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FORTRESS STUDY GROUP
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Casemate 77 |
An invitation to a family wedding in March 2006 finally saw me visiting the US Army Rock Island Arsenal, at Rock Island, Illinois and the remains of Fort Armstrong (1816 - 1845). The City of Rock Island is on the Upper Mississippi River at its junction with the Rock River; Rock Island itself is the largest permanent island in the Mississippi River, a limestone shelf 2.75 miles long and a maximum 0.75 miles wide. All the other Mississippi River Islands consist of shifting silt and sand.
First surveyed by Lt Zebulon Pike in 1805 and set aside as a military reservation by Congress in 1809, Rock Island was not occupied by the US Army until 1814. The US Congress passed the Fur Trading Act in 1816 prohibiting non US citizens (ie North West Company and Hudson Bay Company employees) from trapping animals on US lands, leading to a decision to garrison Rock Island.
On 10 May 1816 some 600 soldiers and 150 labourers arrived and began to build a wooden stockade fort flanked by blockhouses. The purpose of the fort was to establish US military presence in the area, control fur shipment up and down the Mississippi River, act as a mediator to settle conflicts between Indian tribes living in the area, enforce the provisions of the peace treaties between the United States and the tribes in the area, prevent sale of alcohol to the Indians, and serve as buffer between the Plains Indians to the west and the settlers entering into Illinois. The new fort was named Fort Armstrong in honor of the then current Secretary of War, John Armstrong. On completion in late 1816 the fort garrison was reduced to 200 soldiers.
A model of Fort Armstrong as it was when built; in the Rock Island Arsenal Museum.
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The fort was described in 1817 by Major Stephen H. Young as a four sided structure, two sides being protected only by the 30ft limestone cliffs, and the other two by a stockade formed mainly by the 20ft high rear walls of the barracks with two rows of loopholes, and three blockhouses, each about 26ft square and of two stories. Walls between the barracks were of 8ft of stone topped with 5ft of wood.
The compound held barracks, hospitals, storerooms, a guard room and officers' quarters.
Fort Armstrong saw its only military action during the Black Hawk War of 1832, an uprising of Sauks, Winnebagos, and Mesquakies led by Chief Black Hawk. The war saw Chief Black Hawk followers assailed by both Europeans and neighboring Indian tribes. Some 200 Indians and 100 European settlers and soldiers were killed in battle.
However, far more settlers, soldiers, and Indians were killed by an outbreak of cholera that arrived in the area at this time than in the fighting. Of the 1000 troops sent from Chicago in 1832 to bolster the Ft Armstrong garrison only 220 arrived due to the cholera.
Blockhouse standing as a gate guard outside of the main entrance to the U S Army Rock Island Arsenal, March 2006.
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The result of Black Hawk's War was that the Indians were forced to cede their remaining lands in Illinois and a large portion of their holdings in Iowa to the US. Two soldiers that served in the area around Ft Armstrong during the Black Hawk War were Private Abraham Lincoln of the Illinois Militia, and Captain Jefferson Davis U S Army.
With the signing of the peace treaty ending the Black Hawk War at Ft Armstrong in 1832, Western Iowa became the dividing point between European settlements and Indian lands and the fort was allowed to run down. The last infantry garrison was withdrawn in 1836; the fort was used as an Army supply depot until 1845. When the US Army left Rock Island, local citizens salvaged the Army's buildings still remaining on the island, but the Army did not abandon title to it. Thus, in 1863 during the American Civil War (1861-1865) the US Army returned to the Island and established both a Prisoner of War Camp and an Arsenal. Then in 1866 the US Army Corps of Engineers established its Upper Mississippi River Headquarters on the island. Unfortunately by 1863 nothing remained of Ft Armstrong but some depressions in the ground.
During the last half of the C19th the Rock Island Arsenal grew to become one of the US Army's premier arsenals where rifles, cannon, and various military equipment were manufactured. The Arsenal would continue to grow during the C20th and in 2006 it is still part of the US Army active facilities. In 1916 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Fort Armstrong, the Rock Island Arsenal rebuilt Blockhouse No1 at or near its original site. The rebuilt blockhouse still stands as gate guard welcoming visitors to the Arsenal and to the US Army Corps of Engineers Upper Mississippi Lock and Dam No15.
