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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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JEFFERSON BARRACKS
Missouri
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Location: St. Louis County, northern entrance
accessible from Kingston Road (Mo. 231), on the southern edge of St.
Louis.
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Along the west bank of the Mississippi a few miles
below St. Louis, this post was the successor of Fort Belle Fontaine
(1805-26), established not long after the Louisiana Purchase north of
the city on the Missouri River about 4 miles from its confluence with
the Mississippi. Jefferson Barracks, founded in 1826 by troops from the
fort under Capt. Stephen W. Kearny and Col. Henry Leavenworth, assumed
its role as the western military headquarters. At the barracks in 1826
Colonel Leavenworth founded an infantry training school, and within a
few years Col. Henry Dodge organized the 1st Dragoons.
Like the city on its northern flank, the barracks
enjoyed a reputation as the "gateway to the West." It was the starting
point of numerous military and exploring expeditions. Its excellent
Mississippi River location facilitated the movement of personnel
ordnance, and other supplies by steamboat along the Mississippi,
Missouri, Ohio, Red, Arkansas, and Sabine Riversto frontier posts
throughout the West and the Middle West and to such distant conflicts as
the Black Hawk War (1832), chiefly in Wisconsin and Illinois; the second
Seminole War (1835-42), in Florida; and the Mexican War (1846-48).
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Troops assigned to noncombat
posts had considerable time for recreation. Here is the Jefferson
Barracks, Mo., baseball team in the 1880's. Two of the players later
died in the Battle of Wounded Knee, S. Dak. (Arizona Pioneers'
Historical Society) |
The barracks was originally an infantry training
base, replacement center, and supply depot. During the Civil War, it
served as a hospital and recuperation center. From 1894 through World
War II, it functioned as an induction, training, supply, and replacement
center. In 1850 an ordnance depot, a supplement to the St. Louis
Arsenal, was added. In 1867, just to the south, a national cemetery was
established. That same year the post became an engineer depot. In 1871
the Ordnance Department took over jurisdiction of the entire barracks
for depot use, but 7 years later relinquished most of it for use in
cavalry training. In 1894 the Army regarrisoned it as a regular military
post.
Many of the noted military figures of the 19th
century served at the post at one time or another, often as young
lieutenants and sometimes as base commanders: Robert F. Lee, Ulysses S.
Grant, Jefferson Davis, William T. Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, Winfield
Scott, James Longstreet, Joseph F. Johnston, Winfield S. Hancock, Henry
Atkinson, John C. Fremont, Don Carlos Buell, George B. Crittenden, John
B. Hood, and Zachary Taylor.
Since 1946, when the Army moved out, various Federal,
State, and county agencies, as well as corporations and private
individuals, have owned or leased parts of the reservation. Of primary
interest is the county's Jefferson Barracks Historical Park, which
covers 490 acres in the northern half of the reservation, formerly
occupied by the ordnance depot. Restored limestone buildings consist of
a two-story civilian laborer's house (1851), in its later years a
guardhouse and barracks, now furnished to represent the 1850-65 period;
a stable (1851), one story plus loft, once used as an icehouse; and a
large one-story powder magazine (1857), surrounded by a stone wall,
which presently houses a museum. The county plans to restore four other
buildings.
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Stables and laborer's house,
both constructed in 1851, are today part of Jefferson Barracks
Historical Park. (photo by Charles W. Snell, National Park
Service) |
The Missouri National Guard utilizes 134 acres of the
parade ground area. The original gray limestone structures that lined
three sides of the parade ground in the years 1827-37 were torn down in
the period 1891-95 and the parade ground enlarged to its present size.
Dating from the latter period are six brick barracks and a guardhouse on
the south side of the parade ground and an administration building on
the east end. Adjoining the parade ground and extending to the south and
southwest is a 309-acre national cemetery. A Veterans' Administration
hospital occupies 136 acres in the southeast corner of the
reservation.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitec7.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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