FORT UNION
Historic Structure Report
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HISTORIC BASE MAP: BUILDING LISTINGS
THIRD FORT AREA
Third Fort Union was designed by Captain John C.
McFerran, Chief Quartermaster of the District of New Mexico, and revised
somewhat by Captain Henry J. Farnsworth, Quartermaster of the Depot of
Fort Union. The design was worked out in mid-1862, and construction
began on a large storehouse and the Quartermaster Corral by September,
1862 (Oliva, "Frontier Army," pp. 547-48), although full approval of the
new plans did not happen until November, 1862. The initial construction
was completed by late 1867, but several areas were redesigned that year,
and rebuilding was not complete until almost 1870. The fort was
abandoned in 1891.
| HS | Name and Use |
| 1 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28). Privies and other structures, such as coal and wood houses,
stood in various places along the walls of the back yards. Some of these
have been plotted on the maps, and traces of most of them are visible on
the ground and in aerial photographs. A very simple archeological
probing project would allow the location of virtually all these
structures.
The coal houses were probably added after 1879, when
the railroad reached Watrous and Las Vegas, making coal shipments
feasible (Oliva, "Frontier Army," p. 605). Many of the fireplaces in the
Officers' Quarters show signs of being closed up and stovepipes
inserted, indicating that the buildings were converted from open hearth
wood fires to coal-burning iron stoves about the same time.
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| 2 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28).
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| 3 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28).
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| 4 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28).
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| 5 |
Commanding Officers' Quarters (Third Fort
Union, p. 25-28).
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| 6 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28).
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| 7 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28).
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| 8 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28).
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| 9 |
Officers' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
25-28).
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| 10 |
Flagstaff (Third Fort Union, p. 30).
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| 11 |
Company Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
31-33).
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| 12 |
Company Quarters (Third Fort Union, p. 31-33).
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| 13 |
Company Quarters (Third Fort Union, p. 31-33).
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| 14 |
Company Quarters (Third Fort Union, p. 31-33).
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POST CORRAL
The first plan of the Fort Union Corrals and Stables
was designed by John McFerran in late 1862; it was to be 390 feet deep,
east to west, and 643 feet long, north to south, the same length as the
set of four Company Quarters (HS-11 to 14) on its west side. Work on the
Post Corral began in late 1866. By January, 1867, the western side of
the compound was under construction, and at least the foundation
trenches for the east side, and therefore probably the north and south
sides, too, had been excavated, as shown by their clear presence on
aerial photographs and ground inspection; however, the plan, although
somewhat revised, was already considered inadequate. In May, 1867, a new
plan of the Corrals and Stables was drawn by John Lambert under the
direction of Captain Henry Inman, Depot Quartermaster, which added a
number of rooms and extended the corral to a total depth of 445 feet.
The Lambert and Inman redesign divided the Corrals and Stables into two
equal sections; the southern half was the Cavalry Corrals and Stables,
while the northern half was the Post Quartermaster Corral and Stables.
Much of the new plan was built by the end of 1867 (see figure 17, p.
110). In 1875-76 the decision was made to add two companies to the
garrison, and the various workshops, offices and storerooms of the Post
Corrals were converted to barracks space for one of the companies.
| HS | Name and Use |
| 15 |
Company Quarters (Third Fort Union, p. 35-36).
In the original plan of McFerran, these rooms were to be Commissary
Stores and Quartermaster Stores. In the new plan, these rooms were a
large privy and associated lime room, a coal storage room and adjacent
blacksmith shop, a granary, a harness shop, and four offices for the
Quartermaster Sergeant and Commissary Sergeant. When the row of rooms
was converted to company quarters in 1875-76, the privy was converted to
a kitchen, and the other rooms became a dining room, a squadroom, office
and quarters for a first sergeant, and two storerooms.
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| 16 |
Laundresses' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
37). In the original plan of the Corrals and Stables, there were sixteen
laundress rooms on each side of the west gate of the corral, each about
16 feet long, north to south, and 21 feet wide, east to west. A revised
version of this row was under construction but incomplete as of January,
1867; in this version, the laundress rows were broken by small gateways
opposite and the same size as the gateways into the company quarters
compounds west of them, reducing each row of laundresses quarters by two
rooms. The Inman and Lambert plan of May, 1867, had ten rooms in each of
two continuous rows (HS-16 and HS-23); this plan was built during the
next few years. The laundresses quarters were largely completed by the
end of 1867, and probably in use by early 1868. The laundresses were
moved to these quarters from temporary housing in unused barracks in the
redans of Second Fort (see HS-203; Oliva, "Frontier Army," pp. 575,
594).
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| 17 |
Prison (Third Fort Union, p. 39). Added to the
original design of the Corrals and Stables by Lambert in 1867.
Construction finished in June, 1868.
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| 18 |
Cavalry Corral and Stables (Third Fort Union,
p. 41). Stalls for about 180 horses were originally intended to be
located along the back, or eastern, edge of the corral complex by
McFerran. The construction crews began work on the stables; the lines of
the foundation trenches are clearly visible in aerial photographs. By
January, 1867, the plan had been changed slightly, so that the guard
house and two privies had been removed from the back row, and provision
made for twenty extra stalls, making spaces for 200 horses. However, as
of that date, the stables were still unfinished. Work was stopped when
the new design was worked out, and construction began on the revised
plan in late 1867. Inman and Lambert's design placed the stables in five
parallel rows extending east to west from the back wall of the new
complex, making space for 250 horses; however, a further change was made
in the design, so that as built, the northernmost row, with spaces for
50 horses, was left off and the other four were shortened by three
stable spaces each, so that their final lengths were 240 feet. The final
plan provided spaces for only 188 horses.
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| 19 |
Laundresses' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
43). This row of rooms was added to the McFerran plan of the Post Corral
by Inman and Lambert. Originally intended as quarters for civilian
employees, they were converted to laundresses' quarters during the
addition of two companies to the post in 1875-76.
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| 20 |
Wheelwright, Blacksmith, and Carpenter Shops
(Third Fort Union, p. 45). This building was part of the Inman
and Lambert redesign. It was completed probably in the summer of 1867,
with the wheelwright shop squeezed into the spaces originally intended
to hold only the blacksmith and carpenter's shops, because the
wheelwright space was converted to the Post Chapel (see HS-21, below).
The building was in disrepair and in use as a storeroom in 1885, and was
torn down by 1889.
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| 21 |
Chapel (Third Fort Union, p. 46). This room
was to be the wheelwright's shop, according to the Inman and Lambert
plan; it was, however, made the Post Chapel as of its completion in
1867. Its basement was to be used as a schoolroom for enlisted men and
the children of those stationed at Fort Union. By 1869 the chapel was
also used as the library. After 1872 the post chapel was moved to HS-25
for a period, and this room was thereafter known as the Library,
although the chapel usage returned to the space occasionally over the
remaining years of the life of Fort Union.
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| 22 |
Guard House (Third Fort Union, p. 48). In
McFerran's original plan, the guardhouse was two rooms at the back, or
east, gate of the Corral; it was still shown at this location in 1866.
By January, 1867, however, this location was shown as small storage or
tack rooms for the stables. The redesign in May, 1867, relocated the
guardhouse at the front, or west, side of the Corrals. The new building
was completed in 1868.
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| 23 |
Laundresses' Quarters (Third Fort Union, p.
50). See above, HS-16.
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| 24 |
Bakery (Third Fort Union, p. 52). Originally
the north end of the laundress's row was to be a room for coal and lime
storage. The Inman and Lambert redesign placed the Bakery in the second
room south, and the north room was to be the "Band Kitchen and
messroom." An increasing demand for bread required the redesign of the
Bakery in May, 1877 (Oliva, "Frontier Army," p. 672), when the original
oven was rebuilt somewhat larger, and facing north into the northernmost
room, which was changed from the Band kitchen and mess into the Bakery.
The Band was moved to HS-25, below.
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| 25 |
Company Quarters (Third Fort Union, p. 54). On
the McFerran plan of 1862, this row of rooms was to be a storeroom,
Mechanics' Shops, and a granary. The Inman and Lambert plan changed the
usage of the area into two privies and a lime storage room, a granary,
Commissary Stores with an issuing room, and Commissary and Quartermaster
offices. The granary was subsequently divided and the east half became
the Post Chapel about 1872, moved from HS-21. At the same time, the
Depot quartermaster and commissary began supplying the Post, and the
Post quartermaster and commissary operations were discontinued. These
rooms of HS-25 became vacant. The Band used part of the building as
barracks through 1875, but the entire row was remodelled in that year to
provide quarters for a new company assigned to the Post. The Band
quarters became the last few rooms on the east end of the row. By 1883
the building was in poor condition, and by 1889 it was used only for
ordnance stores.
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| 26 |
Quartermaster Corral and Stables (Third Fort
Union, p. 56). The original McFerran design for the Stables did not
include any mule stables in the plan. Inman and Lambert's design of May,
1867, provided four rows of stalls 160 feet long. Each stall was 20 feet
wide and 15 feet deep, giving spaces for 32 mules. Only one of these
structures was built in 1867-68, and was apparently changed to be a
horse stable, with stalls about 9 feet wide and 15 feet deep, giving a
total of 34 stalls in the single building. In 1872 four stalls and a
carriage house 15 feet wide and 30 feet across were added to the end of
the stable building, giving it a total length of 198 feet. This gave
spaces for 38 horses. In 1875-76 a second stable building of the same
length was added north of the first, approximately matching the original
Inman and Lambert design, and making a total of 76 stalls for horses.
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foun/hsr/hsrmb.htm
Last Updated: 13-Feb-2006
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