Longtime Quartermaster General Thomas S. Jesup Writes the Commander of Fort Armstrong, Iowa About the Construction of a New Barracks

With the pacification of the Indian threat in Illinois, the U.S. Government ceased operations at Fort Armstrong

Thomas Sidney Jesup was a United States Army officer known as the “Father of the Modern Quartermaster Corps”. His 52-year (1808–1860) military career was one of the longest in the history of the United States Army. In 1836, while Jesup was still officially Quartermaster General, President Andrew Jackson detached him first to deal with the Creek tribe in Georgia and Alabama, and then to assume command of all U.S. troops in Florida during the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). His capture of Seminole leaders Osceola and Micanopy under a false flag of truce provoked controversy in the United States and abroad.

Fort Armstrong was one of a chain of western frontier defenses which the United States erected after the War of 1812. It was located at the foot of Rock Island, in the Mississippi River near the present-day Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa. In 1832, the U.S. Army used the fort as a military headquarters during the Black Hawk War. It was normally garrisoned by two companies of United States Army regulars. With the pacification of the Indian threat in Illinois, the U.S. Government ceased operations at Fort Armstrong and the U.S. Army abandoned the frontier fort in 1836.

Letter Signed, 2 pages, Quartermaster General’s Office, Washington, November 20, 1834. “The case of the erection of new quarters at Fort Armstrong in obedience to your reiterated order to the assistant quartermaster at that post, having been submitted by the third auditor to the secretary of war for his decision was referred to me and in relation to which I made the following remarks, viz. ‘It will no doubt be remembered that the designated last year for an amount sufficient to cover the expense of new quarters directed by order of Lieutenant Colonel Davenport and to construct additional quarters and barracks at Rock Island and that the amount was stricken out of the estimate in the House of Representative. In examining the accounts therefore for the expenses increased in building it was found that the authority required by the regulations was wanting and hence my remarks on the accounts. General Atkinson might have authorized and Lieutenant Colonel Davenport have erected a palace with as much propriety as the house that was authorized by the former and erected by the latter is entirely without authority would not be tolerated in any other service that can – it is not the amount in this case but the principle which is objectionable but as it is believed the regulations will correct such irregularities in future and as the appropriation for the quartermasters department will bear the expenditure I recommend that the accounts be allowed. Th. S. Jesup, QMG 18 Nov. 1834,” has been endorsed by the Secretary of War “Allowed”.