Forts of Vincennes, Indiana

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the French, British and American nations built and occupied a number of forts at Vincennes, Indiana. These outposts commanded a strategic position on the Wabash River.

Fort Vincennes

François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, acting under the authority of the French colony of Louisiana, constructed the fort in 1731-1732. The outpost was designed to secure the lower Wabash Valley for France, mostly by strengthening ties with the Miami, Wea and Piankashaw nations. [Andrew R. L. Cayton, Frontier Indiana (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996), 18.] It was named Fort Vincennes in honor of Vincennes, who was captured and burned at the stake during a war with the Chickasaw nation in 1735. In 1736, Louis Groston de Bellerive de St. Ange assumed command of the post. He rebuilt the fort, turned the post into a major trading center, and recruited French traders to lure native peoples to settle there. By 1750, the Piankashaw resettled their village near the post. [Cayton, 46.]

On May 18, 1764, St. Ange left the post under British orders to assume command of Fort Chartres. He transferred command to Drouet de Richerville, a local citizen. [Cayton, 47-48.]

British Lt. John Ramsey came to Vincennes in 1766. He took a census of the settlement, built up the fort, and renamed it Fort Sackville in honor of Lord George Sackville, who had led British forces to victory over the French in the Battle of Minden. The population grew quickly in the years that followed, creating a unique culture of interdependent Native Americans with French and British farmers, craftsmen, and traders.

Forts Sackville and Patrick Henry

Following the French and Indian War, the British and colonial governments could not afford the cost of maintaining frontier posts. They did not station troops in the Wabash Valley at all for a decade following the conflict. Thus Fort Vincennes fell into disrepair, [Cayton, 40, 62.] and Vincennes was ordered evacuated due to ongoing lawlessness. [Barnhart, 180] The residents united and were able to prove to the British authorities that they were permanent residents, not illegal squatters. British neglect came to an end on June 2, 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act, assimilating the settlements along the Wabash and Missouri Rivers into the Province of Quebec. Lieutenant Governor Edward Abbott was sent to Vincennes without troops. Making the best of it, he rebuilt the fort and named it Fort Sackville after Lord George Sackville. Abbott soon resigned, citing lack of support from the crown. [Cayton, 65-67.]

In July 1778, Father Pierre Gibault arrived with news of the alliance between France and the new United States. The French residents took control of the unoccupied Fort Sackville, and George Rogers Clark sent Leonard Helm to command the post. In December, a British force under Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton retook the fort, and Captain Helm. [Cayton, 70.] Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark marched 130 men through 180 miles of wilderness to Vincennes in February 1779. As he entered town, the French settlers and native peoples joined his force to capture the fort again. Clark had Hamilton's native allies tomahawked to death as an example and sent Hamilton and his men to the Williamburg jail as prisoners. He renamed the post Fort Patrick Henry. [Cayton, 70-73, 85.]

Clark's aim in his wilderness campaigns was to remove the British as a threat to Virginia's settlements south of the Ohio River. After accomplishing that objective, he returned to Kentucky in an unsuccessful attempt to raise troops for an assault on Fort Detroit. In spring 1780, the Virginia troops left the fort in the hands of local militia. [Cayton, 85.]

After the Revolution, several dozen Kentucky families settled in Vincennes. Friction between these Americans, the French local government and the native peoples moved Virginia Governor Patrick Henry to dispatch George Rogers Clark to send troops to the region. Clark arrived at Vincennes in 1786. His attempts to negotiate with neighboring native peoples were unsuccessful. Instead, he created an incident by seizing the goods of Spanish traders, enraging the local population and risking war with Spain. Under orders from the new United States government, Clark and his men left Vincennes in the spring of 1787. [Cayton, 91-97.]

Fort Knox I and II

The new United States government built a new fort, just up the street from the old one, and named it Ft. Knox (usually referred to by local historians as Fort Knox I), after the US Secretary of War. During the relative peace with both the British and the Indians from 1787-1803, this was basically the western-most American military outpost.

In 1803 it was decided to move the fort north of Vincennes to a landing about three miles up the Wabash river. This fort (also called Ft. Knox, and referred to locally as Ft. Knox II) was built under the guidance of the new governor of the new Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison. The sleepy little fort was famous mostly for duels (the Captain of the fort at one point shot his second-in-command) and desertion. But by 1811 disagreements between Gov. Harrison and Indian leader Tecumseh were reaching a head. A new captain, Zachary Taylor, was put in charge of the fort.

Late in 1811 Ft. Knox II had its most important period when it was used as the muster point for Governor Harrison as he gathered his troops, both regular US army and militia, prior to the march to Prophetstown and the Battle of Tippecanoe. After the battle the troops returned to Ft. Knox at Vincennes and several died there from their wounds. The Ft. Knox II site is now a state historic site, with the outline of the fort marked with short posts and interpretive signage in a park setting.

By 1813 it was determined that the site outside town was too far away to protect the town. Ft. Knox II was disassembled, floated down the Wabash, and reassembled just a few yards from where Ft. Knox I had been. This fort was soon abandoned as the frontier rapidly moved west.

Notes

*Andrew R. L. Cayton. "Frontier Indiana" 1996, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.

* Barnhart, John D. and Riker, Dorothy L. "Indiana to 1816. The Colonial Period." ©1971, Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 0-87195-109-6

External links

* [http://rking.vinu.edu/vinbrief.htm "A Brief History of Vincennes" from Vincennes University]
* [http://www.sar.org/sarmag/a/vincennes/clark.htm? "Battle of Vincennes, Victory for G. W. Clark"] by Charles R. Lampman, Sons of the American Revolution