Originally built by the French in 1731 as Fort Vincennes, this English fort was captured by Colonel George Rogers Clark in 1779 during the American Revolution.
Fort Sackville was originally named Fort Vincennes and was captured by Colonel George Rogers Clark in 1779. The fort–which Clark described as "a wretched stockade, surrounded by a dozen wretched cabins called houses?–was located near present-day Vincennes, Indiana. In 1776, Clark had been charged by the Virginia Assembly to seize the Northwest Territory. By 1778, Clark was in control of the land between Virginia and the Mississippi River–except Fort Sackville. American Captain Leonard Helm occupied the fort in the summer of 1778, the British having withdrawn to Detroit, however the British–under Lt. Col. Henry Hamilton–returned and recaptured the fort on December 17, 1778. Col. Clark led a force of some 170 men from Kaskaskia to lay siege to Fort Sackville the following January, receiving Hamilton?s surrender on February 25, 1779. With the surrender of Fort Sackville, American forces gained effective control of the Old Northwest, thereby affecting the outcome of the Revolutionary War.
