He also told them that the King of France had made a treaty with the United States and was sending his great war ships and soldiers to help America. The town of Cahokia also surrendered.
Vincennes surrenders
Father Gibault went to Vincennes to tell the French settlers about the doings of Clark and to give them the news that France had taken sides with the Americans. The people rejoiced, and ran up the American flag. Clark sent Captain Helm to command the fort.
General Hamilton at Detroit was busy planning to attack Fort Pitt and to encourage the Ohio Indians to kill and scalp Kentuckians.
General Hamilton stirred up
Stays in Vincennes until spring
How astonished he was when he heard that the forts on the Illinois and the Wabash had fallen! He gathered a mixed army of British, Canadians, and Indians, crossed Lake Erie to the mouth of the Maumee, and "poled" and paddled up that river to the portage. Down the Wabash they floated, five hundred strong. Vincennes surrendered without a blow. Hamilton decided to stay there for the winter and march against Clark in the spring. This was a blunder. He did not yet know Clark and his backwoodsmen.
"I must take Hamilton or Hamilton will take me," said Clark, when he heard the news. He immediately set to work to build a rude sort of gunboat, which he fitted out with his cannon and about forty men. He sent the Willing, as it was called, down the Mississippi, around into the Ohio, and up the Wabash to meet him at Vincennes.
Clark begins the march
All was excitement in the French towns. Forty or fifty French joined Clark's riflemen. Father Gibault gave them his blessing, and the march overland to Vincennes began.