Fort D's Place in History

FORT D and Its Place in History

A tale of Cape Girardeau and the river

We “charged into the town of Hamburg, scattering the Dutch in all directions. My men fired on them as they ran through the fields, although unarmed, and killed 1, mortally wounding 5 others…”
M. Jeff Thompson
August 12, 1861

August 6, 1861
“ Regular scientific fortifications were begun on the ridge, engineered by Lieut. Powell in the form of a triangle with a bastion at each angle raking the trenches.”
Allen Geer, 20 th Regiment Illinois Volunteers

August 31, 1861
“ I have a task before me of no trifling moment and I want all the encouragement possible. The safety of the country, to some extent, and my reputation and that of our children, greatly depends on my acts… All I fear is that too much may be expected of me.”
Ulysses S. Grant
Cape Girardeau, Mo.

“ Because of his knowledge of engineering, Powell was directed to prepare and carry out a plan for the fortification of the camp and town. In November, General Grant authorized him to recruit and train a company to manage the siege guns.” -United States Geological Survey

“ I authorized Captain Powell, an efficient officer who has been acting as engineer, to raise a company to manage the siege guns.” U. S. Grant, Brigadier General

“ The company was organized at the instance of General Grant for immediate duty on the guns mounted in the forts about Cape Girardeau.”
Official Records

Cape Girardeau, Mo. February 14 1862
“ Here there are no forces to fight but a few hundred bushwhackers that will lie by the roadside in the swamp, and I believe they would murder Jesus Christ if they thought he was a Union man.”
Charles W. Wills
8 th Illinois Volunteers

“ Placed on a Union gunboat, Powell was sent nine miles to Savannah, where several days later his right arm, from a point slightly below the elbow, was removed. Emma cared for her husband during his four-month convalescence, and was thereafter granted a "perpetual pass " to follow him throughout the war. ”
- Bill Steinlfacher-Kemp, Illinois Heritage

The Civil War was the defining experience of Powell's generation. Though the war had left him without a right arm, Powell was, in many respects, strengthened by his experiences. He now was an accomplished leader of men. On the battlefields of Vicksburg, Atlanta, and others, he developed an ability to lead under unforgiving conditions, experience that would prove advantageous on his journeys out West.
- Bill Steinlfacher-Kemp, Illinois Heritage

1867
“ Powell traveled to Washington, D.C., where he asked the assistance of his friend and old commanding officer, General Grant, then temporarily acting as secretary of war. Grant signed an order allowing Powell's expedition to purchase rations at cost.” ”
– C. J. Hursch, American History magazine

1869 Powell's friendship with Grant would help win him support for his explorations of the West. - People in America

The Bureau of American Ethnology (originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Interior Department to the Smithsonian Institution . But from the start, the bureau's visionary founding director, John Wesley Powell , promoted a much broader mission: "to organize anthropologic research in America." Under Powell, the bureau organized research intensive multi-year projects; sponsored ethnographic , archaeological and linguistic field research; initiated publications series (most notably its Annual Reports and Bulletins); and promoted the fledgling discipline of anthropology . It prepared exhibits for expositions and collected anthropological specimens for the United States National Museum.

1888 1888

USGS Headquarters

“ One of the most powerful scientists in the world, and the greatest student of the West.”
– Wallace Stegner
“ Everyone who lives in the West… owes Powell a debt of gratitude.”
- William deBuys
“ Writers of history have failed to understand John Wesley Powell and therefore have failed to understand the fundamental meaning of the West in American history.”
– Bernard DeVoto

1864 June 5: “Marched from camp two miles out from town to fort at Cape Girardeau.”
18 th USCT Official Records

WHY IS FORT D IMPORTANT?
A surviving Civil War earthworks
A prime archaeological site
A locally historically important site
A local landmark of distinction
The existing physical reminder of an important relationship that led to the second opening of the west and subsequent landmarks of public science.

Sam and Wes “ He met and fought beside Ulysses S. Grant, who became a lifelong friend.” – Elizabeth Gibson

“ We have an unknown distance yet to go, an unknown river yet to run…”
John Wesley Powell

Fort D's Place in History

by Stephanie Lynch on Oct 08, 2010

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Fort D’s Place in History — Presentation Transcript