Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858

by Marcus Lee Hansen

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.[86]

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.[87]

III
FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY

It was not the intention of the War Department that the influence of the frontier military post should be limited by the range of the guns mounted upon its walls. The post was to be the center of the Indian life for those tribes that dwelt in the vicinity. At the same time expeditions, the base of which was to be at the fort, were to carry the authority of the government out upon the wild Indian lands, and the frontier settlements were to look to the soldiers for protection.[88]

How, in its origin, Fort Snelling became part of a comprehensive system for the protection of the frontier, has been detailed. The events of the forty years that followed indicate very clearly the wisdom of the men who chose the site. Every phase of frontier duty was performed by the troops stationed at the mouth of the Minnesota River; and although these tasks often took them hundreds of miles from the post, and although they often coöperated with men from other forts, yet these expeditions may well be considered as part of the history of Fort Snelling. They were a test of the training received on the parade ground, and the successful accomplishment of many a difficult duty shows that the post was fulfilling the objects of those who built it.

Prior to 1848 the governmental organization in the jurisdiction of which Fort Snelling was located was very weak. When first erected in 1819 the fort was in the Territory of Missouri (1812–1821). Then followed a number of years in which it was in unorganized territory (1821–1834). The Territory of Michigan (1834–1836), the Territory of Wisconsin (1836–1838), and the Territory of Iowa (1838–1846) successively had jurisdiction over it; while in 1849 it fell within the newly-organized Territory of Minnesota. Lying far from the seats of government, in a region of wandering traders and red men, the fort became the exponent of the government—the only symbol of governmental restriction in a region almost entirely without law.

During the first years of its existence while the buildings were being erected and the fort was making its place in the Indian life and the fur trade of the surrounding region, the frontier was comparatively quiet. The first outbreak occurred in Illinois and Wisconsin, where the Winnebagoes were constantly coming into contact with the lead miners about Galena. During the summer of 1826 rumors came to Fort Snelling of the hostility of this tribe, and Colonel Snelling thought it prudent to reënforce the garrison of Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien. Three companies of the Fifth Infantry were sent away from Fort Snelling on the afternoon of August 18th under the command of Captain Wilcox.[89] Although no actual conflict occurred, the continued uneasiness felt because of the presence of the Winnebagoes led the authorities to remove all the troops from Fort Crawford to the upper post in the fall of that year.[90]