Three military posts in the Vincennes area were called Fort Knox and protected the frontier region between 1787 and 1816. They were named after Henry Knox, the first Secretary of War. Fort Knox II was constructed by the US Army in 1803 and used until 1813, when a new fort was built in Vincennes. William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, who later became President, were here, and Tecumseh, a great Indian leader, stopped on the river directly below this point.