"Twenty-three forts"

[Larry Koschkee]

On the 66th anniversary of the Battle of Bad Axe, August, 1898, 84 year old H. S Townsend delivered a speech recalling events of the BHW while a Private serving under Col. Dodge's Mounted Volunteers. Parts of this speech were published in the newspapers.

"...(Townsend) Said there were 23 forts in Lead Mines, 20-24 men in each..."

VERNON COUNTY CENSOR, WED. AUGUST 10, 1898
"On the Old Battle Ground"

It is difficult to define Mr. Townsend's "Lead Mines". Is it the territory outlined in R. W. Chandler's Map of the United Sates Lead Mines of the Upper Mississippi River, 1829 that excludes Ioway or was he referring to the 19th century district called the "Fever River" mines that included the Dubuque region?

The latter district included present day Dane, Grant, Green, Iowa, and Lafayette counties of Wisconsin; Dubuque, Clayton and Allamakee counties of Iowa; and Stephenson and Jo Davies counties of Illinois.

On occasion, one of our esteemed moderators has developed a thread utilizing polls or class room search for how many errors you can find in a specific topic.

Therefore, fellow classmates of this message board, how many forts can we identify that existed during the BHW in the "Lead Mines"??...

You first. Tally and list....

LWK

[Greg Carter]

Larry,

I count twenty-two from memory, twenty-three including Fort Howard, but I might be missing one or two that I have forgotten.

GMC

[Robert Braun]

I show eighteen named or formally identified militia forts in the Michigan Territory alone, not counting two or three additional strong points... and not counting the federal reservations at Howard, Winnebago, and Crawford.

I defer to "Almanac" on Forts in Illinois. Bob.

[Greg Carter]

Forts in the 1829 Lead Region map in Illinois- 3

Total known and identified forts in the neighborhood- 14

GMC

[Greg Carter]

I am afraid I have to change this count because it is drastically low. I will present my recent findings at a future OLRHS meeting.

GMC

[Larry Koschkee]

Mr. Will Storrs and I have tallied 24 fortification sites in the Michigan Territory portion of R. W. Chandler's 1829 map of the lead mines. This tally includes fortification reported during the 1827 Red Bird Uprising and excludes federal sites.

Tallyho...