This tiny fort was a military outpost from 1803 until 1813. Captain and eventual President Zachary Taylor commanded the fort and strengthened the walls. It is the Site where the Indiana Territorial Governor, and later President William Henry Harrison mustered his army in before the battle of Tippecanoe where he defeated Tecumseh’s brother Tenskwatawa, also known as The Prophet, thus ending the threat of an Indian Confederation. In this video I’ll explain the history and show you around modern-day Fort Knox II.
To understand the importance of Fort Knox II, we have to discuss the history of the European forts here in the area. The story begins all the way back in 1702, when the French set up a trading post on the Buffalo Trace and the Wabash River, near the modern-day city of Vincennes, Indiana. Beginning in 1731, Francois-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes established a fort here to protect the fur trapping business. It was named Fort Vincennes in his honor, and a few years later in modern day Tennessee, or Mississippi, he was burned at the stake by the Chickasaw.
After France was defeated by the British in the French and Indian War, the fort was ceded to the British and was renamed Fort Sackville, in honor of Major General and politician Lord George Sackville.
During the Revolutionary War, then Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark lead a force of many Kentucky frontiersmen to take the fort. He left a small garrison to guard it while he took his men to take other outposts in the Illinois Country under British control such as Cahokia, and Kaskaskia. While Clark was on his mission, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton led a force from Fort Detroit and took Fort Sackville back under British control. Clark renamed the outpost Fort Patrick Henry after Virginia’s governor.
Fast forward to 1787, when the American Army built a new fort just a few blocks from the old Fort Sackville and named it Fort Knox after the U.S. Secretary of War Henry Knox. The locals in the area refer to this fort as Fort Knox I. A time of peace followed between the Americans, British, and native tribes but since the fort was the westernmost outpost for the army, and was literally in the middle of the frontier, the local population constantly clashed with the soldiers from the fort.
In 1803, Congress approved $200 to construct a new fort about three miles up Wabash River, at a site called Petit Rocher, which was a high point with a good view of the river. The fort maintained its name of Fort Knox, but the locals began to refer to it as Fort Knox II.
Tensions between white settlers and the Indians began to grow, and in 1809, Governor Harrison commissioned the formation of two companies of militia made up mostly of men from Ohio and Kentucky to help defend Vincennes if needed. The duty for the militia was hard and mundane, desertion became a tremendous problem at the fort.
A big moment in the history of the fort was in August of 1810, when Tecumseh with hundreds of warriors in about eighty canoes passed by the fort and were examined before continuing the journey to meet with Harrison on the lawn of his home, Grouseland.
One of the most shocking events at the fort happened in July 1811.The forts Commander Captain William Posey came into a disagreement with his second in command Lieutenant Jennings. Posey challenged Jennings to a duel and shot Jennings dead. He then fled the fort and turned himself in in Louisville but continued to serve in the army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the War of 1812. Posey’s replacement at Fort Knox II was then Captain and future President of the United States Zachary Taylor who was commended for strengthening the forts defenses.
Later in the year, Fort Knox II was the muster location for Harrison’s troops before heading off to provoke into battle Tecumseh’s brother Tenskwatawa, better known as “The Prophet”. The forces met at the Battle of Tippecanoe where the Indian forces were defeated and thus forever destroyed Tecumseh’s dream of an Indian Confederation.
Next came the War of 1812, and Vincennes was a prime target for the British and their Indian allies. The army knew that Fort Knox II was too far away to offer protection to the city, so in 1813, the fort was disassembled, floated down the Wabash River and reassembled very near the original fort location.
After the war, the tensions flared up again between the town residents and the soldiers. Most of the Indians had moved further north, so in 1816, it was determined that it would be best to move all the men to Fort Harrison, in modern-day Terre Haute, Indiana.
Today the site of Fort Knox II is a park and where the fort once stood is outlined in waist high palisades, along with several informative signs about the fort.
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