George Rogers Clark’s route to retake Fort Sackville from the British (click to enlarge)
As a result of England’s victory over France in the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the boundaries of the original thirteen colonies were extended from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River, which was the eastern half of France’s Louisiana Territory. This land was populated by various Indian tribes and French people who were allowed to remain on their land in exchange for a pledge of allegiance to England. The French even had to serve in the British military if called upon. (The western half of the Louisiana Territory, from the river to the Rocky Mountains, had secretly been given to Spain by France a year earlier to compensate Spain for its current losses in the global Seven Years War and to keep the Spanish fighting with them.)
England now feared that if colonists started moving into the new territory, they would stir up trouble with the French and the Indians, possibly starting another war. To prevent this, King George III issued the Proclamation Line of 1763 forbidding any such migration. However, this did little to stop the colonists, and as expected, attacks by the local Indians became commonplace.
During the American Revolution, even more colonists moved west to get away from the fighting. Since England was now at war with the colonists, and since it had very few soldiers (less than 500) in the western region due to the main fighting being in the east, the British attempted to stem the flow of settlers into the area by supplying the Indian tribes with weapons and gifts in exchange for stepped-up attacks. Afterall, the Indians didn’t like the colonists any more than the British.
One colonist living in the western territory known as Kentucky Country, where most of the Indian attacks were being carried out, was George Rogers Clark. Feed up with the situation, in late 1777 Clark traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia, to ask Governor Patrick Henry for permission to raise an army to attack former French villages along the Mississippi and Wabash rivers that were being used by the British to supply the Indians with weapons. He ultimately wanted to attack Fort Detroit, headquarters of the British and home to the hated Lieutenant Governor Harry Hamilton, the man behind the Indian attacks.
Patrick Henry was unable to supply any men, but he gave Clark the authority to raise his own army and secret orders—the Continental Congress was not informed—to protect the colonists in the Kentucky Country by attacking the British supply depots in the Illinois Country (the dividing line between the two was the Ohio River). Clark hoped for 500 men but ultimately could only round up 150. The Kentucky militia promised another 200.
Clark and his men were to meet the Kentucky militia at Corn Island on the Ohio River, a 900-mile journey for Clark, who started out near Pittsburgh in May 1778 on boats obtained at Fort Pit. He arrived at Corn Island two weeks later only to find an additional 26 men waiting for him. None of them knew what the mission was. Only after training did Clark read Patrick Henry’s secret orders to the men.
Clark’s army departed Corn Island and traveled down the Ohio River to the abandoned Fort Massac, then continued over land for 120 miles to Kaskaskia, a town on the Mississippi River that was one of his three main targets. He arrived on the evening of July 4th and quietly surrounded the town. His men broke into the British fort, where they captured the governor, a Frenchman put in charge by the British. Within fifteen minutes and without firing a shot, Kaskaskia was now under Clark’s control.
Kaskaskia, as well as all the towns in the area, was populated by former French citizens. In fact, there weren’t any English people in the town at all. Even the soldiers were French militia who were impressed into service by the British. Having been exposed to anti-American propaganda, the people of Kaskaskia were certain they would be killed or imprisoned. However, with the help of a pro-American priest named Father Pierre Gibault, Clark was able to convince the French that the British were the real enemy. Some even volunteered to join his army.
The following day, Clark sent Captain Joseph Bowman and 30 of his men along with roughly 30 French volunteers to Cahokia, a two-day ride on horseback. As with Kaskaskia, they were able to capture the town without firing a shot. Clark then sent Captain Leonard Helm and two other of his men accompanied by another group of French militiamen and Father Gibault to Vincennes, home of Fort Sackville. With the help of Gibault, Helm was able to talk his way into taking over the town. Clark’s three main targets were now under his control, and the French had joined the Patriot cause. Only Fort Detroit remained.
By now it was late August, and Clark knew he did not have enough men to attack Fort Detroit. He left a small contingency of troops at Vincennes and Cahokia and headed back to Kaskaskia, his new headquarters. From there he tried recruiting more men. He also asked for a meeting with the Indian chiefs aligned with the British, and with French help, he was able to convince many of them to accept peace with the Americans.
In October, word reached Harry Hamilton at Fort Detroit that Clark had taken control of his supply depots. He immediately assembled a large army of British Regulars, French militiamen, and Indian warriors and began the 600-mile journey down the Mawmee and Wabash rivers to Vincennes. The typical 20-day journey ended up taking 79 days due to low water in the rivers. When he finally arrived at Vincennes on December 17, 1778, many of the French militiamen took off, and those who didn’t quickly surrendered. There were only four of Clark’s men at the fort, one being Helm, and they wisely surrendered as well. The French then renounced the Americans and pledged allegiance once again to the British.
By now it was winter, and in the 1770s, armies in the northern regions did not fight until springtime due to snow. Hamilton spent his time renovating the rundown Fort Sackville. He sent most of his men back to Fort Detroit and released the Indians for the winter to be with their families. Remaining with him were only 35 British Regulars and 45 French militiamen.
Model of what Fork Sackville might have looked like, George Rogers Clark National Historical Park
One of Clark’s important allies was a man by the name of Francis Vigo, a pro-American merchant living in St. Louis who decided to help supply Clark’s army. (At the time, St. Louis was in Spanish territory on the other side of the Mississippi River from Cahokia.) On a trip to Vincennes in late December, unaware of the current British occupation, Vigo ended up being taken prisoner and held at Fort Sackville. He convinced Hamilton that he had no affiliation with Clark, and he was released after a couple of days under the condition that he return directly home. While he did comply with the terms of his release, once back in St. Louis he took off for Kaskaskia, arriving on January 29, 1779, to inform Clark about the British at Fort Sackville. He also told Clark that only a small number of troops now guarded the town and fort. Like Vigo, Clark had no idea that the British had retaken Vincennes.
Clark knew that in the spring Hamilton would reconvene his army, which he estimated would be at least 500 men strong, and that he would easily be defeated. Not wanting to return to Kentucky, he came up with a daring plan for a winter-time sneak attack. Hamilton would never suspect it. What happened next is akin to a survival story like that of William Shackleton, and it is for this winter raid that Clark is most remembered.
On February 6, 1779, Clark and 170 men departed on a 200-mile journey to Vincennes. It was warmer than normal, and the melted snow caused the Wabash River to flood—it was now a four-mile-wide lake, often shoulder deep. The march took twelve days, and three of these were spent wading through the freezing water. Frigid evenings were spent in wet, cold cloths. It is a wonder nobody froze to death. Furthermore, the animals that they could typically hunt on land were nowhere to be found in the flooded terrain, and they soon ran out of food.
Clark’s army reached Vincennes on February 23rd. Once again, they quietly snuck into town, and to their surprise, they found the townspeople still on their side despite their renewed pledge of allegiance to England. They then surrounded Fort Sackville where Hamilton and his men were. When they opened fire, a number of British soldiers were hit right off the bat. Hamilton at first thought it was just some drunks shooting off guns. Even when he realized what was going on, he had no idea how many men Clark had. With the rate of firing, he figured there could be as many as 500.
The battle went on all day. Clark had his men start digging a tunnel towards the fort in plain view so that the British had something more to worry about. Clark even sent Hamilton a letter with surrender terms. The next day Clark’s men captured a small group of Indians who were on their way to the fort, and Clark had them all executed by tomahawking them in the face while the British watched from the fort. By the 25th, Hamilton realized he and his men were trapped, and he surrendered. He was eventually sent to Virginia where he remained a prisoner for two years until being exchanged for other prisoners.
Clark never could raise enough men to attack Fort Detroit. He spent the rest of the war fighting the British and Indians on the northwestern frontier. Afterwards, he fought in the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795) as an officer, but he was discharged for being drunk on duty. He had financed much of the military campaign against the British himself or by borrowing money, and he was never fully repaid by the government due to what it claimed was a lack of accounting. In 1781, he was given 150,000 acres in what is now Clark County, Indiana, but he lacked the funds to develop it. Much of the land was sold off to pay debts. He was eventually given a pension in 1812 by the Virginia General Assembly for his service during the war. He died in 1818, living alone near Louisville, Kentucky, broke and largely forgotten. His estate was paid $30,000 after his death for repayment of some of his claimed expenses during the war.
The importance of Clark’s success in Illinois Country has been debated since the American Revolution ended, with a more recent assessment that while it was certainly heroic, it wasn’t all that important to the outcome of the war. However, in the early 1920s, a few prominent citizens of Vincennes thought otherwise, and they came up with the idea of memorializing Clark in time for the upcoming 150-year anniversary of his capture of Fort Sackville (which would be in 1929). They felt that Clark had fallen into obscurity, yet his accomplishments during the war were worthy of some sort of recognition. The original idea was simply a statue of Clark that would be erected near a new bridge that was scheduled to be built across the Wabash River at Vigo Street. However, once politicians became involved, it ended up becoming a million-dollar memorial paid for largely with federal tax dollars. See the George Rogers Clark Memorial web page here on National Park Planner for the complete history of the monument.
View of the George Rogers Clark Memorial from the Lincoln Memorial Bridge in Vincennes, Indiana
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Last updated on November 19, 2024
