Chapter IX: The West, (24)

Congress maintained an agent, Oliver Pollock, at New Orleans during the war, who, with the aid of the Spanish authorities, sent powder and supplies at intervals up the river, to be landed on the Ohio (George Sumner's _Boston Oration_, 1859, p. 14). The correspondence of Pollock and Congress is in the archives of the State Department at Washington, and copies are in the _Sparks MSS._, no. xli. An account of an expedition under Col. David Rogers in 1778, to bring up stores to Fort Pitt, is in _Hist Mag._, iii. 267.

Various letters about and from New Orleans during the war are in the _Sparks MSS._ (no. xxiii.), copied from the Grantham correspondence. Intercepted letters between the Spanish governor at New Orleans and Patrick Henry (1778-1779), found among the Carleton papers, are in the _Sparks MSS._, no. xiii.—ED.

[1549] Gayarré, _History of Louisiana, Spanish Domination_, p. 121.

[1550] Brymner, 1885, p. 276.

[1551] "In compliance with my Lord George Germain's requisition in the circular letter sent from Detroit on 22d January, I sent a war party of Indians to the country of the Sioux to put that nation in motion under their own chief, Wabasha, a man of uncommon abilities.... They are directed to proceed with all despatch to the Natchez, and to act afterwards as circumstances may require. I shall send other bands of Indians from thence on the same service as soon as I can with safety disclose the object of their mission. I am at a loss to judge in point of time, and can only hazard an opinion that the Brigadier [Campbell] and his army will be at the place of their destination some time in May" (_Michigan Pioneer Coll._, ix. 544).

The same day, Sinclair wrote to Capt. Brehm, Haldimand's aide-de-camp: "I will use my utmost endeavors to send away as many as I can of the Indians to attack the Spanish settlements as low down [the Mississippi] as they possibly can, in order to procure the assistance of the others at home. I am so perfectly convinced of the general's [Haldimand's] geographical knowledge that I do not know where to look for the cause of a doubt about giving some aid to General Campbell from this quarter.... I am at a loss to know whether this preparation may not be too early, on account of want of secrecy in the people I have employed, and from their getting too near [New] Orleans before the arrival of the brigadier. I have confidence in and hopes of their leader, as Wabasha is allowed to be a very extraordinary Indian, and well attached to his majesty's interest" (_Ibid._ pp. 541-543).

February 17, he writes again to Haldimand, that the Minomines, Puants, Sacs, and Rhenards were to assemble at the portage of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers under a Mr. Hesse, a trader; and later to rendezvous at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, Prairie du Chien. "The reduction of Pencour [_pain court_ (short bread), the common nickname of St. Louis] by surprise, from the easy admission of the Indians of that place, will be less difficult than holding it afterwards.... The Sioux shall go with all dispatch as low down as the Natchez, and as many intermediate attacks as possible shall be made" (_Ibid._ pp. 546, 547).

May 29, he again writes that seven hundred and fifty men, including traders, servants, and Indians, proceeded down the Mississippi on the second day of May, with the Indians engaged at the westward, for an attack on the Spanish and Illinois country. He mentions Prairie du Chien as the place of assembling. "Capt. Hesse will remain at Pencour; Wabasha will attack Misère [wretchedness, the popular nickname for Ste. Geneviève] and the rebels at Kacasia [Kaskaskia]. Two vessels leave this place on the 2d of June to attend Machigwawish, who returns by the Illinois River with prisoners. All the traders who will secure the posts on the Spanish side of the Mississippi during the next winter have my promise for the exclusive trade of the Missouri during that time, and that their canoes will be forwarded" (_Ibid._ 548, 549).

[1552] Brymner, _Report_, 1882, p. 34. He writes to Sinclair, March 12: "Your movements down the [Mississippi] shall be seconded from this place by my sending a part of the garrison with some small ordnance. Their route shall be to the Ohio, which they shall cross, and attack some of the forts which surround the Indian hunting-ground of Kentucky. I have had the Wabash Indians here by invitation; they have promised to keep Clark at the Falls" (_Michigan Pioneer Coll._, p. 580). His allusions are to Capt. Byrd's expedition. May 18, he again writes to Sinclair: "Capt. Byrd left this place (Detroit) with a detachment of about 150 whites and 1000 Indians. He must be by this time nigh the Ohio" (_Ibid._ P. 582).

[1553] Among his prisoners were Col. Dickson, in command of the British settlements on the Mississippi; 556 regulars, and many sailors.

[1554] Gayarré, _Louisiana, Span. Dom._, pp. 121-147. Galvez discovered, by intercepted letters from Natchez, the scheme of the English to attack the Spanish settlements as early as it was known by Sinclair (p. 122), and he was earnest to strike the first blow. Clark also heard of it very early. Sinclair, writing to Haldimand, says: "No doubt can remain, from the concurrent testimony of the prisoners, that the enemy received intelligence of the meditated attack on the Illinois about the time I received a copy of my Lord George Germain's circular letter" (_Mich. Pion. Coll._, ix. 559). In the same letter he gives some details of the raids on St. Louis and Cahokia, which do not appear elsewhere: "Twenty of the volunteer Canadians from this place and a very few of the traders and servants made their attack on Pencour and the Cahokias. The Winnipigoes and Sioux would have stormed the Spanish lines, if the Sacs and Outagamies, under their treacherous leader Mons. Calvé, had not fallen back so early. A Mons. Ducharme and others who traded in the country of the Sacs kept pace with Mons. Calvé in his perfidy. The attack, unsuccessful as it was, from misconduct, and unsupported, I believe, by any other against New Orleans, with the advances made by the enemy on the Mississippi, will still have its good consequences. The Winnepigoes had a chief and three men killed and four wounded. The traders who would not assist in extending their commerce cannot complain to its being confined to necessary bounds." Writing later to De Peyster (_Ibid._ 586), he says: "The attack upon the Illinois miscarried from the treachery of Calvé and Ducharme, traders, and from the information received by the enemy so early as March last." For statements that the expedition against St. Louis was organized and led by Jean Marie Ducharme, see _Wis. Hist. Coll._, iii. 232; vii. 176. It is evident that the objective point of the attack, in Sinclair's mind, was the Illinois country, rather than the Spanish settlements. Haldimand, writing to De Peyster, Feb. 12, 1779, said: "Sinclair should strike at the Illinois" (Brymner, 1882, p. 33). Sinclair, writing to Brehm, Feb. 17, 1780, concerning the attack on St. Louis, said: "Afterwards they can act against the rebels on this side [of the Mississippi], which I have pointed out to them" (_Mich. Pion. Coll._, ix. 543).

[1555] Sinclair seems not to have heard of the capture of Natchez by the Spaniards, which occurred Sept. 21, 1779, until July 30, 1780, when he wrote to De Peyster: "The report of the Natchez seems too well founded" (_Ibid._ 587).

[1556] _Ibid._ 547, 548.

[1557] Stoddard and Martin state that Clark was present; Nicollet denies the statement, on the ground that Clark was then at Kaskaskia, and "that gallant officer could not have had time to aid in that affair." Hall and Billon make no mention of Clark; and Primm and Peck (in Perkins) say that Clark tendered aid to Leyba in 1779, but not in 1780. It was a part of Clark's policy to be always on friendly terms with the Spanish commandant at St. Louis (_Campaign_, p. 35), and to give aid whenever he needed it. In so doing, as they were fighting a common enemy, he served his own interests. Mr. O. W. Collet, in _Mag. of Western Hist._, i. 271, has discussed the friendly relations between Clark and Leyba before the attack on St. Louis, but is unmindful of the significance given to it in the text. See also Scharff's _Hist. of St. Louis_, p. 217.

[1558] The expedition of Captain Byrd from Detroit.

[1559] Sinclair reported to Haldimand, July 8th, "Two hundred Illinois cavalry arrived at Chicago five days after the vessels left" (_Mich. Pion. Coll._, ix. 558).

[1560] Dr. Lyman C. Draper (_Wisconsin Hist. Coll._, ix. 291) says: "There was a party of Spanish allies sent out with Montgomery's expedition from Cahokia in the latter part of May, 1780, in the direction of Rock River." See also his note (_Ibid._ vii. 176). He thinks that the Spaniards and some of the Americans probably returned by way of Prairie du Chien, and that they were the party mentioned by Long in his _Voyages_, 1791.

[1561] _Michigan Pioneer Col._, ix. 541. Capt. Byrd, writing to De Peyster, May 21, 1780, reports that a Delaware Indian has come in from the Falls with this information: "Col. Clark says he will wait for us, instead of going to the Mississippi; his numbers do not exceed 200; his provisions and ammunition short" (_Ibid._ 584). Clark was on his way to St. Louis before this date, and was back to Kentucky in season to block Byrd's plans.

[1562] Perkins's _Annals_, p. 245.

[1563] It is noticeable that in these decisive campaigns efficient aid was furnished in the West by Spain, and in the East by France; and that both these powers, in the negotiations for a treaty of peace with Great Britain, threw their influence against the interests of the United States.

[1564] See Gayarré, _Louisiana, Span. Dom._, p. 134; Pitkin's _United States_, ii. 88, App. 512; _Secret Jour. of Cong._, ii. 326.

[1565] Sparks's _Dipl. Corresp._, viii. 156. The Spanish claims and the Western boundary question are very fully discussed in this eighth volume.

[1566] Mr. Jay (Sparks's _Dipl. Corres._, viii. 76-78) gives the main facts concerning the Spanish expedition to St. Joseph, which he translated from the _Madrid Gazette_ of March 12, 1782. Mr. E. G. Mason (_Mag. of Amer. Hist._, xv. 457) has treated the subject more fully in a paper entitled "March of the Spaniards across Illinois in 1781." See also Reynolds's _Illinois_, ed. 1887, p. 126; Dillon's _Indiana_, ed. 1843, p. 190; Perkins's _Annals_, ed. 1851, p. 251.

Dr. Franklin, writing from Passy, April 12, 1782, to Secretary Livingston, said: "I see by the newspapers that the Spaniards, having taken a little post called St. Joseph, pretend to have made a conquest of the Illinois country. In what light does this proceeding appear to Congress? While they decline our offered friendship, are they to be suffered to encroach on our bounds, and shut us up within the Appalachian Mountains? I begin to fear they have some such project" (_Works_, Sparks, ix. 206).

[1567] The diplomacy of the war and the final negotiations for peace, form the subjects of the opening chapters of the succeeding volume of the present _History_.—ED.

[1568] Some of the copies bear other dates.

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Transcriber’s note:

—Obvious errors were corrected.