List of 19th-Century U. S. Western Frontier Forts, Part II: Missouri and Arkansas

 Missouri (admitted August 10, 1821; previously Missouri Territory)

Note: This is the first of a series of lists of the U. S. forts of the Wild West. It is intended for use in research by writers, readers, movie fans, and others, so not much information is provided in this list itself; instead, it refers readers, by way of embedded links, to websites that provide brief historical accounts of the forts and, in many cases, one or more photographs or illustrations associated with each of the forts. The photographs and illustrations is in the public domain in the United States.

Fort Osage

Also known as Fort Osage, Fort Clark and Fort Sibley, operated from 1808 to 1813 and again from 1815 to 1822. Daniel Boone visited the fort in 1815. Both a Wikipedia article and a Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's storied history.

Fort Belle Fontaine

Built in 1805 as a Spanish military post, Fort Belle Fontaine was, in 1885, converted into a fur trading post after the Louisiana Purchase (1803), operating as such for three years. Reopened a year later, it served as a U. S. military post until 1850. It was one of four forts (A, B, C, and D) near Cape Girardeau. 

Both a Wikipedia article and a Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's storied history.

Fort D 

A Union Civil War post, Fort D was built in 1861. 

Both a Wikipedia article and a Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's storied history.

Jefferson Barracks

Built in 1826, beside the Mississippi River, Jefferson Barracks was in us for two decades, its troops involved, directly or indirectly, in the Black Hawk War (1832), the Mexican-American War (1846-1849), the Civil War (1861-1865), the Spanish-American War (1898), World War I (1914-1981), and World War II (1941-1945), after the last of which, it was decommissioned.

Both a Wikipedia article and a Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's storied history.

Tribes' return from Paris to Fort Orleans.

Fort Orleans

This French fort was in service from 1723 to 1726. Both a Wikipedia article and a Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's history.

Fort Charette

Established in 1790 by French fur trader Joseph Chadron in on the bank of the Missouri River, near present-day Washington, Missouri, it later served the needs of Western pioneers, including Daniel Boone, until its destruction by the flood in 1842-1843.

A Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's storied history. 

Fort Zumwalt

Not a military post, but a "homestead fort" (as a Wikipedia article points out, "families gathered there for protection from raids during the War of 1812"), Fort Zumwalt was built in 1798 by Jacon Zumwalt, who sold it for $1,000 in 1817. The "fort" was reconstructed in 2017. The Historic Forts website also includes an account of the fort's history.

Fort Carondelet

Built as a fur trading post in 1795, Fort Carondelet was abandoned in 1802 by new owners who'd purchased the property the same year.

Both a Wikipedia article and a Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's history. 

Fort Davidson

Built near Pilot Knob, Missouri, by the Union Army, during the Civil War, Fort Davidson, pushed back Confederate troops during Price's Raid on September 17, 1864, before blowing up the fort's magazine and abandoning the fort. 

Both a Wikipedia article and a Historic Forts website article provide accounts of the fort's history.  

Fort Cap-Au-Gris

Wikipedia summarizes the history of Fort Cap-Au-Gris:

Fort Cap au Gris, also called Capo Gray, was a temporary fort built in September 1814 near Troy, Missouri, during the War of 1812 by Missouri Rangers under the direction of Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone. . . . After the defeat of Fort Johnson, U.S. Army soldiers under the command of Zachary Taylor retreated to Cap au Gris in October 1814.

The Battle of the Sink Hole was fought near Cap au Gris in May 1815.

The unincorporated community of Cap du Gris, Missouri, today occupies the site of the old fort.

 

Arkansas (admitted June 16, 1836; previously Arkansas Territory)

Fort Smith

Fort Smith, Arkansas, has a lengthier and more dramatic history than many other American frontier outposts. After the Louisiana Purchase, the U. S. Army built the fort in 1817 and occupied it until 1922, using it for "Indian removal" in the 1830s and as a base during the Mexican-American War. During the Civil War, the Confederate States Army occupied the fort for a year, until Union forces regained possession, after which it became a refuge for freed slaves, children, and others fleeing guerilla warfare (Wikipedia). The town of Fort Smith is visited by Mattie Ross in the movie True Grit (1969) starring John Wayne.

Fort Hindman

Fort Hindman

As the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas points out, "Fort Hindman served as an important Confederate defensive fortification during the Civil War [until it was] captured by a combined force of Federal troops and the Union navy [and] destroyed in 1863."

In addition to the Encyclopedia's article, both the Historic Forts website and Wikipedia also recount the history of this fort and the battle related to it.

Fort Curtis

Battle of Helena Map

Fort Curtis

Under the command of Union General Samuel R. Curtis, soldiers and freed slaves built a number of fortifications against Confederate advances and attacks, one of which was the fort named for the general.

The square-shaped earthen fort occupied a strategic position, which allowed its defenders to protect the Mississippi River, frustrating Confederate use of the waterway to deploy troops and supplies by this means, as did the post's guns, which ranged from 32-pounders to 64-pounders.

Put to the test by a Confederate assault, the fort proved its mettle, and the Rebel sustained many casualties before fleeing the field of battle.

Historic Forts and Wikipedia provide accounts of the fort's history, the latter in more detail than the former.

Building 1, Fort Logan H. Woods

Fort Logan H. Roots

Although it was established late in the 19th century (in 1892) in Little Rock, this Arkansas fort was the garrison of troops from 1896 to 1913, when it was used as a civilian hospital until 1921, when an act of Congress caused its conversion to a veterans hospital for neuropsychiatric disorders (Wikipedia).

The Historic Forts website and Wikipedia provide accounts of the fort's history.

Fort Lookout (Redoubt A) (aka Fort Southerland)

According to a historical marker sponsored by the Camden A&P Commission, Confederate troops and slaves built Fort Lookout (Redoubt A) between 1863 and 1864. The earthen fortification "contained a battery of six artillery pieces, fronted by deep entrenchments, [and] an L-shaped fortification to the west [provided] three additional guns" by which roads west of Tate's Bluff and the bluff itself could be controlled. Taking over the fort after the Confederates abandoned it, the Union army "expanded its defenses, adding trenches and earthworks" (Historic Forts).

Under the title "Fort Southerland," Wikipedia also provides information about this historic fort.