The monument is massive and honors General George Rogers Clark who led a near impossible attack against the British fort, Fort Saukville during the Revolutionary War. He was severely under-manned with his volunteer, frontiersmen army and in order to reach the fort, they had to travel for days at a time wading up to their shoulders in the icy Wabash River. The battle sounded treacherous and the eventual British surrender opened the way for expansion into the Northwest Territory. Many years later at the dedication of this memorial, Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to it as "...a campaign that was a brilliant masterpiece of military strategy." The amazing thing ~ General Clark was only 26 years old when he led the forces.
This historic site was the perfect place to get out of the car, stretch a bit, and learn something new ~ fun!!
Here the girls are getting their Junior Ranger badges for completing their workbooks. I explained near the bottom of this post here, why we love the Junior Program so much.
Another interesting thing we learned here {on our first visit to the site over six years ago} is that George Rogers Clark is one of six brothers, including the explorer William Clark, of Lewis and Clark. All of the brothers had a huge impact as explorers, frontiersmen and military leaders during the time of the Revolutionary War and the years that directly followed. Since learning about his family, I have often thought about the incredible plan that God had for them and all that he accomplished through this one family. And how different the course of American history could have been if this family had never existed, or if their parents hadn't raised their sons in a way that equipped them for this kind of leadership. Amazing!
Just for fun...a collage of photos from our last visit to Vincennes in 2006, about a month before Rebekah was born.
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