[Sidenote:  July 15.]

To cover every part of the United States would have required a much greater number of men than could be raised.  Different districts were therefore unavoidably exposed to the calamities ever to be experienced by those into the bosom of whose country war is carried.  The militia in every part of the Union, fatigued and worn out by repeated tours of duty, required to be relieved by continental troops.  Their applications were necessarily resisted; but the danger which threatened the western frontier had become so imminent; the appeal made by its sufferings to national feeling was so affecting, that it was determined to spare a more considerable portion of the army for its defence, than had been allotted to that part of the Union, since the capture of Burgoyne.  On the first intelligence of the destruction of Wyoming, the regiments of Hartley and Butler, with the remnant of Morgan’s corps, commanded by Major Posey, were detached to the protection of that distressed country.  They were engaged in several sharp skirmishes, made separate incursions into the Indian settlements, broke up their nearest villages, destroyed their corn, and by compelling them to retire to a greater distance, gave some relief to the inhabitants.

While the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania were thus suffering the calamities incident to savage warfare, a fate equally severe was preparing for Virginia.  The western militia of that state had made some successful incursions into the country north-west of the Ohio, and had taken some British posts on the Mississippi.  These were erected in the county of Illinois; and a regiment of infantry, with a troop of cavalry, were raised for its protection.  The command of these troops was given to Colonel George Rogers Clarke, a gentleman whose courage, hardihood, and capacity for Indian warfare, had given repeated success to his enterprises against the savages.

This corps was divided into several detachments, the strongest of which remained with Colonel Clarke at Kaskaskia.  Colonel Hamilton, the Governor of Detroit, was at Vincennes with about six hundred men, principally Indians, preparing an expedition, first against Kaskaskia, and then up the Ohio to Pittsburg; after which he purposed to desolate the frontiers of Virginia.  Clarke anticipated and defeated his design by one of those bold and decisive measures, which, whether formed on a great or a small scale, mark the military and enterprising genius of the man who plans and executes them.

[Sidenote:  1779 February.]

[Sidenote:  Colonel Clarke surprises St. Vincents, and takes possession of it.]