Fort Armstrong (Illinois)

1839 painting of Fort Armstrong, six years after the removal of the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes, on the U.S. Army's, present-day Rock Island Arsenal Island, looking toward Iowa, in the background, from the Illinois side, of the Mississippi River, attributed to Octave Blair.

Fort Armstrong (1816–1836), was one of a chain of western frontier defenses which the United States erected after the War of 1812. It was located at the foot of Rock Island, in the Mississippi River near the present-day Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa. It was five miles from the principal Sauk and Meskwaki village on the Rock River in Illinois. Of stone and timber construction, 300 feet square, the fort was begun in May 1816 and completed the following year and consisted of three large blockhouses, like the replica, on its prominent corners.[1] In 1832, the U.S. Army used the fort as a military headquarters during the Black Hawk War. It was normally garrisoned by two companies of United States Army regulars. With the pacification of the Indian threat in Illinois, the U.S. Government ceased operations at Fort Armstrong and the U.S. Army abandoned the frontier fort in 1836.

  1. ^ "Fort Armstrong Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved 2024-02-25.