This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2010) |
Carlisle Barracks | |
---|---|
Carlisle, Pennsylvania | |
![]() US Army War College | |
Type | School post |
Site information | |
Controlled by | Headquarters, Department of the Army |
Site history | |
Built | May 1757 |
In use | Currently |
Designated | N/A [1] |
Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and Indian War between Great Britain and France in the colonies. [2]
From 1879 to 1918, the property was transferred to the Department of Interior to operate the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. This was the first off-reservation boarding school established to educate and assimilate Native American children into European-American culture. In 1891 Congress passed legislation to expand this program. After the United States entered World War I, the school was closed and the property was transferred back to the War Department.
Developed at the intersection of Indian trails along Letort Creek, in the eighteenth century the town of Carlisle became the jumping-off point for traders and settlers heading over the Alleghenies on their way west. A brief 1756 encampment at Carlisle preceded the more permanent settlement that started in May 1757, during the French and Indian War on the North American front between the colonies of Britain and France. Colonel John Stanwix marched upstream with British regulars and provincials against the backdrop of the international Seven Years' War. After the American Revolutionary War, from 1783 to 1837, the town of Carlisle was significant as the frontier gateway, as a greatly increased wave of land-hungry migrants moved west.
During the Revolutionary War, numerous substantial brick buildings were erected at Carlisle Barracks for military stores and to accommodate workmen of the revolutionary government's dedicated managing body for the Army, the Ordnance Department. While the facility might have been used to store ammunition and explosives, its lack of access to water transportation made it impractical because of the difficulty of overland travel at the time. [3] The Hessian Powder Magazine, now Hessian Guardhouse Museum, was built in 1777. [4]
In 1794, Carlisle Barracks became the center of intense federal military activity with the outbreak of the Whiskey Rebellion in the Pennsylvania backcountry. President George Washington journeyed to the barracks to review the troops—perhaps as many as 10,000 men. The crisis was posed by farmers in southwestern Pennsylvania, who refused to pay a tax on the commercial whiskey they distilled from their corn crops. They had found the alcohol more easily transported east over the Alleghenies and more profitable to sell than was corn as grain.
President Washington recommended the barracks as the site for a Federal military academy. But the state of New York won this prize, and West Point was developed on the west side of the Hudson River. The government decided to clear up ownership of the post; in 1801, the government paid $664.20 for the 27 acres (110,000 m2) which it had been renting from William Penn's heirs.
In 1838 the US School of Cavalry Practice was established at Carlisle Barracks. It was the army's small mounted force of U.S. Dragoons, the forerunner of the Armor School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and [5] now at Fort Benning, Georgia. Captain E. V. Sumner found most of the barracks buildings in disrepair, the maneuver area less than adequate, and horses in short supply. Overcoming these problems included drilling his recruits at the double time on foot to simulate the trotting of the missing horses. Another mounted organization, horse-drawn light artillery, also established its school at Carlisle Barracks. In 1839, Captain Samuel Ringgold arrived to begin training recruits and testing equipment for the "flying artillery," as it was sometimes called.
From the early Civil War days, south-central Pennsylvania was rife with rumors of a Confederate invasion up the Shenandoah-Cumberland Valley from Virginia to Pennsylvania. Although many miles from the combat front, the garrison at Carlisle became a central supply center for ordnance stores, horses, and quartermaster supplies under Captain David H. Hastings. [6] Recruits once destined for Indian-fighting units on the western frontier were prepared to replace casualties in Regular Army units. Entire units were sent to the barracks to refit before specific deployment.
In June 1863, "the Rebels are coming!" was a cry with substance. In spite of a small defensive Pennsylvania militia and home guard force, Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins' Confederate cavalry entered Carlisle on 27 June. Jenkins led his mounted brigade east along the Trindle Road, where they bivouacked while they took rations by wagon from the town. He had levied a demand for food for his 1,500 men and forage for their horses. Three North Carolina brigades occupied Carlisle Barracks; the troops camped on the parade grounds.
Major General J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry division approached Carlisle from the east on the afternoon of Wednesday, 1 July. Depleted by a sweeping march around the Union Army, Stuart hoped to find needed provisions; he did not know that other Confederate units had already sought the same Carlisle provisions. Stuart sent a demand for surrender of the Federal forces under the command of Brigadier General William Farrar Smith. When his demand was refused, Stuart initiated a short bombardment. When a second demand was refused, Stuart ordered his troops to shell the town and, later, to torch the barracks. See Battle of Carlisle.
After the Civil War ended, the barracks returned to its pre-war mission of receiving, training and forwarding cavalry recruits destined for the Indian wars on the western frontier. But, as army operations moved west, the War Department moved this function to the St. Louis Arsenal in Missouri. There it had access to transportation on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. On 20 April 1871, Carlisle Barracks was officially "discontinued as a sub-Depot for the Mounted Recruit Service." The installation was available for new uses.
In 1879, the War Department transferred control of the post to the Department of the Interior. The US Congress had authorized the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to found the first off-reservation Indian boarding school for the education of Native American children. During and at the end of the Indian Wars, the US government sought a way to assimilate and integrate the children into European-American culture: teaching them English, trades, and Christianity.
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School officially opened on 1 November 1879 and operated until 1918. Among the first batch of students were groups of children from Sioux (Lakota) bands that had rebelled against the US. [7] The Indian Bureau sent the children to the school to be educated and essentially kept as political hostages, to ensure compliant behavior on the part of the bands from which they had been taken. [7]
Commanding General of the Army William T. Sherman had acceded to the petitions of Richard Henry Pratt to use the barracks for a model Indian school. The goal was for children to learn English and European-American ways, to gain an education apart from the reservations, and live among European-American men and women. Pratt believed Native Americans needed such education to be able to protect their lands and societies. He became the school's founder and first superintendent. He based the school's program on his experience since 1875 in supervising and educating Indian prisoners-of-war at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. Twenty young Indian men gained further education at Hampton Institute, a historically black college, and private schools in New York.
On 1 September 1918, with World War I underway, the U.S. Army took back Carlisle Barracks from the Department of Interior. It used the facility to respond to a wide set of changing army and security needs. At the end of World War I, the U.S. Army established General Hospital No. 31 as a pioneering rehabilitation center there. For two years, the hospital provided medical treatment, mental reconditioning and vocational training for more than 4,000 afflicted soldiers returned from service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Carlisle Barracks' equipment laboratory designed and tested new products, including improved lighting for field hospitals, a field dental dispensary, first aid kits for arctic rescue, and the "First-aid Packet, U.S. Government Carlisle Model" bandage field dressing [8]
In the fall of 1920, the Medical Field Service School was established under Colonel Percy M. Ashburn's command. Drawing on the lessons of World War I, the school developed medical equipment and doctrine suitable for the battlefield. More than 30,000 officers and NCOs passed through the school during its 26-year tenure at Carlisle Barracks. They applied classroom instruction and field exercises to train in care of casualties and disease prevention, the latter a major problem for the military until improvements in sanitation and antibiotics.
When the Medical Field Service School departed in 1946 for Fort Sam Houston at San Antonio, Texas after World War II, educational innovation continued. From 1946 until 1951, six U.S. Army schools were located at Carlisle Barracks. First was the Army Information School, followed shortly by the School for Government of Occupied Areas, and the Adjutant General's School for army personnel managers. The next year brought the Chaplain School and the Military Police School. Finally, the Army Security Agency School began highly classified operations in 1949 and stayed for two years before being displaced.
In the spring of 1951, the United States Army War College, senior educational institution of the U.S. Army, relocated to Carlisle Barracks in central Pennsylvania. The college, established in 1903 and formerly located in Washington, D.C., had functioned as part of the General Staff during its early years. It chiefly prepared selected officers for high command. Distinguished graduates of that period included John J. Pershing (Class of 1905), Dwight D. Eisenhower (1927), and Omar N. Bradley (1934).
Classes were suspended in 1940 during the preparedness mobilization for World War II, and not resumed until a decade later at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for the 1950–51 academic year. The new commandant, Lieutenant General Joseph M. Swing, relocated with the college to Pennsylvania in July 1951 and turned over command to his successor, Lieutenant General Edward M. Almond, in time for the arrival of the first Carlisle-based class.
At Carlisle, the Army War College expanded steadily, adding new programs and specialties. The college outgrew its main academic building (the current Upton Hall). In 1967 it transferred to Root Hall, newly constructed to accommodate current requirements. Two specialized agencies evolved into integral parts of the Army War College: the Strategic Studies Institute, first formed in 1954; and the Military History Institute, established in 1967. The Center for Strategic Leadership, a state-of-the-art war gaming complex, opened in 1994, incorporating increasingly sophisticated technology.
In 2005 the Carlisle Barracks was listed as a candidate for closure under the realignment process and hearings of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, but was subsequently removed from the list. In 2006, ground was broken on a major project across the road from Carlisle Barracks: to construct new military housing, work that had been postponed pending BRAC review. It was part of the Residential Community Initiative, a public-private venture of the Army. In Carlisle, the development project included renovation of some historic housing, and construction of nearly 200 new units of housing with 3-4 bedrooms each, and more than 2000-2500 square feet of space. [9]
Carlisle Barracks CDP | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Coordinates: 40°12′37″N77°10′23″W / 40.2102134°N 77.1729795°W | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
County | Cumberland |
Area | |
• Total | 0.34 sq mi (0.88 km2) |
• Land | 0.34 sq mi (0.87 km2) |
• Water | 0.01 sq mi (0.01 km2) |
Elevation | 463 ft (141 m) |
Population | |
• Total | 938 |
• Density | 2,783.38/sq mi (1,075.84/km2) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
FIPS code | 42-42041 [11] |
GNIS feature ID | 2804361 [11] |
Carlisle Barracks CDP is a census-designated place (CDP) covering the residential population of the Carlisle Barracks in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 938. [13]
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | 938 | — | |
U.S. Decennial Census [14] 2020 [15] [12] |
Race / Ethnicity | Pop 2020 [15] | % 2020 |
---|---|---|
White alone (NH) | 709 | 75.59% |
Black or African American alone (NH) | 74 | 7.89% |
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) | 3 | 0.32% |
Asian alone (NH) | 27 | 2.88% |
Pacific Islander alone (NH) | 4 | 0.43% |
Some Other Race alone (NH) | 1 | 0.11% |
Mixed Race/Multi-Racial (NH) | 68 | 7.25% |
Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 52 | 5.54% |
Total | 938 | 100.00% |
Fort Defiance is a census-designated place (CDP) in Apache County, Arizona, United States. It is also located within the Navajo Nation. The population was 3,624 at the 2010 census.
Schofield Barracks is a United States Army installation and census-designated place (CDP) located in Honolulu and in the Wahiawa District of the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Schofield Barracks lies adjacent to the town of Wahiawā, separated from most of it by Lake Wilson. Schofield Barracks is named after Lieutenant General John McAllister Schofield, who was the Commanding General of the United States Army from August 1888 to September 1895. He had been sent to Hawaiʻi in 1872 and had recommended the establishment of a naval base at Pearl Harbor.
Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity (ASA) located at Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located 16.1 miles (25.9 km) south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force Air Mobility Command. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Fort Dix census-designated place (CDP) had a total population of 7,716, of which 5,951 were in New Hanover Township, 1,765 were in Pemberton Township, and none were in Springfield Township.
West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, General George Washington stationed his headquarters in West Point in the summer and fall of 1779 during the American Revolutionary War, and later called it "the most important Post in America" in 1781 following the war's end. West Point also was the site of General Benedict Arnold's failed attempt at treason during the Revolutionary War.
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 census, the borough population was 20,118; including suburbs in the neighboring townships, 37,695 live in the Carlisle urban cluster. Carlisle is the smaller principal city of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area, which includes Cumberland and Dauphin and Perry counties in South Central Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, and 13 miles (21 km) north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and 52 miles (84 km) southwest of Harrisburg, the state capital. According to the United States Census Bureau, Chambersburg's 2020 population was 21,903. When combined with the surrounding Greene, Hamilton, and Guilford Townships, the population of Greater Chambersburg is 52,273 people. The Chambersburg, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes surrounding Franklin County, and in 2010 included 149,618 people.
Fort Gregg-Adams, in Prince George County, Virginia, United States, is a United States Army post and headquarters of the United States Army Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM)/ Sustainment Center of Excellence (SCoE), the U.S. Army Quartermaster School, the U.S. Army Ordnance School, the U.S. Army Transportation School, the Army Sustainment University (ALU), Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), and the U.S. Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA).
Shippensburg is a borough in Cumberland and Franklin counties in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Settled in 1730, Shippensburg lies in the Cumberland Valley, 41 miles (66 km) southwest of Harrisburg, and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,478 at the 2020 census.
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officers and civilians to prepare them for senior leadership assignments and responsibilities. Each year, a number of Army colonels and lieutenant colonels are considered by a board for admission. Approximately 800 students attend at any one time, half in a two-year-long distance learning program, and the other half in an on-campus, full-time resident program lasting ten months. Upon completion, the college grants its graduates a master's degree in Strategic Studies.
Fort Shafter is a census-designated place located in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawai‘i. It is the headquarters of the United States Army Pacific, which commands most Army forces in the Asia-Pacific region with the exception of Korea. Geographically, Fort Shafter extends up the interfluve (ridgeline) between Kalihi and Moanalua valleys, as well as onto the coastal plain at Māpunapuna. A portion of the area is also known as the Palm Circle Historic District; it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been further designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. It is also known as Palm Circle or 100 Area.
The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from its founding in 1879 through 1918. It was based in the historic Carlisle Barracks, which was transferred to the Department of Interior from the War Department for the purpose of establishing the school. After the United States entered World War I, however, the school was closed, and the property on which it was located was transferred back for use by the U.S. Department of Defense. The property is now part of the U.S. Army War College.
Cumberland County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 259,469. Its county seat is Carlisle. The county is part of the South Central Pennsylvania region of the state.
The Battle of Carlisle was an American Civil War skirmish fought in Pennsylvania on the same day as the Battle of Gettysburg, First Day. Stuart's Confederate cavalry briefly engaged Union militia under Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith at Carlisle and set fire to the Carlisle Barracks. Stuart's cavalry withdrew and arrived at the Battle of Gettysburg, Second Day, to the annoyance and concern of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Fort Indiantown Gap, also referred to as "The Gap" or "FIG", is a census-designated place and National Guard Training Center primarily located in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. A portion of the installation is located in eastern Dauphin County. It is located adjacent to Interstate 81, 23 miles (37 km) northeast of Harrisburg, just north of the northern terminus of Pennsylvania Route 934 at I-81's Exit 85.
Lloyd James Beall was a senior officer of the Confederate States Marine Corps who attained the rank of colonel and served as the Commandant of the Confederate States Marine Corps from May 23, 1861, to April 9, 1865.
Fort Omaha, originally known as Sherman Barracks and then Omaha Barracks, is an Indian War-era United States Army supply installation. Located at 5730 North 30th Street, with the entrance at North 30th and Fort Streets in modern-day North Omaha, Nebraska, the facility is primarily occupied by the Metropolitan Community College. A Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve unit, along with an Army Reserve unit occupy the periphery of the 82.5 acres (33.4 ha) fort. The government deeded all but four parcels of the land to the Metropolitan Community College in 1974.
The United States Army Cavalry School was part of a series of training programs and centers for its horse mounted troops or cavalry branch.
Fort Drum is a U.S. Army military reservation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, near the western border of northern New York, United States. The population of the CDP portion of the base was 12,955 at the 2010 census. It is home to the 10th Mountain Division.
M.A.W. Shockley was a U.S. Army medical corps officer. He was a veteran of the Philippine–American War, and retired as a brigadier general.
Ruth Evelyn Hodge is an American archivist, author, educator, and community activist who has furthered the advancement of African-American and United States military history research and writing during the 20th and early 21st centuries. "African-Americans played a great part in building America," she said during a newspaper interview in 2000. "The more people know, the better they understand and the better they get along."