Donald McElroy, Scotch Irishman

by Willie Walker Caldwell

  CHAPTER XXII

  I shall pass over the details of our arduous midwinter march of onehundred and sixty miles to Vincennes across swamps and flooded plains.Also any account of the three separate mutinies of our French recruitsand the almost irreparable loss of our boat, the _Willing_, andconsequent lack of food and rest while we worked feverishly, knee deepin water, building canoes.

  The timely capture, after we had crossed the swollen river and reachedfirmer ground, of an Indian canoe loaded with buffalo meat, corn, and(strange circumstance) several large kettles, alone saved our men fromstarving and our hazardous attempt from total disaster. On the afternoonof the eighteenth day we reached Vincennes, and with our numerous flags,which through all the suffering of the march we had never relinquished,mounted on long poles, Clark disposed his little band in squads, andordered them to march some distance apart and to follow the winding road(easily seen from the village, though hidden from the fort) to the town.

  Not only did we meet with no resistance from the townspeople, butnumbers of them offered to assist us in storming the fort. Tabac and hishundred Indians, who were camping near the town, likewise offered theirservices as allies.

  When the firing upon Fort Sackville began, General Hamilton was inCaptain Helm's quarters playing piquet with his prisoner, while thelatter brewed upon the hearth his favorite beverage--a spiced appletoddy. Helm's room had been pointed out to us, and we aimed at hischimney. Soot and plaster came tumbling down, half filled the kettle andruined the smoking drink. The players sprang to their feet.

  "I'll wager it's Clark, and his riflemen, General," said the jovialHelm. "They'll take the fort, for they are the finest marksmen in theworld. Meantime they've spoiled our toddy, d---- 'em, and with maliciousintent you may be sure; some villager has indicated my quarters toMcElroy, I dare say, and he pays his respects to me, and announces theirpresence this way. D---- their sure bullets and their rude jokes; wishwe had drunk that toddy sooner. Now look at it!" and he held out a ladlefull, gritty with dried mud, and black with soot.

  "You are cool ones, you Americans," said Hamilton, with an uneasy laugh."Pray, how do you suppose Clark would get his men here through thesefloods?"

  "They swam, maybe--oh, Clark and his riflemen are equal to anything.Might as well run up your white flag, General, and be done the soonerwith this unpleasant business; we can finish our game then, and haveClark in to help drink my second brewing--he's good at that as atfighting; we'll make a jolly party."

  "Curse your impudence, Helm! I'll not surrender the fort while there's aman to the guns!" and Hamilton departed, sputtering with angryexcitement.

  All night brisk firing was kept up on both sides; at the same timedetachments of us worked like beavers to make a trench about a hundredyards in front of the main gate. Early next morning Clark sent in a flagwith a bold demand for surrender, and during the respite afforded by itsreception the men ate a hearty breakfast, provided by the well disposedtownspeople. It was the first meal they had had in five days. This wasthe message sent by Clark under his flag of truce, and it is socharacteristic of the man that I quote it verbatim:

  "Sir--In order to save yourself from the impending storm that now threatens you, I order you immediately to surrender yourself with all your garrison, stores, etc., etc. For if I am obliged to storm, you may depend on such treatment as is justly due a murderer. Beware of destroying stores of any kind, or any papers or letters that are in your possession, for, by Heaven, if you do, there shall be no mercy shown you.

  "G. R. CLARK."

  An angry and scornful refusal was returned by General Hamilton to thisstern demand, and the firing was renewed. Wherever a port-hole was open,a dozen rifles were aimed upon it, and the bullets poured through likehail; the gunners were killed as fast as they were sent to the guns.Even the cracks in the walls afforded targets to the death-dealingbullets of the riflemen, and more than one of the garrison fell piercedthrough the eye.

  The afternoon of the second day brought a flag of truce from GeneralHamilton, asking for a cessation of hostilities for three days, and aconference with Colonel Clark at the fort. Clark refused the termsoffered by Hamilton, but agreed to a conference in the village church.At this conference Clark's bold determination again won, and nextmorning Fort Sackville was surrendered, with all its stores andsupplies, and General Hamilton and his garrison became prisoners of war.

  This was on the twenty-fifth day of February, 1779. It is a datedeserving enrollment among eventful days of American history. Henceforththe Northwest was Virginia territory, until ceded by her to the Union.In the negotiations which preceded the final treaty with England, it wasthis fact--that Virginia troops had fought for, and conquered the rightbank of the Mississippi--which gave potency to the claim of ourcommissioners, that the Father of Waters and not the Alleghanies, or theOhio, was our rightful boundary line on the west.

  Among our Revolutionary heroes, George Rogers Clark should stand high,not only because of his daring and his achievements, but because of theimportant and far-reaching results of his conquest.

  In the last few years, observing the rapidity with which our vastWestern territory is being settled and civilized, noting the rapidincrease of its population and prosperity, I begin to set a true valueupon the importance of this territory to the republic. Not only has itgiven us room for necessary expansion, but it has quickened all ourenergies, kindled our imaginations, and furnished a safe outlet for thevigorous, throbbing life of our young nation. Moreover, there is no wayto calculate the important part this common territory has played inuniting, into a firm and reasonable union, the several States ofAmerica. It gave us a common interest, at a time when we thought ourstate interests divergent; furnished us a means of satisfying with landgrants our discontented and unpaid soldiers; and is teaching us, throughexperience learned in governing a joint possession, broad principles ofdemocratic government. In truth, the more I think upon it, the morehighly I rate the achievement of George Rogers Clark--in which those ofmy race bore a worthy part.

  "Since fate has not ended our rivalry for us, McElroy," said Clark--whenaffairs had been satisfactorily settled at Vincennes, Helm reinstatedwith a somewhat larger garrison, and the other troops ready to return toKaskaskia--"the decision rests still with Queen Eleanor. We must forceher to a choice, somehow, and certainty is preferable to this suspense."

  "The sooner we know her decision the better I shall be suited," Iresponded, "for, now that my year's parole has expired, I am eager toget back to the regular service, especially as reenforcements fromVirginia can now be counted upon. Moreover, you are not likely to need alarge force to enable you to hold what we have won."

  "I agree with you," replied Clark. "You have stood by me and theenterprise, like a brave man, and a true comrade, McElroy, and I am gladour business is finished before your duty calls you back to Virginia.You have been my right hand, though all my officers and men have alikeacquitted themselves nobly, from first to last."

  "With a leader such as we have had, only worthy conduct is possible," Isaid, my eyes suddenly dim.

  "Thank you for that word, McElroy. That worthy men should deem me aworthy leader, is all the praise I ask. And whatever may come between usin the future, comrade, let us not forget that we have stood together inperil and in suffering, have shared risks and dangers in a cause dear tothe hearts of both--not even the love of woman should separate comradessuch as we have been."

  "Nor shall it," I answered earnestly. "God bear me witness, Clark, thatI shall feel no malice should Ellen's heart answer to yours. I shallwish you both happiness in all sincerity, and seek solace in my duty."

  "No fear, McElroy; you have the sturdiest and best traits of a noblepeople. I have some of them, doubtless, as my Saxon blood gives meright, but mixed, I fear, with a strain of wildness. I doubt if theanchors of duty are strong enough to hold me to a wise, sanelife--unless Ellen's love shall help to weight them. As you have said,comrade, an adventurous, reckless life h
as strong temptation for me;therefore, if Ellen's love is not for me--and I forebode it is not,though I'm not yet ready to resign all hope--I shall take it for a signthat a kind fate is sparing her the woeful doom of a drunkard's wife."He added, after a brief pause, during which a deep melancholy settledupon his face, "Sometimes a man is doomed from his birth; from thebeginning he moves on to a prefixed destiny, and all his struggles tosave himself from the end he fears, avail nothing."

  My reply combatted Clark's fatalism with all the arguments I couldcommand, but I soon saw that his views on the subject of his destinywere fixed; that with all his cheerful courage, and calculatingboldness, there was in his nature that strange vein of superstition orfatalism which has marked so many military heroes:--Hannibal, Alexander,Caesar, Robert Bruce, Frederick the Great, and others less renowned. Norcan one lay the fatalistic views Clark held to the charge of hisreligion. Though Scotch-Irish by birth, he knew no more of Presbyteriandoctrines than did Father Gibault, and he had no religious principles.

  Clark, as I have said, was a fatalist, though he had no religion. I wasand am a Presbyterian, yet I have always believed in cause and effect,the working of natural laws to natural ends. Nevertheless, though it beapparently a contradiction, I believe in an overruling Providence, andthe care of God over the most insignificant of His creatures. Therefore,when I knew myself to be ill, on that last day of our return march, andsaid to Clark, "It seems, after all, comrade, as if fate meant to settlethis matter of rivalry between us," I meant it not as it was said, butas Clark might look upon it. My future lay, I knew, in God's hands, andeven in that hour of evil apprehension--for I realized that my illnesswould be a long and serious one--I felt satisfied to leave it there, andto trust my life and Ellen's to His guidance.

  A faith that can sustain a man, and leave him calm and undismayed ineach crisis of his life, is worth much to him--call it by what name orsect, distinguish it by whatsoever creed, you will. And these smallvariations of our small minds, are, I conceive, little taken intoaccount by the Infinite, who knows we are but children, in mental andspiritual development, and values our faith and our honest strivingwithout regard to the creeds with which we confuse ourselves.