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Re-enactments of life at old Fort Madison are a popular summer attraction.
STORIES FROM IOWA'S PAST
The famous (and infamous) who have had a lasting impact on the state and the world
The torching of Old Fort Madison
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A Guide For Newbies and Out-Of-Staters.
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A Guide For Newbies and Out-Of-Staters.
INDEPTHIowa
As military installations go, the outpost at Fort Madison was poorly located and destined for failure. Although, the soldiers stationed there fought valiantly to protect the building from Native Americans who were aligned with the British in the War of 1812, its position with a bluff behind it and deep ravines surrounding it made it an easy target.
Thus, the structure that gave Fort Madison its name was doomed from the start.
Old Fort Madison was first conceived in the spring of 1805, when General James Wilkinson ordered a recent West Point graduate named Zebulon Pike to British. Pike, a lieutenant in the Army, left St. Louis on August 9, 1805 in a large boat with 20 men and provisions for four months. He surveyed the river and surrounding territory, keeping notes on the rivers, prairies, islands, mines and quarries along the way. He was also ordered to keep a journal, to select new sites for forts, and to find ways of making peace with the Indians.
Pike arrived at the mouth of the Des Moines River on August 20 and received help crossing the rapids
near present day Keokuk thanks to help from members of the Sac Indian tribe. The men traveled the next day to a large Indian village near present day Montrose, about six miles south of Fort Madison. Pike and his men surveyed the area but couldn’t find a spot suitable for a fort.
But despite the lack of a recommendation, the army decided to build a garrison here anyway.
The first fort consisted of three blockhouses, a trading post, and a storehouse. The word "factory" then meant a trading place. The buildings were surrounded by tall picket fences made from logs harvested in the area.
The Indians, led by Chief Black Hawk, immediately protested the presence of the fort, egged on by British traders who want to make things difficult for the Americans. Tensions grew almost immediately. Black Hawk’s tribe refused to trade with the Americans, saying that British goods were superior. The soldiers knew nothing about the customs and ways of the tribe and the
Indians enjoyed using their lack of knowledge to play tricks on them. Once, while the soldiers were working and had put down their guns, the Indians came along, stole the firearms and announced their presence with a war whoop. When the soldiers ran for their guns the Indians laughed and thengave the guns back to the soldiers.
Another time the Indians planned to get invited inside the fort to perform a dance for the soldiers. The Indians his weapons under their blankets with the goal of pulling them out once inside and killing them. A friendly Indian, however, spoiled their plans by telling a soldier about the scheme. When the gate to the fort was swung open the Indians saw a cannon aimed at them.
The soldiers finished the blockhouses and stockade by spring and moved into the fort on April 14, 1809, dubbing the structure Fort Madison in honor of newly elected President James Madison. The new fort was placed under the command of Captain Horatio Stark in August, 1809 and the soldiers and Indians lived in relative harmony for the next two years.
Trouble began again after the defeat of Indian chief Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana on November 7, 1811. Some Winnebagoes and Sauks and Foxes who had joined Tecumseh came back to the Mississippi River country seeking revenge and targeted the fort for a series of attacks.
In September, 1812, two hundred or more Winnebagoes, Sauks, and Foxes surrounded the fort. One soldier, John Cox, was caught outside the stockade, and killed. The Indians burned some of the outlying buildings, and killed livestock. They then began to shoot burning arrows onto the roofs of the barracks. The soldiers were forced to make squirt guns out of their musket barrels to put out the fires. Fearing that the Indians would set fire to the trading post and thus burn the fort, Lieutenant Hamilton had the soldiers slip outside and burn the trading post one night when the wind was calm.
In the fall of 1813, warriors from the same tribes attacked again. There was nothing to do but surrender or try to escape. Lieutenant Hamilton set part of his men to work digging a trench to the river. On the night of September 3, 1813, the soldiers carried the remaining supplies down the trench to the boats. The last man to leave the fort set fire to the buildings. Before the Indians realized what was happening Fort Madison was in flames, and the soldiers were safely on their way down the river. For years a tall chimney remained marking the site of the first fort in Iowa. The Indians called this spot Potowonock - the place of the fire.