In the third year of the American War for Independence, Lt. Col. George Rogers Clark and his army of 170 Virginia volunteers camped 5 miles southeast of here. On July 2, 1778, Clark made the fourth of five camps on his march from Fort Massac to Kaskaskia. Two days later Clark liberated Kaskaskia, and then moved east to Vincennes, thus securing the Illinois Territory from the British and their Indian allies.