End of Glory

Abstract

George Rogers Clark’s job as Virginia’s commander came to a close in July 1783, but he and William Croghan were appointed principal and deputy Virginia State Line surveyors at the conclusion of the Revolution. Their future brother-in-law, Richard Clough Anderson, became the state’s continental line surveyor. The position required their presence at the Falls of the Ohio, near where the bulk of Virginia’s unclaimed lands would be patented as payment for the state’s soldiers. Clark’s work was interrupted by his assignment as a federal Indian Commissioner, sending him to the capital in New York and on to the Ohio River, where he announced a meeting with territorial native leaders. Throughout it all, local merchants made demands for payments associated with Clark’s western campaigns, and Virginia’s governors refused reimbursement, initiating the general’s long downward spiral.