St. Louis fights off British-led raid during American Revolution
ST. LOUIS • The American Revolution was far away from the 700 people of this wilderness trading village. Mostly of French origin, they were little disposed to care about Bunker Hill or Valley Forge.
American commander George Rogers Clark and a small band of frontiersmen had managed to run the lonely British sentries from Cahokia and Kaskaskia in 1778 with little effort or gunfire. Local merchants such as Charles Gratiot rewrote their customer lists, betting on the Americans.
But the war would find St. Louis, at least for a day, because of imperial scheming in Europe. Great Britain wanted to flank the rebellious American colonies and snatch vast Louisiana from Spain, which ruled the former French colony with a soft touch and few troops. Spain saw a chance to grab some of the land east of the Mississippi River from the English, who were distracted by the pesky insurrection on the Seaboard.
In two palaces far away, maps pointed to St. Louis as a place of value.
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