Horse work, not horse play.

    Lieutenant Pike had pointed out a high bluff where the city of Burlington later arose as a desirable place for a fort. This advice....

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....was disregarded and the first American fort on Iowa soil was built on the site of the present city of Fort Madison, where the banks of the river were low, and hemmed in by wooded gullies where an enemy could easily hide. This made the place difficult to defend.

    In 1808 a detachment of 50 soldiers and their officers ascended the Mississippi and built on this spot a temporary stockade of pickets, five feet high, enclosing low barracks for the garrison. The stockade had two gates, one in front next to the river and another in the rear towards the woods. On each side of the back gate was a store building, one containing goods for the Indian trade and another goods to be sold to the soldiers. Outside of the gate a soldiers stood guard night and day.

    The permanent buildings, erected a year later, boasted a stockade 15 feet high with corner blockhouses and more comfortable barracks for the troops. All the work in constructing both the temporary and permanent buildings was done by the soldiers. Even the hauling of logs had to be done by their own strength alone, for they had neither oxen nor horses to lighten their labors. So the soldiers had to play horses while they built Fort Madison, but it was horse work rather than horse play.

Why the Indians disliked the "Big Knives"

    The Indians, the Sacs and Foxes, witnessed the building of the fort with scowls and spiteful looks. And, encouraged by the British, who still controlled the fur trade of the Upper Mississippi Valley, they determined to resist the advance of the "Big Knives," as they termed the Americans. These Indians, mostly Sacs, preferred the British because they sold them better goods than the American. The American blankets, they complained, were small and thin, the powder would not always explode, and the springs of the traps were weak, making frequent repairs necessary. Then, too, the British told the Indians that the Americans wanted their lands -- which was really true. For these reasons the Indians tried to prevent the building of Fort Madison, and when the building had been completed they made several attempts to destroy the fort at the instigation of Black Hawk, a young Sac warrior, who had become a war chief by bravery in war.

A dance that didn't come off

    Already in 1809 Black Hawk hatched a scheme to destroy the fort. On returning from a hunt Black Hawk and other chiefs pretended friendship by paying their debts to the trader at the fort. While....

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.... this was being done, warriors with concealed weapons massed by the front gate. One of the chiefs entered the stockade and asked permission to dance within the gate for the amusement of the soldiers. Luckily for the soldiers, warning of the true intention of this request had been given by an Indian who had been befriended by a trader now at the fort. The trader had told the commanding officer, and just as the Indians were waiting for the signal to murder the soldier, every soldier was under arms, and a cannon ready to be fired, was planted right in front of the gate at which the Indians were crowding. The chief within the fort, seeing that their plot had been discovered, waved his hand as as signal to retreat. This was obeyed with an angry howl. None of the Indians, however, were hurt. The commanding officer thought it wise to let them off with a scolding.

"Colonel" Black Hawk

    Two years passed and again Black Hawk and his warriors were on the warpath. This time he directed the attack on the fort from a ditch camouflaged with brush. But when the Indians had used up their ammunition they sulked away leaving the besieged troops in possession of the fort.

    During the War of 1812, Black Hawk became a "colonel" in the British army and wore a red uniform. He participated in several battles against the Americans; and once more he laid siege to Fort Madison, this time with a force of 200 warriors. During the four days the attack lasted, the besiegers shot hundreds of firebrands at the fort, but the soldiers succeeded in putting the fires out as soon as they started.

Fort Madison abandoned

    The next year (1813) the Indians came again. This time they killed a corporal and three privates whom they surprised outside of the gate. Since both food and ammunition at the fort were getting low, the officer in charge thought only of saving the garrison. He ordered a ditch to be dug from one of the blockhouses to the river and through this the soldiers carried their food supplies to the boats in which they made their escape to St. Louis, 200 miles south. The last man to leave the fort set it on fire. In a short time only its two blackened chimneys could be seen from the river. Fort Madison was never rebuilt, but a fine city bearing the same name has since been built where stood the first American fort in the Iowa country.

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Fort Armstrong

    A second fort named Fort Armstrong soon (1816) arose on the beautiful Rock Island in the Mississippi between the present cities of Davenport and Rock Island. This fort was built according to a similar plan as Fort Madison except that the roofs of the barracks sloped inward. This would make it more difficult for besieging Indians to set them on fire. The walls of the whole structure were white washed, thus presenting a charming appearance to the voyagers on the great river. Twice it narrowly escaped attack by the Indians. Finally it was abandoned and the buildings pulled down. But the spot today is marked by a picturesque little blockhouse, a vivid reminder of early Iowa. Since 1862 the United States government has maintained an arsenal on the island site of Fort Armstrong.

Other forts

    Farther down the Mississippi on the Iowa side, the first Fort Des Moines was built in 1834. In 1837 it was abandoned. A second fort Des Moines was built in 1843 at the mouth of the Raccoon River. This fort became the beginnings of the city of Des Moines. Fort Dodge, at first called Fort Clark, arose farther north on the banks of the Des Moines River in 1850. Another small fort was located at or near the site of Council Bluffs, and Fort Atkinson in northeastern Iowa gave its name to the present Iowa town by the same name. Often, these forts were also trading posts, Indian agencies, and occasionally missionary establishments as well.

Questions and Exercises: Look up stockade, barracks, garrison, camouflage. Who was president of the U. S. in 1808? Why did the Indian followers of Black Hawk side with the British? Why did the first attempt to destroy the fort fail? The second? Why did the American decide to leave? Locate other Iowa forts.