Illinois Campaign - Aftermath

Aftermath

Clark had high hopes after his recapture of Vincennes. "This stroke", he said, "will nearly put an end to the Indian War." In the coming years of the war, Clark attempted to organize a campaign against Detroit, but each time the expedition was called off because of insufficient men and supplies. Meanwhile, settlers began to pour into Kentucky after hearing news of Clark's victory. In 1779, Virginia opened a land office to register claims in Kentucky, and settlements such as Louisville were established.

After learning of Clark's initial occupation of the Illinois country, Virginia had claimed the region, establishing Illinois County, Virginia in December 1778. In early 1781, Virginia resolved to hand the region over to the central government, paving the way for the final ratification of the Articles of Confederation. These lands became the Northwest Territory of the United States.

The Illinois campaign was funded in large part by local residents and merchants of the Illinois country. Although Clark submitted his receipts to Virginia, many of these men were never reimbursed. Some of the major contributors, such as Father Gibault, François Riday Busseron, Charles Gratiot, and Francis Vigo, would never receive payment during their lifetime, and would be reduced to poverty. However, Clark and his soldiers were given land across from Louisville. This Clark's Grant was based from what is now Clarksville, Indiana and formed much of what would become Clark and eastern Floyd County, Indiana.

In 1789, Clark began to write an account of the Illinois campaign at the request of John Brown and other members of the United States Congress, who were then deliberating how to administer the Northwest Territory. The Memoir, as it usually known, was not published in Clark's lifetime; although used by historians in the 19th century, it was not published in its entirety until 1896, in William Hayden English's Conquest of the Northwest. The Memoir formed the basis of two popular novels, Alice of Old Vincennes (1900) by Maurice Thompson, and The Crossing (1904) by American novelist Winston Churchill. The Illinois campaign was also depicted in Long Knife, a 1979 historical novel by James Alexander Thom. The United States Navy has named four ships USS Vincennes in honor of that battle.

The debate about whether George Rogers Clark "conquered" the Northwest Territory for the United States began soon after the Revolutionary War ended, when the government worked to sort out land claims and war debts. In July 1783, Governor Benjamin Harrison thanked Clark for "wresting so great and valuable a territory out of the hands of the British Enemy...." In the 19th century and into the mid-20th century, Clark was frequently referred to as the "Conqueror of the Northwest" in history books. In the 20th century, however, some historians began to doubt that interpretation, arguing that because resource shortages compelled Clark to recall his troops from the Illinois country before the end of the war, and because most American Indians remained undefeated, there was no "conquest" of the Northwest. It was further argued that Clark's activities had no effect on the boundary negotiations in Europe. In 1940, historian Randolph Downes wrote, "It is misleading to say that Clark 'conquered' the Old Northwest, or that he 'captured' Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes. It would be more accurate to say that he assisted the French and Indian inhabitants of that region to remove themselves from the very shadowy political rule of the British."