1779%20The%20War%20in%20the%20West%20The%20War%20at%20Sea

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1779 The War in the WestThe War at Sea
George Rogers Clark statue in Louisville
John Paul Jones
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George Rogers Clark

• Began exploring west in what is now Kentucky in
  1772 (VA territory)
• Became militia leader for small settlements
  formed in the region
• Founded settlement later to be Louisville, KY
  (5/78)
• Clarksville, In

• Clark as painted by Matthew Harris Jouett in 1825

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Clarks War in the West

• British had allied with native tribes and were
  raiding small American settlements
• British General Henry Hair Buyer Hamilton was
  paying Indians to bring back colonial scalps
• Clark devised a plan to raise an army and capture
  the British forts on the frontier
• Captured Fort Kaskaskia (Illinois) in July of
  1778
• On Mississippi River, near St. Louis
• Marched 120 miles through rapids, swamp, forest
  to surprise British
• Captured without firing a shot

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Battle of Vincennes

• February 2325, 1779
• Clark and 170 militiamen/French surround Fort
  Sackville in Vincennes, IN
• British numbered approx. 100 including local
  French/natives

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Battle of Vincennes

• Clark and his men continued marching around the
  fort waving extra flags
• Riflemen rapidly shot at the fort
• Fooled British into thinking that they had 1000
  men
• Natives fled
• Clark offered surrender, but British refused
  terms
• Clark then tomahawked two captured natives in
  front of the fort
• British General Hamilton would surrender on the
  25th

The Fall of Fort Sackville by Fredrick C. Yorn
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Conqueror of the Northwest

• George Rogers Clarks goal is to take Fort
  Detroit, the western British headquarters
• He could never get enough men to attack
• His raids on British forts in the Ohio Country,
  his occupation of the Illinois territory, and his
  capture of General Hamilton would all greatly
  weaken the British army in the west
• Conqueror of the Northwest

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The Battle at Sea

• British had the strongest navy in the world and
  hundreds of ships at their disposal
• Americans had 8 ships in 1776
• Resorted to raiding individual ships

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John Paul Jones

• John Paul Jones proved himself as the strongest
  of the new American sailors
• Scottish captain who immigrated to Virginia in
  1773 to escape the law
• Captured Mellish in Lake Superior during Nov.
  1776
• Defeated HMS Drake off coast of Ireland on April
  24th, 1778
• First American naval victory in British Waters

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The Poor Richard

• Jones was friends with Ben Franklin, who lobbied
  for the French to provide him with a new vessel
• French were impressed, and in 1779, gave Jones a
  small fleet to command
• He named his new ship the Bonhomme Richard, after
  Ben Franklins Poor Richards Almanac

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Battle of Flamborough Head -I have not yet
begun to fight!

• On September 23, 1779, Jones and his fleet
  engaged two British warships off the English
  coast
• HMS Serapis vs. USS Bonomme Richard
• The Serapis inflicted heavy damage to Joness
  ship
• The Bonhomme Richard was on fire and sinking and
  her flag had been shot down
• When asked if he was surrendering, Jones replied,
  I have not yet begun to fight!
• He would ram the Serapis, lock the ships
  together, clear the decks with his sharpshooters,
  and force surrender within 3 hours just before
  his own ship sank
• The most famous American Naval victory of the war
  

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"Action Between the Serapis and Bonhomme Richard"
- Richard Paton
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Father of the US Navy
The marble and bronze sarcophagus of John Paul
Jones at the USNA in Annapolis, MD is guarded by
Midshipmen 24-hours a day, 365 days a year
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Spain Enters the War

• Spanish enter war as ally of France
• Bernado de Galvéz
• Governor of Spanish Louisiana
• Closed Mississppi River to British
• Conquered British Forts in the Mississippi valley
  and Florida