Recent investigations at War of 1812 era military sites in Warsaw, Illinois

In September 1814 Brevet Major Zachary Taylor established Fort Johnson on the eastern bluffs of the Mississippi to assert American control over the mouth of the Des Moines River and points northward. Completed in a matter of weeks, the fort and its works were razed in late October of the same year when the troops ran out of provisions and retreated downriver. The following October, a temporary winter camp called Cantonment Davis was established near the fort ruins as a staging ground for building Fort Edwards, a military trading post. This paper presents the results of the archaeological search for the fort/cantonment location and highlights from recent hand unit excavations undertaken at site 11HA957.