Note 142 — {100} CHAPTER VI
Reading edition
Isle au Vache (Isle des Vaches, Isle de Vache, Buffalo Island), now Cow Island, is on the line between Atchison and Leavenworth counties.
Wyly Martin, a Tennesseean, had been captain in the 3d Rifle regiment at the close of the War of 1812-15, and after an honorable discharge in 1815, had been reinstated the same year. He was transferred to the 6th Infantry in 1821, and resigned two years later.
Lewis and Clark note the site of the Kansa village and French fort. The former stood in a valley between two high elevations, and the latter was on another elevation a mile in the rear. They found few traces of the village, but there remained the general outline of the fortifications and some ruins of chimneys. It was near this spot that Fort Leavenworth was established, in 1827. See Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 37.—Ed.