Background
Josiah was born in 1782 in Boston, Massachussets, United States.
Josiah was born in 1782 in Boston, Massachussets, United States.
There is no information about his education.
Snelling entered the army in 1808 as a first lieutenant in the 4th, later 5th Infantry, then being organized, and was promoted captain in 1809. He fought at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was afterwards stationed at Detroit, becoming a prisoner of the British upon the capitulation of Gen. William Hull, in August 1812. Years later he published Remarks on "General Wm. Hull's Memories of the Campaign of the Northwestern Army, 1812" (1825). After his exchange he served as major (assistant inspector general), lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Rifles, and colonel (inspector-general), taking part in the Niagara campaign.
At the close of the war he became lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Infantry, and in 1819 was promoted colonel of the 5th Infantry, the regiment in which he had originally served. In that year the regiment was assembled at Detroit and dispatched into the unexplored West to establish three military posts which should serve as centers for the expected settlement of the new country. The chief of these, and the headquarters of the regiment, was Fort St. Anthony, adjacent to the present cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Construction was begun by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Leavenworth in August 1820 and the cornerstone was laid by Colonel Snelling, with ceremony, on September 10, 1820. Some of the buildings were occupied in 1821, though the group was not completed before 1823.
He remained in command of Fort St. Anthony until January 1828. He died in Washington.
Josiah Snelling was well-known for his initial design and construction of the Fort St. Anthony (renamed to Fort Snelling in honor of its builder), and was the first its commander. All of the manpower of designing and building the fort came from Snelling's own troops. He also established a grist mill at Saint Anthony Falls to grind the wheat into flour. Two Minnesota streets, one in Minneapolis (Snelling Street), the other in Saint Paul (Snelling Avenue), in Minnesota's capital city, are named after him.
Quotations: Snelling's own summary of his career is modest and shrewd: "I have passed through every grade to the command of a regiment. I owe nothing to executive patronage, for I have neither friend or relation connected with the government: I have obtained my rank in the ordinary course of promotion, and have retained it by doing my duty. "
He was a natural leader of men. Though ruthless in discipline, he was admired and liked by his soldiers. His soldiers among themselves called him "the Prairie Hen, " in consideration of his red and scanty hair.
He was married in Boston, August 29, 1804, to Elizabeth Bell, who died soon after the birth of a son, William Joseph Snelling. Later Snelling married his second wife, Abigail Hunt, daughter of Col. Thomas Hunt of the 1th Infantry. From the second marriage he had four children, one of whom was Henry Hunt Snelling, from the first - a son.
