Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1895 — HOW VINCENNES WAS WON. [ARTICLE]

HOW VINCENNES WAS WON.

CUrk_ and Hi* Backwoodsmen finr* prise the Garrison. In St Jftpholaa Hon. Theodore Roosevelt writes of “George Rogers Clark and the Conquest of the Northwest” He gives the following account of the capture of Vincennes: Accordingly he gathered together the pick of his men, together with a few Creoles, one hundred and seventy all told, and set out for Vincennes. At first the Journey was easy enough, for they passed across the snowy Illinois prairies, broken by great reaches of lofty woods. They killed elk, buffalo, ind deer for food, there being no difficulty in getting all they wanted to eat; and at night they built huge fires by which to sleep, and feasted like Indian war-dancers, as Clark said In his report. But when, in the middle of February, they reached the drowned lands of the Wabash, they found the ice had just broken up and everything was flooded. The difficulties seemed almost insuperable, and so their march became painful and laborious to a degree. All day long the troops waded in the icy water, and at night they could with difficulty find some little hillock on which to sleep. Only Clark’s indomitable courage and cheerfulness kept the party in heart and .enabled ttypm to persevere. However, persevere they did, and at last, on Feb. 23, they came in sight of the town of Vincennes. They captured a Creole who was out shooting ducks, and from him learned that their approach was utterly unsuspected, and that there were many Indians in town. Clark was now in some doubt as to how to make his fight The British regulars dwelt in a small fort at one end of the town, where they had two light guns; but Clark feared that, if he made a sudden night attack, the townspeople and the Indians would from sheer fright turn against him. He accordingly arranged, just before ha marched in, to send in the captured duck hunter, conveying a warning to the Indians and Creoles that he was about to attack the town, but that his only quarrel was with the British, and that if the other inhabitants would stay in their own homes they would not be molested. Sending the duck-hunter ahead, Clark took up his march and entered the town just after nightfall. The news conveyed by the released hunter astounded the townspeople, and they talked it over eagerly, and were in doubt what to do. The Indians, not knowing how great might be the force that would assail the town, at once took refuge in the neighboring woods, while the Creoles retired to their own houses. The British knew nothing of what had happened until the Americans had actually entered the streets of the little village. Rushing forward Clark’s men soon penned the regulars within their fort, where they kept them surrounded all night The next day a party of Indian warriors, who in the British interest had been ravaging the settlements of Kentucky, arrived and entered the town, ignorant that the Americans had captured it. Marching boldly forward to the fort, they suddenly found it beleaguered, and before they could flee were seized by the backwoodsmen. At their belts they carried the scalps of the slain settlers. The savages were taken red-handed, and the American frontiersmen were in no mood to show mercy. All the Indians ■sere quickly tomahawked in sight of the fort For some time the British defended themselves well; but at length their guns were disabled, all of the gunners being picked off by the backwoodsmen, and finally the garrison dared not so much*p.s appear at a porthole, so deadly was the fire from the long rifles. Under such circumstances Hamilton was forced to surrender.