The British sent out a force from Detroit to try to check the efforts of Clark, but in February, 1779, the indomitable frontiersman surprised and captured this force at Vincennes on the Wabash.

Thus did Clark's two hundred famished and ragged men take possession of the Northwest, and, when peace was made, this vast domain, an empire in extent, fell to the United States.
Clark's exploit is one of the pregnant romances of history.

* * See Chapters III and IV in "The Old Northwest" by Frederic Austin Ogg in "The Chronicles of America".
Perhaps the most sorrowful phase of the Revolution was the internal conflict waged between its friends and its enemies in America, where neighbor fought against neighbor.

During this pitiless struggle the strength of the Loyalists tended steadily to decline; and they came at last to be regarded everywhere by triumphant revolution as a vile people who should bear the penalties of outcasts.

In this attitude towards them Boston had given a lead which the rest of the country eagerly followed.
To coerce Loyalists local committees sprang up everywhere.