In Pittsburgh, Lewis is working and waiting for the day he can begin down the Ohio River.
In Washington City, Cpt. Stoddard‘s orders are to support President Jefferson‘s Western expeditions and the transfer of Louisiana to the United States by recommending the best location for an Army fort west of the Mississippi.
Fort Kaskaskia View
© 5 March 2012 by WikiCommons user Goodpairofshoes. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
Both the American and French forts on the bluff above Kaskaskia provided a strategic view of the important village across what was then the Kaskaskia River. The Mississippi channel now flows directly below the bluff. See Fort Kaskaskia.
Stoddard’s Orders
WAR DEPARTMENT July 19th 1803.
Amos Stoddard.
Sir. In consiquence of the recent cession of Louisiana to the United States, It will probably become necessary in the course of a few months to place an American Garrison in the Military Post on the Western Bank of the Mississippi now occupied by Spanish Troops—
If there is not sufficient accommodations for a Company, it may be prudent to provide temporary accommodations at Kaskaskias . . . .
You and Capt Bissell[1]Russell Bissell, not to be confused with his brother and commandant of Fort Massac, Daniel Bissell. will please to give me your opinion on the most eligible site for a permanent Garrison on the Louisiana side, taking into view with other considerations the Command of the mouth of the River Missouri, the Garrison to consist of one Company.
I am &c [Henry Dearborn][2]Henry Dearborn to Amos Stoddard in Clarence E. Carter, The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1948), 13:3–4, digitized by Google … Continue reading
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Notes
| ↑1 | Russell Bissell, not to be confused with his brother and commandant of Fort Massac, Daniel Bissell. |
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| ↑2 | Henry Dearborn to Amos Stoddard in Clarence E. Carter, The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1948), 13:3–4, digitized by Google Books and available at archive.org. |
