4] 1736-1818._=

From "Memoirs" of the War in the South.

=_115._= CLARKE'S SERVICES AGAINST THE INDIANS.

JOHN RODGERS CLARKE, colonel in the service of Virginia, against our
neighbors the Indians in the revolutionary war, was among our best
soldiers, and better acquainted with the Indian warfare than any officer
in our army. This gentleman, after one of his campaigns, met in Richmond
several of our cavalry officers, and devoted all his leisure in
ascertaining from them the various uses to which horse were applied,
as well as the manner of such application. The information he acquired
determined him to introduce this species of force against the Indians,
as that of all others the most effectual.

By himself, by Pickens, and lately by Wayne, was the accuracy of
Clarke's opinion justified....

The Indians, when fighting with infantry, are very daring. This temper
of mind results from his consciousness of his superior fleetness; which,
together with his better knowledge of woods, assures to him extrication
out of difficulties, though desperate. This is extinguished when he
finds that, he is to save himself from the pursuit of horse, and with
its extinction falls that habitual boldness.

[Footnote 34: In the revolutionary war he was distinguished as a cavalry
officer, and subsequently, in political life, as a writer and speaker.]

* * * * *

=_116._= THE CAREER OF CAPTAIN KIRKWOOD.

The State of Delaware furnished one regiment only; and certainly no
regiment in the army surpassed it in soldiership. The remnant of that
corps, less thaw two companies, from the battle of Camden, was commanded
by Captain Kirkwood, who passed through the war with high reputation;
and yet, as the line of Delaware consisted of but one regiment, and
that regiment was reduced to a captain's command. Kirkwood never
could be promoted in regular routine--a very glaring defect in the
organization of the army, as it gave advantages to parts of the same
army denied to other portions of it. The sequel is singularly hard.
Kirkwood retired, upon peace, as a captain; and when the army under St.
Clair was raised to defend the west from the Indian enemy, this veteran
resumed his sword as the eldest captain in the oldest regiment.

In the decisive defeat of the 4th of November,[35] the gallant
Kirkwood fell, bravely sustaining his point of the action. It was the
thirty-third time he had risked his life for his country;