THE EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING

When the War of 1812 broke out in the Northwest, the Americans had only two advanced posts Mackinac and Fort Dearborn. Of these, one was captured during the hostilities, and the other was evacuated. An attempt was made to build a post at Prairie du Chien, but it quickly passed into English hands and remained in their possession until the news of peace had reached that frontier station. But after the Treaty of Ghent was signed the line of the military frontier was quickly advanced in order to safeguard the Indian agents, the trading houses, and the advancing settlements.

Fort Dearborn was re-occupied on July 4, 1815. Mackinac was transferred to American hands on July 18, 1815. In the fall of the same year Colonel R. C. Nichols of the Eighth United States Infantry attempted to ascend the Mississippi to Rock Island, but was compelled to pass the winter in the vicinity of the mouth of the Des Moines River. On May 10, 1816, however, he reached Rock Island, where the construction of Fort Armstrong was undertaken. June 21st of the same year saw the re-occupation of the site of Fort McKay at Prairie du Chien; and Fort Crawford soon protected this important point at the junction of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers. One other point, vital in all western transportation was at the head of Green Bay at the mouth of the Fox River. Colonel John Miller of the Third Infantry arrived at this place on August 7, 1816, and soon began the erection of Fort Howard.

But the government was not content with these movements. In a report dated December 22, 1817, the Secretary of War, J. C. Calhoun, wrote to the House of Representatives that “a board of the most skilful officers in our service has been constituted to examine the whole line of our frontier, and to determine on the position and extent of works that may be necessary to the defence of the country." Plans had already been made. During the summer of 1817 Major Stephen H. Long, a topographical engineer in the United States Army, had made a journey to the Falls of St. Anthony in a six-oared skiff and had approved the position at the mouth of the Minnesota River as a location for a fort. Other plans were soon announced. In the spring of 1818 The Washington City Gazette stated that a fort would be built on the Missouri River at the mouth of the Yellowstone River; and a second report of the Secretary of War on December 11, 1818, indicated that the site at the mouth of the Minnesota would soon be occupied.

On the tenth of February, 1819, the War Department ordered the Fifth Infantry to concentrate at Detroit, after which it would be transported across Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, up the Fox River, and down the Wisconsin River to Prairie du Chien, where a part would garrison Fort Crawford, a part would proceed to Fort Armstrong, and the remainder would ascend the Mississippi and near the Falls of St. Anthony erect a post which would be the headquarters of the regiment. This movement was closely associated with that on the Missouri River called the Yellowstone Expedition. Both movements were part of one system a comprehensive attempt to possess the northwestern frontier. The thoroughness of the plan is shown by the program outlined for the troops for the year 1820: three forts were to be built on the Missouri River; the navigation of that river was to be improved; roads were to be opened between the two diverging lines of posts (those on the Missouri and those on the Mississippi); and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers were to be connected by a canal. Thus the transportation of supplies would be facilitated, and in case of hostilities the forts could cooeperate in the military operations.

The western part of this general movement was a failure. Indeed, the only result was the construction of a post at the point then known as Council Bluff (now Fort Calhoun, Nebraska), which after an existence of eight years was abandoned. Congress, disgusted with the management of the undertaking, refused to vote the funds necessary for the complete fulfillment of the project. Accordingly, no permanent military post existed upon the upper Missouri until 1855, when the United States government purchased from the American Fur Company their station called Fort Pierre and transformed it into a military establishment. The failure of the Yellowstone Expedition made more difficult the work of Fort Snelling. The range of its influence extended to the Missouri, and for forty years it was of more importance than even its originators had planned.

The Fifth Infantry, to which the difficult task of establishing a fort at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers was assigned was stationed at various places. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth, who was the commanding officer of the regiment, had been located at Prairie du Chien as Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Lieutenant Nathan Clark was living at Hartford, Connecticut. But by May 14th the main part of the regiment was ready to leave Detroit. Schooners brought them through Lake Huron, the Straits of Mackinac, and across Lake Michigan to Fort Howard on Green Bay. Captain Whistler of the Third United States Infantry, then stationed at this post, had prepared bateaux for the use of the troops, and on June 7th the ascent of the Fox River was commenced. The Winnebago chief “Four Legs”, whose village was at the outlet of Lake Winnebago, had the custom of exacting tribute from travellers using the Fox-Wisconsin route. When the troops of the Fifth Infantry came to the site, “Four Legs” sent the message, “The Lake is locked.” Whereupon Colonel Leavenworth, showing the messenger his rifle, replied: “tell him, that this is the key, and I shall unlock it and go on.” Upon receiving this belligerent reply, the chief allowed the troops to pass; and finally on June 30th the bateaux were moored near Fort Crawford and Prairie du Chien.

At Fort Crawford there was a tedious wait. Provisions, ordnance, ammunition, and recruits were expected from St. Louis. On July 5th Major Thomas Forsyth arrived from St. Louis. He had been ordered by the War Department to bring two thousand dollars worth of goods to the Sioux Indians in payment for the reservation ceded by them to Pike. Day after day passed. Finally, on July 17th a certain Mr. Shaw came with news that the recruits could be expected soon. On July 31st this curt entry is made in Forsyth’s journal: “no boats, no recruits, no news, nor anything else from St. Louis.” The next day Major Marston was sent with twenty-seven troops to garrison Fort Armstrong at Rock Island; and on August 2nd Forsyth recorded: “Thank God a boat loaded with ordnance and stores of different kinds arrived to-day, and said a provision boat would arrive to-morrow, but no news of the recruits."

Colonel Leavenworth at once made preparations to ascend the river. The two large boats that had brought up supplies were engaged, and at eight o’clock on the morning of Sunday, August 8th, the flotilla set out the two large boats, fourteen bateaux, the boat of Major Forsyth, and the barge of Colonel Leavenworth. In the party were ninety-eight soldiers and twenty boatmen. There were others also whose presence in that wild region would not be expected: Mrs. Gooding, the wife of one of the captains; Mrs. Nathan Clark, the wife of the commissary; and little Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark, who had been born scarcely an hour after the regiment reached Fort Crawford. The knowledge that they were upon the last stage of their journey caused a feeling of cheerfulness among the soldiers, and the first day they proceeded a distance of eighteen miles.

For sixteen days the boatmen poled their bateaux up the river. Once when there was a “Great appearance of wind” the sails were hoisted. At other times the heavily loaded boats were moved with difficulty through the shallow water. Occasionally fog and rain impeded their progress. Bad water made half of the soldiers sick before the journey was ended; and to avoid the mosquitoes on the river, the men preferred to sleep on the banks, although every morning there was a heavy dew. On August 17th the lower end of Lake Pepin was reached and here a delay of several hours occurred while the men drew provisions from the supply boats, and washed their dirty linen.

Major Forsyth stopped at the Indian villages to distribute presents and to announce to the natives the object of the coming of the troops, and the value they would derive from having a fort in their midst. On Sunday, August 22nd, he encamped a few miles ahead of the main body of the expedition, but by eight o’clock the next morning all the boats had come up. Impatient to reach the end of the journey, Major Forsyth again pushed forward and at four o’clock in the afternoon reached the mouth of the Minnesota River. On the morning of Tuesday, August 24, 1819, Colonel Leavenworth arrived in his barge ahead of the troops and spent almost the entire day in looking over the sites available for a camp. Finally, he decided upon a spot on the right bank of the Minnesota River, just above its mouth. There was no rest for the troops when their boats reached the chosen place. “They were immediately set to work in making roads up the bank of the river, cutting down trees, etc."

If the soldiers had any spare time in their labors in which to become interested in their surroundings, there was novelty in everything about them. During the next few days all the nearby chiefs came to call upon their new neighbors: they left satisfied with the presents and the whiskey which they had received. On Saturday a party ascended to the Falls of St. Anthony; and on Sunday a visit was made to the Indian villages up the Minnesota River. It was on Monday that Major Forsyth began his return trip, and as the supplies in store were few and the long-expected recruits were needed for the erection of the camp buildings, Colonel Leavenworth set out with him for Prairie du Chien. On September 1st they met on Lake Pepin two boats and a bateau with one hundred and twenty soldiers on board. But Colonel Leavenworth continued to Prairie du Chien, where he remained some time to urge on any boats which might arrive. On September 5th the one hundred and twenty recruits landed at the new camp.

Log cabins and a stockade were erected while the party still lived in the boats on the river. By November the temporary barracks were ready for occupation. Looking forward to a pleasant winter, the name “Cantonment New Hope” was applied to the embryo fort. The more scientific among the men examined the country round about, and saw in the hills visions of mines of precious metals. “Would not the employment of the troops in the manufacture of Copper and Iron be advantageous to the government?”, wrote one of these energetic soldiers. But the succeeding months were not to give an opportunity for such occupations.

Added to the natural monotony of a wilderness post, there was homesickness and suffering during the first winter. The quarters that had been built were inadequate for protection from the cold of that climate. “Once during that memorable six months”, runs the account of one of the inhabitants of Cantonment New Hope, “the roof of our cabin blew off, and the walls seemed about to fall in. My father, sending my mother and brother to a place of safety, held up the chimney to prevent a total downfall; while the baby, who had been pushed under the bed in her cradle, lay there.... until the wind subsided, when, upon being drawn out from her hiding-place, she evinced great pleasure at the commotion, and seemed to take it all as something designed especially for her amusement.” That baby lived to recall the incident almost seventy years later.

Toward the close of the winter there came sickness, chiefly on account of a lack of proper provisions. Late in the fall Lieutenant Oliver had left Prairie du Chien with supplies in a keel boat. But the river froze and the boat was unable to progress farther than the vicinity of Hastings, Minnesota. Here it was necessary to keep a guard all winter to protect the food from the Indians and the wolves. The Indians refused to sell them game; no vegetables could be purchased; and the bread was “two inches in the barrels thick with mould". With such food it is no wonder that scurvy, the dreaded disease of all frontier posts, broke out among the troops. Forty soldiers died before the progress of the disease was arrested by home-made remedies and groceries brought up by the sutler.

This visitation of disease left a profound impression upon the survivors. Henry H. Sibley, who had often spoken with those who passed through the weary months of suffering and sickness, wrote that “scurvy broke out in a most malignant form, and raged so violently that, for a few days, garrison duty was suspended, there being barely well men enough in the command to attend to the sick, and to the interment of the dead. So sudden were the attacks, that soldiers in apparent good health when they went to bed, were found dead in the morning. One man who was relieved from his tour of sentinel duty, and stretched himself upon the bench of the guard room, four hours after, when he was called upon to resume his post, was discovered to be lifeless."

Thinking that much of the sickness was caused by the unhealthful location, Colonel Leavenworth, on May 5, 1820, moved the soldiers to a place on the west bank of the Mississippi north of the Minnesota where there was a great spring of cold water. Here the troops were quartered in tents naming their community “Camp Cold Water". The immediate need was the erection of the permanent post. Colonel Leavenworth chose for the site a position three hundred yards west of the crest of the cliff. Some material was brought to this place, but no building was done. In August Colonel Leavenworth was superseded in command by Colonel Josiah Snelling, who located the position at the extreme point of land between the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. The work of erecting the buildings was done by the soldiers, it being customary at that time to pay the soldiers fifteen cents a day in addition to their regular pay for this extra work.

Steps were taken during the summer of 1820 to obtain the necessary material. A saw mill was needed to make the lumber with which the interior of the buildings would be finished and the furniture constructed. As the water in Minnehaha Creek was very low that year, it was decided to erect the mill at the Falls of St. Anthony. Some men were sent up the Mississippi River to Rum River to examine the timber, and during the winter of 1820-1821 a party of soldiers was employed in cutting logs and dragging them to the river bank. With the coming of spring the logs were floated down to the Falls of St. Anthony, where they were sawed into lumber and then hauled to the fort by teams.

The progress made on the building was slow. On the tenth of September, 1820, the cornerstone was laid. More than a year later, on November 7, 1821, Colonel Snelling wrote to the Indian agent, Lawrence Taliaferro, that “nothing new has occurred since my return excepting that the other stone barrack is up & the rafters on." The fort was partially occupied, probably in the fall of 1822, before all the surrounding wall had been completed. But it is evident that most of the fort was finished by July, 1823, for at that time the troops erected the Indian Council House.

In the meantime other events had been occurring. On July 31, 1820, Governor Cass of Michigan Territory, who had been on an exploring expedition to the upper Mississippi, passed down the river and remained with the troops until the morning of August 2nd. A council was held with the Indians, during which a peace was made between the Sioux and the Chippewas. That the garrison had been busy at duties other than erecting buildings is evident from the fact that Governor Cass found ninety acres planted with corn and potatoes and wheat. From the garden green peas had been obtained as early as June 15th, and green corn on July 20th.

In accordance with the plans outlined for the year 1820 it was proposed to open a road between Council Bluff and the new post on the upper Mississippi. To survey the route Captain Stephen Watts Kearny led a party which consisted of four other officers, fifteen soldiers, four servants, an Indian guide and his wife and papoose, eight mules, and seven horses. The route led from Council Bluff across what is now the northern and northwestern part of the State of Iowa to Lake Pepin, and then along the Mississippi to the new post. From July 25th to July 29th they remained with Leavenworth’s men, visiting the Falls of St. Anthony, examining the country, and on July 26th going with Lieutenant Green and Miss Gooding to the east side of the Mississippi. Here Lieutenant Green and Miss Gooding were married by Colonel Leavenworth, who as Indian agent for the “Northwest Territory” could perform his duties on the east bank of the river, but not on the west, which was in the Missouri Territory.

The fact that the Falls of St. Anthony constituted the most noticeable landmark of the vicinity led to the application of its name to the military works. The first official inspection of Fort St. Anthony occurred some time between May 13, 1824, and June 13, 1824. General Winfield Scott, as the inspector, was received with all the honor and entertainment that the frontier post could provide. He left favorably impressed with the work that had been done.

“I wish to suggest to the general-in-chief,” wrote General Scott in his report, “and through him to the War Department, the propriety of calling this work Fort Snelling, as a just compliment to the meritorious officer under whom it has been erected. The present name is foreign to all our associations, and is, besides, geographically incorrect, as the work stands at the junction of the Mississippi and Saint Peter’s rivers, eight miles below the great falls of the Mississippi, called after Saint Anthony. Some few years since the Secretary of War directed that the work at the Council Bluffs should be called Fort Atkinson in compliment to the valuable services of General Atkinson on the upper Missouri. The above proposition is made on the same principle.”

A general order on January 7, 1825, directed that the suggested change should be made. Thereupon Fort Snelling began its career as the guardian of the Northwest.