The Old Cathedral “French and Indian” Cemetery

The Old Cathedral “French and Indian” Cemetery contains the mostly unmarked graves of some 4,000 inhabitants of early Vincennes, including soldiers and patriots of the American Revolution who helped Colonel George Rogers Clark capture nearby Fort Sackville in 1779. It 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 on February 23–24, 1779, Clark’s men took up positions at the church and cemetery, and there Colonel Clark and the British commander, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, negotiated terms of surrender on February 24. Fort Sackville surrendered on February 25, 1779, checking Hamilton’s plan to crush the Revolution in the West and laying a basis for the United States later to claim the area northwest of the Ohio River from which Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota were eventually formed. The Old Cathedral and Cemetery are located in the Vincennes Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historical Places on December 31, 1974.

Vincennes, Indiana · United States