Fort Insley (Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas)

Fort Scott, Bourbon County · Kansas · Civil War

Quick BriefFort Insley was one of three blockhouses erected at Fort Scott in 1861 to guard military stores from Confederate forces. The blockhouse was surrounded by log palisades and earthworks, constructed of rough wood planks with a shingle roof, two stories tall, and equipped with ports to fire cannon or rifles. Located at the extreme point northeast of the Plaza in Fort Scott, it was dismantled after the war and no structures remain.

Civil War

History & Significance

Fort Insley was one of three blockhouses erected at Fort Scott in 1861 to guard military stores from Confederate forces. The structure was a detached two-story log blockhouse with earthwork batteries, part of Fort Scott's reactivation as a stockaded garrison.

Like its companion blockhouses (Fort Henning and Fort Blair), Fort Insley was surrounded by log palisades covered by earthworks and wide ditches; the blockhouse itself was constructed of rough wood planks with a shingle roof and stood two stories tall with ports on both floors for cannon or rifle fire. The fortification was positioned at the extreme northeast point of the Plaza.

Built in spring and probably into summer 1864, it helped protect the city and post of Fort Scott alongside Fort Blair and Fort Henning. All three blockhouses assisted in guarding Fort Scott when Confederates under Maj. Gen. Sterling Price passed through the area in October 1864 near the end of their failed raid.

Following the war's conclusion in 1865, the blockhouse was dismantled and the site left vacant. No physical remains or structures of Fort Insley survive today.