George Rogers Clark Day in Ohio

Lt. Col. George Rogers Clark and his frontiersmen captured Fort Sackville from British Lt. Governor Henry Hamilton and his soldiers on February 25, 1779. The heroic march of Clark’s men from Kaskaskia on the Mississippi in mid-winter and the subsequent victory over the British are considered among the great feats of the American Revolution.

The nineteenth day of November is designated as "George Rogers Clark Day," in honor of the hero of early America who was born on that day in 1752.

(ORC 5.2227 George Rogers Clark day. Effective Date: 03-23-2005)

Clark’s conquest of the Illinois country stood as a dramatic feat accomplished under tremendous physical and material handicaps by a bold and resourceful leader. Unfortunately, he failed to receive the reinforcements that would have enabled him to move against Detroit. Therefore it seems dubious to accept such extreme statements as that Clark "added three—perhaps five—states to the Union;" or that his "rearguard operations" on the frontier "saved the American Revolution from collapse." Moreover, the diplomats who negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1783 were only very dimly aware of the military events in the back country. In fact, Clark was on the defensive along the Ohio during the last 2 years of the war as the Indians continued to devastate the frontier. In his last important action Clark launched a counteroffensive against the Shawnee tribe, driving it back into central Ohio.

When Clark retired from the Virginia service as a brigadier general, he became chief surveyor of the military lands granted to his soldiers north of the Ohio. In 1784 Congress appointed Clark one of several commissioners to settle outstanding differences, such as land claims, with the Indians of the Old Northwest.

Source: encyclopedia.com | ohio.gov