Gwynne Tuell Potts
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813178677
- eISBN:
- 9780813178707
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178677.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This is a story of greed, adventure and settlement; of causes won and lost. The book’s theme is eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century conflict and settlement in the Ohio River valley, told within ...
More
This is a story of greed, adventure and settlement; of causes won and lost. The book’s theme is eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century conflict and settlement in the Ohio River valley, told within the context of the national and international events that led to the American Revolution and guided Kentucky’s postwar future.“Colonel” George Croghan serves as the exemplar of Britain’s trans-Appalachian experience.
The Revolution was fought in three theaters; the northern belonged to George Washington, and among his officers was Croghan’s nephew, Major William Croghan. The major joined the southern theater at the moment the Continental Army surrendered to Britain in Charleston. The third theater was the Revolution in the West, and its leader was Virginia colonel, later general, George Rogers Clark, whose vision secured the old Northwest Territory for the new nation. Taken together, the war adventures of Clark and Croghan epitomize the American course of the Revolution.
Croghan and Clark arrived at the Falls of the Ohio River after the Revolutionto survey the land that served as payment for Virginia’s soldiers. Clark, however, regularly was called by Virginia and the federal government to secure peace in the Ohio River valley, leading to his financial ruin and emotional decline. Croghan, his partner and brother-in-law, remained at Clark’s side throughout it all, even as he prospered in the new world they had fought to create, while Clark languished.Less
This is a story of greed, adventure and settlement; of causes won and lost. The book’s theme is eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century conflict and settlement in the Ohio River valley, told within the context of the national and international events that led to the American Revolution and guided Kentucky’s postwar future.“Colonel” George Croghan serves as the exemplar of Britain’s trans-Appalachian experience.
The Revolution was fought in three theaters; the northern belonged to George Washington, and among his officers was Croghan’s nephew, Major William Croghan. The major joined the southern theater at the moment the Continental Army surrendered to Britain in Charleston. The third theater was the Revolution in the West, and its leader was Virginia colonel, later general, George Rogers Clark, whose vision secured the old Northwest Territory for the new nation. Taken together, the war adventures of Clark and Croghan epitomize the American course of the Revolution.
Croghan and Clark arrived at the Falls of the Ohio River after the Revolutionto survey the land that served as payment for Virginia’s soldiers. Clark, however, regularly was called by Virginia and the federal government to secure peace in the Ohio River valley, leading to his financial ruin and emotional decline. Croghan, his partner and brother-in-law, remained at Clark’s side throughout it all, even as he prospered in the new world they had fought to create, while Clark languished.
Gwynne Tuell Potts
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813178677
- eISBN:
- 9780813178707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178677.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Born in Dublin,William Croghan probably arrived in North America as an adolescent British officer. He organized the Tenthcompany of the EighthVirginia Regiment in Pittsburgh in 1776, but was assigned ...
More
Born in Dublin,William Croghan probably arrived in North America as an adolescent British officer. He organized the Tenthcompany of the EighthVirginia Regiment in Pittsburgh in 1776, but was assigned to another regiment en route to Washington’s army.He arrived in New York just before Washington escaped to White Plains, then Newark and, finally, crossed the Delaware. Croghan was present when Washington saved the Revolution from dissolution at Trenton, and he went on to Princeton and into winter quarters with the Continental Army. Used by Washington as a spy, Croghan fought through the disastrous Brandywine and Germantown battles and saw Philadelphia captured before 1777 concluded.Less
Born in Dublin,William Croghan probably arrived in North America as an adolescent British officer. He organized the Tenthcompany of the EighthVirginia Regiment in Pittsburgh in 1776, but was assigned to another regiment en route to Washington’s army.He arrived in New York just before Washington escaped to White Plains, then Newark and, finally, crossed the Delaware. Croghan was present when Washington saved the Revolution from dissolution at Trenton, and he went on to Princeton and into winter quarters with the Continental Army. Used by Washington as a spy, Croghan fought through the disastrous Brandywine and Germantown battles and saw Philadelphia captured before 1777 concluded.
