George Rogers Clark Memorial
Battle of Vincennes (1779)
Rising majestically above the Wabash River, the George Rogers Clark Memorial in Vincennes, Indiana is homage to one of the most decisive battles of the Revolutionary War.
The massive granite memorial commemorates a hero that many of us confuse with his younger brother, William, who, with Merriwether Lewis crossed the continent of the United States in the early 1800s. William was just a boy when his eldest brother, 18 years his senior, reached heroic stature in the United States.
For it was here that Clark took Fort Sackville from the British thus forcing them to cede to the U.S. a huge tract of land west of the Appalachian Mountains: land that now includes Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and the eastern portion of Minnesota.
Clark and his group of about 175 American and French militia from Kaskaskia, Illinois suffered for 18 long, cold days and winter nights and trekked through meltwater floods to move 120 miles to Vincennes, the oldest city in Indiana,
Visitor center
Today a visitor’s center contains artifacts from that time period and a short movie depicting the events leading to the capture of the fort. And the Spirit of Vincennes, one of the major Revolutionary War Re-encactments in the Midwest is held here each Memorial Day weekend, attracting 400 to 500 re-enactors and over 35,000 visitors.