In the Current of the Revolution 113 



that the garrison, seventy-nine men in all, 42 should 

 surrender as prisoners of war. The British com- 

 mander has left on record his bitter mortification at 

 having to yield the fort "to a set of uncivilized Vir- 

 ginia woodsmen armed with rifles." In truth, it 

 was a most notable achievement. Clark had taken, 

 without artillery, a heavy stockade, protected by 

 cannon and swivels, and garrisoned by trained sol- 

 diers. His superiority in numbers was very far 

 from being in itself sufficient to bring about the 

 result, as witness the almost invariable success with 

 which the similar but smaller Kentucky forts, un- 

 provided with artillery and held by fewer men, were 

 defended against much larger forces than Clark's. 

 Much credit belongs to Clark's men, but most be- 

 longs to their leader. The boldness of his plan and 

 the resolute skill with which he followed it out, 

 his perseverance through the intense hardships of 

 the midwinter march, the address with which he 

 kept the French and Indians neutral, and the mas- 

 terful way in which he controlled his own troops, 

 together with the ability and courage he displayed 

 in the actual attack, combined to make his feat 

 the most memorable of all the deeds done west of 

 the Alleghanies in the Revolutionary War. 43 It 



42 Letter to Henry. Hamilton's letter says sixty rank and 

 file of the 8th regiment and Detroit volunteers; the other 

 nineteen were officers and under-officers, artillerymen, and 

 French partisan leaders. The return of the garrison already 

 quoted shows he had between eighty and ninety white troops. 



43 Hamilton himself, at the conclusion of his "brief ac- 

 count," speaks as follows in addressing his superiors: "The 



