Illinois Regiment
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K R O'Hair PAGE-145 CHAPTER IX The Illinois Regiment Michael O'Hair participated in several battles of the Revolutionary War over a period of five years, including service with the Illinois Regiment in John Rogers' Company, under the command of George Rogers Clark, from December 1, 1779 to February 14, 1782. The following is condensed from the introductory pages of the "George Rogers Clark Papers," by James Alton James, to acquaint the reader more fully with this part of the war. October 19, 1781 saw the surrender of Cornwallis and the final triumph of the Revolution east of the Alleghanies. During the last months of 1781 and for upwards of a year thereafter the control of the West was still in the balance. British and American leaders in this region continued to exercise their greatest military and diplomatic abilities. Clark continued to hold Fort Nelson, recently constructed at the Falls of the Ohio [near Louisville, Kentucky], as his base of operations. From it he could exercise control of the Illinois posts, rally militiamen for the protection of the Kentucky settlements, and keep the British on the defensive at Detroit. British leaders, while striving to hold the friendship of the northwestern tribes, sought to regain control over the Illinois country and the Mississippi River, to drive the Americans from Fort Nelson, and recapture Fort Pitt. During the Summer of 1779, following the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, Clark was forced to forego the march against Detroit, as he expressed it, "Detroit lost for want of a few Men..." So great was the disaffection among the Indians that according to British testimony the Sioux was the only tribe still true to K R O'Hair PAGE-146 them. While establishing his headquarters in the newly erected fort at the Falls of the Ohio, Clark's plans seem to have comprehended two main objects - to raise a force in Kentucky, and to make a bold push and reduce Detroit and Mackinac. Full powers were granted him by Governor Jefferson to engage in either of these enterprises or to establish a post near the mouth of the Ohio. While preparing for the capture of Detroit, without which there could be no permanent peace, Clark, in the Spring of 1780, began the erection of Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi, five miles below the mouth of the Ohio, although a location north of that river had been formerly contemplated. Clark argued that this post should be made the center for the other western garrisons, that it would at once become the key to the trade of the western country and furnish a good location for the Indian department as well as give the means of controlling the Chickasaw Indians and the Illinois posts. By March of 1780 he was aware that the British were again winning control over the northwestern tribes and that they contemplated some such plan of action as that attempted by Governor Hamilton in 1779. Not alone had this expedition which threatened the total loss of the West to be checked, but the advance of the Spaniards east of the Mississippi also had to be met. The continuance of American control in the Illinois country seemed, as Clark believed, to depend on the concentration of his available force at the new fort. By this striking move the Indians would be so mystified that they would refuse to join the British on the aforesaid expedition. At no time was there a suggestion of abandoning any territory beyond the Ohio, Governor Jefferson having adopted the views of Clark on the practicability of concentration in the fort at the mouth of the Ohio which would, as he said, facilitate trade with the Illinois and be near enough to furnish aid to that territory, protect the trade with New Orleans, and together with other posts to be established constitute a chain of defense for the western frontier. In pursuance of this project, the troops were withdrawn from Vincennes, leaving only a company of French militia to guard that post. But before the retirement of the troops from the Illinois villages had taken place a formidable advance by the British was begun. K R O'Hair PAGE-147 This plan for gaining control over the Mississippi - for Spain, joint tenant with Great Britain since 1763, was now also at war with her - for the recapture of the Illinois country, the Falls of the Ohio, and finally Forts Pitt and Cumberland, was one of the most striking military conceptions of the entire Revolution. If successful, the whole region west of the Alleghanies doubtless would have remained British territory, for all communication between Clark and the East would have been modified, for British rangers and their hordes of Indian allies would have been free to join the ranks of the British generals in Virginia and the South. The British planned to advance in five sections and to make three major assults at widely separated points. A force of fifteen hundred men was to proceed from Pensacola and capture St. Louis, then New Orleans. A third force assembled at Detroit was to attack Clark at the Falls of the Ohio. The attack on St. Louis and the Illinois villages was made up of nine hundred and fifty British regulars and Indians. Conspicuous among the Menominee, Sauk, Fox, Winnebago, and Ottawa warriors was a body of two hundred Sioux braves under the leadership of Wabasha, their illustrious chief. The Sioux were addicted to war, and jealously attached to His Majesty' s interests. After a battle at Cahokia the British retreated up the Mississippi to Michilimackinac. The British blamed the retreat on the treachery of some of their Indian leaders and to the lack of spirit on the part of the Canadians. The British made no effort to leave Pensacola. The third expedition was also a failure. With a well-equipped force of eleven hundred, a thousand of them being Indians, Captain Henry Bird, one of the best type of British leaders, descended from the Miami to the Ohio. He determined not to hazard an attack on the fort at the Falls. Learning that reinforcements had arrived from Virginia and that the other expeditions had failed, he turned toward Detroit after destroying Ruddle's and Martin's stations, two small Kentucky stockaded posts. [Part of the reinforcements referred to above was a company of unmounted cavalry from Virginia under the command of Captain John Rogers. Michael O'Hair was a private in this company.] So rapidly did Bird retreat that he abandoned his cannon at one of the Miami villages. Learning of the designs of Captain Bird, Clark set out from Cahokia with a few men for Fort Jefferson, and after barely K R O'Hair PAGE-148 escaping capture by the Indians, struck off through the wilderness with only two companions for Harrodsburg, Kentucky. In August, 1780, Clark had gathered together one thousand volunteers. After a forced march they reached Old Chillicothe but the Indians had fled. At Piqua, a few miles beyond, a well-built town with a blockhouse, the Americans overtook and attacked several hundred Indians, and after a fierce engagement forced them to retreat. After burning the towns, Clark led his troops to the mouth of the Licking, where they disbanded. So successful was the effort that during the remainder of the year the Kentucky settlements were free from molestation. By Christmas time, Clark was in Richmond consulting with the authorities over plans for taking Detroit; however, such plans had ultimately to be abandoned. Drafting troops, under Virginia military laws, was a failure and Governor Jefferson was forced to resort to the call for volunteers. Detroit was put into condition for withstanding this attack and Indian demands at that post were frequent and amazing. Clark's arrival at Louisville, late in 1781, was opportune. While Fort Nelson was completed, as he had directed, Fort Jefferson had been evacuated and there was a prospect that the Americans would be compelled to abandon Vincennes , where there was still a garrison of sixty men. Early in December, 1781, the numerous recommendations from the western officials were considered by the Virginia legislature. While the members were fully aware of the critical situation, they were powerless to assume the burdens of an offensive warfare with an empty treasury and paper money depreciated to the ratio of 1,000 to 1. "Our paper money is at an End," wrote Governor Harrison, "and the Credit of the State is at a very low Ebb." Legislative regulation and the imposition of heavy taxes were resorted to with the hope of restoring their lost credit. But contributions to the support of the army under General Nathanael Greene and the campaign against Lord Cornwallis had drained the state of its resources. The extended territory from which collections were to be made rendered relief through taxation impossible. Governor Harrison was forced to answer the appeal of General Greene for relief as follows: "The credit of the State is lost and we have not a Shilling in the Treasury. The powers formerly given to embody and march the Militia K R O'Hair PAGE-149 out of the State are no longer continued to us, and the late invasion has nearly drained us of our Stock of Provisions of all Kinds necessary for an Army." The troops under Clark were poorly prepared for the service they were expected to render. For two years many of them had served without receiving any pay. During that time they had been given neither shoes nor stockings nor hats. Forced to live on half rations, they conceived themselves totally neglected. 1 Michael O'Hair enlisted in the Illinois Regiment on December 1, 1779 in Captain John Rogers' Company, under the command of General George Rogers Clark, for the duration of the war. This information is recorded at the Virginia State Library in Richmond, Virginia. Captain Rogers and General Clark were first cousins. Governor Hamilton, the British governor of the territory, had surrendered the Fort of Vincennes to General Clark on February 25, 1779. Clark immediately ordered Hamilton and his garrison of twenty-seven men deported to prison in Virginia. This group started from Vincennes on March 8, 1779 and arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia around the middle of May, 1779. The following petition tells of the forming of the Illinois country and of the raising of the cavalry troop of which Michael O'Hair was a member.
****** The following letter tells something of the raising of the troop of which Michael was a member:
The following Affidavit of William Meriwether, taken January 11, 1833, in behalf of the heirs of two men under his command, tells of the journey from Virginia to Kentucky during the Winter of 1779 - 1780.
****** Because of the severe winter weather conditions, Captain Rogers must have remained at Fort Pitt until the early part of April, 1780 before taking his men on to Fort Jefferson. He carried letters with him, dated April 4th and 7th, for Clark from people at Fort Pitt. One letter stated that Capt. Rogers "has between sixty and seventy men enough to make up two troops of horse, which I think the law limits to 30 or thereabouts." 5 Another letter directed to Clark from the commanding colonel at Fort Pitt told of the method of travel of the unmounted Troop of Horse from Fort Pitt to Fort Jefferson. "I have given Capt. Rogers an order to take into his possession all Water Craft belonging to the United States below Wheeling which may perhaps prove serviceable to you, but I must entreat You to have the best care taken of them that circumstances will admit..." 6 George Rogers Clark and Thomas Jefferson had been friends and neighbors back in Virginia. They also had the common bond of both being redheaded and from wealthy families. Clark had acquired large land holdings and was still a young man of less than thirty years of age at the time of the Revolutionary War. His old friend, Jefferson, became Governor of Virginia on September 4, 1779, succeeding Patrick Henry. Clark was delighted to have his old friend become Virginia's governor. The two men had a mutual understanding of the problems of the new western country and high hopes for its' settlement. Virginia's paper money became worthless in the East. The bad news of the depreciated Virginia currency was slow in reaching the western country, but the Illinois Regiment was finally denied credit north of the Ohio when news of the worthless currency reached that area. Mr. Jefferson was forced to order Clark to move nearly all of his troops to the south of the Ohio River, where the Virginia currency was still being accepted. Only a scattering of troops were left for the protection of the settlements north of the Ohio. Although K R O'Hair PAGE-153 Clark was forced to move his men south of the Ohio, the move was considered only a temporary move, for there was no thought of giving up any of those rich lands. It was necessary to hold the Ohio River line at any cost, especially the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi. In order to hold the line, it would be imperative to build forts at the mouths of the many rivers flowing into the Ohio. Indians frequented the waterways and the presence of new forts would help to discourage raiding parties of Indians incited by the British. Less than a month after Jefferson took office, Clark started looking for the most likely spot on the Mississippi for the new fort. He finally decided on a spot a short distance below the mouth of the Ohio on the Mississippi River. The location was a cliff known as the Iron Banks. It was a small island close to the east side of the river. The territory had never been surveyed and was claimed by the Chickasaws. Jefferson gave instructions to the Virginia Indian agent to negotiate with the Indians for enough land to accomodate a small fort and a few families. Clark left his headquarters at Louisville around mid-April, 1780 with a few workmen and settlers to start building the new fort called Fort Jefferson. The fort stood high enough on the island to deliver a strong fire on invaders and encompassed about a quarter of an acre. Captain John Rogers and his unmounted cavalry troop arrived by boat at Fort Jefferson shortly after Clark's arrival. Michael O'Hair was a part of Roger's troop. As Meriwether had stated in his affidavit, the fort was "still on the ground" and Rogers' troop was put to work building Fort Jefferson. Virginia was very much occupied with the battles of the Southern states during the years of 1780 and 1781. She had no troops, money, or supplies to send to her frontiers which included Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and part of Pennsylvania. The British headquarters at Quebec took advantage of her preoccupation and determined to recapture lost ground in the frontier country. Elaborate plans were made. A thousand men were to go down the Mississippi from Michilimackinac (the northern tip of lower Michigan) and engage the Spaniards, driving them further westward. They also hoped to take New Orleans in this push by being joined by a force marching from Pensacola, Florida to Louisiana. The Florida commander had his hands full fighting Spaniards in Florida, K R O'Hair PAGE-154 and didn't rally to the plan. Kaskaskia (about 80 miles south of St. Louis) was to be taken by the Sioux, led by their chief, Wabasha. The British Captain Bird was to go south from Detroit, picking up Shawnee along the way, and eventually take Fort Nelson at the Falls. The Wabash Indians were to instigate enough trouble to keep Clark pinned down so tightly he would be unable to send assistance to St. Louis. Toward the end of May, 1780, the Spanish governor at St. Louis, a personal friend of Clark (Clark was enamoured with the governor's sister) was warned of a pending attack on St. Louis. Colonel John Montgomery and the governor both sent couriers to Clark, located a hundred miles south of St. Louis, at Fort Jefferson. Clark immediately took his men in river boats to check the invasion. Although the men had to row against the current, they arrived a day ahead of the enemy. They encountered Indians a few miles south of St. Louis, at Cahokia, and had a successful skirmish there. With the element of surprise taken away from them, the enemy gave up their attack on St. Louis and returned to their villages. Bird and his Indians, coming from Detroit, believed Clark was at Fort Jefferson, and he actually was there. Bird thought there was only a small garrison at Fort Nelson left to protect the settlers. A false rumor reached Bird that Clark was not at Fort Jefferson, but at Fort Nelson. The Indians had no desire to engage in a battle with "Big Knife" (Clark's Indian name) at Fort Nelson and refused to attack. Bird and his Indians then went into the interior of Kentucky and captured Ruddle's and Martin 's stations within less than two weeks. They then withdrew their forces and departed. Wabasha and his Sioux also failed on their part of the over-all plan. After a battle did not materialize at St. Louis, Clark ordered Montgomery to pursue the enemy. According to the affidavit of Merriwether, Roger's troop was under the command of Montgomery during the Summer of 1780, taking or destroying posts of the enemy. Michael O'Hair, as a member of Rogers' troop, undoubtedly participated in such action. The records incidate that Montgomery pursued the enemy by boat to Peoria, Illinois. He then marched inland and burned Indian villages. When their rations ran short they butchered their horses for food supply. K R O'Hair PAGE-155 Life was grim in all the frontier that Summer. Food was scarce and the Indian attacks on the settlements discouraged the settlers to the point of leaving. The campaign in the Southern States did not fare well either. Charleston fell in May, 1780 to the British General Clinton. General Gates was defeated August 16, 1780 by Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina. An engagement against the Shawnee to take place sometime during the Summer of 1780, had been planned by Jefferson and Clark since the first of the year. Clark was now at the height of his popularity. During the Spring, Clark received many petitions from the settlements urging him to lead the settlers on a campaign against the Indian towns. A few sentences from those petitions will draw a very clear picture of the way the settlers felt about conditions. "Nothing less than the preservation of these settlements and to insure from utter ruin the many Families in this Country could have induces us to trouble you with an address of this kind...Distressed and defenceless Families settled through our woods are becoming a daily sacrifice to the savage brutality of our inhuman enemies...The Indians either killed or took prisoners...the Indians carried off all the horses belonging to the station and killed almost all their cattle...We are sure that we cannot Live in any tolerable degree of satisfaction, unless we Endeavour to carry on an Expedition against them. our Countrymen of every Station will give all the Assistance in their power, we believe; and we shall not be Backward to assist in so necessary an enterprise...Beg you will head our men and assist us with your great guns, with which we think we shall be able to Expel them from our Country. We need not Exagerate on the Cruelty and Devastation with which their foot steps are marked, as you are perfectly acquainted with their savage nature, and Every day almost produces to us fresh instances of their Rapine, and our unhappy Countrymen by them slain, are Irrefrageable proofs of their malicious intentions. Therefore we Entreat you by all the ties of humanity to give us a helping hand. To take the Command of our men and your great guns, and march to the Towns of the Enemy, and Destroy them from the face of the Earth, if possible. We from this station will send as many men as we can possibly spare, who will find themselves provision &c; and we believe the men of every station K R O'Hair PAGE-156 will do the like." 7 Clark sent word throughout the settlements for the men to rendezvous at the mouth of the Licking River August 1, 1780 for the campaign against the Indians. Clark moved his troops and cannon up the Ohio by boat to the meeting place. The men built a small cabin on the first day to use as a storehouse for reserve supplies. The City of Cincinnati was later built where the small cabin stood. Several men were left at the cabin to guard the boats. The men assembled, including Clark's troops, numbered a thousand. For the most part, the men were dressed in buckskin and hunting shirts. They nearly all wore either beaver or raccoon caps with the tail hanging behind. Each man furnished his own provisions. The small supply of food consisted mostly of jerk meat and cornmeal. The men were not allowed to hunt along the way and supplement their meager food supply for fear of giving away their position to the enemy. The mission depended upon secrecy. The march started on August 2, 1780. Travel was slow because a seventy mile path had to be cut thru the wilderness to accomodate the artillery. They arrived at the first Indian town, Chillicothe (Ohio) on the 6th. The town had been hastily deserted. Pots of green beans and corn had been left cooking on the fires. The troops looted and burned the town, then turned their attention toward destroying the surrounding fields of corn. They marched northwest toward the Indian town of Piqua. From evidence along the way, Clark knew they were being deliberately led to the place determined by the Indians for battle. The troops were within sight of Piqua early in the afternoon of the 8th. The Indians at Piqua lived in log cabins and even had a stockade. Shawnee, Mingo, Wyandott and Delawares had collected there to make a stand. The women and children had been hidden a safe distance away from the town. The troops paused half a mile from Piqua. Clark scarcely had time to issue his commands before the action started. Some were sent to circle the town and approach from the upper end to prevent an escape route in that direction. Clark and his men approached from the lower end of the town. Fighting through the woods and cornfields, the Indians eventually were forced to retreat to their stockade. The cannon was brought into action and the stockade soon demolished, but not before many Indians escaped into the woods. Dusk had now fallen making pursuit useless. K R O'Hair PAGE-157 Clark reported to Jefferson that his losses had been about fourteen killed and thirteen wounded. He stated that the Indian losses were at least triple that number. The army camped that night at the scene of their battle with half the troops standing guard. The next morning they discovered a French man who had been held captive by the Indians. The Frenchman reported that the Indians expected reenforcements shortly. Piqua was looted and burned. Clark estimated that over eight hundred acres of corn were destroyed, in addition to great quantities of vegetables. The loot from the Indian towns was divided when the men reached the mouth of the Licking River where the men from the settlements disbanded and returned to their homes. Clark wrote to Jefferson upon his return to Louisville, August 22nd, that the march had covered 480 miles. Clark also stated that he wanted to push on further into Indian country towards Pittsburg, but their depleted supplies and excessive August heat made further combat impracticable. Clark wrote, "Nothing could excell the few regulars and Kentuckans, that composed this little army, in bravery, and implicit obedience to orders; each company vying with the other who should be the most subordinate." 8 The following letter written by Montgomery describes the grave conditions at the frontier forts during the Fall of 1780:
Capt. John Rogers wrote to Mr. Jefferson April 29, 1781 from Harrodsburg, Kentucky. In the letter he wrote of having been in command at the "Illinoys" last winter. Michael O'Hair was under the command of Rogers; therefore, we can also locate Michael in this vicinity during the Winter of 1780 - 81. Clark's long dreamed of expedition against Detroit had failed each year and again failed in 1780. Kentucky had become extinct as a county November 1, 1780 by the act of the Virginia Assembly which divided it into three counties. The Kentucky River was the dividing line. West of the river was Jefferson County, north of the Kentucky River became Fayette County, and the remainder became Lincoln County. Clark spent most of the Winter of 1780 - 81 in Virginia conferring K R O'Hair PAGE-160 with Jefferson. They both had hopes of an expedition against Detroit for 1781. Patrick Henry, the former governor of Virginia and now a member of the legislature, pushed a resolution through the Virginia Assembly which put a stop to the expedition against Detroit. The resolution also called for the disposing of, or applying to other uses, the stores and provisions laid in for the Detroit expedition. By such action the plan to attack Detroit had to be abandoned. The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781 ended the American revolution. The colonies had won their independence. However, it took two long years to write a final peace treaty that recognized the fact. Clark had been obliged to sign many personal notes and sell much of his land holdings to support his forces in Kentucky. He had received no pay since January, 1778. A commission reviewed his vouchers in November, 1782 and approved payment. The vouchers were sent to Richmond, Virginia, where they were lost. Virginia declined to approve payment without the vouchers. Clark was granted a $400 yearly pension in 1812. At that time he was partially paralized and had turned to drink. He died in poverty in 1818. A mass of papers were found in the Virginia Statehouse attic in 1913. They were the missing Clark papers consisting of 20,000 vouchers and many other records. The papers were well preserved. They have been calendared and indexed. They are now located in the Virginia State Library. From the" Clark Papers," Series F. 1 Volume 2, the following has been photocopied: Date The Commonwealth of Virginia 1779 Dec. 1 st to Mich. Oharrow -
To pay as a soldier of cavalry from this Day to Dec. 31 st 81 @ 5.00 per month......62.10 ...[pounds]
Captain John Rogers' Company, including Michael O'Hair left Fort Nelson (near the present site of Louisville) in Kentucky, for Virginia, October 3, 1781. The company arrived in Virginia December 15, 1781 and was given two K R O'Hair PAGE-161 months furlough. They were reassembled and discharged at Fredricksburg, Virginia on February 14, 1782. The day he was discharged in 1782, ended the Revolutionary War for Michael O'Hair. He had served more than two years, from December 1, 1779 to February 14, 1782 in Captain John Rogers' Company of the Illinois Regiment under the command of General George Rogers Clark. This service is confirmed by public documents on file at Richmond, the Capital of Virginia. Certified copies of such records are on file at the office of this writer in Paris, Illinois. Included in those records are the following regarding the return to Virginia and the furlough.
K R O'Hair PAGE-162 Page 103 of William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 8, Series A. CAPTAIN JOHN ROGERS, OF CAROLINE. The last Pay Abstract of a Troop of Light Dragoons in the service of the Commonwealth of Virginia under the command of Captain John Rogers, commencing the 1st day of October, 1781 and ending the 14th day of February, 1782
RICHMOND, DECEMBER 2d, 1782. SWORN to before JNO. PENDLETON, JR. K R O'Hair PAGE-163
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