Battle of Vincennes

Battle of Vincennes
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Fall of Fort Sackville, by Frederick Coffay Yohn
Date 23–25 February 1779 Location Vincennes, Indiana Result American victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	United States
Commanders and leaders
Henry Hamilton (POW)	George Rogers Clark Joseph Bowman
Strength
90 regulars 200 Native American allies	Illinois Regiment 172 militiamen
Casualties and losses
11 killed, 5 wounded, 79 captured 4 Native Americans killed	0

Illinois Regiment

The Siege of Fort Vincennes (also known as the Siege of Fort Sackville or the Battle of Vincennes) was a Revolutionary War frontier battle fought in present-day Vincennes, Indiana won by a militia led by American commander George Rogers Clark over a British garrison led by Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton. Roughly half of Clark's militia were Canadien volunteers sympathetic to the American cause. After a daring wintertime march, the small American force was able to force the British to surrender the fort and in a larger frame the Illinois territory.

On January 29, Francis Vigo, an Italian fur trader, came to Kaskaskia to inform Clark about Hamilton's reoccupation of Vincennes. Clark decided that he needed to launch a surprise winter attack on Vincennes before Hamilton could recapture the Illinois country in the spring. He wrote to Governor Henry:

I know the case is desperate; but, sir, we must either quit the country or attack Mr. Hamilton. No time is to be lost. Were I sure of a reinforcement, I should not attempt it. Who knows what fortune will do for us? Great things have been affected by a few men well conducted. Perhaps we may be fortunate. We have this consolation, that our cause is just, and that our country will be grateful and not condemn our conduct in case we fall through. If we fail, the Illinois as well as Kentucky, I believe, is lot.

On February 5, 1779, Clark set out for Vincennes with Captain Bowman, his second-in-command, and 170 men, nearly half of them French volunteers from the village of Kaskaskia in the Illinois Country. Later, in a letter to his friend and mentor George Mason, Clark described his feeling for the journey as one of "forlorn hope," as his small force was faced with a long journey over land that was “in many parts flowing with water.” While Clark and his men marched across country, 40 men left in an armed row-galley, which was to be stationed on the Wabash River below Vincennes to prevent the British from escaping by water.

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