. 1970) and J. Bakeless (1957); A. W. Derleth, Vincennes: Portal to the West (1968).

Clark, George Rogers

(born Nov. 19, 1752, Albemarle county, Va.—died Feb. 13, 1818, near Louisville, Ky., U.S.) Frontier military leader in the American Revolution. The brother of William Clark, he worked as a surveyor in Kentucky in the mid-1770s. During the Revolution he raised troops and defended the region against the British and Indians. He captured settlements along the Mississippi River in the Old Northwest (Illinois), and in 1780 he helped defeat a British attempt to capture St. Louis. Appointed an Indian commissioner, he helped conclude a treaty with the Shawnee. In 1793 he became involved in the Citizen Genêt Affair.

Clark, George Rogers (1752–1818) surveyor, soldier; born near Charlottesville, Va. A surveyor by profession, he had explored the Ohio River region. At the outset of the American Revolution, he was commander of the Kentucky militia; taking the offensive with a small force, he conducted an epic campaign, which involved incredible overland marches and the capture of several British outposts, climaxing in the "Night of the Long Knives" at Fort Sackville, Vincennes, Ind. (1779). He continued to fight the British and their Indian allies, and by the end of the Revolution he had secured the old Northwest (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois) for the new United States—a military reality the politicians recognized in the Treaty of Paris (1783). After the war he participated in a military expedition against the Wabash Indians, and because he took some goods, he lost favor with the government in Virginia and with George Washington. After two failures with French military expeditions, from 1803 he was engaged mainly in supervising land allotments in the new territory he had secured.