Major Amos Stoddard - Bloomfield, Missouri - Missouri Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

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Major Amos Stoddard

On August 10, 1821, the Territory of Missouri became the 24th state of the United States.  In 1829, the Missouri legislature set boundaries for a new county to be named after Major Amos Stoddard, a distinguished officer of the United States Army.

Amos Stoddard was born in Woodbury, Connecticut on October 26, 1762, the son of a farmer who was a veteran of the French and Indian War and in the early part of the American Revolution.  In 1777 upon the father's early return home from the war, his oldest son Amos, joined the American Army as a private.  Thus began a career in which this soldier would witness many of the young country's most historic moments.

His first duty was on the Hudson River at Fort West Point.  Where here he observed Major General Benedict Arnold fleeing arrest when his plot to turn WEst Point over to the British was discovered.  Afterwards he stood close by and watched the hanging of Arnold's counterpart, the British spy Major John Andre.  Following these incidents, his unit campaigned into Virginia and took part in the siege and surrender at Yorktown (October 20, 1781).

Following his discharge, he returned to his father's home, now in Massachusetts and took employment as an assistant clerk of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and began the study of law.  This was interrupted in late 1786 and early 1787 when he served as a junior officer in suppressing an uprising in Massachusetts known as Shays's Rebellion.

After being admitted to the Massachusetts Bar and serving a term in the state's legislature, he returned to military duty and was commissioned a captain of artillery and engineering.  In 1803, the year of the Louisiana Purchase, Cpt. Stoddard was stationed on the American frontier at Fort Kaskaskia, IL on the Mississippi River.  On the 28th of November the Lewis and Clark expedition visited the Fort where Capt. Stoddard supplied them with additional soldiers and gun powder for their historic exploration.

Stoddard became involved with the new territory when in February 1804 he received a commission as the first civil commandant of Upper Louisiana and was directed to oversee the transfer of the government of the Upper Louisiana Territory from Spain to France and the to the United States.  Following the instruction of President Thomas Jefferson, he made few changes in the government and personnel, kept the peace and was given much credit for his wise decisions.

Relieved from this duty on September 30, 1804 and assigned to duty in Lower Louisiana, he wrote about the history and geography of the Louisiana Purchase hoping to help explain how important the purchase was to the country.

In 1804 Capt. Stoddard wrote his mother, "A military man never knows what to depend on.  He must always be ready to move when duty calls, and to consider his time and talents as the property of the public."  In 1812 the portly 50-year-old Major Amos Stoddard was directed to northwest Ohio to command artillery under Gen. William Henry Harrison.  During the battle of Ft. Meigs, Stoddard was wounded by shrapnel and died on May 11, 1813.  He was buried in an unmarked grave near his cannon, and at his request, with other fallen soldiers.