George Rogers Clark

Part of collection housed at the Virginia State Library known as the Illinois Papers or Clark Papers.

George Rogers Clark (1752–1818) led four victorious campaigns against the Indians and British in the Ohio Valley during the American Revolution, but his most astonishing coup was recapturing Fort Sackville in 1779, when he was only twenty-six. For eighteen days, in the dead of winter, Clark and his troops marched through bone-chilling nights to reach the fort. With a deft mix of guile and violence, Clark led his men to triumph, without losing a single soldier. Although historians have ranked him among the greatest rebel commanders, Clark’s name is all but forgotten today. William R. Nester resurrects the story of Clark’s triumphs and his downfall in this, the first full biography of the man in more than fifty years. Nester attributes Clark’s successes to his drive and daring, good luck, charisma, and intellect. Born of a distinguished Virginia family, Clark wielded an acute understanding of human nature, both as a commander and as a diplomat. His interest in the natural world was an inspiration to lifelong friend Thomas Jefferson, who asked him in 1784 to lead a cross-country expedition to the Pacific and back. Clark turned Jefferson down. Two decades later, his youngest brother, William, would become the Clark celebrated as a member of the Corps of Discovery. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, though, George Rogers Clark may not have been fit to command any expedition. After the revolution, he raged against the government and pledged fealty to other nations, leading to his arrest under the Sedition Act. The inner demons that fueled Clark’s anger also drove him to excessive drinking. He died at the age of sixty-five, bitter, crippled, and alcoholic. He was, Nester shows, a self-destructive hero: a volatile, multidimensional man whose glorying in war ultimately engaged him in conflicts far removed from the battlefield and against himself.

Many people do not realize that there were two theaters of warfare during the American Revolution. One was in the east, with George Washington and his Continental Army. The other was in the west, with George Rogers Clark and his spirited volunteers trying to hold off the British and their Native American allies.The story of George Rogers Clark is one of courage, bravery, and daring in the face of overwhelming odds. Often finding himself in what appeared to be a hopeless situation, Clark used skill and ingenuity to improvise his way to repeated victories. He was the fabled Long Knife, known far and wide not only for his brutality but also for his honesty and bravery. His victories played a key part in helping America win the War of Independence.

"In three days the number of so-called 'volunteers' reached over three hundred men. Very quickly they organized us into military units. Just like that I became a North Korean soldier and was on the way to some unknown place." -- from the book South Korean Lee Young Ho was seventeen years old when he was forced to serve in the North Korean People's Army during the first year of the Korean War. After a few months, he deserted the NKPA and returned to Seoul where he joined the South Korean Marine Corps. Ho's experience is only one of the many compelling accounts found in Voices from the Korean War. Unique in gathering war stories from veterans from all sides of the Korean War -- American, South Korean, North Korean, and Chinese -- this volume creates a vivid and multidimensional portrait of the three-year-long conflict told by those who experienced the ground war firsthand. Richard Peters and Xiaobing Li include a significant introduction that provides a concise history of the Korean conflict, as well as a geographical and a political backdrop for the soldiers' personal stories.

This dual biography focuses on the lives of two very different men who fought for and settled the American West and whose vision secured the old Northwest Territory for the new nation. The two represented contrasting American experiences: famed military leader George Rogers Clark was from the Virginia planter class. William Croghan was an Irish immigrant with tight family ties to the British in America. Yet their lives would intersect in ways that would make independence and western settlement possible. The war experiences of Clark and Croghan epitomize the American course of the Revolution. Croghan fought in the Revolutionary War at Trenton and spent the winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge with George Washington and LaFayette before being taken prisoner at Charleston. Clark, known as the "Hannibal of the West," was famous for his victorious Illinois campaign against the British and as an Indian fighter. Following the war, Croghan became Clark's deputy surveyor of military lands for the Virginia State Line, enabling him to acquire some 54,000 acres on the edge of the American frontier. Croghan's marriage to Lucy Clark, George Rogers Clark's sister, solidified his position in society. Clark, however, was regularly called by Virginia and the federal government to secure peace in the Ohio River Valley, leading to his financial ruin and emotional decline. Croghan remained at Clark's side throughout it all, even as he prospered in the new world they had fought to create, while Clark languished. These men nevertheless worked and eventually lived together, bound by the familial connections they shared and a political ideology honed by the Revolution.

Part of the Young Patriots series, which includes Amelia Earhart, Young Air Pioneer (1882859049), Juliette Low, Girl Scout Founder (188285909X), and William Henry Harrison, Young Tippecanoe (1882859073) ''Hook kids on history with the Young Patriots series!' - Learning Magazine This biography details the childhood adventures of George Rogers Clark, the older brother of William Clark of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. George was a courageous explorer and Revolutionary War hero whose bravery and leadership helped win the Battle of Vincennes, saving what would become Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin from British occupation. Georges boyhood curiosity and zest for exploration are described, including his adventures while camping, riding horses, and playing with his childhood friend Thomas Jefferson. Young explorers follow George into the woods, where he rescues a baby raccoon, outwits a hapless thief, saves a money bag, and hunts his first deer. Special features include a summary of Clark's adult accomplishments, fun facts detailing little-known tidbits of information about Clark, and a timeline.

La Louisiane--a land of riches beyond imagining. Whoever controls the vast domain along the Mississippi River will decide the fate of the North American continent. When young French diplomat Citizen Genet arrives in America, he's determined to wrest Louisiana away from Spain and win it back for France--even if it means global war. Caught up this astonishing scheme are George Rogers Clark, the washed-up hero of the Revolution and unlikely commander of Genet's renegade force; his beautiful sister Fanny, who risks her own sanity to save her brother's soul; General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, who never imagined he'd find the country's deadliest enemy inside his own army; and two young soldiers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who dream of claiming the Western territory in the name of the United States--only to become the pawns of those who seek to destroy it. From the frontier forts of Ohio to the elegant halls of Philadelphia, the virgin forests of Kentucky to the mansions of Natchez, Frances Hunter has written a page-turning tale of ambition, intrigue, and the birth of a legendary American friendship--in a time when America was fighting to survive.

A legend. A warrior. A hero. A classic American epic. Two centuries ago, with the support of the young Revolutionary government, George Rogers Clark led a small but fierce army west from Virginia to conquer all the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He battled the British, forged friendships with French and Spanish settlers, and made treaties with many Indian tribes who revered the lanky, red-haired white man and called him Long Knife. He fell in love with the woman of his dreams, the beautiful Spanish maiden Teresa de Leyba. And George Rogers Clark was, in the end, bitterly betrayed by the same government he had so nobly served. Rich in the heroic characters, meticulously researched detail, and grand scale that have become James Alexander Thom’s trademarks, Long Knife, his first historical epic, is simply unforgettable.