Meeting Notes: March 18, 2026

The March meeting, of the American Revolution Round Table of Richmond, was held on March 18, 2026, in the Heilman Dining Center, at the University of Richmond.

The evening’s presentation “The Illinois Campaign, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes 1778-1779” was made by Glenn F. Williams. Glenn is a retired Army officer who recently retired from federal civilian service as a Senior Historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, DC. He has also served as Historian of the American Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service, Curator / Historian of the USS Constellation Museum, and Assistant Curator of the Baltimore Civil War Museum – President Street Station. Beyond his publications for Center for Military History, he is the author of several books, including Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the Iroquois (Westholme 2005), recipient of the Thomas J. Fleming Award for the Outstanding Revolutionary War Book of 2005, and named one of “The 100 Best American Revolution Books of All Time” by the Journal of the American Revolution in the spring 2017 issue. For his book, Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era (Westholme 2017), Glenn was recognized for contributions to the study of 18th Century American military history with the Shelby Cullom Davis Award of the Ohio Society of Colonial Wars and the Judge Robert K. Woltz Award of the French and Indian War Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland, College Park.

The British were initiating the southern strategy to regain control of the rebellious Southern Colonies by appealing to the relatively strong Loyalist sentiment there. George Germain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote to General Sir Henry Clinton that capturing the Southern Colonies was "considered by the King as an object of great importance in the scale of the war." Germain's instructions to Clinton, framed as recommendations, were that he should abandon Philadelphia and then embark upon operations to recover Georgia and the Carolinas. At the beginning of winter 1778-1779, Washington was at the Middlebrook Cantonment for the winter and Knox was at Pluckemin Continental Artillery Cantonment Site. British occupied Fort Detroit which served as a staging area for attacks on frontier settlements by British regulars, Butler's Rangers and Britain's Indigenous allies

Shortly after the Revolutionary War began, Kentucky County, Virginia (which then encompassed the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, bounded on the west by the Ohio River) was being organized as part of Virginia, with George Rogers Clark as head of its local militia. Clark’s mission was to secure the forts in Virginia and Kentucky County, Virginia; secure Illinois County, Virginia; and, attack Fort Detroit.

Clark asked Virginia Governor Patrick Henry for permission to lead a secret expedition to capture the nearest British posts located in the Illinois country. This area had been ceded to the British as a consequence of the French defeat in the French and Indian War and became part of the British Province of Quebec. George Rogers Clark led, in what is named, the Illinois Campaign against the British. Illinois Country east of the Mississippi River along with what was then much of Ohio Country became part of Illinois County, Virginia, when claimed by right of conquest. Virginia Governor Patrick Henry commissioned Clark, a lieutenant colonel, and authorized him to raise troops for an expedition to seize the British outposts of Kaskaskia and Cahokia on the Mississippi River.  The Illinois Campaign began in July 1778, when Clark and about 175 men crossed the Ohio River at Fort Massac and marched to Kaskaskia (on the western side of the Mississippi River) taking it on the night of July 4. Cahokia was taken two days later (near Saint Louis), and Vincennes (on the Wabash River 180 miles east of Kaskaskia) was occupied by the end of the month and was renamed Fort Sackville. Several other villages and forts in British territory were subsequently captured without firing a shot, because most of the French-speaking and American Indian inhabitants were unwilling to take up arms on behalf of the British.

To counter Clark's advance, Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Quebec, set out from Detroit on October 7 with 125 militia and 60 Lakes' Nation warriors. They were later joined by a 34-man detachment from the 8th Regiment. Hamilton surprised Fort Sackville's small garrison and retook Vincennes on December 17. He decided to winter at Vincennes with the British regulars, while most of the militia, volunteers, and Lakes' Nations warriors returned to Detroit.

In February 1779, Clark’s force set out on an unusual winter expedition in frigid and wet conditions on an eighteen-day trek from Kaskaskia. Clark returned to the Vincennes settlement (in the Illinois Country). Clark’s force retook the town, forced Hamilton's unconditional surrender of Fort Sackville, and captured Hamilton in the process. The winter expedition was Clark's most significant military achievement as it secured the western frontier from attacks and served as a temporary deterrent to British and native incursions into Kentucky, and the U.S. acquiring the Northwest Territory that included Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (an area nearly as large as the original 13 states).

Hamilton was taken to Williamsburg, Virginia, was falsely accused of paying for scalps and was treated as a criminal rather than a prisoner of war. The Virginia Council, headed by Thomas Jefferson, ordered Hamilton placed in irons and confined to the Williamsburg jail until October, 1780, when he was paroled and was exchanged in the spring of 1781.

 

 

Routes to Vincennes by Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clark

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Following Clark's victory, the Virginia General Assembly gave official status to the region northwest of the Ohio River and named it Illinois County. Illinois County, Virginia, was formed in 1778 to govern Virginia's claims to present-day Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota. Illinois County was abolished 5 January 1782 and the territory ceded by Virginia to the Congress of the Confederation in March 1784. Three years later, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, creating the Northwest Territory.

George Rogers Clark was subsequently promoted to brigadier general in command of all the militia in the Kentucky and Illinois counties. His older brother William Clark, was co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition that explored the Louisiana Purchase with Meriwether Lewis and who was subsequently made brigadier general of the Louisiana militia.

--Fred Sorrell, Secretary