American Troops Arrive at Kaskaskia

The towns of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, while marginally controlled by the British military, were made up of many French inhabitants who had stayed in the area, even though the French government had given up ownership of the land to the British in the Treaty of Paris. Clark’s arrival with his American forces scared Gibault and his fellow French inhabitants at Kaskaskia. Gibault soon boldly approached Clark to beg for mercy for his people. Clark remembered it this way:

 “After some time, the priest got permission to wait on me....The priest informed me...that, as the inhabitants expected to be separated, never, perhaps, to meet again, they begged, through him, that they might be permitted to spend some time in the church, to take their leave of each other. I knew they expected their very religion was obnoxious to us....The whole town seemed to have collected to the church; infants were carried, and the houses generally left without a person in them...”

After explaining to Gibault that the Americans did not want to hurt the inhabitants and that “all religions would be tolerated,” Clark also informed him “... that as the king of France had joined the Americans, there was a probability of there shortly being an end to the war” and that they “were at liberty to take which side they pleased, without any dread of losing their property or having their families destroyed.” 

 Gibault rushed to assure his people that Clark’s army was not going to take them as captivates or burn down their villages but instead, let them live in peace, and continue their Catholic religious traditions. They celebrated openly in the streets and vowed to back the Americans.