2211. DETROIT, Instructions to Gen. Clark.—
A powerful army forming by our enemies
in the south renders it necessary for us
to reserve as much of our militia as possible,
free to act in that quarter. At the same time,
we have reason to believe that a very extensive
combination of British and Indian savages is
preparing to invest our western frontier. To
prevent the cruel murders and devastations
which attend the latter species of war, and at
the same time to prevent its producing a powerful
diversion of our force from the southern
quarter, in which they mean to make their principal
effort, and where alone success can be
decisive of their ultimate object, it becomes
necessary that we aim the first stroke in the
western country, and throw the enemy under
the embarrassments of a defensive war rather
than labor under them ourselves. We have
therefore, determined that an expedition shall
be undertaken, under your command, at a very
early season of the approaching year, into the
hostile country beyond the Ohio, the principal
object of which is to be the reduction of the
British post at Detroit, and, incidental to it, the
acquiring possession of Lake Erie.—
To General George Rogers Clark.
Ford ed., ii, 383.
(R.
Dec. 25, 1780)
