Expeditions and Indian duties occupied his attention during the
next few years, and in May, 1827, he established "Cantonment
Leavenworth" on the west bank of the Missouri River. On February 8,
1832, the name was changed to Fort Leavenworth. During a campaign
against the Pawnee Indians, who were harassing the caravans of the Santa
Fe traders, Colonel Leavenworth was taken sick with fever and died on
July 21, 1834, in a hospital wagon at Cross Timbers in Indian Territory.
The body was wrapped in spices and sent by way of St. Louis, New
Orleans, and New York City, to Delhi, New York, where it remained until
in 1902 it was reinterred in the national cemetery at Fort Leavenworth.
A granite shaft some twelve feet high marks his resting-place.[147]
The monument to the man under whose direction the fort was built is the
modern military establishment named Fort Snelling. The erection of this
fort was the last achievement of a life which, though comparatively
brief, had already accomplished much. Josiah Snelling was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1782. His first commission was as a first
lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry and bears the date of May 3, 1808. In
the Battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811, he commanded one of the
companies that were attacked in their camp in the early morning. An
attempt was made by a company of dragoons to drive off the groups of
Indians whose fire was the heaviest, but the officer who was leading was
wounded and the attempt failed. "The Indians", reported General
Harrison, "were, however, immediately and gallantly dislodged from their
advantageous position by Captain Snelling, at the head of his
company."[148] During the War of 1812 he served with Hull's army about
Detroit, and when the fort was surrendered he was taken a prisoner and
brought to Canada. But he was exchanged and ordered to Plattsburg, and
later was sent to Fort Erie on the staff of General George Izard. At the
close of the war he was retained as lieutenant colonel of the Sixth
Infantry and was stationed at Plattsburg for four years.[149]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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