followed, resulting in a unique culture of interdependent Native Americans, Canadien settlers and British traders. Vincennes was far from centers of British power. In 1770 and 1772, Thomas Gage, the commander in chief of Britain's North American forces, received warnings that the residents of Vincennes were agitating against the Crown, and were inciting native tribes along the river trade routes to attack British traders. The Colonial Secretary, the Earl of Hillsborough, ordered the residents to be removed from Vincennes in response. Gage demurred while the residents responded to the charges against them, claiming to be "peaceful settlers, cultivating the land which His Most Christian Majesty [meaning the King of France] granted us." The issue was resolved by Hillsborough's successor, Lord Dartmouth, who insisted to Gage that the residents were not lawless vagabonds, but British subjects whose rights were protected by the Crown. Gage took no action against the residents of Vincennes. In 1778, residents at Poste Vincennes received word of the French alliance with the American Second Continental Congress from Father Pierre Gibault and Dr. Jean Laffont. They mobilized in support of the American revolutionaries, as did the local Piankeshaw, led by Chief Young Tobacco. Revolutionary War Lieutenant Colonel George R. Clark, Captain Leonard Helm, and others created a plan to capture the French forts that the British occupied after Louisiana was ceded. After Kaskaskia was captured by Clark, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton sent British soldiers and reinforcements from Detroit to Fort Vincennes and helped to rebuild the fort. The Italian merchant and Patriot Francis Vigo found Clark and informed the British presence at the fort. Vigo served with the Patriots, ordered war supplies from the Spanish to help, and acted as a secret agent for the Patriots. Clark rounded up enough men to outnumber the British and planned a surprise attack on Fort Vincennes in the heart of winter, a horrible time when no armies were expected to be able to attack due to illness, lack of food, and the flood waters that were high during this time. The Patriots won the Battle of Vincennes on February 23–24, 1779. Hamilton thought of Vincennes as "a refuge for debtors and Vagabonds from Canada." George Rogers Clark recaptured Fort Sackville in the Battle of Vincennes without losing a single soldier. Post-Revolution turmoil Although the Americans would remain in control of Vincennes, it took years to establish peace. In 1786, Captain John