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Fort D
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
A Brief History
Construction work on Fort D began on August 6, 1861. Eight months
earlier, few would have dreamed that the fort would have been a
necessity. Tensions between the non-slave states and the slave states
grew during the 1850’s and conflict spread along the Missouri and Kansas
border. Secessionists in the southern states feared that a new president
might move to control their institution of human slavery. In December of
1860 South Carolina seceded from the Union following the election of
Abraham Lincoln in November. Southern states began seceding while taking
control of US installations, but on January 8, 1861, Federal troops
fired on and repelled forces advancing on Fort Barrancas, Florida.
Despite years of disagreement and armed conflict, Kansas was admitted to
the Union as a non-slave state on January 29, 1861. On February 9th,
1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the newly-organized
Confederate States of America at Montgomery, Alabama. On March 4, 1861,
Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States.
Fighting between the United and Confederate states broke out in the open
on April 12, 1861, as Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter, a
United States post in Charleston harbor. On April 15, Lincoln called for
75,000 volunteers to put down the insurrection. By April 22, Illinois
troops occupied Cairo, Illinois, holding that important port for the
Union. From its new capital in Richmond, Virginia, the Confederacy
declared war on the United States on May 6, 1861. On May 10, 1861, a
secessionist camp in St. Louis was broken up and southern-sympathizing
state troops are captured by Union troops; in the aftermath of the
capture, a riot ensued and 29 people, mostly civilians, were killed. On
July 4th, 1861, in a message to Congress, Lincoln declared war on the
Confederacy.
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The first regular Union troops, members of the 20th Illinois
Volunteer Regiment, landed in Cape Girardeau on July 6th, 1861.
Rumors abounded as to the likelihood of the city being attached
by secessionist forces. On July 28, 1861 General John C. Fremont
ordered Captain Franz Kappner of the Corps of Topographical
Engineers to Cape Girardeau to plan fortifications. On August
2nd, Fremont visited Cape Girardeau and the next day ordered
Captain Henry Flad to Cape to aid in the design of the forts. A
plan was submitted to Fremont on August 8, but work on two forts
had already begun. On August 4th, Colonel C. Carol Marsh ordered
the fortification of the Windmill Hill, which became known as
Fort A. Engineer troops of Bissell’s Engineers of the West also
arrive in Cape Girardeau to work on the forts. The engineers are
mostly German immigrants living in St. Louis who volunteered to
fight for their new homeland. Two days later, under the
direction of Lieutenant John Wesley Powell, work began on what
would be known as Fort D.
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On August 30, 1861, General Ulysses
Grant took arrived in Cape Girardeau and took command. Grant
visited Cape Girardeau again in October of 1861 and authorized
Captain Powell to raise a company of local men to man the forts
and guns. Battery F, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery was organized
immediately but not officially mustered in until December 11,
1861. Throughout the fall and winter, Powell’s men train at the
large guns and garrison the forts of the city. In late March,
1862, Battery F was sent to join the Army of the Tennessee at
Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. During the battle of Shiloh on
April 6, 1862, Battery F was heavily engaged at a spot forever
known as the Hornets’ Nest. Captain Powell was wounded in the
wrist and forearm; later, his arm was amputated above the elbow.
Powell’s Battery F would go on to serve at Corinth, Vicksburg,
and Atlanta, among other battles.
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Cape Girardeau was attacked by
Confederate forces on April 26, 1863. During this battle of Cape
Girardeau, Fort B was involved in much of the fighting while
Fort D was not attacked at all. The Confederate forces were
easily turned away and Cape Girardeau remained a Union outpost
during the war. During the summer of 1864, Union companies of
free black men and escaped slaves, part of the 18th US Colored
Regiment, were stationed in Cape Girardeau, including some who
garrisoned the forts. In September 1864, as Sterling Price’s
Confederate army moved into southeast Missouri, three of the
forts at Cape were manned and new cannon emplaced. Fort D was
deemed too far away from the downtown area to be of useful
value, but in the end, Price never approached Cape Girardeau. In
April and May of 1865, all Confederate armies surrendered and
the war officially ended. After the war, the forts in Cape
Girardeau were abandoned and all but one disappeared in the
decades to follow.
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In 1869 now-retired Major Powell got
help from his old friend Ulysses Grant, now president of the
United States. Using a small flotilla of wooden row-boats Powell
explored the Colorado River and made the first descent of the
Grand Canyon. Powell went on to work at the Smithsonian
Institution, founded the Bureau of Ethnology, and became the 2nd
director of the United States Geologic Survey.
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In 1911 the land around Fort D was
subdivided for housing; the subdivision was called “Fort D
Highlands”. Citizens and the Southeast Missourian newspaper call
for Fort D to be preserved. In June 1936, the Louis K. Juden
Post of the American Legion purchased the fort as a public park
for the city. The Works Project Administration agreed to perform
restoration and improvements in the form of a replica powder
house, while the City of Cape Girardeau agreed to maintain the
project in perpetuity. The work on the new powder house and fort
was completed on July 26, 1937 and the American Legion used the
building as a meeting house for several years. However,
eventually the Legion moved from the site. From 1945 to 1948 the
property was used by the Girl Scouts as a recreation center. In
the middle 1950’s the powder house was used as a civil defense
headquarters. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the building
was frequently used as a private residence. From 1967 until 1975
the building and grounds were used as a senior citizens’ center
followed by use in the mid-1980’s by the Junior Optimist Club.
The building thereafter stood vacant and frequently vandalized.
Major stabilization and improvements to the site began in 2005
with new interpretive signs, guided tours, and Civil War living
history.
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