Amos Stoddard

Amos Stoddard (October 26, 1762 – May 11, 1813) was a career United States Army officer who served in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, in which he was mortally wounded.

In 1804, Stoddard was the Commandant of the military district of Upper Louisiana, after the Louisiana Purchase.

Stoddard was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, to Anthony and Phebe (Reed) Stoddard. He saw combat as a young man in the American Revolutionary War, and afterwards represented Hallowell, Maine, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In June 1798, he was commissioned as a captain of artillery in the US Army.

Circa 1800 Stoddard commanded Fort Sumner in his home town of Portland, Maine.

In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana back to France in the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. Three years later, Napoleon promptly sold it to the United States to obtain money to continue his campaigns in Europe. Nevertheless, Spain had continued to govern the territory and refused to give Lewis and Clark permission to explore it. This forced Lewis and Clark to spend the winter of 1803-04 at Camp Dubois, in what is now Illinois.

On November 30, 1803, in New Orleans, Spain formally turned the territory over to France, which governed it for only 20 days before surrendering it to the United States on December 20, 1803.

...
Wikipedia