=_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.
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