FOUR DAYS AT OAVENPORT. 407 



found in large quantities, h is about three miles 

 long, covering nine hundred \k\\^ sixty acres. Au 

 arsenal and armory are loc^t^id here. A fort was 

 erected in 1816, and nampd Fort Armstrong. It 

 was garrisoned until May, ) 836, v/hen it was evac- 

 uated. An ordnance depot was established by the 

 Government in 1840. In 1862, by Act of Con- 

 gress, the Island was made a United States Arse- 

 nal. General Thomas J. Rodiiian \v'as the first 

 appointed to the command and heM the position 

 until his death. In 1869, Congress nj4>i'opriated 

 $500,000 for a bridge across the Misslst^ippl uniting 

 the Island with the city of Davenport. Thi? fine 

 structure is a railroad and wagon bridge axA affords 

 all necessary facilities for the movement of military 

 stores. General Rodman was succeeded in the com- 

 mand of the Arsenal, in 1871, by Colonel LK W. 

 Flagler of the Ordnance Corps, and the leland has 

 become, under his management, the strongest military 

 post on the Mississippi. Substantial quarters for the 

 officers of the garrison and barracks for the so'disrs, 

 have been erected, also a bridge connecting the Island 

 with the city of Moline. 



Rock Island is connnected with Rock Island City 

 on the Illinois shore and with Davenport on the 

 opposite side of the river, and also yvith Moline on 

 the east side about three miles above Rock Island. 



In the spring of 1828, there were only nine white 

 men and their families on the site now occupied by 

 Rock Island Citv ; the Indians of the Sac tribe were 

 much aggrieved by the whites taking possession of 

 their lands while the latter were away on their hunting 

 expeditions. Black Hawk, chief of the tribe, took 



