CHAPTER V
FORT SNELLING
FROM Carver
passed an interval of nearly half a century, with
naught to mark its periods or note its history. An
occasional trader, for the love of gain, planted his
post upon the Mississippi and its tributaries, marrying,
in most cases, amongst the natives, and seeking no
other advantages for his growing family, than were
found amongst the tribe with whom he dwelt.
The shout of the hunter
and whoop of the warrior resounded o'er the bluffs.
The noble river remained unrippled, save by the Indian
paddle, until a defence [defense] of the frontier
was found expedient.
The present site of Fort
Snelling was selected, and recommended to the war
department by Major Long, in 1817. In 1819 the first
detachment of troops, under command of Colonel Leavenworth,
arrived at the mouth of the Minnesota river, and established
a cantonment, preparatory to the erection of more
permanent quarters.
St. Louis was the nearest
town of any importance, and this only in embryo, whence
"supplies" were "poled," nine
hundred miles in a flat boat, chartered by government
for the purpose, the trip requiring three months.
The fort was named after its first commandant, and
Lake Harriet, a beautiful transparent sheet of water,
after his heroic and inestimable wife. The original
barracks were of logs, but were rebuilt of stone in
1845-7, a noble and commanding fortification.
The first white woman
who trod this soil, was Mrs. Clark,
wife of the commissary; the first to endure the fatigues,
and enjoy the romance of a voyage on the Upper Mississippi.
The water was so low that the men were obliged frequently
to wade in the river, and draw the boat through the
mud, thus consuming six weeks in the last three hundred
miles.
Arrived at their destination,
they were obliged to live in the boat, until a shelter
and defence from the Indians could be created. After
one month in the boat, added to the time already occupied
by the trip, Mrs. Clark regarded
it a rich luxury to commence housekeeping in her new
log hut, thought it was of the rudest kind, "plastered
with mud, and chinked with clay."
It was December when they
got into their winter quarters, and the fierce winds
which swept over the prairies, obliged them to keep
mostly within doors. Once in a violent storm, the
roof of their cabin was partly removed, leaving no
protection for the inmates, and the baby, for shelter,
was placed under the bed.
Let it not be understood
that Mrs. Clark was long without
female companionship; for some four or five ladies
had accompanied their husbands, and with all the discomforts
of pioneers, they had their social pleasures, and
even in their rude, floorless abodes, held their dancing
assemblies once a fortnight.
Mrs. Clark
left Fort Snelling in 1827. During the period of her
sojourn (eight years), one wedding, only, had been
chronicled among their number, there having been but
one unmarried lady in their circle. The marriage could
not be solemnized short of a trip to Prairie du Chien,
three hundred miles distant, and being in the winter
it was performed on the ice.
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In 1820, Colonel
Snelling was appointed to the command, prosecuting
the work of building with great energy, and filling
his station with dignity, and winning golden opinions
from subordinate officers and privates.
Mrs. Snelling,
true to the noble instinct of woman, would not allow
her husband to brave the dangers and privations of
the wilderness alone. The cabin of the keel boat in
which she was a passenger, scarcely allowed her to
stand upright, while the weather was exceedingly warm,
and the musketoes [mosquitoes] were as annoying as
in later days. The fatigues and anxieties of the trip
were increased by the care of her younger children;
which, added to the fear of the ferocious-looking
savages, numerous on both shores, robbed the young
mother of nearly all quiet rest. A few months after
their arrival, Mrs. Snelling's fifth
child was born. Her sick room was "papered and
carpet with buffalo robes, and made quite comfortable."
Two years later, soon after moving into the new barracks,
this child sickened and died; the first white child
whose demise is recorded.
Soon after the arrival
of Colonel Snelling, work was commenced at St. Anthony's
Falls, on the west side, a grist mill erected, and
other improvements contemplated. The first white woman
who visited the Falls, was Mrs. Capt. George
Goading. What must her emotions have been,
as with a proud consciousness of standing where no
other of her sex had stood, she quaffed the full draught
from Nature's glorious fount!
The first years in the
history of Fort Snelling were monotonous in the extreme.
The monthly arrival of a mail, conveyed four hundred
miles on the back of a drafted soldier, and the annual
arrival of a flat boat, were the chief events to record
in the routine of weeks,
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and even months, and years, save the
frequent disturbances among the Indians.
One incident, however,
which created no little excitement at the time, is
worthy of record. Two captive white children, whose
parents, from the Red River settlement, had been murdered
by the Sioux, were found by some traders on the St.
Peter's River, and Colonel Snelling
immediately sent an officer with a company of soldiers,
for their rescue. Their ages were eight and five.
The eldest could narrate the facts relative to their
captivity; and because he cried, on seeing the brains
of his little sister dashed out against a tree, and
their parents cruelly murdered, he had a small portion
of his scalp removed, which was an open sore at the
time of the rescue. Still, they were reluctant to
leave their captors, who were also loath to give them
up. They were kindly received and cared for by the
families of the garrison. The eldest died while yet
young, leaving happy evidence that religious instruction
had not been bestowed on him in vain, and the younger
was sent to an orphan asylum in New York.
The Christian character
of Mrs. Snelling is worthy of special
attention. Highly intelligent and refined, she placed
all her accomplishments at the feet of her Redeemer,
and quietly, yet firmly evinced the power of the principle
that "worketh no ill to its neighbor." The
instruction of children was her particular forte,
and on each Sabbath she convened them for religious
teaching, to which is attributable the happy death
bed of the orphan captive.
She was possessed of a
buoyant spirit, and enjoyed, with a high relish, the
rich scenes on which her romantic, ardent nature feasted.
From childhood she had been
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accustomed to equestrian exercise, and
here she found enlarged opportunity for its enjoyment.
How unlike an amble through a well paved thoroughfare,
is a gallop wheresoever one listeth, over the unfenced
prairie! The very soul expands, as the atmosphere
imparts new life to the system, and the inflated nostrils
of the beast evince his enthusiasm and joy
in untrammeled liberty!
On one occasion, as Mrs.
S. was riding with an officer, they desired a wolf,
to which, as by common consent, they gave chase. Her
bonnet flew off, and with hair streaming in the wind,
the bounding steeds flew onward, until they actually
ran down the object of their pursuit.
At this time, the wolves
are represented as so numerous, that their boldness
was most presuming; and so nearly starved, that any
sort of food left within their reach, was sure to
be devoured by them; and it is the more wonderful,
that our fair huntress and her gallant attendant,
were not devoured by the half-famished animal, than
that it should have been borne by them, a trophy of
their heroism.
In 1823, a sound hitherto
unheard, broke upon the silence of this remote region.
Nearer, and yet nearer it approached, until a moving,
approaching object was descried upon the water. The
natives placed their hands over their mouths, in token
of astonishment, and finally, with shrieks of alarm,
fled in terror from the monster. They imagined that
the Great Spirit was angry, and had come to seek redress,
and therefore, with streaming hair and sailing blankets,
they sought to hide form his presence. A sentinel
on duty had been first to discover, and announce to
the garrison the steamer's approach, and so unbelieving
were the people, that they were about to place him
under guard, as an insane man, when the
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"Virginia," a stern wheel
boat, sought a landing. The booming cannon and shouts
of welcome rolled forth, long and loud, evincing an
unmistaken and hearty welcome from the whole command.
These, and the sound of steam, having ceased, a daring
Indian ventured to peep out form his covert. Seeing
no change in the natural world, he cautiously crept
forth, and at last approached the object of terror
and wonder, and declared it to be a "patah-watah"
(fire canoe).
The monotony of society
was enlivened by social additions, made by this steamer.
Wives and sisters had accompanied the new officers
who arrived, and the circle of ladies had swelled
to ten. Their isolated position might be regarded
as unfavorable to enjoyment, but from what we learn
of these women, we are sure they had a fount of happiness
within their hearts and homes, and from what we have
seen, we know they had a world of
rich enjoyments without. Such a life must be experienced
to be appreciated. What are all the gay trappings
and trammelings of fashion, to home-bred joys; and
what comparison have gilded halls and the adornments
of art to the great drawing-room of NATURE!
Chapter VI
