The First Expedition
On May 1, 1814, William Clark, governor of Missouri Territory, with a
detachment consisting of sixty United States regulars of the Seventh
Infantry, and one hundred and forty Illinois and Missouri rangers or
volunteers, left Cap au Gris in five fortified keel boats for the mouth of
the Wisconsin River. there to erect a United States fort. At the mouth of
the Rock River they had a slight skirmish with a party of Sauk (Sac)
braves.
About the middle of April, Colonel Dickinson left
Prairie du Chien, taking with him most of the British forces,
together with about three hundred Indian allies. Captain Deace was left in
charge of the post. His command consisted of a company of Michigan
fencibles and a body of Sioux and Fox Indians. When it was learned that an
American force was nearing the Prairie, the Indians refused to fight the
Americans, and Captain Deace and his British soldiers fled.
Lieutenant Joseph Perkins, who was in command of the United States
regulars, on his arrival at the Prairie, took possession of the place and
immediately began the erection of a fort, which he named Fort Shelby in
honor of Governor Shelby of Kentucky. As soon as the fort was completed
Captain John Sullivan's company of fifty rangers, thirty-two rangers from
Captain Yeizer's company, together with Governor Clark, left Fort Shelby
and returned to St. Louis, arriving there the last of June.
On the 17th of July Fort Shelby at
Prairie du Chien was attacked . by Colonel William McKay in
command of one hundred and fifty British soldiers and four hundred Sioux,
Winnebago, Menominee and Chippewa Indians, and on the evening of July
19th, the same day Campbell's expedition was defeated, Lieutenant Perkins
surrendered Fort Shelby. The British renamed the fort, calling it Fort
McKay.
Early Settlements of Rock County
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908