Carlisle Barracks
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About this ebook
Roger S. Durham
Author Roger S. Durham was sent to Savannah when he was in the U.S. Army in 1969. During this time, he visited Fort McAllister and became intrigued with its history. Nine years later, while employed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, he returned to the fort as superintendent of the historic site. Durham has written extensively for magazines and newspapers, and he has published several books about Savannah and Fort McAllister�s history.
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Carlisle Barracks - Roger S. Durham
Society.
INTRODUCTION
In 1757, the world was at war. England and France were involved in a global conflict over land in the New World and whose influence would dominate. In North America, the British colonies on the East Coast found themselves being isolated from the territories to the west by the French in Canada who were cultivating influence with the Native Americans and establishing posts through the Ohio Valley and down the Mississippi River. Britain objected to this because it also infringed upon land that it claimed. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers where the Ohio River was formed was a strategic link in the chain of French influence because water travel was critical to their mobility. England also claimed this area and was determined to occupy this point. An earlier attempt to expel the French from this location had ended with tragic consequences, but in 1757, it was time to move against this point again.
On May 30, 1757, Col. John Stanwix arrived outside the town of Carlisle with five companies of the Royal American 62nd Regiment and 250 men of Col. John Armstrong’s battalion of provincial troops. They established a camp on the banks of the LeTort Spring Run to organize a base for operations against the French in western Pennsylvania. Through the following years this British post grew and became an important supply and manufacturing facility to support their operations. Eventually the French and their Native American allies were subdued and British control over western Pennsylvania was established. By the end of the French and Indian War, the Carlisle military post was a formidable supply depot employing many artisans and craftsmen. It was an ironic twist of fate that 20 years later this facility established to support British military operations would become a contributing factor in the expulsion of the British from the very colonies they had fought so hard to protect from the French and Native American threat.
When the American colonies rose up against British rule, their challenge was to build a system to supply and support their infant military establishment. It was a huge undertaking to take on one of the world’s superpowers, and support for that effort would have to be extensive and consistent. The military facility at Carlisle came into American hands at the outset of the Revolution. Its facilities were untouched and it was soon put to use gathering supplies and livestock and manufacturing everything from uniforms and weapons to wagons, artillery, and ammunition. The U.S. Army’s first schools were established at the facility to train its officers and soldiers. George Washington’s Continental army was kept in the field largely because of the support it received from the Carlisle facility. In recognition of this the base was named Washingtonburg.
Following the Revolution, the US Army retained the facility for storage, recruiting, and training, and it continued in this capacity throughout the early 19th century. When the Civil War erupted, the post continued to support the northern war effort by providing training for regular army recruits and taking in supplies. In June 1863, the southern army invaded Pennsylvania and several alumni of Carlisle Barracks service returned for an awkward reunion. Elements of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army reached the area and occupied the town and the post before being ordered to concentrate in Adams County, just south of Carlisle, where the battle at Gettysburg would soon erupt. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart’s cavalry arrived outside Carlisle on July 1 to find the town defended by U.S. forces. His demand for the surrender of the town was refused and Stuart responded by shelling the town with artillery and burning the barracks before being summoned to Gettysburg. After the southern occupation of the town and subsequent battle at Gettysburg, the barracks was rebuilt and its functions continued unchanged.
After the Civil War, the U.S. Army’s Cavalry School continued to train soldiers at Carlisle until 1871 when the school was sent west to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and ultimately to Fort Riley, Kansas. With the departure of the Cavalry School the post was closed. In 1879, in another ironic twist of fate, Capt. Richard Pratt arrived with a mandate to establish a school to educate Native American children in the culture of the white man in an attempt to foster understanding between the two cultures. The Cavalry School had trained soldiers to fight the Native Americans on the western frontier, but after its departure, the Native Americans came to Carlisle to learn about the white man. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School flourished under Pratt’s leadership for 25 years until his retirement in 1904. The school closed in 1918 due to the demands of World War I. With the requirement for hospital facilities because of the war, the U.S. Army reestablished its control of the post to organize a hospital facility there. This eventually led to the establishment of the U.S. Army’s Medical Field Service School at Carlisle in 1920 to capture the lessons learned on the battlefields and to educate new army medical personnel. The Medical