(#164227) VINCENNES: PORTAL TO THE WEST. August Derleth.

VINCENNES: PORTAL TO THE WEST. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. Prentice-Hall, Inc., [1968]. Octavo, pp. [i-viii] ix [x-xii] 1-210 [211: "about the author"] [212: colophon], illustrations, two-part cloth. First edition. "It is said -- quite truthfully -- that the only event of significance that took place at the fort in Vincennes was its capture by George Rogers Clark and his ragged army in 1779. But the importance of that single event can hardly be exaggerated, for it saved the Northwest Territory for the United States, and the forced march Clark and his men made through bitter winter terrain in order to accomplish it is surely one of the great heroic deeds of American history. If it had not been for George Rogers Clark, a very great part of the American heartland might today be under another flag. It is an ironic circumstance that, after its dramatic part in the American Revolution, the fort at Vincennes played no significant role in the nation's history ... This book, is, accordingly, a straightforward account of the forts at Vincennes, from the founding of the first fort in 1732, to the abandonment of the third Fort Knox in 1816, after the frontier that Clark had helped to carry to the Mississippi had been pushed farther west, one in which the role of the fort -- after Clark -- was rather a supporting one all too frequently played well behind the front." - Derleth, "Preface." Part of "The American Forts Series." A fine copy in fine price-clipped dust jacket. (#164227).

Price: $100.00

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