Carlisle Barracks
5/5
()
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.
Related to Carlisle Barracks
Related ebooks
Fort Myer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fort Lewis: Cold War to the War on Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the West, 1783-1900 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fort Lesley J. McNair Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fort Missoula Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWest Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empowering Revolution: America, Poland, and the End of the Cold War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfrica: A Modern History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbers Point NAS Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Mercy, No Leniency: Communist Mistreatment of British & Allied Prisoners of War in Korea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPromise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At War in Distant Waters: British Colonial Defense in the Great War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prohibition in Hamtramck: Gangsters, Gunfights & Getaways Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Houston Aviation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCanadian Warplanes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Divided States of America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEllicott City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTarget Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Containment and Credibility: The Ideology and Deception That Plunged America into the Vietnam War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War To End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rickover Uncensored Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCarried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hard Time: Reforming the Penitentiary in Nineteenth-Century Canada Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Korean War: An International History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLOOK AWAY Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDivergent Memories: Opinion Leaders and the Asia-Pacific War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Columbia Guide to Hiroshima and the Bomb Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDixie Redux: Essays in Honor of Sheldon Hackney Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Travel For You
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spotting Danger Before It Spots You: Build Situational Awareness To Stay Safe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spanish Verbs - Conjugations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything Travel Guide to Ireland: From Dublin to Galway and Cork to Donegal - a complete guide to the Emerald Isle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFodor's Bucket List USA: From the Epic to the Eccentric, 500+ Ultimate Experiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes from a Small Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kon-Tiki Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5RV Hacks: 400+ Ways to Make Life on the Road Easier, Safer, and More Fun! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Great American Places: Essential Historic Sites Across the U.S. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Cooking: 100 Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South: Shackleton's Endurance Expedition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's New Orleans Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lonely Planet The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disney Declassified Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Footsteps of the Cherokees: A Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lonely Planet Mexico Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fodor's Best Road Trips in the USA: 50 Epic Trips Across All 50 States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rocks and Minerals of The World: Geology for Kids - Minerology and Sedimentology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lonely Planet Puerto Rico Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Vagabonding on a Budget: The New Art of World Travel and True Freedom: Live on Your Own Terms Without Being Rich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Carlisle Barracks
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
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