Illinois' 200th-- Part 3: The War of 1812

In September 1813, Americans built Fort  Clark in Peoria.  In June 1814,  William Clark built Fort Shelby  at Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin Territory.  This was the William Clark who was in the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The British captured Fort Shelby in July and renamed it Fort McKay.  Two American attempts to recapture it were turned back at Rock Island Rapids and Credit Island, which I have written about before.  Click on the labels.  These were the final actions of the War of 1812 in this area.

Hostilities between Indians and Americans would continue, reigniting in the Winnebago War of 1827 and the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Five million acres of land in the Illinois Territory between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, below Rock Island were set aside as the Military Tract of 1812 to pay soldiers land grants for their War of 1812 service.This is over one-eighth of the land in present-day Illinois and some of it was in Indian occupied area, causing many to side with Black Hawk in the forthcoming hostilities.

--Brock-Perry

The Military Tract of 1812

From Wikipedia.

This is a follow up to my Feb. 18, 2013 entry about War of 1812 genealogy with some of the sources coming from bounty land warrants, which I had never heard of before.  So, I had to do some more research.

On May 6, 1812 (six weeks before the declaration of war), an Act of Congress set aside land as payment to volunteer soldiers for the upcoming war (they definitely must have been expecting it).  Land in the west that eventually became the states of Arkansas, Michigan and Illinois.  Missouri land was added after the land in Michigan was determined to be undesirable.

Land was given as partial compensation by states and later the federal government.  This had also been done during the American Revolution, but most of that land was in western Virginia.

Shoot Gun, Get Land.  --Brock-Perry