Clark County, Ohio

History and Genealogy



Important Part in the Revolution


From 20th Century History of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio by Hon. William A. Rockel
Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1908


The taking or keeping of this northwest territory upon the part of revolutionary forces, has been frequently recognized as one of the most important events in American history.

Mr. E. O. Randall gives it very great importance when he says:

"The Northwest Territory was the great background of the Revolution. The fiendish proposal of the British ministry to secure the scalping knife and the tomahawk in aid of the mother country against her rebellious child, called forth from the elder Pitt another of his immortal bursts of eloquence. But the British power would not abandon its brutal plans. The military posts of the British, on the lakes and the rivers of tlie Illinois country, were rallying centers for the western savages, who were provisioned, armed and infuriated against the Americans, and sent forth on expeditions of massacre and rapine. Deeds of bravery and patriotism were enacted in the Ohio Valley more romantic than the often rehearsed events in the Atlantic colonies. The soil of Ohio was the scene of a large share of the struggle for existence of the new-born republic. The career of the colonists from Lexington and Concord was chiefly a series of victories during the years 1775 and 1776 to the autumn of 1777, when the clouds grew heavy and the storm gathered in the South. The northern army of Gates had disbanded after the surrender of Burgoyne (October 7). Howe occupied Philadelphia and comfortably quartered his army therein. With his soldiers the winter of 1777-78 was a period of exultant gaiety. He only awaited the milder weather of spring that he might dispatch a few regiments to Valley Forge and disperse or destroy the remnant forces of Washington that were well nigh exhausted by the hunger and cold of that terrible winter. The cause of human liberty seemed doomed to inevitable defeat. General Howe held the Americans at bay east of the Alleghanies. The British cause was being strengthened in the northwest. General Hamilton, in his headquarters at Detroit, proposed to annihilate any assurance of success the Americans might hope for beyond the Alleghanies. But there was a Washington in the West as well as in the East. He was George Rogers Clark, a huntsman of the trackless forest interior of Kentucky, who with the soul of a patriot, the bravery of an American soldier and the mind of a statesman, hastened on foot, through six hundred miles of wilderness, to Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia. There he obtained audience with Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia. Clark proposed to strike the vast power of Great Britain in the northwest and save that magnificent territory to American independence. His plans were appreciated and approved, but troops could not be spared him from the Continental army; they were needed to a man in the East. Clark gathered two hundred Virginia and Pennsylvania backwoodsmen, and while the sun of spring was melting the snows of Valley Forge and hope and courage were again animating the heart of Washington, Clark set out on that famous expedition for the capture of the interior northwest posts of Great Britain. It was the campaign of the "rough riders" of the Revolution. It was the dash of Sheridan in the Shenandoah. It was Sherman's "march to the sea," through the interior of the enemy's country. This campaign of Clark broke the backbone of British strength in the west. The British posts of Illinois and Indiana were all taken save Detroit. The Northwest was secured and preserved to the United States."

However much or little these victories of General Clark and other men had in procuring an acknowledgment of independence, one thing remains sure, and that is that the great northwest became a part of the United States acknowledged by the Treaty of 17S3.







Links

Ohio Genealogy



Home

Advertising

Battle of Piqua

Biographies

Births

Cemeteries

City Charter

County Politics and Roster of Officers

Deaths

Early Clark County

George Rogers Clark

Clark-Shawnee Centennial

Education in Clark County

Ghost Towns

Indians in Clark County

Pioneers and Pioneer Days

Simon Kenton

Military History

Miscellaneous

The National Road

Obituaries

The Old Northwest

Organizations

Photos

Prehistory

Springfield in 1852

Springfield in 1859

Springfield in 1863

Springfield in 1868

Springfield History

SHS 1951 Yearbook

State and County Government

Then & Now










Host your genealogy or history site on AncestralSites.com! Only $25 annually for 1gb of space!