The French Revolutionary Legion on the Mississippi was an American mercenary force commissioned by leaders of Revolutionary France in 1793. Its purpose was to reassert French influence in the North American interior, which was lost in the Treaty of Paris (1763).
Edmond-Charles Genêt, the French ambassador to the United States, created the French Revolutionary Legion in response to outrage against Spain. Genêt hoped to rally the ethnic French of the western United States, as well as traditional French allies among the Native American nations. [1] Genêt sent André Michaux and two French artillery officers [2] to Kentucky and commissioned George Rogers Clark as "Major General in the Armies of France and Commander-in-chief of the French Revolutionary Legion on the Mississippi River". [3] Clark began to organize a campaign to seize New Madrid, St. Louis, Natchez, and New Orleans, in Louisiana, in order to gain free navigation on the Mississippi River. He also planned to add the "fair star of Canada". [4] Genêt dispatched the Little Democrat to establish a blockade at New Orleans. [5] Clark won the tacit support of Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby, [6] who when pressed by the Washington administration to arrest Clark, responded with doubts that he had "any legal authority to restrain or to punish them." [7] Thomas Jefferson officially protested the Legion's violation of U.S. neutrality, but suggested that the campaign would be in the best interests of the United States. [8] Clark advertised in the Centinel of the Northwest Territory that anyone who served with the French Legion would be granted 1,000 to 3,000 acres of conquered lands, depending on the years of service; and all plunder would be divided. [9] Clark was able to raise two infantry regiments, [10] and was prepared to launch his campaign when it was cancelled by another French official. [11]
President George Washington was angered by Genêt's lack of diplomatic tact, and demanded his recall in December 1793. [12] In February 1794, a new ambassador from France, Jean Antoine Joseph Fauchet, arrived in Philadelphia with an arrest warrant for Genêt. [13] On March 4, Fauchet issued an order cancelling the expedition into Louisiana. Clark and Shelby continued their preparations, however, so President Washington issued a Proclamation of Neutrality on March 24 which forbid Americans from invading Spain. On March 31, Secretary of War Henry Knox ordered General Anthony Wayne to build a fortification on the site of Fort Massac to stop the expedition. [13] Wayne sent a company of infantry and some artillery to Fort Massac in May after receiving word that Spain had sent five gunboats up the Mississippi to the Ohio River. [14] The French government revoked the commissions granted to the Americans for the war against Spain. By July, the French Revolutionary Legion had dispersed. [15] Clark's planned campaign collapsed, and he was unable to convince the French to reimburse him for his expenses. [16]
Brigadier General James Wilkinson, 2nd in command of the Legion of the United States, claimed credit for undermining Clark and for preventing supplies from being shipped down the Ohio River. He submitted receipts of $8,640 to Spanish Governor Carondelet for his efforts. [12]
France issued a new commission to Clark in 1796. [17] The plan to invade Louisiana was revisited in 1798, but failed to yield any results. [18] The French First Republic, under Napoleon Bonaparte, gained possession of the territory in the 1800 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. It was purchased by the United States in 1803.
In October 1793, a similar force was raised in South Carolina. French Consul Michel Ange Bernard Mangourit wanted to capture Florida from Spain and then assist Clark in the invasion of Louisiana. He commissioned William Tate as a French Colonel to lead this force. Tate's deputy commander was Stephen Drayton, the personal secretary to Governor William Moultrie. [19] Tate was instructed to recruit from outside the United States, [20] but he recruited from the region of the Carolinas, especially rural settlers. [21] He is known to have attracted sixty-six officers, but claimed to have raised more than 2,000 volunteers. [21] Like Clark, Tate's commission was rescinded by Fauchet. South Carolina threatened to arrest Tate for treason, and he fled to France in 1795, [22] where he was given command of the Légion Noire during the 1797 invasion of Britain that ended with the Battle of Fishguard.
The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance, it was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory.
James Wilkinson was an American soldier / officer, politician, and later discovered to be Royal Spanish secret agent #13, who was associated with multiple scandals and controversies, including the Burr conspiracy.
The Illinois campaign, also known as Clark's Northwestern campaign, was a series of engagements during the American Revolutionary War in which a small force of Virginia militia led by George Rogers Clark seized control of several British posts in the Illinois Country of the Province of Quebec, located in modern-day Illinois and Indiana in the Midwestern United States. The campaign is the best-known action of the western theater of the war and the source of Clark's reputation as an early American military hero.
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.
Isaac Shelby was the first and fifth Governor of Kentucky and served in the state legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina. He was also a soldier in Lord Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. While governor, he led the Kentucky militia in the Battle of the Thames, an action that was rewarded with a Congressional Gold Medal. Counties in nine states, and several cities and military bases, have been named in his honor. His fondness for John Dickinson's "The Liberty Song" is believed to be the reason Kentucky adopted the state motto "United we stand, divided we fall".
The Legion of the United States was a reorganization and extension of the United States Army from 1792 to 1796 under the command of Major General Anthony Wayne. It represented a political shift in the new United States, which had recently adopted the United States Constitution. The new Congressional and Executive branches authorized a standing army composed of professional soldiers rather than relying on state militias.
Edmond-Charles Genêt, also known as Citizen Genêt, was the French envoy to the United States appointed by the Girondins during the French Revolution. His actions on arriving in the United States led to a major political and international incident, which was termed the Citizen Genêt affair. Because of his actions, President George Washington asked the French government to recall him. The Montagnards, having risen to power at the same time, replaced Genêt and issued a warrant for his arrest. Fearing for his life, Genêt asked for asylum in America, which was granted by Washington. Genêt stayed in the United States until his death. Historian Carol Berkin argues that the Genêt affair bolstered popular respect for the president and strengthened his role in dealing with foreign affairs.
Fort Massac is a French colonial and early National-era fort on the Ohio River in Massac County, Illinois, United States.
Victor Collot, in full Georges Henri Victor Collot, was a French military officer who served in the New World in various capacities, among them as Governor of Guadeloupe.
Chef de brigadeWilliam Tate was the Irish-born American commander of a French invasion force known as La Légion Noire which invaded Britain in 1797, resulting in the Battle of Fishguard.
Bird's invasion of Kentucky was one phase of an extensive planned series of operations planned by the British in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, whereby the entire West, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, was to be swept clear of both Spanish and American forces. While Bird's campaign met with limited success, raiding two fortified settlements, it ultimately failed in its primary objective. Other British operations that were part of the plan also failed.
Three Flags Day commemorates March 9, and 10, 1804, when Spain officially completed turning over the Louisiana colonial territory to France, which then officially turned over the same lands to the United States, in order to finalize the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
"Indian Reserve" is a historical term for the largely uncolonized land in North America that was claimed by France, ceded to Great Britain through the Treaty of Paris (1763) at the end of the Seven Years' War—also known as the French and Indian War—and set aside for the First Nations in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The British government had contemplated establishing an Indian barrier state in a portion of the reserve west of the Appalachian Mountains, bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes. British officials aspired to establish such a state even after the region was assigned to the United States in the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the American Revolutionary War, but abandoned their efforts in 1814 after losing military control of the region during the War of 1812.
Fort Jefferson was a town on the Mississippi River, about one mile south of Wickliffe, Kentucky in southwestern Ballard County.
John Duff, born John McElduff, or John Michael McElduff, because early court records referred to him as John Michael Duff, was a counterfeiter, criminal gang leader, horse thief, cattle thief, hog thief, salt maker, longhunter, scout, and soldier who assisted in George Rogers Clark's campaign to capture the Illinois country for the American rebel side during the Revolutionary War.
Edward Worthington was an Irish-born American frontiersman, hunter, surveyor and soldier who explored and later helped settle the Kentucky frontier. A veteran of the American Revolutionary War and the American Indian Wars, he also served as a paymaster under George Rogers Clark during the Illinois campaign. His grandson, William H. Worthington, was an officer with the 5th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Historian and author, Kathleen L. Lodwick is a direct descendant of Edward Worthington.
Events from the year 1793 in the United States.
Events from the year 1794 in the United States.
The history of U.S. foreign policy from 1776 to 1801 concerns the foreign policy of the United States during the twenty five years after the United States Declaration of Independence (1776). For the first half of this period, the U.S. f8, U.S. foreign policy was conducted by the presidential administrations of George Washington and John Adams. The inauguration of Thomas Jefferson in 1801 marked the start of the next era of U.S. foreign policy.
Benjamin O'Fallon (1793–1842) was an Indian agent along the upper areas of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. He interacted with Native Americans as a trader and Indian agent. He was against British trappers and traders operating in the United States and territories. He believed that the military should have taken a strong stance against the British and firm in negotiations with Native Americans. Despite his brash manner and contention with the military, he was able to negotiate treaties between native and white Americans. In his early and later careers, he built gristmills, was a retailer, and a planter. He collected Native American artifacts and paintings of tribe members by George Catlin. His uncle William Clark was his guardian and financial backer.