today we're looking at george rogers clark
hello welcome to the daily bell ringer please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the
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you'll find more resources that go with many of the bellringer videos george rogers clark perhaps
not as well known as many other revolutionary war leaders such as george washington ethan allen
or henry knox was a commander who helped lead american troops to victory in the far western
fronts of the american revolution clark was born the second child of john and ann rogers on
november 19 1752 near charlottesville virginia george was one of 10 children and actually his
youngest brother william clark would go on to help lead the famous lewis and clark expedition
to explore the louisiana territory growing up george had little formal education and actually
much of his education came from his grandfather who taught him how to be a surveyor who is someone
who measures and lays out boundaries of land at the age of 19 in 1771 george left home venturing
into western virginia and eventually into what would become kentucky on surveying trips shortly
thereafter clark joined the virginia militia and was involved in several conflicts with native
americans as english settlers pushed west into kentucky in 1776 just as the american revolution
was beginning clark traveled to williamsburg virginia to meet with the governor of virginia at
that time patrick henry and the virginia general assembly virginia agreed to extend its boundaries
to include kentucky county which is basically the entire state of kentucky today by 1777 when
the revolution was truly underway the british began to arm native americans and encouraged them
to attack settlements in kentucky of course with the major fighting taking place far to the east
the continental army couldn't spare troops to send west to fight off this threat so clark led the
kentucky militia in defending kentucky settlements by the end of 1777 clark began to devise a plan
to strike british strongholds in what was then known as the illinois country clark again met
with patrick henry and asked for his permission to lead a secret mission to capture kaskaskia cahokia
and vincennes which is in present day indiana clark began to recruit a force to accomplish
this mission and by june of 1778 they were camped near present-day louisville kentucky on the ohio
river in july 1778 clark led a force of 175 men across the ohio river at fort massack and crossed
over into illinois country and they began their march towards kaskaskia on july 4th clark and the
americans captured kaskaskia without firing a shot and then shortly after captured cahokia in the
same way by august clark and his force captured the fort of vincennes known as fort sackville
from the british however by december of 1778 the british retook the fort clark then organized
another surprise attack on fort sackville and on february 25th 1779 recaptured the fort from the
british the victories here made clarke a hero to many such as george washington for securing the
western territories for the americans during the war clark spent the remainder of the war
primarily based out of louisville kentucky and was promoted to a brigadier general in 1781 during
this time he spent much of his efforts fighting combined british and native american forces after
the revolution was over settlers began to really pour into kentucky this again prompted violence
between native americans living there and settlers moving in clark led raids against native american
villages in the northwest indian war clark has been criticized for his needless brutality against
native americans during this time and furthermore he was accused of being drunk while on duty
additionally clark had financed or paid for the majority of the equipment and resources
needed during his campaigns in the war he had borrowed a lot of money and now creditors were
wanting him to repay the debts clark had not kept good records of all of the expenses so virginia
refused to pay clark clark was given over 150 000 acres of land by the state of virginia but
clark did not have the money to develop the land into anything profitable for him so by the 1790s
he had to give away much of his land to avoid it being seized by creditors in 1803 he built
a small cabin on what was left of the land he had just across the ohio river from louisville
there he lived until 1809 when he suffered a stroke and fell into an open fire and his right
leg was severely burned resulting in it being amputated he then moved in with one of his sisters
near louisville and in 1818 he suffered another stroke and died shortly after on february 13th
1818 at the age of 65. so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching