Forts of Vincennes, Indiana

The first trading post on the Wabash River was established by Sieur Charles Juchereau, the first Lieutenant-General of the Royal Jurisdiction of the Provostship of Montreal.

Sieur Juchereau along with 34 Canadiens, founded the company post on October 28, 1702 for the purpose of trading for buffalo hides to be supplied by Native Americans.

The French colonial settlers left what they considered hostile territory in the Illinois Country, and relocated to Mobile (now in Alabama on the Gulf Coast), then the capital of La Louisiane.

[3] François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, acting under the authority of the French colony of Louisiana, constructed a fort in 1731–1732.

The outpost was designed to secure the lower Wabash Valley for France, mostly by strengthening ties through trading with the Miami, Wea, and Piankashaw nations.

He recruited Canadian traders to encourage regional Native American people to settle there in order to develop stronger relations.

A unique culture developed of regional Native Americans, ethnic French and British farmers, craftsmen, and traders.

Following the French and Indian War (as the North American front was known in that continent), the British and colonial governments could not afford the cost of maintaining frontier posts.

The Canadien residents took control of the unoccupied Fort Sackville, and Colonel George Rogers Clark sent Captain Leonard Helm to command the post.

He sent Hamilton and his British men to jail in Williamsburg, Virginia, the capital of the province, where Governor Thomas Jefferson held them as prisoners of war.

[12] In his wilderness campaigns in this territory, Clark sought to remove the British as a threat to Virginia's western settlements, in what became Kentucky but was then still part of the original colony.

After accomplishing that objective, he returned south of the Ohio River to Kentucky, hoping to raise troops for an assault on British-held Fort Detroit, but he was unsuccessful.

Friction between these Americans, the ethnic French-dominated local government, and the native peoples resulted in Virginia Governor Patrick Henry to dispatching George Rogers Clark to command militia to the region.

Late in 1811 Fort 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 U.S. army and militia, prior to the march to Prophetstown and the Battle of Tippecanoe.

In 1813, as the War of 1812 increased the chances of attacks on Vincennes by Native Americans, the military determined that Fort Knox was too far away to protect the town.

Militia, British Mercenaries, and Native American reenactors dedicated to reliving the period's history at Fort Knox II.

The Capture of Ft. Sackville by Frederick C. Yohn, 1923
Return of the stores, quartermaster's department at Fort Patrick Henry, March 9, 1779