American Italians in History

Francesco Vigo
The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
Italian Americans in the Civil War

Francesco Vigo (1747-1836)

In a PBS program on Lewis and Clark, the explores of the Northwest Territory, no mentionis made of the genesis that eventually made this exploration possible.

When we think of Italian-Americans we tend to think primarily of those immigrants who came en masse during the end of last and the beginning of this century. However, as Giovanni Schiavo states in his now classic tome Four Centuries of Italian-American History, there were thousands of people of Italian origin by 1776, living primarily in Maryland and Virginia.

One such person was Francesco Vigo, born in Mondovì, in the province of Cuneo in the region of Piedmont on December 3, 1747. He came to the new world as a soldier in the Spanish Army. After his discharge he became a fur trader and moved to St. Louis. In his dealings he quickly became influential among the French and the Indians who took a liking to this charming Italian. As a result of Vigo’s interest in the "American" cause, he offered his help to (1752-1818) when the latter, in May 17778, was sent by Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, to the French village of Kaskaskia in the Illinois territory to take the posts of the Northwest territory from the British. In December of that same year, Colonel Clark sent Vigo to the aid of Captain Helm, the American commanding officer at Vincennes. Vigo went on 240-mile trek across wilderness to the Indiana Territory.

However the British had already occupied Vincennes, and thus took Vigo prisoner just six miles outside this outpost. It is assumed by some that Vigo wanted to be captured so that he could report on the status of the British garrison to Clark. Thus, when Vigo was released soon after in January of 1779, he reported that the British had in fact weakened their defenses by sending their Indian allies to other frontier posts, and urged Clark to attack now before the winter was over. Vigo’s report read in part: "[General] Hamilton had no more than 80 men in garrison, three pieces of cannon...the troops were repairing the Fort, and were expecting reinforcement from Detroit in the spring;.."

On February 25, 1779, Clark’s forces attacked and defeated the British at Vincennes, thus ending their influence in this part of the country and assuring an American claim to the Northwest Territory.

All this made possible, in the not so distant future, the exploration of the Northwest Territory during 1804-1806 by Merriwether Lewis and William Clark (1770-1838), the younger brother of Colonel George Rogers Clark who with the help of Vigo had helped pave the way.

The epilogue to this story is that Francesco Vigo had originally given all his savings amounting to $8,616.00 to help supply the elder Clark’s soldiers. It amounted to one fourth of the total needed for the campaign against the British. Several years after the capture of Vincennes, Clark wrote to Vigo thanking him for the "inestimable conduct; and what is more enhancing to such services, having rendered them at a time when the cloud on which fate assumed the most menacing aspect." Furthermore, a report by the Committee on Claims to the U. S. House of Representatives on February 8, 1848 read in part:

When he [Clark] arrived in the Illinois country, he was without means to sustain his troops..... He [Vigo] was well acquainted with the French inhabitants... requested ... [them] to furnish General Clarke [sic] whatevere he desired, and to look upon him for pay. Upon his credit large advances were made; for all which he paid...; without which...it is altogether probable General Clarke’s expedition would have proved an entire failure.

On January 10, 1876 the United States Supreme Court ordered a payment of $32,654.85 to Vigo’s heirs. In addition, a county in southern Indiana is named after Vigo in a tribute to his contribution to the his adopted fatherland. Vigo had become a citizen in 1783.

The irony in all this is that Vigo spent his declining years in poverty. He died on March 22, 1836.