4th Mural in Clark Memorial

The surrender of Fort Sackville is the subject of several well known paintings, but there are no others on such a scale as Mr. Winter's "FORT SACKVILLE: BRITISH YIELD POSSESSION." The palisaded fort forms a background through which Colonel Hamilton and his regulars in full regimentals march out between Clark's soldiers on the right and the French inhabitants of Vincennes on the left.

The painting catches the spectacle of the moment Hamilton surrenders his sword to Clark. With the taking of Vincennes and the surrender of Hamilton and his force, the success of Clark's expedition was insured. While he was not able to go to capture Detroit, the English thereafter were never able to hold any of the Northwest very far south of the Great Lakes.

In the wake of the success of Clark's brilliant offensive campaigns, hundreds and even thousands of settlers poured into Kentucky.  The English government, convinced that it could not hold the country south of the Great Lakes, in the Treaty of Peace agreed to the middle of the Great Lakes as the boundary of the new republic. Thus the Old Northwest became part of the United States.

Ezra Winter, Artist