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

Fort Gratiot Reactivated for the 1827 Winnebago War

From Wikipedia.

The Winnebago War of 1827 took place in the Upper Mississippi area, principally in what is today Wisconsin.  It was not really a war, actually just a few attacks on American civilians by members of the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Indian tribe.

Most of the Indians in the region didn't join in the fight and the Ho-Chunk were forced to cede the lead mining region to the United States.

--Brock-Perry

Exterior Work on Fort Gratiot Hospital Nearly Completed-- Part 2

Baker College of Port Huron, Michigan, has given $10,000 to the project as they are building student housing on what was once the Fort Gratiot Military Reservation.  Overall, the project had raised $41,000 and it is expected another $10-12,000 will be needed to complete it.

The fort was built in 1814 and engineered by Charles Gratiot.  After it was abandoned by the Army for awhile, it was reopened during the Winnebago War of 1827 and it also experienced the start of the cholera epidemic of 1832.

Several officers who later achieved fame during the Civil War were posted there over the years leading to the war.  Probably the most famous was Army of the Potomac commander George Gordon Meade, the victor at the Battle of Gettysburg.

--Brock-Perry