Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the Three Great European Powers, Spain, France and Great Britain, and the Subsequent Occupation, Settlement, and Extension of Civil Government by the United States, Until the Year 1846, in two volumes, Volume II . New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1846. [format: book], [genre: history]. Permission: Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, Aurora University
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=monette2.html

the rebel Virginians who held possession of them. With eighty British regulars, and a large force of Indian warriors, he advanced to Vincennes, and took possession of the post without resistance; but it was only a few weeks afterward when he was compelled to surrender his whole force to Colonel Clark, and proceed a prisoner of war to the capital of Virginia, where he and others of his subordinates were put in close confinement as a retaliation for their past cruelties. ^[85]

The Cherokees, instigated by his agents, had again resumed hostilities against the frontier settlements of North Carolina, and Colonel Shelby, at the head of a victorious army, had overrun their country with fire and sword, destroying no less than eleven towns, besides twenty thousand bushels of corn, and the capture of a large supply of stores and goods, valued at £20,000, which had been provided by his "majesty's agents" for distribution at a general council of the northern and southern Indians, which was to convene at the mouth of Tennessee in the spring of 1779. ^[86]

Thus were terminated forever the hostile operations of Great Britain in the Illinois country, from the Wabash to the Mississippi; yet many years elapsed before the strong-holds of her power were demolished northeast of the Wabash. ^[87]

The settlements on the Monongahela and Upper Ohio, although erected into counties as early as January, 1777, had been so continually harassed by Indian hostilities, that courts and civil government had been entirely neglected until April of the following year. During this period of more than fifteen months, the militia of the three newly-organized counties had been held under marching orders, with but little intermission, until the 6th of April, 1778. Martial law superseded the civil authority; and the District of West Augusta was again, to all intents, a military colony, wholly absorbed in defensive operations for the general safety.

Yet at this early period, and in the infancy of the western settlements, the people, true to the principles of liberty, were jealous of military power, although its exercise had been necessary for the public safety and the protection of the inhabitants

Previous page

Next page