[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
a sheet of water four miles across. Clark took the lead and plunged in. The rest, shivering, followed. A few
The Beginner's American History 59
looked as though their strength and courage had given out. Clark saw this, and calling to Captain
Bowman,--one of the bravest of his officers,--he ordered him to kill the first man who refused to go
forward.
At last, with numbed hands and chattering teeth, all got across, but some of them were so weak and blue with
cold that they could not take another step, but fell flat on their faces in the mud. These men were so nearly
dead that no fire seemed to warm them. Clark ordered two strong men to lift each of these poor fellows up,
hold him between them by the arms, and run him up and down until he began to get warm. By doing this he
saved every one.
167. Clark takes the fort; what we got by his victory; his grave.--After a long and desperate fight Clark took
Fort Vincennes and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over it in triumph. The British never got it back again. Most
of the Indians were now glad to make peace, and to promise to behave themselves.
By Clark's victory the Americans got possession of the whole western wilderness up to Detroit. When the
Revolutionary War came to an end, the British did not want to give us any part of America beyond the
thirteen states on the Atlantic coast. But we said, The whole west, clear to the Mississippi, is ours; we fought
for it; we took it; we hoisted our flag over its forts, and we mean to keep it. We did keep it.
There is a grass-grown grave in a burial-ground in Louisville, Kentucky, which has a small headstone
marked with the letters G. R. C., and nothing more; that is the grave of General George Rogers Clark, the man
who did more than any one else to get the west for us--or what was called the west a hundred years ago.
[Illustration: CLARK'S GRAVE.]
168. Summary.--During the Revolutionary War George Rogers Clark of Virginia, with a small number of
men, captured Fort Kaskaskia in Illinois, and Fort Vincennes in Indiana. Clark drove out the British from that
part of the country, and when peace was made, we kept the west--that is, the country as far as the Mississippi
River--as part of the United States. Had it not been for him and his brave men, we might not have got it.
What did the British have in the west? Where were three of those forts? Who hired the Indians to fight? How
did they fight? What did most of the people in England think about this? What is said of George the Third?
What friend did Daniel Boone have in Virginia? What did Clark undertake to do? Tell how he went down the
Ohio. Tell how he marched on Fort Kaskaskia. What happened when he got there? What did Clark say to the
people in the fort? How was Fort Vincennes taken? What did the British do the next year? Tell about Francis
Vigo. What did Clark and his men start to do? How far off was Fort Vincennes? Tell about the first part of the
march. What lands did they come to? Tell how the men waded. How did Clark save the lives of some of the
men? Did Clark take the fort? What did the Americans get possession of by this victory? What happened at
the end of the Revolutionary War? What did we say? What is said of the grave at Louisville, Kentucky? What
did Clark get for us?
GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM (1738-1824).
169. What General Putnam did for Washington, and what the British said of Putnam's work.--When the
British had possession of Boston in the time of the Revolution, Washington asked Rufus Putnam,[1] who was
a great builder of forts, to help him drive them out. Putnam set to work, one dark, stormy night, and built a
fort on some high land[2] overlooking Boston Harbor.
[Illustration: PUTNAM'S FORT. General Washington looking at the British Ships in Boston Harbor.]
When the British commander woke up the next morning, he saw the American cannon pointed at his ships. He
was so astonished that he could scarcely believe his eyes. "Why," said he, "the rebels have done more in one
The Beginner's American History 60
night than my whole army could have done in a week." Another officer, who had command of the British
vessels, said, "If the Americans hold that fort, I cannot keep a ship in the harbor."
Well, we know what happened. Our men did hold that fort, and the British had to leave Boston. Next to
General Washington, General Rufus Putnam was the man who made them go; for not many officers in the
American army could build such a fort as he could.
[Footnote 1: Rufus Putnam was born in Sutton, Massachusetts.]
[Footnote 2: Dorchester Heights: now South Boston.]
170. General Putnam builds the Mayflower; goes down the Ohio River and makes the first settlement in
Ohio.--After the war was over, General Putnam started with a company of people from New England, to
make a settlement on the Ohio River. In the spring of 1788 he and his emigrants built a boat at a place just
above Pittsburg.[3] They named this boat the Mayflower,[4] because they were Pilgrims going west to make
their home there.
[Illustration: EMIGRANTS IN THE Mayflower.]
At that time there was not a white settler in what is now the state of Ohio. Most of that country was covered
with thick woods. There were no roads through those woods, and there was not a steamboat or a railroad
either in America or in the world. If you look on the map[5] and follow down the Ohio River from Pittsburg,
you will come to a place where the Muskingum joins the Ohio. At that place the Mayflower stopped, and the
emigrants landed and began to build their settlement.
[Footnote 3: Pittsburg: see map in paragraph 140.]
[Footnote 4: Mayflower: see paragraph 64.]
[Footnote 5: See map in paragraph 140.]
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]