Illinois Campaign - Clark's Journey Down The Ohio

Clark's Journey Down The Ohio

After repeated delays to allow time for more men to join, Clark left Redstone by boat on May 12, 1778, with about 150 recruits, organized in three companies under captains Bowman, Helm, and Harrod. Clark expected to rendezvous with 200 Holston men under Captain Smith at the Falls of the Ohio in Kentucky. Traveling with Clark's men were about 20 families who were going to Kentucky to settle.

On the journey down the Ohio River, Clark and his men picked up supplies at Forts Pitt and Henry that were provided by General Edward Hand, the Continental Army Western Department commander. They reached Fort Randolph (Point Pleasant, West Virginia) soon after it had been attacked by an Indian war party. The fort commander asked for Clark's help in pursuing the raiders, but Clark declined, believing that he could not spare the time.

As he was nearing the Falls of the Ohio, Clark stopped at the mouth of the Kentucky River and sent a message upriver to Major Smith, telling him that it was time to rendezvous. Clark soon learned, however, that of Smith's four promised companies, only one partial company under a Captain Dillard had arrived in Kentucky. Clark therefore sent word to Colonel John Bowman, the senior militia officer in Kentucky, requesting that the colonel send Dillard's men and any other recruits he could find to the falls.

Clark's little flotilla reached the Falls of the Ohio on May 27. He set up a base camp on a small island in the midst of the rapids, later known as Corn Island. When the additional recruits from Kentucky and Holston finally arrived, Clark added 20 of these men to his force, and sent the others back to Kentucky to help defend the settlements. The new recruits were placed in a company under Captain John Montgomery. In Montgomery's company was a scout named Simon Kenton, who was on his way to becoming a legendary Kentucky frontiersman. On the island, Clark revealed that the real purpose of the expedition was to invade the Illinois country. The news was greeted with enthusiasm by many, but some of the Holston men deserted that night; seven or eight were caught and brought back, but others eluded capture and returned to their homes.

While Clark and his officers drilled the troops in preparation for the Kaskaskia expedition, the families who had traveled with the regiment down the Ohio River settled on the island and planted a corn crop. These settlers moved to the mainland the following year, founding the settlement which became Louisville. While on the island, Clark received an important message from Pittsburgh: France had signed a Treaty of Alliance with the United States. Clark hoped that this information would be useful in securing the allegiance of the French-speaking inhabitants of the Illinois country.