de Clark's plan both ingenious and desperate was that Hamilton and his troops were planning to leave during the spring to attack Kaskaskia. In order to prevent this from happening Clark and his men would have to arrive at Fort Sackville before the British left to attack them. This meant an almost impossible 200 mile journey through flooded valleys during the dead of winter. The plan to attack during the winter was a stroke of genius, the fact that he had no other choice is what made it a last ditch desperate attempt that would either succeed in the taking of Vincennes or fail with the death of everyone involved. On the night of February 23rd Clark and his men were within a league of Fort Sackville. Clark had to make his final decision on how to attack Hamilton and his troops. "I resolved to appear as darring as possible so that the enemy might conceive by our behaviour that we were very numerous and probably discourage them." Before marching on to Vincennes Clark sent a letter to Vincennes ahead of him telling the inhabitants of the town that he was going to attack the British Garrison, he warned them to stay in their homes, and if they didn't they would be dealt with harshly after his victory. On the twenty-fourth of February 1779 Clark and his men made their attack on Fort Sackville. The Attack was so well planned and shocked the British so much that they didn't believe it was an attack until one of their men was shot dead. Instead they thought the gunfire was from a group of drunken Indians returning home from a hunting party. For the next eighteen hours Clark's troops had the Garrison surrounded so well that whenever one of the British soldiers tried to man the cannon, or peek out they were immediately shot by one of Clark's sharpshooters. Knowing he was losing the battle and thinking that Clark had a large army, General Hamilton asked for a meeting with Clark to discuss a truce. Clark agreed to a meeting ...
