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Kansas has always been home to many forts and military posts.
In the early 1860s Stephen B. Chapman and his family lived on a farm near the town of Black Jack, south of Lawrence, Kansas. In summer 1863 Bushwhackers began traveling through the area, terrorizing the citizens. After William C. Quantrill's Lawrence Massacre on August 21, 1863, the family in September moved west, since the guerrillas passed within sight of their farm.
Fort Belmont, in southern Woodson County, Kansas, was built about 1860 near the town of Belmont. It was to protect the settlers there from attacks by Border Ruffians and Indians. The fort consisted of three or four officer cabins, a redoubt about a quarter of a mile to the north and a parade ground a mile to the east.
In spring and possibly through summer 1864, three blockhouses were constructed to help defend the town and post of Fort Scott. These were Fort Blair, Fort Henning and Fort Insley. Fort Blair was enclosed by a rectangular wall of log palisades covered on the outside by earthworks, which in turn were surrounded by a wide, deep ditch. These were to be used by armed men and cannon in case the town and post were attacked by Confederate guerrillas or regular forces. A drawing of Fort Blair and its stockade showed the stockade as about waist high.
Fort Brooks, in northwest Clay County, Kansas, was located three miles west of Clifton, Kansas. Built on the north bank of the Republican River in August or September 1864, it was named for George D. Brooks. Brooks, an ensign in the Shirley County Militia, owned the farm on which the fort was located. Capt. Isaac M. Schooley, the militia commander, was also the fort's commander.
Fort Clifton was a 19th-century fort in Kansas. It was built in August 1862 by settlers from the area to protect themselves from Native Americans. Near the old site of Clifton, it was occupied until 1863.
In 1864 Gen. Samuel R. Curtis established a military camp at the Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road crossing of the Smokey Hill River in what is now Ellsworth County, Kans.
In early 1864 settlers in Ottawa County, Kansas, began building Fort Solomon and completed it by the spring or summer. This structure replaced the much smaller dugout owned by the Chapman family and used as a refuge in times of trouble. The Chapman dugout was about a mile south of Fort Solomon. The new white settlers and the Indians in the area quickly developed a hostile relationship and many Indian raids followed.
Rockville's post, in southern Miami County, Kansas, was established at the small town of Rockville, Kansas, founded in 1859 by those loyal to the southern cause in Kansas. The other side, the free-staters, soon gained control of the town and it was loyal to the Union when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Rockville was located on the top of a hill surrounded by rolling plains. During the American Civil War, the area was almost bare of trees, allowing troops holding the town to see anyone coming from some distance away. Rockville's post was one of the many posts established in the War to help guard the Kansas-Missouri border area.
The Salina Stockade was built in Salina, Kansas, to provide the residents with protection from the American Indians in the area, many of whom were hostile toward white settlement. Salina had been raided in 1862 by Native Americans and then Confederate guerrillas, but it was not until May 1864 when residents decided they needed to build a stockade for protection. On May 17, 1864, a makeshift stockade, consisting of wagons placed in a circle around the town's flagpole, was erected. The local militia then drilled and guarded Salina. On the northeast corner of 7th Street and Iron Avenue stood a small building. Around this a permanent stockade was erected in May and June 1864.
In 1842 a large log fort was built at Trading Post by the United States Army, upon the order of Gen. Winfield Scott. This fort was on the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson Military Road. The completed fort was fairly elaborate. It included space to house a company of dragoons and their horses. Also, it contained a hospital and store houses. Gaps along the outside walls of buildings were filled in with stockade walls. The buildings were built around a large interior open area.
In spring 1860 the Washington Town Company laid out the town site of Washington, Kansas. A log cabin was built as the headquarters of the town company and this became known as the Washington Company House. It probably stood on the site of the current Washington County Courthouse. The logs of this building were set up perpendicular, so the outside of the building resembled a stockade.
References
- ↑ William C. Pollard, Jr., "Forts and Military Posts in Kansas: 1854-1865" (Ph.D. dissertation, Faith Baptist College and Seminary, 1997), p. 110.
- ↑ Historical Plat Book of Washington County, Kansas (Chicago: J. S, Bird, 1882), pp. 30, 90.
- ↑ "Washington County History," Washington County Register, July 12, 1935, Sec. 2, p. 6.
- ↑ "The Five Court Houses Described by H. C. Robinson for Cornerstone Box," Washington County Register, April 7, 1933, p. 1.
- ↑ Helen Hennon, The History of Washington (N.p.: n.d.), p. 2.
- ↑ Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, report, The War of the Rebellion (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893), Series I, Vol. XLI, Part II, p. 642.
- ↑ Hennon, p. 8.
- ↑ Hennon, p. 8.
- ↑ "The Five County Courthouses," p. 1.