As Wayne prepared to advance in 1794, he was ordered by Knox on 31 March to build and man a fortification on the site of Fort Massac. This was to prevent any action against Spain by the French Revolutionary Legion, a force under George Rogers Clark that was recruiting at the same time. Wayne sent an infantry company under Thomas Doyle and four artillery pieces to Fort Massac in May after receiving word that Spain had sent five gunboats up the Mississippi River as far as the Ohio River.