Offering Terms of Surrender
In the morning after Clark’s night-long siege, Hamilton called for a three day truce. He also offered Clark terms of surrender that included his own parole to Pensacola after the attack.
Clark rejected Hamilton’s offer. Click Here to hear how George Rogers Clark responded.
Hamilton next wrote back a stinging response:
“Lieutenant Governor Hamilton acquaints Colonel Clarke, that neither he or his garrison are to be prevailed on by threats to act in a manner unbecoming the character of British Subjects.”
Even so, Hamilton and Clark agreed to meet in the Catholic church 800 feet outside of the Fort in order to discuss Clark’s demands. During his meeting with Clark, Hamilton realized that his men could not hold on much longer and had to accept Clark’s less-than-generous terms. Hamilton seemed to had already contemplated the reasons he might have to surrender. On February 23 he made the following note in his journal:
“The poltronnerie and treachery of our french Volunteers who made half our number, with the certainty of the St. Vincennes men having joined Colol. Clarke, and the miserable state of our wounded men, all conspired to make me adopt the disagreeable terms of capitulation.”
Eventually, on February 25, 1779, Hamilton was forced to surrender Fort Sackville to Clark and the American troops.