Wabash Expedition
On 5 March 1779, Helm led a small force of 3 boats and 50 men up the Wabash River from Vincennes and captured a fleet of 7 boats, 40 prisoners (among whom, Clark notes in a letter to George Mason, was 'Dejeane, Grand Judge of Detroit'), supplies, and trade goods that was sent to reinforce Hamilton at Fort Sackville. The battle occurred just West of Pointe Coupee, Indiana, and is locally referred to as the western most naval battle of the American Revolution, despite the account of the capture in George Rogers Clark's memoir:
March 5th, Captain Helm, Majors Bosseron and Legras, returned from their journey up the river with great success. They came up with the enemy in the night, discerning their fires at a distance; waited until all was quiet; surrounded and took the whole prisoners, without the firing of a gun. Those (British) gentlemen were off their guard, and so little apprehensive of an enemy in that part of the world that they could hardly persuade themselves that what they saw and heard was real. This was a valuable (prize) seven boats loaded with provisions and goods to a considerable amount.
Read more about this topic: Leonard Helm
Famous quotes containing the words wabash and/or expedition:
“Well, Mary, only six more days to go and your old Nathan will be out of the army. Haven’t decided what I’ll do yet. Somehow I just can’t picture myself back there on the banks of the Wabash rocking on a front porch. No, I’ve been thinkin I, maybe I’ll push on west, new settlements, California.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“It is a sort of ranger service. Arnold’s expedition is a daily experience with these settlers. They can prove that they were out at almost any time; and I think that all the first generation of them deserve a pension more than any that went to the Mexican war.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)