Illinois Campaign - Planning The Campaign

Planning The Campaign

Because the Kentucky settlers lacked the authority, manpower, and supplies to launch the expedition themselves, in October 1777 Clark traveled to Williamsburg via the Wilderness Road to meet with Governor Henry, joining along the way a party of about 100 settlers who were leaving Kentucky because of the Indian raids. Clark presented his plan to Governor Henry on December 10, 1777. To maintain secrecy, Clark's proposal was only shared with a small group of influential Virginians, including Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and George Wythe. Although Henry initially expressed doubts about whether the campaign was feasible, Clark managed to win the confidence of Henry and the others. The plan was approved by the members of the Virginia General Assembly, who were only given vague details about the expedition. Publicly, Clark was authorized to raise men for the defense of Kentucky. In a secret set of instructions from Governor Henry, Clark was instructed to capture Kaskaskia and then proceed as he saw fit.

Governor Henry commissioned Clark as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia and authorized him to raise seven militia companies, each to contain fifty men. This unit, later known as the Illinois Regiment, was a Virginia state unit and thus not a part of the Continental Army, the national army of the United States during the Revolutionary War. The men were enlisted to serve for three months after they reached Kentucky. To maintain secrecy, Clark did not tell any of his recruits that the purpose of the expedition was to invade the Illinois country. To raise men and purchase supplies, Clark was given £1,200 in Continental currency, which was badly depreciated at the time.

Clark established his headquarters at Redstone Old Fort on the Monongahela River, while three of Clark's associates from Dunmore's War, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm, and William Harrod, each began to recruit men. Clark commissioned Captain William Bailey Smith as a major, and gave him £150 to recruit four companies in the Holston River valley and then meet Clark in Kentucky.

For a variety of reasons, Clark was unable to raise all 350 men authorized for the Illinois Regiment. His recruiters had to compete with recruiters from the Continental Army and from other militia units. Some believed that Kentucky was too sparsely inhabited to warrant the diversion of manpower, and recommended that it should be evacuated rather than defended. Settlers in the Holston valley were more concerned with Cherokees to the south than with Indians north of the Ohio, and were reluctant to enlist in operations to the north. Although some Pennsylvanians enlisted in the Illinois Regiment, the longstanding boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia meant that few Pennsylvanians volunteered for what was perceived as a campaign to protect Virginia territory.