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| Fort Madison (from an old print) |
Fort Madison was doomed before the first
log hit the ground.
The
Americans came in 1808. Boats sliding up the Mississippi. Soldiers carrying
axes, muskets, and orders from Washington. Build a fort. Hold the frontier.
Control the river.
The
problem was that the fort sat deep inside Sac and Fox territory. American
officers called it a trading post. Black Hawk and his followers saw an
invasion.
The
tension never let up. Warriors watched from the trees. Soldiers watched from
the walls. Every sound made men reach for their muskets.
Then
the attacks came.
Gunfire
from the hills. Fire arrows across the night sky. Burning chunks of wood roasted
the rooftops inside the fort. Soldiers filled their muskets with water, using
them like syringes to douse the flames.
Realizing
there was no way to save the fort, the soldiers planned their escape.
They
dug a trench from the fort to the river. Then crawled through the dirt as the
fort burned. At the river, they climbed into boats and disappeared into the
darkness.
By
morning, Fort Madison was gone.
The
passage below was published in the Iowa Journal of History and Politics in
April 1914, as part of “Forts in the Iowa Country” by Jacob van der Zee.
