Viewing page 50 of 63
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARLISLE BARRACKS The first regular military garrison at Carlisle Barracks was established May 30, 1757, upon the arrival of one battalion of the British Royal American Regiment and 2000 Provincial troops from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland under the command of Colonel John Stanwix. Early in the Revolutionary War, in recognition of the Army's great need for mutations, General Washington directed the establishment of an ordnance powder factory. The availability of many skilled armorers in the area around Carlisle, together with iron and coal within easy reach, made Carlisle Barracks, or Washingtonburg, as it was called during this period, an ideal location for an arsenal. Many prisoners taken by the Continental Army were sent to Washingtonburg where they were put to work. Among this group were Hessians captured at the battle of Trenton, who helped to build a powder magazine. This magazine, completed in 1777, still stands, and is known as the Hessian Guard House Museum. During the same year the Army's first school was established by Captain Isaac Coren to train artillerists. From 1838 to 1879, except for brief periods during the Civil War, Carlisle Barracks was successively the Army's first Cavalry School of Practice and a cavalry depot, supplying troopers to most of the famous cavalry units which saw action in the Mexican and Civil Wars and in Indian skirmishes in the West. OVER CARLISLE BARRACKS HISTORY (Continued) In the early morning hours of July 2, 1863 Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee, operating as one of General JEB Stuart's division commanders, burned Carlisle Barracks to the ground after shelling Carlisle with some 134 rounds of artillery. Lee then withdrew toward Gettysburg. Carlisle Barracks was quickly rebuilt and resumed its role as a cavalry depot until 1879, when it was transferred to the Department of the Interior for use as an Indian Industrial School. Under the guidance of Lieutenant (later Brigadier General) Richard H. Pratt the school achieved world renown. In 1918, the Army reclaimed Carlisle Barracks for use as a hospital, which gave way to the Medical Field Service School. From 1921 to 1946 it graduated some 30,000 medical officers and corpsmen trained in field operations. Between 1946 and the arrival of the Army War College in 1951, Carlisle Barracks was the temporary home, at one time or another, of the School for Government of Occupied Areas, the Adjutant General's School, the Chaplain School, the Military Police School, the Army Security Agency School, and the Army Information School, later named the Armed Forces Information School. Since 1951 Carlisle Barracks has been the home of the US Army War College and since 1962 of the US Army Combat Developments Command Institute of Advance Studies as well. A SELF GUIDED TOUR OF __ [[image]] CARLISLE BARRACKS PENNSYLVANIA Home of the US ARMY WAR COLLEGE
