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  • Brevet Brig. General William Rainey Marshall (USA), Governor (1825 - 1896)
    Rainey Marshall (October 17, 1825 – January 8, 1896) was an American politician. He was the fifth Governor of Minnesota from January 8, 1866 to January 9, 1870 and was a member of the Republican party....
  • Maj. Gen. USA Edward Richard Sprigg Canby (1817 - 1873)
    Richard Sprigg Canby (November 9, 1817 – April 11, 1873) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.==Early life==Canby was born in Piatt'...
  • Nathan Sturges Jarvis (1801 - 1862)
    Nathan Sturges Jarvis was an army surgeon.He joined Gen. Zachary Taylor's army in northeastern Mexico during the Mexican American War.
  • "Doctor" John Marsh (1799 - 1856)
    "Doctor" John Marsh was born in 1799 in South Danvers, Massachusetts and died in Pacheco, California in 1856. He was an early pioneer and settler in California, and although he did not have a medical d...
  • Col. Lawrence Taliaferro (1734 - 1798)
    Daughters of American Revolution Ancestor #: A112546* Service: VIRGINIA Rank(s): COLONEL, PATRIOTIC SERVICE* Birth: 12-9-1734 EPSOM VIRGINIA* Death: 4-8-1798 ROSE HILL ORANGE CO VIRGINIA* Service Sourc...

Fort Snelling is a former military fortification and National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Minnesota on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The military site was initially named Fort Saint Anthony, but it was renamed Fort Snelling once its construction was completed in 1825.

The U.S. Army supported slavery at the fort by allowing its soldiers to bring their personal enslaved people. These included African Americans, Dred Scott and Harriet Robinson Scott who lived at the fort in the 1830s as enslaved people. In the 1840s the Scotts sued for their freedom, arguing that having lived in “free territory” made them free leading to the landmark case Dred Scott v. Sandford. Slavery ended at the fort just before Minnesota statehood in 1858.

The fort served as the primary center for Government forces during the Dakota War of 1862. It also was the site of the encampment where the eastern Dakota and Ho-chunk non-combatants awaited riverboat transport in their forced removal from Minnesota when the hostilities ceased. The fort served as a recruiting station for the Civil War, Spanish American War, and both World Wars before being decommissioned a second time in 1946. It then fell into a state of disrepair until the lower post was restored to its original appearance in 1965. At that time all that remained of the original lower post were the round and hexagon towers. Many of the important buildings of the upper post remain today with some still in disrepair.

The historic fort is in the unorganized territory of Fort Snelling within Hennepin County, bordering Ramsey and Dakota counties.

There are now multiple government agencies that own portions of the former fort with the Minnesota Historical Society administering the Historic Fort Snelling site. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources administers Fort Snelling State Park at the bottom of the bluff. Fort Snelling once encompassed the park's land. It has been cited as a "National Treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The historic fort is in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a National Park Service unit.

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