Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society--1903

.FORT DE CHARTRES-ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DECLINE.

Joseph Wallace, M. A.

 

Illinois, as seen in the light of today, is modern, new and prosaic, and it is difficult for the, present generation to realize that it has any history dating beyond the time of the American pioneers. Within the territorial confines of this State are found but very few buildings or other works of civilized man that bear the stamp of age and around which cluster historic memories. What little remains to us of the distant past must be carefully sought for in out of the way and neglected spots or corners of the State. Such is the case with the old and well nigh obliterated fort whereof I am now to treat, the ruins or debris of which lie in the American Bottom, in the extreme northwestern corner of Randolph county.

Fort Chartres, or Fort de Chartres, was the seat of French power and authority in the upper Mississippi valley for five and forty years, and of the British authority for seven years; and any full and faithful account of it would necessarily include very much of the early history of Illinois during that extended period. The subject is a large one, fraught with a strange and romantic interest; but the limits of the present occasion will preclude me from attempting more than a clear and connected summary of the principal facts and occurrences in the long and checkered story of this famous fortress.

Fort Chartres was the creation of the Company of the West, or Mississippi company, which was organized by the celebrated John Law, in August, 1717, immediately after the surrender by the Sieur Antoine Crozat of his patent and privileges in Louisiana to the French crown. This commercial company and its early successor, the Royal India company, hold away in the province of Louisiana, of which Illinois formed a part, for 14 years.

On the 9th of February, 1718, three ships of the Western company-the Dauphin, Vigilante and Neptune-arrived at Dauphin island with officers and men to take possession of Louisiana. On one of these vessels, or on the frigate La Duchesse de Noailles, which arrived at Ship island on the 6th of March following, came Pierre Duque de Boisbriant, a French Canadian, who had been commissioned first king's lieutenant for the province of Louisiana, and who was the bearer of a commission appointing his cousin, Le Moyne de Bienville, governor and commandant general of the province, in place of M. L'Epignay, removed. [See Pennicaut's Annals of La. from 1699 to 1722.]

In the early part of October, 1718, Lieutenant Boisbriant, with several officers and a considerable detachment of troops, departed by bateaux (boats) from Biloxi, through Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas and up the Mississippi, to regulate affairs in the Illinois country and to establish a permanent military post for the better protection of the French inhabitants in that northern district of the province. Arriving at Kaskaskia late in December of that year, he there established his temporary headquarters, which was the first military occupation of the village. This, however, was continued for only about 18 months.

 

BUILDING OF THE FIRST FORT.

Having selected what was considered a convenient site for his post, some 18 miles above and to the northwest of Kaskaskia, de Boisbriant sent thither a large force of mechanics and laborers to work in the forest. By the end of the spring of 1720 they had built and practically completed the fort, which was henceforward the headquarters of the company and commandants and the center of both civil and military authority in the Illinois. The fort stood on the alluvial bottom about three-quarters of a mile from the Mississippi river and near to an older fortlet that had been erected by the adventurers under Crozat. Midway between it and the bluffs on the east extended a bayou or lake which was supposed to add to the strategic strength of the place. It was named Fort de Chartres, presumably in compliment to the Regent of France from the title of his son, the Due de Chartres. The fort was built of wood and was of very considerable dimensions, but whether it was furnished with bastions or not is uncertain. It is described as a stockade fort, fortified with earth between the rows of palisades. Within the enclosure were erected the commandant's house, the barracks, the large storehouse for the company, etc., the same being constructed of hewed timbers and whip-sawed plank. Although not a strong fortification, except as against Indian attacks, it was made to answer for a full generation the needs of its builders and the military commandants who successively ruled here. It formed, moreover, an important link in the lengthened chain of French posts stretching from eastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The idea of this long line of military and trading posts appears to have originated in the fertile brain of that great explorer, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle.

Upon the completion of the fort, a village began to grow up on the bottom between it and the river. Here the company erected its warehouses and the enterprising Jesuits built the church of St. Anne de Fort Chartres. With the advent of de Boisbriant and his associate officers, there was introduced in the district of the Illinois a more settled form of government than the French colonists had previously known, and they were now able to secure titles to their lands which had hitherto been held at the sufferance of the Indians.

 

THE FORT UNDER BOISBRIANT AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

The most notable of the early arrivals at the fort was Philippe Francois de Renault, a man of fortune and director-general of the mining operations of the western company. He bad left France in the spring of 1719 with 200 miners and laborers and everything needful for the prosecution of his enterprise. On his voyage to Louisiana he stopped at St. Domingo and purchased some 500 Guinea negroes to work in the mines. A number of these were brought by him to Illinois and thus African slavery was introduced here, though the enslaving of Indian captives was already in vogue. Arriving at Fort Chartres early in the year 1720, he made it his principal head. quarters, from which he sent out prospecting parties into various parts of Illinois and Missouri in search of the precious metals. But, after spending a large amount of money and three or four years of time, he had to content himself with dull lead which he found in abundance. In June, 1723, de Boisbriant, as the representative of the king, and Marc Antoine de Is Loire des Ursins on behalf of the India company, granted to Renault a tract of land a league in width and two leagues in depth, situated in the southwestern part of what is now Monroe county and fronting on the Mississippi. On this land the latter laid out a Small village to which he gave the name of St. Philippe, and which was located about five miles above Fort Chartres.

During these years several other large concessions of land were made by the company to prominent personages in Illinois, including one to Boisbriant himself, on which was afterward established (by his nephew, Langlois) the still existing village of Prairie du Rocher.

On the 12th of October, 1721, Father Xavier de Charlevoix, accompanied by an armed escort, arrived at Kaskaskia in the course of his memorable journey through the French possessions in North America. In the published journal of his travels, referring to Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres, he writes: "I arrived next day at the Kaskasquias. The Jesuits had here a very flourishing mission, which has lately been divided into two, because it was thought proper to form two villages of savages instead of one. The most populous is on the side of the Mississippi.... Half a league below is Fort Chartres, about a musket shot from the river. M. Duquet de Boisbriant, a Canadian gentleman, commands here for the company to which the place belongs; and all the space between the two places begins to be peopled by the French."

From the above extract, it appears that the principal village of the Kaskaskia tribe was then located a short distance above Fort Chartres. One of the escorts of Charlevoix through the Illinois was a young Canadian officer named Louis St. Ange de Bellerive. He became stationed here, and was destined in later years to twice exercise command at the Fort.

In 1725 Governor Bienville was recalled to France, and Boisbriant, as first Lieutenant of the province became acting governor of Louisiana, with headquarters at Now Orleans. His position as major commandant at the Illinois was in no long time filled by the Sieur de Liette, a captain in the royal army. The latter, during his terra of office, was much harassed by the Renard or Fox Indians from the north, who frequently made predatory incursions in the neighborhood of the French settlements.

In 1730 deLiette was succeeded in command at Fort Chartres by Capt. St. Ange de Bellerive, who held the position for four years. During his incumbency, in 1731, the India company (successor to the Company of the West) retroceded its patent and vast privileges in Louisiana to the king; and on April 10, 1732, by proclamation of Louis XV, the jurisdiction and control of the government and commerce of the country reverted directly to the crown. Another government was at once organized for the Province of Louisiana, which separated it from Canada, but retained Illinois as a dependency. Early in 1734 Bienville resumed, by royal appointment, the governorship of Louisiana. In the same year he appointed Capt. Pierre D'Artaguette as major-commandant at the Illinois, in place of St. Ange de Bellerive, who was transferred to another post, possibly Vincennes.

MAJOR D'ARTAGUETTE AND HIS SAD FATE,

Pierre D'Artaguette had served with gallantry in the Natchez war, and afterwards held command of the new fort at Natchez. He was a younger brother of Diron D'Artaguette, a Canadian and an able man, who went to Louisiana at an early day and held various high positions under the colonial government.

In 1735 Governor Bienville planned a military expedition against the hostile Chickasaws, in Northern Mississippi, and Major D'Artaguette was ordered to get in readiness the troops under his command, together with such Illinois Indians as could be induced to join the expedition, and to meet the commandant- in -chief in the Chickasaw country by the 10th of May following. D'Artaguette accordingly left Fort Chartres in the last week of February, 1736, with 30 regular soldiers, 100 volunteers and 200 Indians. Descending the Mississippi to near the Third Chickasaw Bluff, he was there joined by the Sieur de Vincenne or Vincennes, with 20 men and 106 Indians from the Wabash. Marching thence inland, they reached the appointed rendezvous in the vicinity of the Chickasaw villages on the 9th of May. Not being able to restrain his impatient allies, the leader advanced to attack the enemy in his stronghold before the arrival of Governor Bienville with his forces from Now Orleans. In the battle that ensued D'Artaguette was severely wounded and captured, together with the Sieur de Vincennes, Father Senat a Jesuit priest, a younger brother of Capt. Louis St. Ange, and about 15 other Frenchmen. In the meantime their Indian allies beat a hasty and cowardly retreat. The prisoners were hold for some time by the Chickasaws in the hope of receiving from Bienville a large reward for their release. But this not being forthcoming, the unfortunate captives were tied to stakes and burned to death by slow, remitting fires. The news of the unhappy fate of D'Artaguette and his brave associates cast a gloom over the entire French colony of the Illinois, and produced a painful and lasting impression on the minds of the inhabitants.

 

LA BUISSONIERE AND DE BERTEL.

After the cruel death of Major D'Artaguette, Alphonse do la Buissoniere was sent to command at Fort Chartres. During his official term in 1739, he led from the fort a second expedition composed of Frenchmen and natives, to take part in another and somewhat more successful campaign against the Stubborn Chickasaws. In 1740 La Buissoniere was succeeded in office by Capt. Benoist de St. Clair, who commanded at the post for something over two years.

In 1742 Bienville was finally recalled from Louisiana, and the Marquis de Vaudreuil Cavagnal was appointed governor of the province in his stead. Under the administration of the latter, in 17413, the Chevalier de Bertel was Sent to command at Fort Chartres of the Illinois. In 1744 war was again declared between France and England, and their trans-Atlantic colonies soon became embroiled in the conflict. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, gave both nations a breathing spell, but it was not of long duration, At this period the duties of the Illinois commandant were somewhat trying. The fort bad become out of repair, was poorly supplied and its garrison was depleted by desertions. Some of the old time Indian allies of the French had been won over by British agents, and the fear that the English might gain a foothold in the Mississippi valley was ever present to the minds of the more intelligent French inhabitants. De Bertel, in his correspondence with Governor de Vaudreuil, suggested that additional means of defense were required for the protection of the Illinois. Mr. Mason, in his elaborate essay on Fort Chartres, quotes the Marquis de Galissoniere, governor general of Canada (1747-1749), as having sent a memorial on the subject to the king, in which he said: "The little colony of Illinois ought not to be left to perish; the king must sacrifice for its support. The principal advantage of the country is its extreme productiveness; and its connection with Canada and Louisiana must be maintained." Nothing, however, appears to have been done at the time except to enroll companies of militia and to provide for the increase and further maintenance of the garrison at the fort.

In 1749 do Bertel relinquished his command at Fort Chartres to Captain St. Clair, who is said to have signalized his return to the post by marrying the daughter of a Kaskaskia citizen. In the summer of 1751 he was superseded by the Chevalier do Macarty, an Irishman by descent and a major of engineers, It was during his protracted term of office, and under his Supervision, thatthe second Fort Chartres was erected. It was built according to plans and specifications drawn by Lieutenant Jean B. Saussier,1 a French engineer, and a maternal ancester of Dr. J. F. Snyder, the president of our State Historical Society. At this period the fort was the scene of much bustle and activity, and these were truly its halcyon days. In one of his Letters of Travel Through Louisiana, dated "At the Illinois, the 15th of May, 1753," Captain Bossu of the French marines, in referring to the fort, says: "The Sieur Saussier, an engineer, has made a plan for constructing a new fort here according to the intention of the court. It shall bear the same name as the old one, which is called Fort de Chartres."

From this letter it seems that the actual building of the new fort was not then commenced, though preparations bad no doubt been made for the work. The site chosen for this structure was perhaps a mile above the old fort and half a mile distant from the river. Surprise has been often expressed that the French authorities should have erected so large and expensive a fortification on such a low and ineligible site, but it was in accordance with their settled practice, Nearly all the old French villages were located as a matter of convenience on river bottoms, as near the water as they could well place them, and New Orleans, the metropolis of Louisiana, was founded in a swamp.

This second fort was built of limestone quarried from the bluffs some four miles to the eastward. According to a modern authority, "the finer stone with which the gateways and buildings were faced was brought from beyond the Mississippi." This huge structure of masonry, comprising an area of four acres, was estimated to have cost over 5,000,000 livres, or about $1,000,000. "As a means of defense" (writes Breese, in his Early History of Illinois), "except as a citadel to floe to on any sudden attack of the savages, the erection was wholly unnecessary. Official emolument must have prompted it, and some of the many millions of livres it is said to have cost must have gone into the commandant's pocket, or into those of his favorites, and they enriched by this mode of peculation."

This extensive fortification was constructed while Louis de Kerlerec was the provincial executive of Louisiana, and he probably shared in the profits of the erection. In June, 1763, he was ordered to return to France, and was accused of various violations of duty and assumptions of power, and particularly with having spent 10,000,000 of livres in four years under the pretext of preparing for war. Upon his arrival in Paris he was imprisoned for some time in the Bastile, and is said to have died of vexation and grief not long after his release from that old state prison.2

By the middle of the summer of 1756 the fortress was so far advanced toward completion that it was occupied by the commandant and garrison, and the archives of the local government were de, posited therein. This fact is indicated in a letter of Captain Bossu, dated "At the Illinois the 21st of July, 1756," wherein he writes: I came once more to the old Fort Chartres where I lay in a hut till I could get a lodging in the new fort which is now almost finished. It is built of freestone, flanked with four bastions and capable of containing 300 men."

With the rebuilding of Fort Chartres on a new site there sprang up at its main gate a thriving village which soon absorbed most of the population of the old village adjacent to the old fort, and which received the name of New Chartres, in the parish of St. Anne. No vestige of this village exists at the present day.

The Seven Years' War with Great Britain was now being vigororously waged and the demands upon Fort Chartres for men and material aid were frequent and pressing. Commandant Macarty labored steadily to meet these demands and several expeditions were sent out from the fort to take part in the great struggle. About the close of the year 1760, the veteran Macarty, after nine years of laborious service at this post, retired from the command and was succeeded by Captain Neyon de Villiers, a brother of Jumonville de Villiers who was killed in May, 1754, in the skirmish at Little Meadows, Pa., with a company of Virginia militia led by Lieutenant Colonel George Washington.

Before taking leave of Major Macarty, I may remark that with all due deference to those modern writers who spell his name with a "k" (Makarty), I prefer to follow the older spelling which accords more strictly with both the French and Irish usage, I have learned by some experience that it is necessary to step among these old French names and dates as "carefully as a cat among crockery," and even then one is liable to stumble and fall.

But to return from this digression, During the incumbency of Neyon de Villiers on Nov. 3, 1763, there arrived at Fort Chartres, in a store-boat heavily laden with goods, Pierre Laclede Liguest of the firm of Maxent, Laclede & Co., merchants of Now Orleans who, in 1762, had obtained from Governor de Kerlerec a special license to trade with the Indians on the Missouri river. After spending most of the winter at the fort, Laclede proceeded up the river in February, 1764, and established a trading post on the site of the present city of St. Louis.

In the month of June, 1764, Captain do Villiers having become impatient at the delay of the British conquerors in arriving (after the treaty of 1763) to take possession of Fort Chartres, resigned his office of commandant, and accompanied by several officers, a company of soldiers and a number of the French inhabitants of the Illinois, departed down the Mississippi to New Orleans. The command of this stronghold now devolved once more upon the veteran St. Ange de Bellerive who had come from Post Vincennes to assume it. With only a small garrison to support him, his position was both difficult and dangerous to fill. But he showed rare skill and address in protecting the French settlers and in dealing with the restless savages who, from time to time, importuned him for arms and supplies to help them in carrying on their futile struggle against the English.

 

SURRENDER OF THE FORT TO THE ENGLISH.

At length, in the first week of October, 1765, Captain Thomas Stirling, under the orders of General Gage, arrived from Fort Pitt, with 100 Highlanders of the Forty-second British regiment, to receive possession of Fort Chartres. And on the 10th of that month St. Ange formally surrendered the post in a lengthy document, describing in detail the fort, its buildings, appointments and guns. Then the white banner of old France, with its royal fleur de lis, was drawn down from its staff, and in its place was displayed the red cross of St, George. Thus was ended the splendid dream of French conquest and dominion in North America. After the performance of this sad act, St. Ange took his departure by boat, with his little company of 30 officers and men, and proceeded up and across the Mississippi river to the new French trading post of St. Louis, which was then in Spanish territory.3

Captain Stirling remained only a short time in charge of Fort Chartres, and probably returned up the Ohio to Fort Pitt. He afterward fought his way to distinction, and died in 1808 a general and a baronet. On the 4th of December, 1765, Major Robert Farmer, with a Strong detachment of the Thirty. fourth British foot, arrived from Mobile and took command at the fort. In the following year he was succeeded by Colonel Edward Cole, a native of Rhode Island, who had commanded a regiment under Wolfe at the siege of Quebec. Colonel Cole remained in command here about 18 months, but the position was not congenial to him, and the climate proved unfavorable to his health. He was accordingly relieved, at his own request, early in 1768.

During the year 1766 Captain Philip Pittman, of the Royal British engineers, reached Fort Chartres in pursuance of his orders to examine the European posts and settlements in the Mississippi valley. In his official report or book, printed at London in 1770, he describes the fort and its buildings very fully and clearly, and concludes by saying: "It is generally allowed that this is the most commodious and best built fort in North America." He further tells us that at the time of his visit the current had worn away the river bank until it was only 80 paces from the fort, By his valuable work Captain Pittman conferred a great boon upon the students of early Illinois history, and it would be a matter of interest to know what became of him after his return to England in 1768.

Colonel Cole's successor in the command was Colonel John Reed, who became so notorious for his arbitrary oppressions of the French settlers that he was soon deposed, and gave place to Lieutenant Colonel John Wilkins, of the Eighteenth or Royal regiment of Ireland. The latter arrived from Philadelphia and assumed command at the fort Sept. 5, 1768. He brought with him seven companies of his regiment for garrison duty, but many of these soldiers succumbed to the malarious diseases of the country. Colonel Wilkins' government of the Illinois eventually became unpopular, and specific charges were preferred against him, including a misappropriation of the public funds. He was accordingly removed from office in September, 1771, and sailed for Europe in the course of the following year. During his administration the first court of common law in Illinois was established here, though it did not prove a success.

Colonel Wilkins' successor at Fort Chartres was Captain Hugh Lord, of the Eighteenth British regiment, who continued in command of the country until 1775. During his tenure of office, in the spring of 1772, a great freshet occurred in the Mississippi, which inundated the adjacent bottom and undermined and tore away one bastion and a part of the river wall of the fort.4 The commandant and garrison then hastily deserted the place and took up their quarters at Kaskaskia, which was thereafter the seat of British authority until the arrival of Colonel George Rogers Clark and his Virginia militia in July, 1778.

 

THE FORT ABANDONED--ITS LATER HISTORY.

The story of the subsequent decadence and ruin of Fort Chartres remains to be told. After it was evacuated and dismantled by the British, in 1772, the fort was never again occupied, except occasionally by small bands of Indians. In 1778 Congress reserved from entry or sale a tract of land one mile square on the Mississippi, including Fort Chartres and its buildings. This enactment simply prevented any legal settlement on the reservation.

Major Amos Stoddard, who took possession of upper Louisiana for the United States government under the treaty of purchase with France in March, 1804, visited Fort Chartres about that time, and describes it in his "Historical Sketches of Louisiana," published in 1812. Of the fort he writes: "Its figure is quadrilateral, with four bastions, the whole of which is composed of limestone well cemented. Each side measures about 340 feet. The walls are 15 feet high, about three feet thick and still entire (except the west wall). The stone walls of a spacious square of barracks are also in good preservation, as likewise a capacious magazine and two deep wells very little injured by time. Each port or loophole is formed by four solid blocks of what is here called freestone, worked smooth and into proper shape. All the cornices and casements about the gates and buildings are of the same material, and appear to great advantage. The area of this fort is now covered with trees from 7 to 12 inches in diameter. In fine, this work exhibits a splendid ruin. The inhabitants have taken away great quantities of materials to adorn their own buildings."5

Judge H. M. Brackenridge, of the United States district of Louisiana, in a work published as early as 1817, has the following brief account of an excursion he made to the venerable ruin: "Fort de noble ruin and is visited by strangers as a great curiosity. I was one of a party of ladies and gentlemen who ascended to it in a barge from St. Genevieve, nine miles below. The outward wall, barracks and magazine are still standing. There are a number of cannon lying half buried with their trunnions broken off. In visiting the various parts, we started a flock of wild turkeys which had concealed themselves in a hiding place."

The broken cannon above mentioned were probably iron cannon. In a recently published pamphlet relating to Fort Chartres, by Dr. J. F. Snyder, we are informed that "five cannon were taken from the ruins of Fort Chartres in 1812, by Gov. Ninian Edwards, and mounted on Fort Russell, a mile and a half from the present city of Edwardsville, Ill. One of them was bursted when fired in celebration of Gen. Jackson's victory at New Orleans, in January, 1815. Of the other four, no trace can be found."

In 1820 Dr. Lewis 0. Beek and Nicholas Hansen, of Illinois, made a careful survey and drawing of the plan of the old fortress, for insertion in Beck's "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri." At that time many of the rooms and cellars in the building, and portions of the outside walls showing the opening for the main gate and loop-holes for the musketry, were still in a fair state of preservation. According to their measurements, the whole exterior line of the walls and bastions was 1447 feet. The walls, built of solid stone, were in some places 15 feet high, and the area of the fort embraced about four acres.

In the summer of 1829 James Hall, that gifted writer of early Illinois, visited the ruins of Fort Chartres, which, in the first volume of his "Sketches of the West," he thus portrays: "It was with some difficulty that we found the ruins, which are covered with a vigorous growth of forest trees and a dense undergrowth of bushes and vines, Even the crumbling pile itself is thus overgrown, the tall trees rearing their stems from piles of stone, and the vines creeping over the tottering walls. The buildings were all razed to the ground, but the lines of the foundations could be easily traced. A large vaulted powder magazine remained in good preservation. The exterior wall was thrown down in some places, but in others retained something like its original height and form. One angle of the fort and an entire bastion had been undermined and swept away by the river. which having spent its force in this direction was again retiring, and a narrow belt of timber had grown up between the water's edge and the river bank. It was curious to see in the gloom of a wild forest these remnants of the architecture of a past ago."6

Gov. John Reynolds appears to have twice visited the ruins of Fort Chartres, the first time when he was but a youth. In his "History of My Own Times," published in 1855, he thus writes: "I examined this fort about 30 years after it was abandoned; and, it is strange! the large trees could grow in that short time, which I saw in the houses and within the walls of the fortification in many places.... The south and east walls when I first saw them were remaining in their original shape, and they seemed to be about 15 feet high, and were constructed to secure strength and durability. The gateway was open and the jams and cornices were of nicely cut rook. The powder magazine as it is called was constructed in the most substantial manner.... This magnificent fortress, built at so Much expense in the wilderness of America, has been declining for the last 80 odd years."

"I visited this fort on the 10th of October, 1854, and found it a pile of mouldering ruins. In places the walls were torn away almost even with the ground.... Thus perish the works of man."

In 1879 the late Edward G. Mason of Chicago made a pilgrimage to the ruined fort and viewed it with the eye of an antiquary. From his exhaustive paper on this subject, printed in 1880, we make a few pertinent extracts, as follows: "The Fort Chartres reservation was opened to entry in 1849, no provision being made concerning what remained of the fort. The land was taken up by settlers, the area of the works cleared of trees and a cabin built within it, and the process of demolition hastened by the increasing number of those who resorted there for building material."

Referring to the changes in the channel of the Mississippi and the isolation of the fort, he writes: "The channel between the fort and the island in front of it, once 40 feet deep, began to fill up, and ultimately the main shore and the island were united, leaving the fort a mile or more inland. A thick growth of trees speedily concealed it from the view of those passing upon the river, and the high road from Cahokia to Kaskaskia, which at first ran between the fort and the river, was soon after located at the foot of the bluffs, three miles to the eastward. These changes, which left the fort completely isolated and hidden, gave rise to the report of its total destruction by the river.... But this is entirely erroneous. The ruins still remain; and had man treated it as kindly as the elements, the old fort would be nearly perfect today."

Of the powder magazine he gives us this interesting description: "Yet, though so much is gone of the ancient surroundings, and of the fort itself, it was an exceeding pleasure to find the old magazine still almost complete, and bearing itself as sturdily as if conscious that it alone is left of all the vast domain of France in America. It stands within the area of the southeastern bastion, solidly built of stone, its walls four feet in thickness, sloping upwards to perhaps 12 feet from the ground, and rounded at the top. It is partially covered with vines and moss, and one might travel far and wide in our land to find an object so picturesque and so venerable. But for the loss of its iron doors and the out stone about the doorway, it is well nigh as perfect as the day it was built. Within, a few steps lead to the solid stone floor, some feet below the surface, and the interior, nearly 30 feet square, is entirely uninjured. You may note the arched stone roof, the careful construction of the heavy walls, and the small apertures for light and air curiously protected against injury from without."

In a later publication I find a short description of the old magazine which is here introduced as supplementary to that of Mr. Mason, It reads as follows: "The northeastern bastion having the flag staff was higher than the others, In the southeastern bastion was situated the magazine of stone, laid in cement, now as hard as flint. It is yet in sound preservation, its vertical end walls 25 feet in height closing the arch between, Its floor, seven feet below the surface, and its interior wall plastered with cement, measuring 25 feet by 18, and 20 feet from the floor to the apex of the arch." 7

At the present day we are told that nothing of the great old structure remains, save one angle of the outer wall a few feet in height, and the magazine. The latter seems to be proof against time and decay, and barring accidents, may last for an indefinite period. If by some convulsion of nature, or a gradual subsidence of the land, the Mississippi valley should again be covered by the sea, then this vaulted magazine might become imbedded in the strata, and if discovered in after geologic times would perhaps be cited as a proof of the high antiquity of man.

"It is much to be regretted," says a writer familiar with the subject, "that so few of the records and official documents of old Fort Chartres have been preserved to reveal to us the story of its various occupants in the daily life, and of the stirring events and strange, thrilling scenes that transpired there."

 

CONCLUSION.

I have now, somewhat concisely and imperfectly, traced the eventful history of Fort Chartres from its beginning in 1719 down through its varying stages of growth and decay to recent times. As we pass in review the long array of noted men-French, English and American-who were either actively associated with or were visitors to and describers of the old fortress, it is melancholy to reflect that they all long ago departed to the silent land, and that some of their names have been with difficulty rescued from oblivion. And yet they one and all seem to have left, or sought to leave, some footprints as they passed that succeeding generations might discern they once had been on earth and acted something here.

With students of our western history, it is to be deplored that this large and commodious fortress-the only great architectural work of the French in the entire basin of the Mississippi-over which floated in succession the flags of two powerful nations, should not have been erected upon a firmer and more elevated site, where it might have been preserved intact as an impressive and instructive monument of the past even unto the present time.

Something, however, may yet be done to safeguard the memory of this ancient citadel. The State of Illinois can, and I think it should, purchase the site of the fort, clear and enclose the ground, trace out as far as possible the lines of the exterior walls and the foundations of the principal buildings, and transform it into a historic little park. And thus this relic and legacy to us from the remote past might be, in some material form, handed down to posterity.

It is worthy of remark here, that the memory of Fort Chartres is locally preserved in the name of the river landing and ferry in that vicinity.

Perhaps the latest contribution to the literature of Fort Chartres is found in a recent series of short yet interesting articles in the Quincy (Ill.) Whig, descriptive of the ruined fort and its environs as they appear today-written by Dr. Homer Mead of Schuyler county, Ill.

 


1 Lieutenant Saussier (or Saucter) afterward settled in Cahokia, where he died toward the close of the 18th century.

2 see Gayarre's Hist. of La., Vol. 11, PP. 23-4. 

3 Captain St. Ange died at St, Louis in December. 1774.

4 It is related that the water rose to the height of seven feet In the fort.

5 Major Stoddard died at Fort Meigs. Ohio, In 1813.

6 Judge Hall died in Cincinnati. 0., in 1868, aged about 75 years.

7 Vida Dr. Snyder's booklet relating to Fort Chartres, printed In 1901.