Perhaps the most historic campaign in which the Wabash route played a part was Hamilton's journey across it in 1778 when he went to the recapture of Vincennes.[71] From the standpoint of this present study this campaign is of particular interest, as it was one of the exceedingly few instances in which a military movement was made by water on the lesser rivers of the West. It is remarkable that though the two important posts west of the Alleghenies, Detroit and Pittsburg, were through many years, in the possession of bitter enemies, neither one ever conquered or hardly attempted to conquer the other. A hundred plans for the capture of Detroit were conceived in Fort Pitt, and many a commander of Fort Detroit was determined to subdue Fort Pitt.[72] Yet it can almost be said that nothing of the kind was ever actually attempted, unless McIntosh's campaign be considered such an attempt. This was because the journey between them could be accomplished only by a long, tedious land march over the Great Trail,[73] or by a desperate journey over small inland streams and the portages between them. Difficult as the land journey over the Indian trail would seem, it is clear that it was considered preferable to any water route in Revolutionary days.[74] Thus Hamilton's campaign over the Wabash route upon Vincennes was an exceptional feat, successfully accomplished after great hardships and delays. Clark's marvelously intrepid recapture of this fort by wading through the drowned lands of the Wabash has so far eclipsed all other events of that campaign that the heroism of other actors has been forgotten. On October 28, 1778,[75] Hamilton left the Miamis' town, where he held conferences with the Indians, and proceeded to Pied-froid, on the other side of the river St. Joseph.