The Project Gutenberg EBook of Old Fort Snelling, by Marcus L. Hansen

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Title: Old Fort Snelling
1819-1858

Author: Marcus L. Hansen

Release Date: September 22, 2007 [EBook #22719]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Book Cover]

OLD FORT SNELLING

From a painting by Captain Seth Eastman, reproduced in Mrs. Eastman's
_Dahcotah; or, Life and Legends of the Sioux around Fort Snelling_

[Illustration: OLD FORT SNELLING]

OLD FORT SNELLING

1819-1858

BY
MARCUS L. HANSEN

[Illustration: Publisher's Logo.]

PUBLISHED AT IOWA CITY IOWA IN 1918 BY
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA

THE TORCH PRESS
CEDAR RAPIDS
IOWA

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

The establishment in 1917 of a camp at Fort Snelling for the training of
officers for the army has aroused curiosity in the history of Old Fort
Snelling. Again as in the days of the pioneer settlement of the
Northwest the Fort at the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi
rivers has become an object of more than ordinary interest.

Old Fort Snelling was established in 1819 within the Missouri Territory
on ground which later became a part of the Territory of Iowa. Not until
1849 was it included within Minnesota boundaries. Linked with the early
annals of Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and the
Northwest, the history of Old Fort Snelling is the common heritage of
many commonwealths in the Upper Mississippi Valley.

The period covered in this volume begins with the establishment of the
Fort in 1819 and ends with the temporary abandonment of the site as a
military post in 1858.

BENJ. F. SHAMBAUGH

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT AND EDITOR
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA
IOWA CITY IOWA

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The position which the military post holds in western history is
sometimes misunderstood. So often has a consideration of it been left to
the novelist's pen that romantic glamour has obscured the permanent
contributi