is report was presented and the resolutions
agreed to by the House on November 22, 1781. Three days later, a bill in
accordance with the resolution was presented. The consideration of the
bill in a committee of the whole House was postponed from day to day until
December 14, when it was considered and the question being upon
engrossment and advancement to a third reading, it passed in the
negative.(60) On January 5, 1782, the General Assembly adjourned, and the
County of Illinois ceased to exist.(61) So far as instituting a civil
government was concerned, the county was a failure. Its military history
shows a mixture of American, British, French, and Spanish efforts at
mastery.

The first important military operation in which the County of Illinois was
concerned, after the well-known movements of Clark and Hamilton, was
organized by the British at Detroit in compliance with a circular letter
from Lord George Germain. The plan was to attack St. Louis, the French
settlements near it on the east side of the Mississippi, Vincennes, Fort
Nelson at the falls of the Ohio, and Kentucky. Large use was to be made of
Indians, and British emissaries were busy among the tribes early in 1780.
An expedition was to be led against Kentucky, while diversions should be
made at outlying posts. It was thought that the reduction of St. Louis
would present little difficulty, because it was known to be unfortified,
and was reported to be garrisoned by but twenty men. In addition to this,
it was regarded as an easy matter to use Indians against the place from
the circumstance that many Indians frequented it. Less assurance was felt
as to holding the place after it should have been captured, and to make
this easier, it was proposed to appeal to the cupidity of the British fur
traders. By the middle of February, a war-party had been sent out from
Michilimackinac to arouse and act with the Sioux Indians, and early the
next month another party was sent out to engage Indians to attack St.
Louis and the Illinois towns. Seven hundred and fifty traders, servants,
and Indians having been collected, on the 2d of May they started down the
Mississippi, and at the lead mines, near the present Galena, seventeen
Spanish and American prisoners were taken. In conjunction with this
expedition, another, with a chosen band of Indians and French, was to
advance by way of Chicago and the Illinois River; a third was to guard the
prairies between the Wabash and the Ill