Western Theater of The American Revolutionary War - 1781

1781

Spanish Governor Francisco Cruzat, in St. Louis, sent a force of about 140 Spanish soldiers and American Indians under Captain Eugenio Pourré to capture Fort St. Joseph. It was captured and plundered on February 12, 1781.

In late 1780, Clark traveled east to consult with Thomas Jefferson, the governor of Virginia, about an expedition in 1781. Jefferson devised a plan which called for Clark to lead 2,000 men against Detroit. Recruiting enough men was a problem, however. In time of war, most militiamen preferred to stay close to their homes rather than go on extended campaigns. Furthermore, Colonel Daniel Brodhead refused to detach the men because he was staging his own expedition against the Delawares, who had recently entered the war against the Americans. Brodhead marched into the Ohio Country and destroyed the Delaware Indian capital of Coshocton in April 1781, but this only made the Delawares more determined enemies and deprived Clark of badly needed men and supplies for the Detroit campaign. Most of the Delawares fled to the militant towns on the Sandusky River.

When Clark finally left Fort Pitt in August 1781, he was accompanied by only 400 men. On August 24, 1781, a detachment of one hundred of his men was ambushed near the Ohio River by Indians led by Joseph Brant, a Mohawk leader temporarily in the west. Brant's victory ended Clark's efforts to move against Detroit.

Between the combatants on the Sandusky River and the Americans at Fort Pitt were several villages of Christian Delawares. The villages were administered by the Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder. Although non-combatants, the missionaries favored the American cause and kept American officials at Fort Pitt informed about hostile British and Indian activity. In response, in September 1781, Wyandots and Delawares from Sandusky forcibly removed the Christian Delawares and the missionaries to a new village (Captive Town) on the Sandusky River.