remmers
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They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To
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Apr 7 12:06 UTC 1995 |
Clark's volunteer army of two hundred marched over one thousand
miles and seized the old French forts in southern Illinois and
Indiana. Since the French defeat in 1763, the habitants had
accommodated themselves to British rule, but they had little
affection for Governor Hamilton and his Eighth Regiment of
Regulars, who alienated them by failing to conceal their
contempt for the conquered French. Clark and his officers knew
the French well and had been careful to treat them
respectfully, a stroke of diplomatic brilliance that was to
prove decisive. Clark's makeshift army shot the rapids of the
Ohio River at Louisville in flatboats on June 26, 1778, during
a total eclipse, built a fort and then rowed day and night to
Fort Massac, marching 120 miles overland in four days, two
without eating. On July 4, 1778, they marched up to Fort Gage
at Kaskaskia. Its French militia commander surrendered without
firing a shot. Cahokia and other towns in a two-hundred mile
swath quickly surrendered.
-Randall, _Thomas Jefferson: A Life_
(quoted without permission)
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