US Army Infantry Officer, 1827

The US Army in 1827 was a skeletal force spread across the continent. A victim of national policies and political red tape since the end of the War of 1812, the infantry regiments were spread across the frontier in lonely forts amongst the various Indian tribes.

The artillery regiments were assigned to protecting our coastline. In addition to the units, there was a School of Artillery Instruction, as School of Infantry Instruction and the United States Military Academy at West Point.

When Black Hawk’s band crossed the Mississippi River in April 1827 the army scrambled to assemble and march to war. In the immediate vicinity of the conflict were the companies of soldiers assigned to Fort Armstrong (Rock Island), Fort Crawford (Prairie Du Chien), and Fort Winnebago (Portage).

The nearest men beyond that were at Fort Snelling and at Fort Howard. A large force was also stationed at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. Jefferson Barracks housed the School of Infantry Instruction.

As the armies came together, men from two very different commands would take the field. The first command, under General Henry Atkinson, would be the only one to take part in actual combat, and was comprised of troops from all the government forts in the region: Jefferson Barracks, Cantonment Leavenworth and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.