Clark Captures Fort Sackville

Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark and his small army arrived on the outskirts of Fort Sackville in the fading sunlight on February 23, 1779, undetected by the British garrison. Such was the fear and respect Clark’s reputation inspired that no one in the town of Vincennes informed the British garrison of the impending attack. At twilight, Clark deployed his men and commenced the siege, announcing his presence by firing on the palisaded walls. When Henry Hamilton, the British commander, asked about all the commotion, his American prisoner Captain Leonard Helm replied, “It means that you and all your men are prisoners of George Rogers Clark.”