Fort Scott National Historic Site
Fort Scott National Historic Site is located in Fort Scott, Kansas four miles from the Kansas/Missouri border. It is a thirty minute drive from Pittsburg, Kansas. It is open all year April 1 to October 31 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. November 1 to March 31 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. There is a three dollar admission fee for those seventeen years old and older.
Congressional Legislation started
this as a national park unit actually,
Fort Scott National Historic Site in 1978. So we became a national park at that time. National
Park Unit, I mean there are currently 388 national park units throughout the
national park system. The National Park Service includes national historic
sites, national battlefields, national parks, national recreation areas,
basically they all have different, terms, but they’re all part of one
unit. A lot of people think of national
parks and think of the larger parks such as Grand Canyon, Yellowstone,
Yosemite, but we are part of that same system here in Southeast Kansas.
Now the beginnings of the town of
Fort Scott we talk about as well, here at the national park site. We’re to focus on Fort Scott during the
frontier years, Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War. And we do so when you look
at our exhibits. Most of our interior
exhibits that we have focus on the frontier life. The way it was like to be a
solider or civilians that were here in 1840’s early 50’s; yet when you walk
around the site, you will see signs that are what we call way side exhibits
that focus on Fort Scott; not just in the frontier years, but also on Bleeding
Kansas and Civil War years.
Cannon
at the Fort The military fort that was here, was
here from 1842 to 1853 to fulfill that purpose.
Ten years, basically, was all that it was here; but a term that was
starting to be heard at that time was “manifest destiny“. There was a lot of political pressure to open
up this large amount of Indian land. Therefore in 1854, a year after this fort
was abandoned, people were allowed to legally come in and settle on what was
formerly Indian Territory, which was shrunk to what is today Oklahoma. Of course, that was all under the auspices of
what was call the Kansas/Nebraska Act; so, that allowed people to come in and
settle Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory. Now in 1855 the military fort that
was here was still military although there was only one military presence here
at that time. [In] 1853 when the soldiers abandoned Fort Scott, they
left one ordinance sergeant here on post.
Now an ordinance sergeant in the military, his role mainly is to take
care of all the armament at a military fort, whether it be the small arms, --
which are the muskets of the infantry or the carbines of the dragoons and later
mounted rifles -- or the artillery that was here. You know, there were two
artillery pieces here. So, it was his role to make sure that they were all up
to snuff, ready to go, maintained. But an ordinance sergeant also had another
role in the military; and that is to make sure that when soldiers left, they
had to leave a presence until the decision was made what to do with the
military fort. Whether it be to re-activate [the fort] or to totally
abandon -- I mean just to say, “that’s it let settlers take care of it.” But the decision in 1853 was to leave this
ordinance sergeant here to maintain the military structures, to make sure that
anybody that would cross over would not break down or utilize the military
structure buildings that we have, but also to make sure that when the decision
was made that he would kinda be here to do that decision with the buildings. In 1855 the military decided to auction the
buildings off, to hold a public auction and to get rid of the military presence
by doing that auction. Therefore, people
who were coming in to Southeast Kansas came in and purchased these buildings
from the military and made them civilian structures. And, of course, at that
time the military left -- supposedly for good -- and yet they had to come back
periodically during the Bleeding Kansas years because of the pro- and
anti-slavery people fighting it out basically. So, people were coming in here. Of course they were holding elections. This was in Bourbon County. Fort Scott,
when it was incorporated in 1855, it was a pro-slavery town; and yet,
the county was not. Yet there were some in-roads for free-staters coming
in. Now there were different types of
people coming into Southeast Kansas. I
really think there were three distinct types: There were pro-slavers, and their
belief is that slavery should be allowed to come over -- it should be allowed as a legal institution
in Kansas. There is free-staters, and they are more middle of the road. They thought slavery was ok where it already
existed, they just didn’t want to allow it to enter Kansas. And finally, there
was the abolitionists; and the abolitionists felt that slavery should be
totally abolished across the nation. So from 1855-1858 most of this town was
pro-slavery in its leanings; and yet, by 1859 we started to see the town
starting to switch a little bit and most of the pro-slavery people here either
changed their allegiance or left. So, by
the Civil War period this was a free state -- town and county as well -- and so
the military did come back and re-establish Fort Scott as a Union supply center
and training ground for Union troops throughout the Civil War period. Now the military, again, when they
left in 1853, they periodically did have to come back during the Bleeding
Kansas years. I want to make sure that
that’s understood. Their home base wasn’t
here, and yet when your troops at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley for instance
were sending troops down here to calm down the disturbances of the pro- and
anti-slavery people, they’d have to come back periodically.
The structures that were built here
were four officer’s quarters. And they were classified as officer’s quarters;
and yet’ they were duplexes. So
basically, the four structures would hold up to eight officers. There were also
what we call enlisted barracks for the privates, corporals, and sergeants on
post. There were two infantry barracks
constructed as well as one dragoon barracks. Now the military in the 1840’s,
when they came here to Fort Scott, the first units to arrive here, were two
companies. Now the company would consist of sixty men, on paper; and yet it is
rare in a peace time army to have a full contention of sixty men. The two companies of dragoons, Company A and
Company C arrived here in May of 1842 -- April, late May -- and within just a
few months, by October of 1842, there was Company B of the fourth US infantry
that arrived. So really for the first
year there were three companies of soldiers here. By 1843 Company C of the
first United States Dragoons went on to Fort Leavenworth and left out of
here. So that left one, excuse me, two
companies of soldiers here at the fort. And they were here until 1846. And in
1846 the United States Dragoon Company that was here, Company A, did leave and
take part in the Mexican-American War -- actually -- Company B of the Fourth
Infantry did leave here in 1845 being replaced by another company of infantry
men. This one company of infantry stayed
throughout the duration of the Mexican-American War. So basically, on average, there were
approximately two companies of soldiers.
So you could say a hundred men, on average, were here. At the most, they
had 202 soldiers. At the least, which
was during the Mexican-American War, there were twenty-six soldiers here at
Fort Scott.
Now what were they doing? The
military, when they came here, had to build the fort. This was wide open, tall
grass prairie. There was nothing here. The trees that you see surrounding Fort
Scott National Historic Site today were not here. Basically the trees were located along the
river bottoms. When they were coming
here, they had to take care of constructing a military fort and a lot of the
construction was done by the soldiers. Now that doesn’t mean that there were
not civilians here, because there were. There were civilian contractors that
were coming in, a lot of them from St. Louis; they would take over the lead of
getting the structures completed, whether it would be a master carpenter, or a master masoner, for instance, or a
master brick layer. But the military
soldier that were here were pulled off of their normal soldiery duty, in some
cases, to help build this fort. Now, the military that was here, as I mentioned
earlier, was here to protect the Indians from assaulting settlers; and yet it
had another roll, which it was heavily involved in -- which was construction of
the fort buildings, but also to maintain the military road. The military road
was the interstate of the 1840’s. It was
a highway that was built through the wilderness, in a sense, all the way from
Fort Leavenworth, to the north through Fort Scott all the way to Fort Gibson [which]
today [is in] Oklahoma. So,
roughly around three hundred miles stretch of road. It was a soldier’s duty to
make sure that that military highway was able to hold traffic. So, if you had any trees that were blown down
in a windstorm, or any worsh outs in a flood, they were sent up there to make
sure that the road was clear to go.
The soldiers that were here, their
normal food would consist -- basically we know the normal fare of a soldier,
what the army guaranteed that the solider would get -- was three meals a day,
seven days a week, for five years for each enlisted soldier. Every solider that
enlist in the military would sign up for five years. It was an all volunteer
army. It was a small army, approximately ten thousand men in the 1840’s prior
to the Mexican-American War, -- in the
whole country. And you’re talking about
the western forts, like Fort Scott, or Leavenworth for instance, and you’re
talking about the eastern seacoast fortifications like Fort Sumter, or Fort
Clascky for instance. And so, they were
stretched pretty thin. The military did provide, on average, a breakfast that
would consist of a meat -- roughly four ounces of meat. Whether it be salt pork or salt beef or fresh
beef. [Also] bread and coffee and that’s the only thing the army really
guaranteed you would get for breakfast.
That’s the only thing they guaranteed you would get for supper. The
dinner meal would be your heaviest meal of the day; and typically at Fort Scott
it would consist of rice and beans or a stew of some type. The military did not
provide vegetables for that stew. So, how do you think they had to get the
vegetables? They grew it. So, what they did is the post commandants, who were
in charge of the Fort, were encouraged to let their men grow gardens. And Fort
Scott was no exception. Actually, Fort
Scott was a good location for military garden because, basically, this is a
long growing season in this area -- roughly six months of growing as opposed to
some military forts, especially those later on, farther west where it got a
little colder and the land wasn’t quite as good. So, it was a little worse for
the soldiers there when they ate their dinners and stuff. The bread that was
baked here was baked in the post bake house and the bake house is all that they
do is make bread. A twenty ounce loaf of
bread was to be served to each soldier daily. It was to be served stale, which
means you cannot eat fresh bread in the military because the belief was it
would make you ill with stomach problems. So, once it was baked and pulled out
of the oven in the bake house it was actually stored overnight and issued the
next day by meal tickets. The military would make the meals for the soldiers in
the mess hall. There were three mess
halls, kinda like a cafeteria for each enlisted soldier here. Typically, the cook in the mess hall was an
enlisted soldier. It was a rotated duty
which means that sometimes the soldiers ate fairly well, sometimes they didn’t
-- depending on the skill of that soldier. The same with the bread in the bake
house. it was maintained by an enlisted solider and was rotated. So sometimes it would be somebody who was
really great; if not, [you still had to eat].
Fort Scott is fortunate because it’s
only five miles from the state of Missouri.
We know that by 1843, there was a contractor, a farmer, named George
Douglas that lived approximately ten miles east of us and he contracted for
bringing in fresh beef to the military here.
So we know that the soldiers probably ate a little bit better here than
in some locations because fresh beef is definitely better than salt beef. Who ate better than anybody? Probably the
horses. Dragoons were the type of soldiers that were here, and they were the
elite military service of the time period. They would receive eight dollars as
a private. The horse was theirs, for
their use while they were in service. So, the horses were more valuable than
the soldier. The going price for a
horse, at that time period, were around -- oh, gosh -- forty to forty-five
dollars up to seventy-five dollars. And the horses were purchased by officers
at places such as Booneville and probably Jefferson City, as well and even in
Independence. But definitely we know Booneville; and when they purchased the
horses they would be brought in here, and they received feed and grain here.
That person I told you about, George Douglas, actually provided the food. Yeah, he contracted to do that. There were other farmers who did that as
well; but he was one of those who did.
Also we know that on the Douglas farm the horses that were here received
winter quarters over there. They were
pulled out during the winter and they could graze and be maintained by a
contingent of dragoons over on his farm thru the winter. The army needed these
dragoons that were here because they not only had to maintain the role of
soldiers here to keep the peace amongst the tribes; they also were assigned
exploratory expeditions.
Galen
Ewing, Fort Scott National Historic Site Park Ranger Civilians were here, [as well]. They were contractors. There were also civilians that were here that
were family members. I guess when you
think of the garrison, they would consist of enlisted soldiers and officers
which is the military contingent here.
There also was another military contingent here which was non-classified
civilians, but they were actually classified as post laundresses. The
laundresses were women that were assigned the role of washing the clothes,
enlisted soldiers clothes. To do that
privilege, the soldiers -- out of their monthly pay -- would have to pay the
laundress fifty cents a load to wash his clothes. Now what they washed was not what were called
fatigues, or the dress uniform which were all made of wool; because of course,
when you wash wool, it is going to shrink. So it was the responsibility of each
soldier to maintain his military uniform. We talk
about the beginnings of the town of Fort Scott, as well here at the national
park site, because when Congress mandated that we become a national park unit,
we’re to focus on Fort Scott during the frontier years, Bleeding Kansas and the
Civil War. We do so. When you look at our exhibits, most of our
interior exhibits that we have focus on the frontier life. The way it was like
to be a solider or, civilians that were here in 1840’s early 50’s. Yet when you walk around the site you will
see signs that are what we call way side
exhibits, that focus on Fort Scott not just in the frontier years but also on
Bleeding Kansas and Civil War years. *[Bracketed Italics are not original words of the speaker] For more information about
the fort and fort life, visit: http://www.nps.gov/fosc/ This is an oral history as
told by Galen Ewing, National Park ranger at Fort Scott, on December 31, 2004
to Sara Simpson.
The original Fort started in 1842,
and it directly as a result of an act that was passed in 1830. It was called the Indian Relocation Act. Was passed by President Andrew Jackson and
called for the removal of Indian Tribes from the Eastern States. They were to be removed away from
civilization to Indian territory, a land that was west of the United States. So
when this fort was placed here in 1842, a lot of Indian tribes had already been
relocated by that time, and this fort was placed here five miles from the
United States border. So when you think
of the United States in the 1840’s, the western states really were Missouri and
Arkansas. So, this fort was placed here
in essence to protect the American Indians. When you think of military forts,
especially later on, they were there to protect immigrants along the Oregon or
Santa Fe Trails. But it was not so here.
This fort was to make sure that the Indians that were relocated to this
area were kept at peace amongst themselves because there were a lot of Indian
tribes that were moved to this area that in some cases were traditional enemies
of each other. A good example was just south of us there was the Osage tribe which
was from Missouri and the Cherokee; and they were moved in close proximity to
each other, and yet, they were traditional enemies. Now they’re told to be
relocated to new land and to remain at peace amongst themselves. Forget all the fights, and that’s hard to
do. There just a lot of traditional
animosity. Now this fort, here, also had
two other roles. It was to ensure that Indian land remained Indian land; and
the way they did that was to make sure that no squatters would cross over from
the United States -- [and by that I]* mean Missouri, would come
over and settle on Indian land. This was set aside for Indians; therefore, if
the soldiers came across squatters on Indian land they were given twenty-four
hours notice to vacate Indian Land and remove themselves back to the United
States under the threat of their goods being confiscated and distributed
amongst the Tribes. And finally, the soldiers were here to make
sure that no whisky trade would be occurring with the Indians.
Ammunition Magazine for the
Fort
Officer barracks at Fort
Scott
Kitchen at the Fort
Hospital at Fort Scott
Dragoon
Stables at the Fort
