1929 George Rogers Clark Commemorative 2c Vincennes Designed by F.C. Yohn intaglio Printed Based upon a 1923 painting by Frederick C. Yohn, the stamp shows the 1779 surrender of Fort Sackville by British Lt. Gov. Henry Hamilton to Col. George Rogers Clark. This allowed the then Northwest Territories to become a part of the U.S. At the time, it was the largest U.S. commemorative ever issued, and therefore the most expensive to produce. View attachment 2294
U.S. #651 1929 2¢ George Rogers Clark Issue Date: February 25, 1929 First City: Vincennes, IN Issue Quantity: 16,684,674 George Rogers Clark Leads the Capture of Vincennes Around 1732, the French built a settlement on the Wabash River. This waterfront trading post, named Vincennes, was the first permanent European settlement in Indiana. It was named after its founder, the Sieur de Vincennes. The British gained control of Vincennes in 1763, after the French and Indian War. In 1777, during the Revolutionary War, the British built Fort Sackville at Vincennes. Frontiersman and soldier George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) was living in Kentucky at this time. Kentucky was then part of Virginia. However, Virginia refused to send military aid to the Kentuckians when Indians, with British military supplies, began staging raids in the area. Clark told Virginia officials, “If a country is not worth protecting, it is not worth claiming.” This argument worked, and the officials sent valuable supplies of gunpowder to Clark in Kentucky. Clark became a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia. He assembled a force of 175 men and began fighting in the Northwest Territory – the land north of the Ohio River, south of Canada, west of Pennsylvania, and east of the Mississippi River. In 1778, Clark took Fort Sackville, and with it, Vincennes. The British were soon able to recapture the fort, but Clark again attacked and forced them to surrender. Clark’s victory at Vincennes and other settlements were key to the U.S. claim of ownership of the vast Northwest Territory at the end of the Revolutionary War.
