The hoisting of the American flag at Fort St. Stephen began the marvellous development and expansion of the United States. Kentucky and Tennessee became States, and Louisiana was purchased, by which the Union crossed the Mississippi. Finally, during the War of 1812, General James Wilkinson took possession of Mobile on April 15, 1813. This was on the theory, consistently adhered to by our Government, that Mobile was still a part of Louisiana. Whether the theory would have been carried out if Spain had been a strong power at the time is a different question. So Mobile became American, the seaport of Mississippi Territory, whose extent was much that of the old British province of West Florida. The chief difference was that, as its south line was at 31°, there was no seacoast except about Mobile, and that this was compensated by giving a greater extent to the north. When the territory was divided in two, the west half made Mississippi and the east became Alabama, embracing roughly the basins draining to Mobile Bay. Most of Wilkinson’s soldiers came _via_ New Orleans, but Mobile was really Americanized from the up-country. Washington County, that vast district of the territory on both sides of the Tombigbee, had been rapidly settled after the Spaniards withdrew. The Methodist, Lorenzo Dow, repeatedly ministered there on his meteor circuits. St. Stephen’s, Tensaw and Fort Stoddert became centres of influence. American courts were regularly held at Wakefield, and American civilization was firmly established in the first few years of this century. The Government was strong enough, in 1807, even to capture the popular Aaron Burr, near the Court-House on his flight from Natchez to the Spanish lines, and to send him on to Richmond for trial. This development was largely in anticipation of the occupation of Mobile, and when that occurred many people moved thither. Some of the oldest families trace their ancestors to Washington County. St. Stephen’s was almost as much the first site of American Mobile as 27 Mile Bluff was of the French town; and both are now as deserted as Nineveh. Even an American rival, the younger town of Blakeley, over on the Tensaw River, has succumbed and joined its people to the Gulf City. Much of Mobile’s American growth has been due to immigration from the upriver counties. [Illustration: PLACE WHERE AARON BURR WAS CAPTURED.]