Places: Fort McIntosh Historic Site, Beaver, Pennsylvania

The modern history of this historic site is unique because of the interest the local community has taken in it.  Fort McIntosh was Constructed in 1778, at the junction of Ohio and Beaver Rivers.  It was named for General Lachlan McIntosh, of whom more later, and consisted of a wooden palisade with bastions on the corners.  It contained barracks, officers quarters, a kitchen, a forge and other necessities for a frontier outpost.  In 1785, it was the backdrop for the Treaty of Fort McIntosh between the United States, represented by George Rogers Clark, and members of the Delaware, Wyandot, Ottawa and other tribes concerning land concessions in the Ohio Valley.  Post-Revolution, it was the headquarters of the First Infantry Regiment, which still exists today.

However, the fort crumbled into disuse and would have lain forgotten had not local citizens of Beaver decided to take matters into their own hands.  In the year of the bicentennial, 1976, they remembered that a Revolutionary-era fort had been in their backyard and conducted their own archaeological dig, uncovering the outlines of the original fort.  The area was designated a historic site with a dedication presided over by Gen. William Westmoreland.  In 2010, a citizen donated money for a granite and sandstone plaque to commemorate the site.  Much of the town of Beaver is a historic site, and the Beaver Area Heritage Foundation takes care of the fort, whose outlines are still visible. 

Treaty: Fort Finney, January 31, 1786

If there was one American leader that most Natives feared and preferred not to mess with if possible, it was George Rogers Clark.  At the height of his fame during the American Revolution, 1775-1783, just that thought that Clark was on the move was enough to bring reluctant Natives to parley and hopefully agree a treaty.

The Treaty of Fort McIntosh, also called Treaty of the Mouth of the Great Miami, was signed on January 31, 1786.  It followed another Treaty, the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, in which representatives of the Chippewa, Wyandot, Delaware and Ottawa gave up claims to Ohio east of the Muskingum and Cuyahoga Rivers, and to the area that is now Detroit, Michigan.  Once again, the Shawnee were neither invited nor informed and they soon gave notice that they were prepared to fight.  Clark, along with Richard Butler and Samuel Holden Parsons, invited Blue Jacket and other Shawnee leaders to a parley at the mouth of the Great Miami River. 

The Shawnee arrived and made their intent clear with a belt of black wampum, signifying war if things did not go as they expected.  After tense negotiations, Clark played the one card both sides knew he still had.  He, too, would go to war and he would be bringing his militia with them.  Though Clark's career was on the downhill slide at this time, the Natives did not know it.  They knew that he was capable of meeting them in battle.  Although Blue Jacket and some other Shawnee leaders saw no choice but to sign.  Other signatories included Captain Pipe/Hopocan of the Delaware, Buckongahelas, and Pierre Drouillard, father of George Drouillard.  This treaty, like many others, wasn't worth the paper it was written on.  The Northwest War (1785-1786) was already beginning and with Clark soon sidelined with alcohol and other issues, the frontier was inflamed once more. 

Places: Forts of Vincennes, Indiana

The Wabash was a historic river, being an important artery for the fur trade.  The trading post turned military garrison turned town of Vincennes, situated on the River, would also become important.  No less than five military forts would be built there as the area changed hands from Native to French to British and, finally, to American. 

European activity began at what is now Vincennes in 1702, when French traders from Montreal established a trading post in the area.  That post was short lived in trading in the area ceased for a time.  Then, Francois-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes arrived from Louisiana in 1731 with orders to build a garrison to secure the lower Wabash Valley, and strengthen alliances with the Miami, Wea and Piankeshaw nations.  Unfortunately, Monsieur de Vincennes got into a scrape with the Chickasaw in 1735, and his life ended at the stake.  A new commander was brought in to revitalize the trade at Vincennes and, by 1750, the Piankeshaw had settled a village nearby and the town was bustling with Canadien immigrants. 

The Fort changed hands in 1764, when the British took over the area pursuant to the Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years/French and Indian War (1755-1763).  It was renamed Fort Sackville, after a British commander who'd died during an important battle in the European theatre of the war.  The fort, which was located near where First and Main Streets intersect in Vincennes, was soon allowed to fall into disrepair because of the cost and logistics of maintaining such an isolated garrison.  However, the British resumed activity at the Fort in 1774, to enforce the provisions in the Quebec Act which prohibited American settlement in the frontier.  However, the American Revolution intervened in 1775 and the British once again pulled their garrison, having other things to do.

In 1778, residents of the town, which remained largely French-Canadian, heard that France had allied with the fledgling United States.  Hoping that France was on its way to take them back, they took control of the old fort.  George Rogers Clark sent a small garrison of militia to garrison the fort.  The British quickly took it back, with General Henry Hamilton, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, coming to garrison the fort in person.  Not to be outdone, the townspeople cooperated when Clark himself besieged the Fort and captured Hamilton.  Clark renamed the outpost Fort Patrick Henry, in honor of the then-Governor of Virginia.  Clark intended to use the area as staging for his intended attack on Fort Detroit, but those plans never came to fruition.  As the War on the frontier moved elsewhere, more settlers came into the area, further complicated matter with the local tribes.

As the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795) heated up, the United States took control of the area but didn't use the site of Fort Vincennes/Sackville/Patrick Henry.  They built a new fort at where First and Buntin Streets intersect and named in Fort Knox, after then-Secretary of War Henry Knox.  (This was the first of several forts to bear his name, but not any of the nation's gold reserves).  For almost two decades (1787-1803), Fort Knox I was the westernmost outpost of the United States.  And, although the Natives in the area were relatively peaceful and on good terms with the garrison, the townspeople were not.  Matters got so bad that commanders issued orders to their men not to venture more than 100 feet outside fort walls and the commander petitioned the Secretary of War to relocate the facility altogether. 

The Secretary appropriated money for a new fort three miles outside the town of Vincennes, which was named Fort Knox II.  And there the dynamics and drama continued, as the members of the garrison fought several duels with each other.  It wasn't until 1811, when Captain Zachary Taylor was put in charge of the fort to shape it up in the wake of Tecumseh's Revolt that things settled down.  It was here that William Henry Harrison staged his troops for the assault on Prophetstown in 1811.  It was also here that casualties of the battle were brought back for treatment or a slow and painful death.  As the War of 1812 heated up and fears of the local Native population increased, soldiers dismantled and packed up the entire fort, floated it back into town and reassembled it near the original site of Fort Knox I.  After the War of 1812, the fort fell into disrepair and was abandoned in 1816.  A palisade based on archaeological records stands at the site today, which is on the register of National Historic Places.  An interpretive trail and annual reenactment keep its story alive today. 

Settlers versus Natives: the Siege of Fort Sackville/Battle of Vincennes, February 23-25, 1779

We're calling this Settlers versus Natives for a reason.  Although the Siege of Fort Sackville/Battle of Vincennes was a Revolutionary War battle in the frontier theatre of the war, and both Americans and British fought, the real object of the contest was to cut off British support for Native raids on American settlements.  At least that was true in the minds of the two men most concerned, George Rogers Clark and Henry Hamilton.

Fort Vincennes, now in present-day Vincennes, Indiana, was a French military outpost and trading post for local Native tribes.  Even after the French gave up their rights to what is now Indiana in 1763, a large part of the population was French-Canadian and generally sympathetic to both the French and the Native population.  Following their victory in the Seven Years' War (1755-1763), the British rebuilt and garrisoned the French fort, renaming it Fort Sackville, after a commander in the European theatre of the war.  The outpost was miles from any viable supply routes and soon fell into disrepair.  When the Revolution broke out, the local inhabitants ousted the flimsy British garrison and asked George Rogers Clark to send men for it.  He sent a militia officer, Leonard Helm and a small garrison, but soon the British retook the fort (in 1779) and local residents warned Clark that the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, General Henry Hamilton, was in personal command of the garrison there.

Rogers wanted Hamilton.  Washington wanted Hamilton.  American public opinion at the time wanted Hamilton, at the end of a rope.  Rumors abounded that Hamilton paid his Native auxiliaries scalp bounties, which was the reason that raiding on the frontier kept increasing.  In fact, no evidence has been found that he, or any other Redcoat officer, ever paid for scalps, but facts seldom stand in the way of popular opinion.  Clark decided that he would go to Vincennes and retake the town and Fort Sackville, and keep it this time.  On February 5, 1779, Clark set out for Vincennes with about 170 men, over half of whom were French from the area of what is now Kaskaskia, Illinois.  They had no sympathy for the British and neither did the townspeople of Vincennes, who welcomed Clark's force, provided food, ammunition and other supplies and also intelligence of what was going on at Fort Sackville. 

Clark demanded a formal surrender, which Hamilton scoffed off.  Clark's men then began digging siege works around the Fort.  The British fired their cannon, damaging houses in the village and further angering the residents.  On the way to Vincennes, some of Clark's canoes had overturned, wetting a large store of gunpowder.  Clark thought of taking the Fort by storm, but was about to dismiss the idea because of lack of gunpowder when eager residents of Vincennes came forward with stores of gunpowder they'd hidden from the British.  Clark decided to take the Fort, refusing an offer from a local Piankeshaw leader, Young Tobacco, on the grounds that, during the night attack, he didn't want his men mistakenly firing on Natives loyal to the Americans.  Clark was aware that a large body of Canadians and Native auxiliaries was on the way to enforce Hamilton and they were running out of time.

Clark again sent a demand for surrender and Hamilton sent out Helm, who'd been a prisoner of the British, to inquire for terms.  Clark demanded unconditional surrender or he'd storm the fort.  As these parley's were going on, the force of Canadian militia and Natives showed up.  They skirmished with Clark's men, but were easily beaten off.  Clark's men captured two Canadians and four Natives.  The Canadians were released as a gesture to the citizens of Vincennes, but the four Natives were ordered to kneel in full view of the fort and then tomahawked.  Although Hamilton did not witness the executions, he spread the story that Clark had murdered these prisoners with his own hand.   Likely, Clark ordered the execution (reprehensible enough), but did not actually kill anyone.  As terrible as this was, it was his message to any Native who would support the British. 

Hamilton and Clark met and the garrison of Sackville marched out with the honors of war.  For Hamilton, this should have meant an honorable captivity as a prisoner of war, an officer and a gentleman.  Instead, he was arrested as a war criminal, though never tried.  Clark believed that the capture of Hamilton and Vincennes would help put an early end to war in the western theatre.  He soon came to realize that there were other officers in Fort Detroit who would gladly take Hamilton's place in inciting Native raids on American settlements.  That would not stop until Fort Detroit was out of business and in American hands, which didn't happen until 1813, years after Clark had retired a lonely, broken and almost forgotten old man. 

Places: The Falls of the Ohio

We've already run across this important natural landmark a few times in posts.  It was the lair of George Rogers Clark.  Meriwether Lewis and William Clark met there to plan their forthcoming expedition in 1804.  It was also a strategically vital area on the frontier theater of the American Revolution.

The falls are a series of waterfalls on the Ohio River near Clarksville, Indiana and across the river from Louisville, Kentucky.  It was an important hunting area for Natives, the plentiful water making a convenient place for game animals to gather.  It was also a portage site.  It is now an Indiana State Park. 

Natives versus Settlers: Lochry's Defeat, Augut 24, 1781

As the Revolutionary War ground to a weary halt with the siege and surrender of Yorktown in October, 1781, things were far from quiet on the frontier.  The British at Fort Detroit continued to encourage attacks by their Native auxiliaries against American outposts and settlements.  As was discussed in an earlier post, George Rogers Clark, the leading American commander in the backcountry, nourished a dream of taking Fort Detroit, but could never get his pet project off the ground.  One reason was lack of men. 

With the British bottled up on the Virginia coast, Washington believed he could spare a few men to assist Clark.  He sent 100 men under Archibald Lochry marching toward Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) and a rendezvous with Clark.  They hadn't counted on Joseph Brant and his volunteer force, made up mostly of Native but even of some Whites were who willing to fight under his command.  Brant teamed up with Simon and George Girty and Alexander McKee to meet Clark in August, 1781.  At the last minute, they realized that Clark had a far larger force then they expected.  Simon and Alexander missed an opportunity to ambush part of Clark's men in their camp on the banks of Ohio River due to lack of reinforcements coming up in time.  Through captured prisoners, Brant learned of Lochry's force on its way to join Clark.  He and George Girty put their heads together and came up with a plan. 

Lochry's party landed on the banks of the Ohio River near the Great Miami River, expecting to meet up with Clark.  They had seen injured Americans left on the bank by Brant and believed they were picking up survivors of a routine brush between Natives and Settlers.  As Lochry's men came ashore, started breakfast and began making camp, Brant and George sprung their trap.  As Brant's men descended on them, Lochry's men tried to go for their guns, but some had left their weapons behind in the canoes.  The Americans headed that way, before realizing that Brant had dispatched men to take possession of the canoes.  There was no escape and Lochry called for his men to surrender.  The totals were 37 Americans dead and 64 captured.  Some of the dead were executed after they had surrendered, including Lochry.  A Shawnee encounter him sitting on a log unawares and killed him with a tomahawk blow.  Brant intervened before more prisoners could be killed. 

Brant hurried his prisoners toward Fort Detroit, intending to rendezvous with McKee, Simon and units of Butler's Ranger to go after Clark.  They received word that Clark had turned back and, once again, given up on Fort Detroit.  He was fortunate.  Had Simon and McKee been able to spring their part of the trap, or had Clark continued further upriver, he and his men would have suffered ambush after ambush by prepared Native war parties, resulting in disaster.  Meanwhile, the men of Lochry's command who survived were divided up amongst the various tribes.  Some were adopted into the tribes, others ritually executed, others turned in to the British at Fort Detroit where they spent several months in a prison in Montreal.  About half the survivors eventually made it back to their families. 

Lochry's Defeat spread alarm and panic on the frontier.  Clark would try a few more times to float his scheme to capture Fort Detroit, which ultimately make sense in hindsight, but few if any state authorities, let alone Washington, were prepared to release more men.  Though Clark may not have realized it yet, his spectacular career as the Washington of the West was in decline.  Two other commanders were also locked in drama of their own.  Simon Girty and Joseph Brant had never liked each other.  Simon dismissed Brant as a drinker and bragger.  Brant just wished Simon would go away.  After the battle, they met up in Detroit and began drinking.  Simon heard Brant bragging about the victory over Lochry and felt incensed that Brant was shading George Girty by not giving him any of the credit.  The two had words and both drew swords.  Brant slashed Simon on the front of his head and down his face.  Simon wounded Brant in the leg so badly that it almost had to be amputated.  Both would take months to recover and neither voluntarily entered each other's presence again.   

Natives versus Settlers: the Battle of Blue Licks, August 9, 1782

The fighting on the eastern theatres of the Revolutionary War may have ended when Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in October, 1781, but nobody on the frontier seems to have gotten the memo.  Working from Fort Detroit, the British and their Indian auxiliaries were determined to maintain control of the Ohio Valley, including Kentucky, against backcountry settlers who were determined to have it for their own.  The conflict would result in a Loyalist-Indian victory in August, 1782 that would wreck the career of an American commander and result in the murder of a Native chief.  And the irony would be that neither man was even there when the battle happened.

As the War wound down and negotiations for a treaty dragged on in Paris, the British were determined to hang on to the Ohio River Valley and the Old Northwest.  The Natives were committed to helping them since they knew that their land rights would be disposed of in the eventual treaty without their say-so.  In July, 1782, a meeting took place at a Shawnee village on the headwaters of the Mad River to discuss what course of action should be taken.  Along with the Shawnee, other tribes represented included the Delaware/Lenape, Mingo, Wyndot, Miami, Ottawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi.  From there, 150 members of Butler's Rangers under William Caldwell and about 300 warriors under Matthew Elliot, Alexander McKee and Simon Girty headed toward Wheeling (now West Virginia), on the Ohio River.  Incidentally, this is one of the few times Girty is known to have led Native warriors in battle against the Americans, though to hear them tell it, he did it almost every day of the War.

Scouts erroneously reported that George Rogers Clark was headed their way with a large force of militia.  Clark was probably the only commander who could strike fear into the heart of any warrior and, indeed, had he been there, the result of this battle might have been different, but it was not to be.  Clark was patrolling the Ohio River, but had no specific plans yet of coming their way.  Most of the Loyalists returned home, but about 50 stayed, along with the 300 warriors, heading from Bryan's Station near Lexington, Kentucky.  Caldwell besieged the fortified frontier outpost, but the Settlers barricaded themselves and held off.  Again, hearing report that Clark was in the area, the Loyalists broke off the siege.  A force of Kentucky militia under John Todd and Stephen Trigg arrived at Bryan's Station, heard what happened and wanted to pursue the Loyalists and Natives.  Daniel Boone counseled them to wait until reinforcements under Benjamin Logan could arrive, but he was outvoted. 

On the morning of August 19, 1782, the militia reached a salt lick on the Licking River near present-day Mount Olivet, Kentucky.  The area was known as the Lower Blue Licks, hence the name of the ensuing battle.  Boone noticed signs that the Natives had been here recently and knew something was up.  Todd and Trigg again asked his assessment and he stated that the Natives were leading them into a trap and they should withdraw and wait for Logan.  The commanders were on the verge of taking his advice this time when a self-proclaimed Indian Fighter named Hugh McGary charged his horse across the small stream shouting, "them that aren't cowards, follow me."  The commanders tried to restrain their men, but it was no use.  Everyone crossed the creek.  Boone threw up his hands with the remark, "we are all slaughtered men," and cross with them. 

They dismounted and formed a line of battle with the commanders front and center, Todd and McGary flanked by Boone and Trigg.  As they advanced, Caldwell's men, who had been concealed in several ravines, opened fire.  Most of the Patriots fell back.  Todd and Trigg, still on horseback, were killed.  Boone was the only commander who kept his men together.  The militia fled, leaving Boone and his men stranded.  Boone found a horse and told his son Israel to get on it and get out of there.  Israel mounted the horse and caught a bullet in his neck, killing him instantly.  This was the second of Daniel Boone's sons to die fighting Natives.  Boone took the horse and made his escape, having to leave Israel's body on the field.  The Patriots lost 72 killed, 11 captured, most of whom would be killed later.  The Loyalists and Natives lost 7 killed, 10 wounded.

Repercussions fell, but not where anyone expected.  Clark, who was on the way with a force of over 1,000 men including Logan's command, was roundly blamed for the disaster, though he had not been there.  He immediately set off on a campaign of retribution, burning unoccupied Shawnee villages as a warning to the Natives to keep their heads down, but it was not enough.  Enemies began a whispering campaign that Clark was a heavy drinker and his career was on the downhill slip.  Four years later, during the Northwest Indian War, Logan would carry out more retributive attacks on the Shawnee and other tribes along the Mad River.  During these engagements, McGary confronted Moluntha, a Shawnee chief who had succeeded Cornstalk.  Without benefit of an interpreter, McGary demanded to know whether Moluntha had been at the Battle of the Blue Licks.  Moluntha misunderstood the question and nodded yes.  McGary struck him with a tomahawk and killed him instantly.  Moluntha hadn't been anywhere near the battle, but he was a Shawnee and that was enough to condemn him.  McGary was court-martialed and stripped of his commission, but otherwise unpunished.

Today, the battlefield site is a Kentucky state park.  The site includes a commemorative obelisk, a burial ground and museum.  Every August, a reenactment commemorates the battle. 

The Opposition: George Rogers Clark

Americans called him the Washington of the West and the Conqueror of the Old Northwest.  To his Native opponents, he was the one American commander they both feared and respected, with good reason.

George Rogers Clark (1752-1818), the older half-brother of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame, was born in Albemarle County, near Charlottesville.  His family would have been on a social par with the Jeffersons, Randolphs, Lees and others.  George was the oldest son of the family.  When he was about four years old, the family moved to a large plantation in Caroline County, Virginia.  George received some formal schooling and was tutored at home.  His grandfather taught him to be a surveyor.  As such, he became familiar with the backcountry and the Natives who inhabited it, lessons he would put to use in a later career.  He was named a captain in the Virginia militia and served in Lord Dunmore's War, then went back to surveying.

The Revolutionary War gave him the first of several big breaks.  While major battles were being fought in the Northeast, settlers in the Virginia back country found themselves embroiled in a dispute between North Carolina and Virginia as to which colony/state owned the land that would become Kentucky.  The settlers in that region wanted Virginia to claim the land and George Rogers Clark was one of the delegation to petition Governor Patrick Henry to press Virginia's claim to the land.  Henry named Clark a major in the Kentucky County militia and gave him a supply of powder to use in defending the area against Natives and Loyalists alike.  Clark was only twenty-four, but older men such as Daniel Boone already respected his qualities as a leader.

In 1777, British officials turned their attention to the backcountry.  The Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, Henry Hamilton, was based at Fort Detroit and supplied Natives in the Ohio Valley with arms and ammunition in return for their aid in attacking frontier settlements.  The Continental Army was spread thin in the East and could spare no men to protect the Ohio Valley or Kentucky.  Clark developed a plan to capture the British-allied Native villages of Kaskaskia and Cahokia in what is now Illinois, and Vincennes, in present-day Indiana considered Illinois country at the time.  Patrick Henry agreed and allied Clark to recruit men from Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.  From their staging area near what is now Pittsburgh, Clark's force set out, capturing Kaskaskia without firing a shot.  He also captured Vincennes, where many French-speaking and Native inhabitants refused to fight on behalf of the British.  Not to be outdone, Hamilton retook Vincennes and Fort Sackville in December, 1778, but Clark wasn't through with him yet.

In February, 1779, marching unexpectedly in a frigid winter, Clark and his men showed up back in Vincennes, this time permanently capturing the village and Fort Sackville.  They also captured Henry Hamilton, who became a prisoner of war.  Washington praised Clark's accomplishment, using it as another argument toward a French alliance.  Virginia claimed all of the Illinois country, naming it Illinois County, Virginia.  Clark had his eyes on Fort Detroit, where the British continued to supply arms and ammo to the Natives, but could never gather enough men or materiel to make the attempt.  He remained closer to Kentucky, defending it against native attacks and strikes by Loyalist forces.  He fended off a British-sponsored and led invasion of Kentucky that included Shawnee, Delaware and Wyandot auxiliaries.  We'll get to Byrd's invasion of Kentucky in an upcoming post.  Clark led a retaliatory strike against the Shawnee village of Pekowi, near Springfield, Ohio. 

Thomas Jefferson succeeded Henry as Governor of Virginia and gave Clark the rank of Brigadier General and command of all the militia in Kentucky and Illinois counties.  Washington transferred a force of regulars to assist in a planned invasion of Fort Detroit, but it was ambushed before it could arrive, once again killing Clark's chances at a big prize.  Meanwhile, disaster struck.  In August, 1782, months after the Yorktown surrender, a British Loyalist force with Native auxiliaries defeated a detached unit of Kentucky militia at Blue Licks.  Though Clark wasn't present at the battle, and things might have been different had he been there, the Virginia government began to blame him for the disaster.  Clark promptly led a punitive expedition, destroying several Native villages and gaining a victory in the Battle of Piqua, but his fortunes were beginning to unravel, though he was still only thirty years old and had accomplished so much.

After the War, Clark served as a surveyor, assisting Continental veterans with settling their land grants.  He also helped negotiate two treaties with the Natives, the Treaty of Fort McIntosh and the Treaty of Fort Finney, in 1786.  However, the British were still in the area and Native raids on backcountry settlements continued, resulting in the loss of hundreds of American lives.  In 1786, Clark led 1200 men against Natives along the Wabash River in one of the opening campaigns of the Northwest Indian War.  On that expedition, everything that could go wrong, did.  Supplies were deficient, causing a mutiny among some of the men.  The Natives, preferring to retreat rather than face Clark, burned their own villages and fled, denying him a clear-cut victory.  And Clark had an ambitious and vicious enemy among his own ranks, James Wilkinson, more on him later.  Wilkinson insisted the Clark had a drinking problem, which led to lapses of judgment during the campaign.  Clark demanded a formal court martial to clear his honor but was ignored.  The Virginia Legislature formally condemned him and he resigned his commanded, going to live in Indiana where present-day Clarksville is named in his honor.

Clark had spent much of his own money in outfitting his various campaigns.  He was not successful in petitioning either the Virginia Legislature or the Continental Congress to repay these expenses.  He had to be constantly fearful of creditors, who in that day and age had the authority to have people jailed for debt.  Eventually, Virginia granted him land in Indiana, in what is now Clark County, but he had no resources to develop it.  Desperate, Clark became embroiled in schemes to help either France or Spain reclaim territory in the backcountry, further blackening his reputation.  He also wrote his memoirs, which were never published during his lifetime.  Clark tried to deed his land to relatives and friends to save it until he could develop it, but creditors seized it, leaving him with a small cabin and gristmill to make a daily living.  He was able to trade on his knowledge of the backcountry, becoming an informal behind-the-scenes consultant to his brother William as he and Meriwether Lewis planned their expedition.  Things went further downhill when Indian Territory chartered a company to construct a canal around the Falls of the Ohio.  Clark was named to the board of directors and did most of the surveying work, but the following year, two other board members, including former Vice-President Aaron Burr, were charged with treason and the company was investigated for misappropriating funds. 

And it wouldn't stop.  In 1809, Clark suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.  Still trying to get around and help himself on his own, he fell into a fireplace and suffered a burn so severe his leg had to be amputated.  Unable to live on his own, he moved with his sister Lucy and her family to Locust Grove, near Louisville.  Finally, Virginia awarded him a pension and repaid his services with a ceremonial sword.  He suffered another stroke in 1818 and was buried on the grounds of Locust Grove, but later reinterred in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.  A memorial to Clark was erected in Vincennes, Indiana in 1933.  It includes a bronze statue of Clark in uniform and murals of his campaigns.  Other statues also commemorate him, including Indianapolis, Massac County, Illinois, Louisville, KY, and Springfield, Ohio.