Francis Vigo

Francis Vigo
Statue by John Angel dedicated to Francis Vigo on the waterfront of George Rogers Clark National Historical Park
Birth name	Giuseppe Maria Francesco Vigo
Born	December 13, 1747 Mondovì, Piedmont, Kingdom of Sardinia, present-day Mondovì, Piedmont, Italy
Died	March 22, 1836 (aged 88–89) Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana
Buried at	Greenlawn Cemetery, Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana
Allegiance	Spain United States

Francis Vigo born Giuseppe Maria Francesco Vigo (December 13, 1747-March 22, 1836) was an Italian-American who aided the American forces during the Revolutionary War and helped found a public university in Vincennes, Indiana, USA.

Born in Mondovì, Italy, he served with the Spanish Army in New Orleans. In 1772 he established a fur trading business in St. Louis. In 1783 Vigo moved to Vincennes and operated a fur trading business there.

Vigo often aided American forces during the Revolutionary War, most famously as an informant to George Rogers Clark. Vigo was sent by Clark to Post Vincennes to inspect and report on the conditions there, but was captured by American Indians and turned over to Lt-Gov Henry Hamilton, who had recaptured Vincennes for the British Crown. Vigo was a Spanish citizen and thus, in 1778, considered a non-combatant, but Hamilton was suspicious of Vigo and held him on parole until the French citizens of Vincennes, led by Father Gibault, demanded that he be released at the threat of cutting off local supplies to Fort Sackville.

Hamilton released Vigo on the condition that he would not "do any thing injurious to the British interests on his way to St. Louis." True to his word, Vigo travelled down the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis before returning to Kaskaskia to inform Col. Clark of the British hold on Vincennes, which prompted Clark to retake the town in 1779.