The Union and Confederate armies engaged in a minor four-hour skirmish, each sustaining casualties generally believed to be in the low double-digits.įor years travelers had to use ferries to cross the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau. ĭuring the Civil War, the city was the site of the Battle of Cape Girardeau on April 26, 1863. The advent of the steamboat in 1835 and related river trade stimulated the development of Cape Girardeau as the biggest port on the Mississippi River between St. The town of Cape Girardeau was incorporated in 1808, prior to Missouri statehood. In 1799, American settlers founded the first English school west of the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau at a landmark called Mount Tabor, named by the settlers for the Biblical Mount Tabor. They successfully resisted removal to Indian Territory with the rest of the Shawnee tribe until 1833. The Band became known as the Cape Girardeau Shawnee. Lorimier was made commandant of the district and prospered from the returns on his land sales and trade with indigenous peoples, such as the Ozark Bluff Dwellers and the Mississippian people.Īlso in 1793, Baron Carondelet granted land near Cape Girardeau to the Black Bob Band of the Hathawekela Shawnee, who had migrated from across the Mississippi River. This gave him trading privileges and a large tract of land surrounding his post. The settlement of Girardeau is said to date from 1793 when the Spanish government, which had acquired Louisiana in 1764 following the French defeat in the Seven Years' War, granted Louis Lorimier, a French-Canadian, the right to establish a trading post. Genevieve, had been referred to as Cape Girardot or Girardeau (both pronounced the same in French). As early as 1765, a bend in the Mississippi River, about 60 miles (97 km) south of the French village of Ste. The " Cape" in the city name referred to a rock promontory overlooking the Mississippi River it was later destroyed by railroad construction. He was a French soldier stationed at Kaskaskia between 17 in the French colony of La Louisiane. The city is named after Jean Baptiste de Girardot, who established a temporary trading post in the area around 1733. Map of Cape Girardeau and vicinity, showing location of its forts (September 1865).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |