mouth of the Yellowstone River. The goal was to establish military forts to control Native Americans and allow American members of the fur trade to operate safely in the region. Colonel Talbot Chambers led the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Regiment left Belle Fontaine on August 30, 1818 up the Missouri River. On October 18 they arrived at Isle des Vaches, and spent the winter at Cantonment Martin. They left for Council Bluff where they met Major Stephen Harriman Long. Colonel Atkinson joined the military detachment and established their winter lodging, Cantonment Missouri. He led another expedition in 1825. Appointed Commissioner together with Indian agent Benjamin O'Fallon and with a military escort of 476 men, General Atkinson and his fellow commissioner left Fort Atkinson on May 16, 1825, and ascending the Missouri, negotiated treaties of friendship and trade with tribes of the upper Missouri, including the Arikara, Cheyenne, Crow, Mandan, Ponca, and several bands of the Sioux. The treaties acknowledged that the tribes lived within the United States, vowed perpetual friendship, and recognized the right of the United States to regulate trade, promising to deal only with licensed traders. The tribes agreed to forswear private retaliation for injuries and to return or indemnify the owner of stolen horses or other goods. Efforts to contact the Blackfoot and the Assiniboine were unsuccessful. Returning to Fort Atkinson at the "Council Bluff" in Nebraska, successful negotiations were had with the Otoe, the Pawnee and the Omaha. He was appointed brevet brigadier general and was in overall command of U.S. forces during the Black Hawk War (1832). Although he delivered the final blow to the Black Hawk Indians at the Battle of Bad Axe, Atkinson was criticized for mishandling the operations of the war. Zachary Taylor and Henry Dodge, who served under him, were well-respected for their service during the war. Atkinson organized the removal of the Winnebago to Iowa. A second Fort Atkinson was named in his honor in Iowa. The City of Fort Atkinson in Jefferson County, Wisconsin is also named after him. He initiated the construction of Fort Leavenworth and Jefferson Barracks (near St. Louis), where he spent the remainder of his career. Personal life He married Mary Ann Bullitt on January 15, 1826 in the Christ Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky. They had a son, Henry born in February 1827 and a son named Edward Graham Atkinson. He died in