167.  Clark takes the fort; what we got by his victory; his grave.—­After a long and desperate fight Clark took Fort Vincennes and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over it in triumph.  The British never got it back again.  Most of the Indians were now glad to make peace, and to promise to behave themselves.

By Clark’s victory the Americans got possession of the whole western wilderness up to Detroit.  When the Revolutionary War came to an end, the British did not want to give us any part of America beyond the thirteen states on the Atlantic coast.  But we said, The whole west, clear to the Mississippi, is ours; we fought for it; we took it; we hoisted our flag over its forts, and we mean to keep it.  We did keep it.

There is a grass-grown grave in a burial-ground in Louisville, Kentucky, which has a small headstone marked with the letters G. R. C., and nothing more; that is the grave of General George Rogers Clark, the man who did more than any one else to get the west for us—­or what was called the west a hundred years ago.

[Illustration:  CLARK’S GRAVE.]

168.  Summary.—­During the Revolutionary War George Rogers Clark of Virginia, with a small number of men, captured Fort Kaskaskia in Illinois, and Fort Vincennes in Indiana.  Clark drove out the British from that part of the country, and when peace was made, we kept the west—­that is, the country as far as the Mississippi River—­as part of the United States.  Had it not been for him and his brave men, we might not have got it.

What did the British have in the west?  Where were three of those forts?  Who hired the Indians to fight?  How did they fight?  What did most of the people in England think about this?  What is said of George the Third?  What friend did Daniel Boone have in Virginia?  What did Clark undertake to do?  Tell how he went down the Ohio.  Tell how he marched on Fort Kaskaskia.  What happened when he got there?  What did Clark say to the people in the fort?  How was Fort Vincennes taken?  What did the British do the next year?  Tell about Francis Vigo.  What did Clark and his men start to do?  How far off was Fort Vincennes?  Tell about the first part of the march.  What lands did they come to?  Tell how the men waded.  How did Clark save the lives of some of the men?  Did Clark take the fort?  What did the Americans get possession of by this victory?  What happened at the end of the Revolutionary War?  What did we say?  What is said of the grave at Louisville, Kentucky?  What did Clark get for us?

GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM
(1738-1824).

169.  What General Putnam did for Washington, and what the British said of Putnam’s work.—­When the British had possession of Boston in the time of the Revolution, Washington asked Rufus Putnam,[1] who was a great builder of forts, to help him drive them out.  Putnam set to work, one dark, stormy night, and built a fort on some high land[2] overlooking Boston Harbor.