Siege of Fort Vincennes

The Siege of Fort Vincennes was one of the most extraordinary military achievements of the Revolutionary War — a march that seemed impossible, a siege with barely adequate forces, and a psychological triumph that secured the entire Northwest for the United States. George Rogers Clark had captured Vincennes the previous year without a fight, but British Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton — known as the 'Hair Buyer' for paying bounties for American scalps — had retaken it in December 1778.

Clark, at Kaskaskia in Illinois with only 172 men, made the seemingly suicidal decision to march 240 miles across flooded Illinois wilderness in February to attack before Hamilton knew he was coming. For the last leg the men waded through miles of floodwater in freezing temperatures, sometimes up to their chests, for five days with virtually no food. Clark himself waded at the head of the column singing, keeping morale alive by sheer force of personality.

Clark arrived before Vincennes on the night of February 23 — a complete surprise. His Kentucky riflemen shot so accurately that defenders could not man the cannon. During the siege, a party of Indian warriors returning with American scalps was captured and tomahawked outside the fort in a calculated display designed to terrify Hamilton. It worked. Hamilton surrendered on February 25 with his garrison of 79 men.

Clark's victory secured the Illinois and Indiana country for Virginia and ultimately for the United States. When American negotiators came to the Paris peace table, Clark's conquests gave them the basis to claim the entire Northwest Territory as part of the new nation — a vast addition to American territory that shaped the country's future.