Note 1507 — Chapter IX

The only garrison left in the fort when Gov. Hamilton and his troops appeared was Capt. Helm and his one soldier, whose name was Moses Henry. The latter placed a loaded cannon at the open gate, and Capt. Helm, standing by with a lighted match, commanded the British troops to halt. Hamilton demanded the surrender of the garrison. Helm refused, and asked for terms. Hamilton replied that they should have the honors of war, and the terms were accepted. The comical aspect of the garrison, consisting of one officer and one soldier, marching out of the fort between lines of disgusted Indians on one side and British soldiers on the other, is happily illustrated in Gay's Hist. of U. S., iii. 612. See note in Clark's Campaign, p. 52; Butler's Hist. of Kentucky, p. 80; Monette, i. 425; Perkins's Annals, p. 207. Gov. Hamilton describes the surrender without mentioning this humorous incident, thus: "The officer who commanded in the fort, Capt. Helm, being deserted by the [resident French] officers and men, who to the number of seventy had formed his garrison, and were in pay of the Congress, surrendered his wretched fort on the very day of our arrival, being the 17th day of December, 1778." (Report of July 6, 1781.)