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Subject: Ia-Polk Co. History (The First Fort D)
Date: 9 Apr 2006 04:14:54 -0000
Polk County IA Archives History - Books .....The First Fort Des Moines 1898
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Book Title: Annals Of Polk County, Iowa And City Of Des Moines
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST FORT DES MOINES.
A UNITED STATES FRONTIER POST, LOCATED ON THE RIGHT BANK OF THE MISSISSIPPI
RIVER, AT THE MOUTH OF THE DES MOINES, NEAR THE SITE OF WHAT IS NOW THE TOWN OF
KEOKUK, IOWA.
THE establishment of a military post at this point was an outcome of the Act
of Congress (1833) which provides for the better defense of the frontier, by the
raising of a regiment of dragoons to scout the country west of the Mississippi.
This movement is outlined in the report of Secretary Cass, dated November 29,
1833, accompanying the President's Annual Message. He says:
"The act for the better defense of the frontier by raising a regiment of
dragoons, is in the process of execution. About six hundred men have been
enlisted and most of the officers .appointed, and rive of the companies have
been ordered to proceed to Fort Gibson, upon the Arkansas, where they will be
stationed during the winter. The remainder of the regiment will be concentrated
at Jefferson Barracks this season, and it is intended in the spring to order the
whole to proceed through the extensive Indian regions between the western
boundaries of Missouri and Arkansas and the Rocky Mountains. It is deemed
indispensable to the peace and security of the frontier that a respectable force
should be displayed in that quarter, and that the wandering and restless tribes
who roam through it should be impressed with the power of the United States by
the exhibition of a corps so well qualified to excite their respect. These
Indians are beyond the reach of a mere infantry force. Without stationary
residences, and possessing an abundant supply of horses, and with habits
admirably adapted to their use, they can be held in check only by a similar
force, and by occasional display among them. Almost every year has witnessed
some outrage committed by them upon our citizens, and, as many of the Indian
tribes from the country this side of the Mississippi have removed and are
removing to that region, we may anticipate their exposure to these predatory
incursions, unless vigorous measures are adopted to repel them. We owe
protection to the emigrants, and it has been solemnly promised to them; and this
duty can only be fulfilled by repressing and punishing every attempt to disturb
the general tranquility. Policy and humanity equally dictate this course; and
there is reason to hope that the display of this force will itself render
unnecessary its hostile employment."
In the execution of this project, Col. Henry Dodge, with nine companies of
the regiment of dragoons, left Fort Gibson on the 15th of June, 1834, and
entered upon the fated expedition to the Pawnee country which resulted in the
death of Gen. Leavenworth and so large a number of his officers and men from
sickness incident to the climatic changes, that reorganization of the regiment
was rendered necessary, as well as its transfer to more northern latitudes.
Accordingly on the return of the expedition to Fort Gibson, four companies under
Col. Dodge were marched to Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri; three under Major
Mason, to a point on the Arkansas about eighty miles above Fort Gibson, and the
remainder, under Lieutenant Colonel Kearney to the region of the Des Moines. By
orders from the War Department, dated May 19, 1834, the regiment of dragoons
were ordered "to take up their winter quarters in the following positions:
. . . .
"Lieutenant Colonel Kearney, with three companies, viz: Sumner's, Boone's and
Browne's on the right bank of the Mississippi, within the Indian country near
the mouth of the Des Moines."
. . . .
A short rest at Gibson pending the convalescence of the sick list, delayed
the movements of Colonel Kearney, until the season had been well advanced,
although a quartermaster's force had left Jefferson Barracks early in the summer
to select the site and lay the foundation for the buildings. On September 2, he
writes from Camp Carington, near Fort Gibson, "I shall leave here to-morrow
Avitli Companies B, H and I, U. S. dragoons for the Des Moines, crossing the
Missouri River at Booneville (Missouri)," adding, "I have to request that a name
be given for the new post at the Des Moines, and that it may be considered as a
double ration one." The force which left Fort Gibson on the 3rd of September,
1834, for the Des Moines, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Stephen W.
Kearney, consisting of Company B, of the regiment dragoons, Captain E. V. Sumner
and Second Lieutenant J. H. K. Bergwin; Company H, which owing to the absence of
Captain Boone and Lieutenant Schaumburgh, who had been left sick at Gibson, was
also commanded by Captain Sumner; Company I, Captain J. B. Browne and Brevet
Second Lieutenant A. G. Edward, together with an aggregate of 107
non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates. First Lieutenant George H.
Crossman, of the Sixth Infantry, accompanied the command as assistant
quartermaster, while the duties of adjutant and commissary were performed by
Lieutenant Burgwin.
On the 26th of September, Lieutenant Colonel Kearney, writing from Camp Des
Moines, reports his arrival, which occurred late the previous evening. "The
quarters for the officers and soldiers," he complains, "are not as far advanced
as I had expected, and not a log is yet laid for stables for our horses. We
shall, on the 28th, go to work with all our disposable force, and I hope by the
close of next month we may complete the buildings, though they will be less
comfortable and of meaner appearance than those occupied by any other portion of
the army." He is yet uncertain as to the purposes for which he has been sent to
this most isolated spot "I should like to know," he says, "if it is contemplated
that we are to occupy this post after the ensuing winter, and I wish to know
whether I am authorzied to keep away settlers from here, and how far I may
proceed in doing so; also what is required of this command while stationed here."
The winter of 1834-5 was one of unusual severity in that section, and it
appears from Col. Kearney's frequent complaints that the command experienced no
little suffering from uncomfortable quarters and insufficient supplies. Captain
Boone joined his company during the winter, but Lieutenant Crossman having been
recalled to St Louis, all the administrative duty of the garrison devolved upon
Lieutenant Burgwin. On the 1st of February, 1835, we find Col. Kearney again
urging upon the War Department that a name be given to the post, which up to
that time he had designated as merely "The Detachment Headquarters of the
Regiment of Dragoons, at Camp Des Moines, Michigan Territory." On the back of
this appeal we find in the familiar handwriting of Mr. Secretary Cass:
"Let the post be called 'Fort Des Moines,' and let it be a double ration post."
The date and authority for the naming of the river from which the fort takes
its name in turn is involved in much obscurity. On the map made by Pere
Marquette in 1681, first found in Charlevoix's narrative published in 1743, a
river corresponding with this is marked "le reviere des Moingonina," which
Charlevoix refers to as Moingona, but there is nothing in the narrative of
either of these early explorers to indicate the authority for attaching the name
to this particular stream. Joliet and Marquette, as well as most of the early
voyageurs along the Mississippi, owed their first allegiance to the church; a
controlling cause which has had the effect of tingeing many of its landmarks
with names and titles of sacred subjects. If to this circumstance is added the
probability recently advanced by a Canadian writer, that the Illinois country
had been visited prior to the voyage of Joliet and Marquette, by two priests, it
affords a satisfactory solution of the difficulty, La riviere des Moinesthe
river of the monks, and not des moynes, as written by Wilkinson and Pike at the
beginning of the present century.
The War Department at no time intended the post at the mouth of the Des
Moines to be a permanent one, but rather as a point for the winter quarters of
the Dragoon regiment, which was to operate in the country to the westward,
working gradually to the northwest limit of our territory, where it was
contemplated to erect a permanent fort. On the 11th of April, Col. Kearney
reports the arrival of seventy-nine recruits, increasing his force to an
aggregate of 157, and urges upon the Department the desirability of keeping his
command employed in the field as a means of discipline and instruction, of which
they were sadly in need. Before the receipt of this, however, instructions were
already on their way, which combined all the purposes of Col. Kearney's
communication. Orders of the 9th of March, 1835, from the Adjutant General's
office, directed that:
"The three companies under command of Lieutenant Colonel Kearney will proceed
up the river Des Moines to the Raccoon fork, there halt and reconnoiter the
position with a view to the selection of a site for the establishment of a
military post in that vicinity; on which subject Lieutenant Col. Kearney will
report on his return to his winter quarters at Fort Des Moines. After having
made this reconnoissance, Lieutenant Colonel Kearney will proceed with his
command to the Sioux villages near the highlands on the Mississippi about the
44th of north latitude, thence taking a direction to the westward, return to his
original position at the mouth of the Des Moines, passing by the right bank of
that river."
Colonel Kearney writes on the 5th in acknowledgement of these orders: "I
shall leave here," he says, "on the 7th, to execute the duties pointed out for
me in Orders No. 12. I shall take about 150 men Company B, commanded by Brevet
Second Lieutenant Turner; Company H, by Captain Boone, and Company I, by Second
Lieutenant Lea. Assistant Surgeon Wright goes with us. The above and myself are
all the officers for the march. You will see I have no staff officer. Lieutenant
Burgwin I leave here to provide forage for the ensuing winter, and Captain Brown
is too unwell to start with us. . . . . I hope to return by the middle
of August."
As this expedition was charged with the duty of selecting a fort, which
afterwards succeeded to the name and honors of the post at the mouth of the
river, so much of the report of Colonel Kearney as relates to his visit to the
new site is subjoined. He says:
"On the 8th (of August, 1835,) we reached the mouth of the Raccoon, where I
halted to reconnoiter the country with a view to the selection of a site for a
military post in that vicinity as directed by you.
"After riding over a considerable portion of the country myself, and sending
off officers in different directions with a view to the same object, I could
neither see nor hear of any place that possessed the necessary advantages, nor
in my opinion was suitable for the establishment of a military post. The point
of land, in the fork, at the junction of the Raccoon with the Des Moines, would
probably answer as well as any other place in that vicinity. It is about eight
feet above high water mark a narrow strip of prairie commences here, but widens
out as the two rivers recede. On the opposite side of the Des Moines, which is
there about 360 feet wide and 3 1/2 deep, being a good ford, is a great
abundance of timber, oak, walnut, elm, ash, linn and cottonwood, which would
answer for building and firewood. We saw no springs near the place; wells,
however, could be dug. About a mile up the Des Moines is a bluff containing
stone, coal, and a small quantity of silicious limestone, but apparently not
enough for the necessary chimneys of a small post, nor do 1 believe it can be
burned into lime. If a post should be established there, I think stone and lime
must be brought to it from near the mouth of the north fork, a distance by land
of about forty-five miles, and sixty by water. It is by land 150 miles from Fort
Des Moines, and 266 by water to the mouth of the Des Moines River.
"I caused a canoe to be made, in which Lientenant Lea, with a few soldiers,
descended the Des Moines, to its mouth, to examine the practicability of
navigating it, and the means by which supplies could be obtained there. I send
you his report: 'Unless some obstructions are removed, the navigation of the Des
Moines to the Raccoon, by boats sufficiently large to carry stores, etc., for a
military post, I am convinced will be at all times uncertain, and but for a very
small portion of the year, practicable.' Lieutenant Lea thinks there are
positions near the mouth of Cedar (ninety-six miles by water below the Raccoon)
offering more advantages for a military post, such as springs, limestone, and
less difficulty in navigating the river, than any we saw above.
"If a post is established in that section of country, the officer commanding
the party sent for that purpose should of course have discretionary power to
select such place as may appear to him most favorable within such limits to
distance as may be deemed necessary to restrict him.
"With the views of the Department as to the object to be obtained by the
establishment of a military post at the Raccoon, I am unacquainted, but I can
imagine nothing to make it necessary or advisable. If it is intended as a
barrier between the Sac and Sioux, and thereby, put a stop to their predatory
excursions against each other, it is unneccessary, the former Indians from what
I have myself seen and heard, and by information gained from persons acquainted
with them, I know to be inclined to a permanent peace, which can be easily
secured by some restraints imposed upon the latter. These we now have within
striking distance, and they know and feel it. Their two villages on the Des
Moines (Keokuk and Openousas,) containing the leading men of the nation, are
within fifty-five and seventy-five miles from Fort Des Moines. On my return, I
marched with my command through both of them, thus making a road from them to
this post, convincing them they are not inaccessable to us, and that we can
reach them when we think proper so to do. The Secretary of War is well
acquainted with the Indian character, and he knows that mild measures will not
restrain an Indian from gratifying his passions when provoked, or prevent him
from distinction, by the taking of a scalp when a fair opportunity offers. If a
permanent peace between the above nations of Indians is an object of much
importance with the Department, I can easily effect it, if I can be authorized
to repeat to them what in 1830, by order of the then Secretary of War, they were
told by Colonel Morgan, one of the commissioners of the treaty held at Prairie
du Chien, and if I can be further authorized upon the first infraction of the
peace to pursue the offenders and punish them.
"If it is not deemed expedient to grant the above authority, but a military
post between the two nations still thought necessary, then a post at the Raccoon
is not sufficiently advanced. It should be about 100 miles above there, viz., at
the upper fork of the Des Moines, which is the neutral ground (a strip of forty
miles) which separates them.
"If a post is required on the Des Moines to protect the frontiers of
Missouri, one at the Raccoon would be altogether too far advanced.
"To conclude, all the Sauk Indians, (and there were many), who spoke to me of
the probability of a military post being established near the Raccoon, were
strongly and most decidedly opposed to it, giving as one of their objections
that the whites would drive off the little game that is left in their country."
From an inspection report of Colonel George Croghan, who visited the post on
the 3d of December, 1835, we are enabled to catch a glimpse of the condition of
the work at that time. At the time of his visit the garrison, under command of
Lieutenant Colonel Kearney, consisted of Company B, Dragoons, Captain Sumner,
rank and file 59, with 72 animals; Captain Boone, 49 rank and file, with 68
animals, and Company I, Captain Brown, 56 rank and file, with 65 animals, making
a total strength of 184 officers and men, with 205 horses and mules.
"The quarters," he reports, "are of a temporary character, hastily
constructed and of round logs. They are now more comfortable than they were last
winter; the men since their return from the summer campaign having made in them
some material and essential alterations. The roofs of several of the buildings
are bad and leaky."
Concerning the health of the garrison, which he regards as unnecessarily bad,
and the hospital facilities, he says:
"The building is comfortable, though too small to accommodate more than six
or eight patients, and as there is but one ward, they must all be together. Its
location, too, is bad, being near a creek, on the opposite side of which is a
bottom, subject to overflow whenever the Mississippi rises much above its
ordinary level."
On the 6th of June, 1836, Captain Sumner, with all the available troops, left
the post for the usual summer campaign, leaving the post in command of
Lieutenant B. S. Roberts, of the Dragoon regiment, who had recently joined from
the Military Academy. At this date the garrison had reached its greatest
strength and efficiency. Its officers were Captains E. V. Sumner, N. Boone and
J. B. Browne, commanding their respective companies; First Lieutenant J. H. K.
Burgwin, of E company, acting quartermaster and commissary; Second Lieutenant A.
M. Lea, of I Company, and J. W. Schaumburg, of H; Brevet Second Lieutenant J. H.
Hanly, of B company, and B. S. Roberts, of H, the latter acting as post adjutant
and Assistant Surgeon S. P. Moore with an aggregate rank and file of 184.
The resignation of Colonel Dodge, in the spring of 1836, promoted Lieutenant
Colonel Kearney to the command of the regiment of Dragoons which took him to
Fort Leavenworth, the headquarters of the regiment, and the command of Fort Des
Moines devolved upon Captain E. V. Sumner, pending the arrival of Lieutenant
Colonel Mason, who had succeeded to the vacancy. The history of the fort up to
this period, and in fact during its whole career, was uneventful. The site in
every military sense had been badly chosen, its locality unhealthy, and to reach
the country through which the command was expected to scout, involved long and
tedious marches. That the post had been maintained so long at this point was the
result of the delay and irresolution of the authorities in deciding upon the
site of a point farther up the Des Moines and nearer the frontier, the details
of which are more fully reported in the history of Fort Des Moines, No. 2.
Beyond this, the post was experiencing the inevitable difficulty that has
accompanied the career of most of our frontier posts, the rapacity of land
agents and the continuous encroachments of settlers upon the lands surrounding
the garrison.
On the 18th of September, 1836, Colonel Mason writes the War Department:
"A town has been laid off at this place and lots sold, which takes in a part
of our garrison. This town has been laid off on a tract of land which I am told
was granted on a grant confirmed by Congress to the heirs of one 'Reddick.' I
have none of the acts of Congress by me and cannot therefore more particularly
point the act confirming the grant. You will at once perceive, under the
circumstances, how certain it is that we must come in collision with the
citizens of this town, who have already commenced to build.
"I see by a letter of Colonel Kearney's to the Honorable Secretary of War,
dated September 27, 1835, and his answer thereto, that some steps were about to
be taken to have a reserve of two miles out from this post for military
purposes. This reserve is absolutely necessary to the convenience and well being
of the garrison. Independent of the town there are other parties putting up
buildings within the two miles, and their object is to sell whiskey to the
Indians and soldiers. All this within the country given to the half-breed Sacs
and Foxes. I shall be glad to receive specific instructions for my government,
in relation to the town and the individuals erecting buildings within the 'two
miles' proposed as a reservation for this post."
On the receipt of this it was immediately determined to abandon the post
without delay, rather than encounter the conflict with the land-grasping element
in the western section, with whom the Department had already had a sufficient
and unpleasant experience. As a result of this policy, General Orders No. 71,
from the Adjutant General's office, dated 20 October, 1836, directed that:
"The Dragoon post of Fort Des Moines will be broken up without delay, and the
squadron immediately proceed to join the headquarters of the regiment at Fort
Leavenworth. The Quartermaster's department will receive and make the proper
disposition of the stores and public property pertaining to the post when
evacuated."
It was not, however, until the following summer that the arrangements
necessary to an evacuation of the post were fully completed. Colonel Mason, who
was absent on detached duty at St. Louis and elsewhere, remained away during the
entire winter, the post being under the command of Captain J. B. Brown, with
Lieutenant Roberts as adjutant. Colonel Croghan again visited the post on the
26th of November, 1836, and his report affords us the last glimpse of the inner
history of the fort.
"There has been a good deal of sickness here this season," he remarks,
"chiefly cases of intermittent fever, but the number on the sick reports are
lessening daily. Were a garrison to be continued here much longer (and I hope it
may not) a hospital should be erected, the one now occupied being inconveniently
arranged, too small by one-half, and moreover badly located, near the bank of a
miry creek, which is stagnant during the warm months." The store-houses he finds
are not only too small, but are in bad repair, open in places, and everywhere
'full of chinks and unsafe.' In concluding he refers to the matter already
alluded to in the monthly report.
"The company under orders to proceed to Fort Leavenworth, is filled
exclusively by selection from the entire command, of such soldiers) as have not
less than twelve months to serve. It having departed, the garrison will then
consist of the Lieutenant Colonel commandant, a captain and a subaltern, with
scarcely men enough to attend to the stable duties, as there will be many
surplus horses requiring their care. And what will be the strength of this
command by or before the close of next April? Eighteen rank and file, every
other enlistment will by that time have terminated, and of the officers, it is
believed that the lieutenant colonel alone will be willing to remain in the
service after the commencement of the spring."
The breaking-up process commenced on the 30th of October, 1836, when B
company left the post under the command of Captain Sumner for Fort Leavenworth.
This movement was not in accordance with the War Department order, but the
carrying out of a project of the department commander, General Atkinson "for the
better protection of the frontier." "Still," writes General Kearney to Colonel
Mason, "I do not think Company H will return to Fort Des Moines, and therefore
what public property it may require and cannot bring with it you will order to
be sent to St. Louis without delay, to be forwarded to this post (Leavenworth).
In reporting the departure of Sumner's company Colonel Mason adds:
"In making the transfer ordered by the colonel, it has taken every man from
Companies H and I, who had more than one year to serve, that was off the sick
report, to till up Company B. There is now left belonging to this post but
seventy-six men, one of whom is absent in confinement, fifty-eight of whom will
be discharged during the winter and early part of the spring, so that by the
15th of May next, there will be only eighteen enlisted men in the two companies
which garrison the post."
Immediately on the receipt of this letter at the War Department, it was
decided, in view of the situation set forth by Colonel Mason, which was
supplemented a few days later by a report from the commandant at Fort
Leavenworth, that the quarters at the latter post were insufficient to
accommodate the Fort Des Moines garrison, that the latter had better remain at
that post during the winter should its commandant not have already complied with
General Orders No. 71. Orders suspending that movement were accordingly sent to
Colonel Mason, reaching him before he had concluded his arrangements to evacuate
the post.
During the most of this winter the absence of Colonel Mason devolved the
command upon Captain Jesse 15. Browne, of I company. Concerning this officer but
little is known at the War Department. He entered the service as a captain of
Rangers in 1832, was transferred to the Dragoon regiment upon its organization,
and accompanied Ins regiment to Des Moines, where all of his service in the army
was performed, he resigning his commission the 30th of June, 1837, immediately
after the abandonment of the post, in order to engage in civil pursuits. Nothing
is known regarding his subsequent whereabouts.
Early in the spring of 1837, Colonel Mason returned to the post, and on the
30th of March he addressed the War Department for information as to the probable
duration of the post, in order that he may regulate his requisitions for the
needed supplies. In this letter he remarks:
"The town which I mentioned to you in my letter as having been laid out and
taking in part of this post, has been abandoned, the title of the proprietors
proving not to be good." Before the receipt of this letter, however, and as
there no longer existed any necessity for the keeping up of an establishment at
this site, instructions had already been sent to the commanding officer at
Jefferson Barracks to carry into effect the General Order No. 71, of 1836. "All
the public property, Quartermaster and Commissary stores will be left in charge
of the Quartermaster's department, and be disposed of in the manner best suited
for the public interest."
The last official communication from Fort Des Moines is dated June 1st, 1837,
and signed by Lieutenant Colonel Mason. He writes:
"The post is this day abandoned, and the squadron takes up its march for Fort
Leavenworth. It has been delayed until this date in order that the grass might
be sufficiently high to afford grazing for the horses, as corn cannot be had on
some parts of the route."
Of the officers who served in the command of the post, Lieutenant Colonels
Kearney and Mason, who became subsequently distinguished in the military and
political history of the land, are treated of in the histories of other posts,
with whose career they were more eminently associated. To one subaltern more
than the others was entrusted for a greater period the duties of adjutant,
quartermaster and commissary, and who, during the absence of the command on its
summer campaigns, was in command of the post.
Second Lieutenant Benjamin S. Roberts joined the garrison at Des Moines from
the Military Academy immediately upon his graduation and remained with it during
the whole duration of the post. His subsequent military career was most
honorable, serving with high distinction during the war with Mexico, and
reaching the position of Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Cavalry, from which
rank he was retired in 1870, having rendered nearly forty years active service
in the army. He died at Washington, D. C, January 29, 1875.
Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
ANNALS OF POLK COUNTY, IOWA,
AND
CITY OF DES MOINES
BY WILL PORTER.
"And this volume, dedicated to its people, sets forth in attractive style all
the facts and incidents that go to make up the history of which all citizens are
justly proud."
Major Hoyt Sherman.
GEO. A. MILLLER PRINTING COMPANY,
PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS,
DES MOINES, IOWA,
1898.
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