NEW MADRID, a city and the county seat of New Madrid county, Mo., U.S.A., on the right bank of the Mississippi river, about 35 m. S. by W. of Cairo, Ill. Pop. (1920) 1,908; (1930) 2,309. It is served by the St. Louis Southwestern railway and by river barges. The city is a shipping point for a rich grain, cotton, live stock and lumber region. Among its manufactures are lumber, staves and hoops. The municipality owns its water works. Owing to the encroachments of the Mississippi river, the site of the first permanent settlement of New Madrid is said to lie now about 1 m. from the east bank of the river, in Ken tucky. This settlement was made in 1788, on an elaborately laid out town site, and was named New Madrid by its founder, Col. George Morgan (1742-181o), who, late in 1787, had re ceived a grant of a large tract of land on the right bank of the Mississippi river from Don Diego de Gardoqui, Spanish minister to the United States. The tract lay within the province of "Louisi ana," and the grant to Morgan was a part of Gardoqui's plan to annex to that province the western American settlements. Earth quake shocks in 1811 and 1812 caused a general emigration.
New Madrid was occupied by Confederate troops under Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, on July 28, 1861, and after the surrender of Ft. Donelson (Feb. 16, 1862) the troops previously at Columbus,
forming the Confederate left flank, were withdrawn to New Madrid and Island No. 1 o (in the Mississippi about 1 o m. S.). Early in March, Major-General John Pope and Commodore A. H. Foote proceeded against the positions on the left bank; New Madrid, then in command of Gen. John P. McGown, was evacu ated on the 14th; (Admiral) Henry Walke (1808-96), command ing the "Carondelet," ran past the batteries of Island No. 1 o and the shore batteries on April 4, and Lieutenant-Commander Egbert Thompson, commanding the "Pittsburgh," on the 7th; meanwhile the Federals under the direction of Col. Josiah W. Bissell (b. 1818), of the engineer corps, had, with great difficulty, constructed an artificial channel to New Madrid across the peninsula (swamp land) formed by a great loop of the Mississippi; troops were con veyed by transports through this channel below the island, Federal batteries having been established on the right bank of the river; the retreat of the Confederates down stream was effectually blocked; they evacuated the island on April 7, and on the 8th the garrison and the forces stationed in the shore batteries, a total of about 7,000, under Gen. W. W. Mackall, was surrendered at Tiptonville.