Journey to Sackville

This depiction of the Americans' march to Vincennes was created by Hoosier painter Frederick Coffay Yohn in 1928.

Within a week of Francis Vigo arrival’s with intelligence about Sackville, Clark left from Cahokia where he had stationed his men. He “set out, the weather wet, but, fortunately, not cold for the season, and a great part of the plains under water several inches deep.” Clark’s forces totaled about 175, including 100 Virginians and 75 French militia men that Father Gibault had helped recruit from Cahokia and Kaskaskia. From Feburary 5-23, Clark’s men marched overland about 180 miles through flooded prairies and icy rivers in the middle of winter.  Even Clark complained that that they had to wade through an area between two rivers that was “five miles-the whole under water, generally about three feet deep, never under two, and frequently four.” 

Click Here to hear Captain Joseph Bowman’s perspective on the journey to Fort Sackville.

If you were Clark, how would you have motivated your men for this 180 mile march through flooded rivers in the middle of February?