The Old Cathedral - "French and Indian" Cemetery - Vincennes, IN
Posted by: YoSam.
N 38° 40.755 W 087° 32.049
16S E 453538 N 4281318
The history of this church, George Roger Clark, the Republic of Virginia, of which Michigan was a part.
Waymark Code: WM1084T
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 03/19/2019
Views: 0
County Marker Erected: Knox County, Indiana
Location of Marker: Vigo St., next to George Rogers Clark Historic Site, Vincennes
Marker Erected by: The Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin Societies of the Sons of the American Revolution
Date Marker Erected: 1998
Marker Text:
THE OLD CATHEDRAL
"FRENCH AND INDIAN" CEMETERY
1750 - 1846
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Contains the graves (mostly unmarked) of some 4,000 inhabitants of early Vincennes, including soldiers and patriots of the American Revolution who helped Colonel George Rogers Clark to capture nearby Fort Sackville in 1779. The cemetery marks the site of the log church where the people of Vincennes swore an oath of allegiance to the Republic of Virginia and the United States on July 20, 1778. During the siege of Fort Sackville (February 23-24, 1779), Clark's men took positions at the church and cemetery. It was at the church that Colonel Clark and the British commander, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, negotiated terms of surrender on February 24. The surrender of Fort Sackville occurred the next day, February 25, 1779. As a result, Hamilton's plan to crush the Revolution in the west was checked and a basis was laid for the United States to later claim the area northwest of the Ohio River, from which were eventually formed the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota.
The Old Cathedral and Cemetery are located in the Vincennes Historic District, which was laced on the National Register of Historical Places on December 31, 1974.