The Search for a 200 Year Old Military Base in Southern Illinois
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
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More than 200 years ago, the United States stood on the threshold of war with France. The threat was so serious that former President George Washington came out of retirement to lead the army and recruited Alexander Hamilton as his second in command.
Fifteen hundred U.S. troops - nearly half of the entire military - moved to a campsite on the Ohio River in present-day Pulaski County, Illinois, in deep Southern Illinois. For eighteen months, the soldiers drilled and prepared for war against France while also experiencing disease and a fatal tornado. Eventually, the threat of war cleared, and the troops returned to other posts.
Today, the site of the former military base known as Cantonment Wilkinson is a well-plowed farm field. Generations of residents learned of the story, but aside from a few articles, more was needed to study the site.
In 2005, archaeologists with Southern Illinois University Carbondale launched an investigation. At first, the effort yielded only brick fragments and tiny glass and ceramic pieces. Videographer Richard Kuenneke captured when archaeologist Mark Wagner located the first artifact confirming the site’s military history. The single event “caught on tape” was the needed proof that led to a state-funded excavation of Cantonment Wilkinson.
This video originally appeared as a four-part series aired on public television in southern Illinois.
Archaeologist Mark Wagner, Associate Professor and Director of SIU’s Center for Archaeological Investigations, published an article in the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. Access is restricted, sorry to say, but maybe you know someone who could download the article for you.
www.tandfonlin...
ADDITIONAL READING ABOUT MILITARY SITE ARCHAEOLOGY:
Interesting titles, but plan to “dig deep” into your wallet.
The Historical Archaeology of Military Sites: Method and Topic
By Clarence Raymond Geier, Lawrence E. Babits, Douglas Dowell Scott, and David G. Orr
Multivocal Archaeologies of the Pacific War, 1941-45: Collaboration, Reconciliation, and Renewal
By Ben Raffield, Yu Hirasawa, and Neil Price
BOOKS ABOUT THE QUASI-WAR:
The First War of the United States: The Quasi-War with France 1798-1801
By William J. Phalen 2018
The Quasi-War. The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France, 1797-1801
By Alexander DeConde 1966
Richard Kuenneke is a media producer living in southern Illinois.
Here in the Mid West. We have a hard time seeing ourselves as the American Frontier and that for a time, America only went as far as the Mississippi. Most of it was still inhabited by the many Indian Tribes. A very interesting video. Thanks!
Thank you very much for your comment.
Some of my Bollinger ancestors crossed into Missouri on New Year's Day 1800 at Ste. Genevieve and settled in the Whitewater area of what is now Bollinger County. The Mississippi River was frozen over and they cautiously crossed over the ice at Ste. Genevieve, Mo.
That's fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
I'm a Paducah native and began detecting in 1973. On the Ky side of the river I found a 2 Real silver coin with the bust of Ferdinand VII. It was damaged in a fire and is bubbled badly. Then where fill from the Ohio River was used to create the park where the Hotel was built I found an Ancient bronze coin.
Both sides of my family were in this area beginning with my Virginia paternal ancestor who was in the Illinois Campaign with George Rogers Clark who had been his schoolmate at Donald Robertson's School in King and Queen Co., VA. My mother's family from Kentucky received Spanish land grants in the 1790s in what is now St. Charles County, MO. A creek is still named for them. They felled and hollowed out a large sycamore tree to make a canoe that held four families. They had to swear fealty to Spain.
My father's family from Kentucky settled on Indian land south of what is now Marion, Williamson County, IL, then in the Northwest Territory, later Randolph County, Indiana Territory, etc.... They signed the Squatter's petition in 1807 to get title to that land. Of course the French and Spanish settlers were there long before them. There was a surprising amount of traffic between these two regions and I find mentions of families on both sides of the Mississippi River in records. There was a fair amount of conflict with the Indians and several members of both sides of my family were killed. My ancestor with the Illinois Campaign was killed and scalped by Indians in Kentucky in 1784.
Rusted iron makes the biggest target, the rust leaches into the ground, making the relic appear larger than it is.
It's funny that they would make anything for Wilkinson, because as history has proven that even though he was in command of the U.S. Army he was also Spanish Agent 13 who was in cahoots with Spain in their efforts to keep the United States from expanding West of the Mississippi, he was also complicit in Aaron Burrs plans to split the area West of the Alleghenys into a separate country in one of his more perfidous acts, he sold out the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Spanish, who dispatched troops, to capture and kill them, as invaders, but said troops failed being unable to find them.
That claim that bayonets were ordered to be welded to the muskets needs provenance; I have been involved with antique US firearms for years and have never encountered even a suggestion of this frankly bizarre modification. I find this extremely difficult to accept but look forward to be proven incorrect.
I have dealt in vintage firearms for 45 years and this is the first I have heard of anything like this too.
Thank you very much for producing this. Wilkinsonville has fascinated me ever since I read about the archaeological dig in the Evansville newspaper in the mid 2000s. How close was the encampment in proximity to Colonel Strong's marker on Tick Ridge Road?
Within 100 yards, I would say. Not far at all.
Keep up the great work.
Many thanks for your comment. Stay tuned - more videos are coming.
They usually don't find much where early military camps were built. The buildings would either be taken over by squatters or dismantled by local residents for building materials. They would go thru the trash heaps to remove recyclable material (metal, glass, buttons, buckles).
Excellent point.
Missed the covert operation by a worthy LT from Ft Knox on the Wabash..the military established this secret operation to explore the French territory..1780s..Post on the Wabash..letters from Major Hamtramk
All the experts in the comments!
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it
There were considerations that this area would be perfect for the nation's capital. There is an old map suggesting it. Luckily, for us, it didn't happen.
If only had he used a metal detector, he would have found that iron relic sooner than later. Marking all the metal targets with flags, will give him a map to where are the best places to dig.
Your comment assumes he knew such iron relics existed. He didn't. He was focused on the clusters of brick found after the topsoil was turned over with a disc. The high brick frequency on the surface led him to dig into the location where the bayonet socket was found. But more importantly, the specific spot was dug after it was located within the grid. They moved to the location after measuring 90 feet (if I remember correctly) to preserve the relationship between the features and artifacts found.
@@Richkuenneke All of these old sites are loaded with iron, I was only assuming this wasn't his first dig!! These military camps had their own blacksmiths. By mapping the iron, he would find were the cabins were located.
@@clydea.murphy2219 And brick, too. Even more tonnage than all the iron found. And those brick clusters identified the location of each cabin as they were the remnants of chimneys.
One man's trash is another man's treasure.!
Use LIDAR!
Hey! Get a metal detector.
I wonder why they didn't use a drone with LIDAR to identify the outlines of buildings and other shapes?
This excavation took place long before the technology was available.
I live near here.....I need more places to detect
Don't even think of it--the last thing they need is some idiot with a metal detector, digging into the archaeology.
@@TheEudaemonicPlague try and stop him random internet man?
I don't have a clue what would lead six idiots to give this a thumbs down, but they do have to be idiots. This is fascinating. I want to learn more about this cantonment. Finding this video reminded me of the early 70s, when there were at least two years they had at the Mississippi Palisades State Park something called General Grant's Civil War Cantonment. I went to one of them, I think it was the second time they did it...and I can't find any evidence it continued after the second one. They had some fun competitions for children...and I won the egg in spoon race. During the same general time period, we also visited Cave in Rock and a bunch of other parts of Illinois...which brings me to ask--how close is it to Cave in Rock?
Hello, The EudaemonicPlague: The cantonment site is in Pulaski County, Illinois, probably 15 miles upstream from the Mississippi and Ohio River Confluence. Based on a rough calculation, Cave-in-Rock is 140+ miles upstream from the cantonment site (80+ miles by car). Many thanks for your kind words. I'm preparing a new video with Mark Wagner about his excavation of an early 1800s sunken flatboat on the Ohio River near America, Illinois, back in the early 2000s. Stay tuned.
Ground penetrating radar .
All of those hyper-educated people and they’re wearing shorts in known tic infested land…really?
That's a good point. I will say viewpoints regarding tick bites were slightly different in 2003 when this was produced. While tick-borne illness existed, most paid little attention to it. Nowadays, I avoid the woods or open fields during warm weather for ticks and poison ivy.
None of this it what they are making it out as.
Could you explain?
@@Richkuenneke Nope he cannot!
i know right? they didnt mention aliens or bigfoot once