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Southwest Forts

Oklahoma

The early forts of Indian Territory were built almost simultaneously with the movement of Indian tribes to this land. The first was Fort Smith across the Arkansas River from the territory's eastern border. Another was built in 1824 smack in the middle of Cherokee country. Fort Gibson was established to protect the Indians from white marauders and hostile . Indian tribes. Established near present-day Muskogee in eastern Oklahoma, remnants of the fort still remain. It has been restored for visitors and tourists.

In addition to Army troops, each of the five main Indian tribes each established its own police force to keep order and provide protection from outlaws and hostile Indians. These forces operated as militia for their tribes until statehood in 1907.

In 1852, Capt. R. B. Marcy visited a Wichita Indian site and recommended it as site for an Army post to keep the Comanches out of Texas. However, nothing was done. After the Civil War, one of the Army's top generals, Gen. Phil Sheridan, was sent to Indian Territory. Sheridan decided to build Camp Wichita on the same site recommended by Capt. Marcy. It was later renamed Fort Sill in honor of Gen. Joshua Sill, who had been killed during the war.

The Cheyenne uprising of 1874 lead to the establishment of Fort Reno near El Reno. In June of that year, the Comanches, Kiowas and southern Cheyennes began a year-long uprising, attacking white settlers and rampaging throughout the area. The U. S. Army then began the Red River campaign, a war of attrition involving relentless pursuit of the Indians by converging military columns.

Quanah Parker and his Quohada Comanches were the last to abandon the struggle and their arrival at Fort Sill in June 1875 marked the end of Indian warfare on the south Plains. During this period, Fort Supply was then constructed in the western part of the territory on the North Canadian River near present-day Woodward. If was from this fort that Lt. Col. George Custer made his infamous attack on Black Kettle's camp near Cheyenne in the Battle of the Washita.

Cavalry at Fort Reno played an important role during the 1880s as white settlers known as Boomers attempted to illegally annex open lands in central Oklahoma. The job of the Army cavalry was to round up these Boomers and escort them out of the territory Sometimes the settlers were taken to Fort Smith and sent before Judge Isaak Parker, but they never had the money to pay their fines. Usually, the soldiers simply escorted them back to the Kansas border.

Fort Sill was the scene of some blood-curdling frontier drama in those days before statehood, including the Indian uprising of 1874. It was here that Geronimo and 341 of his people were imprisoned in 1894 after they surrendered to the Army. The opening of the KiowaComanche reservation in 1901 provided new duties to soldiers stationed here. As the U.S. entered World War I, Fort Sill became the principal site of artillery training, a role it maintained through WW II.

Pendleton Woods-Contributing writer. Army forts established in Oklahoma to keep peace. The MidCity Advocate. August 31, 2006.

New Mexico

Fort Craig played a significant role in 19th-century New Mexico history. The fort was situated strategically on the primary north-south road in the Rio Grande Valley: on the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road to the Interior Lands) — the 1,200-mile Spanish colonial trail connecting Mexico and New Mexico.

Also host to the largest U.S. Civil War battle in the Southwest, Fort Craig was the epicenter of a battle that involved thousands of Union and Confederate troops, many of them New Mexico volunteers under the command of Kit Carson. Troops from Fort Craig include companies of Buffalo Soldiers who were garrisoned here while involved in struggles with Native Americans deemed at the time to be hostile, including Apaches under Victorio, Geronimo and Nana.

In the mid-1800s the territory of New Mexico was crossed by a large number of trails. Located along the travel routes were numerous military forts, designed to protect travelers and settlers. These outposts played a key role in the settlement of the American frontier.

Fort Craig in its heyday was one of the largest forts constructed and most important forts west of the Mississippi. Fort Craig , was one of the largest and it played a crucial role in Indian campaigns and the Civil War. Established in 1854, the primary function of the fort was to control Apache and Navajo raiding and to protect the central portion of the Camino Real. The Camino Real was the passageway from northern Mexico to Taos, 70 miles north of Santa Fe, NM. Military excursions from the fort pursued such notable Apache leaders as Geronimo, Victorio, and Nana.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Fort Craig remained a Union Army Post manned by regular army troops. In 1862, troops under the command of General H.H. Sibley continued up the Rio Grande after capturing military installations to the south. On February 21, 1862, Sibley’s Confederate troops engaged Union troops led by Colonel R.S. Canby. The Battle of Valverde took place upstream from Fort Craig at Valverde Crossing. Although many consider the battle to have been a Confederate victory, Union forces succeeded in holding the fort and half of the Confederate’s supply wagons were destroyed. The loss of the remaining supplies at the Battle of Glorieta, east of Santa Fe, on March 28, 1862 forced the Confederates to retreat to Texas and ended southern aspirations for military conquest in the West.

After the Civil War, troops stationed at the fort resumed their attempts to control Indian raiding. By the late 1870s, these efforts began to succeed and the surrounding valley prospered under military protection. The fort was temporarily closed from 1878 to 1880 and, because the fort’s military function was no longer necessary, the fort was permanently abandoned in 1885. Nine years later, Fort Craig was sold at auction to the Valverde Land and Irrigation Company, the only bidder.

Arizona

Fort Lowell

In the summer of 1862 an Army supply depot was established just east of present downtown Tucson. In August of 1866 this post was made a "permanent" base and named Camp Lowell in honor of Brigadier-General Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., 6th U.S. Cavalry, killed during the Civil War. The garrison at Camp Lowell fluctuated between fifty and one hundred men, but by 1869 the base became the major supply depot for troops operating in Southern Arizona against the Apaches.

By 1872 it had become apparent to Army officers that the location of Camp Lowell was not a good one. It had turned into an area "unfit for animals, much less the troops of a civilized nation." Tucson had spread to the edge of the post, and officers noted increased sickness among the soldiers, particularly malaria. The post well had become contaminated, and the soldiers often misbehaved in town.

Brevet Major General George Crook recommended in 1872 that the post be moved. Early in 1873, Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Asa Carr, commanding the 5th Cavalry, was given the job of finding a new location. With Territorial governor Anson P. K. Safford, Carr selected a site on Rillito Creek, about seven miles northeast of Tucson. By March 20, 1873, troops of the 5th Cavalry were on the spot, clearing the ground for construction.

Lack of funds, and frequent bad weather delayed completion of the buildings at Lowell until 1875, and these needed constant repair and refinement. Roofs leaked and the dirt floors became mud puddles during the rainy season. Between 1875 and 1888, funds for repair amounted to more than double the original construction. Another continuing problem was acquiring a continuing supply of water. Rillito Creek did not provide a dependable quantity and it was not until 1887, with the introduction of a steam pump, that the problem was solved.

Not all the activities at the post were centered on improvement of living conditions. The garrison guarded depot supplies, escorted wagon trains to other posts, and made expeditions clear to the Mexican border chasing the elusive Apaches. The number of troops stationed at Lowell varied considerably during its fifteen year history, but military duty and social life remained the same.

The troops by no means lost contact with Tucson. Social activities were common, with dances, band concerts, picnics, parades, and baseball games involving towns people and soldiers. Soldiers frequented the stores and gambling halls of the town, and even constructed a roller skating rink over one of the buildings in Tucson. Telegraph communication between the post and Tucson was established in 1875.

On April 5, 1879, Lowell was designated a fort, implying permanent status. During the 1880s, troops from Fort Lowell participated in the now famous Geronimo Campaigns, and the fort served as the major supply depot for the other installations in the area. Troops from Fort Lowell established Camps Huachuca and Thomas. When the struggle reached a climax in late 1886, Lowell was quartering four companies of the 4th Cavalry, and the 8th Infantry. For the first and only time in its history it was operating at full capacity - eighteen officers and two hundred and thirty nine enlisted men. With the surrender of Geronimo to Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles on September 4, 1886, troops were gradually withdrawn from Lowell. For several more years troops from the post pursued small renegade bands like those led by the Apache Kid, but the days of the Indian Wars were over.

In 1889 the Commander of the Department of Arizona recommended that Fort Lowell be abandoned, but for several years it remained a "prestige post," recognized in military circles as a fine place at which to be stationed. Finally on January 8, 1891 the Department of War ordered the abandonment of Fort Lowell. The troops were needed in New Mexico and in the north plains where General Miles was in pursuit of the Sioux Nation. On February 14, the last "taps" echoed across the parade ground. The following April, Fort Lowell was transferred to the Department of the Interior for disposal of property and scrap materials at public auction.

Fort Verde

The U.S. Military occupation of the Verde Valley began in 1865 at the request of settlers who had established farms near the Verde River-West Clear Creek junction, five miles south of present Camp Verde. There they built a crude dam and diverted water to grow irrigated crops which promised to bring high prices at supply-short Prescott, then Arizona's Territorial Capitol, and its hungry mining camps in the nearby hills.

The influx of Anglo and Mexican miners into what had been a hunting and gathering area of the Yavapai and Tonto Apache Indians severely disrupted native food-getting. When Indians raided Verde Valley fields for corn, settlers called on the army to end their depredations. The late 1860s and early 1870s saw major conflicts between army and Indians.

The first military post, in 1865, overlooked the farms at West Clear Creek. The next camp was named "Lincoln," one mile north of the present fort, and was used from 1866 to 1871. The present fort was the third post, built during 1871-1873. It contained more than 20 buildings arranged around the parade ground. Like other posts of the period, it never had a wall around it and was never attacked.

The fort served as a supply base and staging area for army operations in the surrounding countryside. During much of its life, two companies of cavalry and two of infantry were stationed here. The infantry built a wagon road, first to Fort Whipple near Prescott, then east to Fort Apache on the present day Apache Indian reservation. Later called the Crook Trail after General George Crook, it speeded troops and supplies along the Mogollon Rim.

As Indians were captured, they were placed on a reservation near the modern town of Cottonwood. From 1873 to 1875, nearly 1500 Indians from various tribes were kept on the 800 square mile reserve. The tribesmen built an irrigation ditch and had 56 acres under cultivation in 1874. However, the entire reservation population was moved in the middle of the next winter to the San Carlos Indian reservation near Globe. The ten-day walk to their new home resulted in death for nearly 200 of the 1500 people. The cold weather and lack of proper food and shelter were major causes for the loss of life. The majority of the survivors remained at San Carlos although some came back to the Verde Valley after 1900. The former reservation at Cottonwood was opened to miners and settlers in 1877.

After 1875, the army's main concern was keeping captured Indians on the San Carlos and White Mountain reservations. Scattered groups not on the reservations were hunted down by Indian scouts led by AI Sieber. By 1880, the Indian "troubles" were ended in North-central Arizona. A small outbreak of Apaches from the White Mountain reservation in 1881 produced the last battle in this area. The Indians who fled their reservation were tracked to a canyon 35 mites east of Fort Verde. The ensuing "Battle Ground Ridge" fight resulted in the death or capture of all Indians involved.

Camp Verde was renamed Fort Verde in 1879 to signify more permanence to the garrison. Ironically, with the threat of Indian attack over after 1881, the fort became less important for the army. The post was abandoned in 1891 to the Department of the Interior which sold it at public auction in 1899.

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