George Rogers Clark was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the Virginia militia in Kentucky throughout much of the war. He is best known for his captures of Kaskaskia in 1778 and Vincennes in 1779 during the Illinois campaign, which greatly weakened British influence in the Northwest Territory and earned Clark the nickname of "Conqueror of the Old Northwest". The British ceded the entire Northwest Territory to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
1825 portrait by James Barton Longacre
Depiction of George Rogers Clark recapturing Fort Sackville at the Battle of Vincennes on US postage stamp, 1929 issue
Clark's march to Vincennes was the most celebrated event of his career; it has been often depicted, as in this illustration by F. C. Yohn
Virginia Land Office warrant to Clark for 560 acres for having raised a battalion to fight in the Revolutionary War. January 1780
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a military conflict that was part of the broader American Revolution, where American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army.
Clockwise from top left: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis after the Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Trenton, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Long Island, and the Battle of Guilford Court House
The Committee of Five, who were charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence, including (from left to right): John Adams (chair), Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson (the Declaration's principal author), and Benjamin Franklin
The British repulse a Continental Army attack at the Battle of Quebec in December 1775
Sergeant William Jasper of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment raises the fort's flag at the Battle of Sullivan's Island in Charleston, South Carolina in June 1776