The Army Is Back! — April Fools?

The word spread quickly around Menard County: “The Army is back!” It may have sounded like an April Fools’ joke, but it was true. On April 1, 1868, Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Beaumont marched A Troop of the 4th U.S. Cavalry into Fort Mc-Kavett, ending more than a decade of dormancy. The Army had ordered Fort Mc-Kavett abandoned on March 22, 1859.During the Civil War years, Confedera...