Fort Sill (Lawton, Comanche County, Oklahoma)
Lawton, Comanche County · Oklahoma · Indian Wars
History & Significance
Fort Sill was established in 1869 during the Indian Wars north of Lawton, Oklahoma. Major General Philip H. Sheridan led a campaign into Indian Territory to defend Texas and Kansas settlements; the primary tribes inhabiting the area were the Kiowa, Plains Apache, and Comanche.
The 7th Cavalry, 19th Kansas Volunteers, and the 10th Cavalry—distinguished African American "buffalo soldiers"—camped at the location and constructed many of the stone buildings still surrounding the old post quadrangle. Sheridan named the fort after his West Point classmate and friend Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed during the Civil War.
Brevet Major General Benjamin Grierson served as first post commander. Units from Fort Sill fought on the southern Great Plains in 1869 and in the Red River War of 1874–75.
Quanah Parker and his Quahadi Comanche's arrival at Fort Sill's Quartermaster Corral in June 1875 marked the end of Plains Indian warfare on the Southern Plains. In 1894, Geronimo and 341 other Apache prisoners of war were brought to the fort; Geronimo was granted permission to travel with Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show and visited President Theodore Roosevelt before dying of pneumonia in 1909.
As Indigenous military resistance declined, the post's mission shifted from cavalry to field artillery; the first artillery battery arrived in 1902, and the last cavalry regiment departed in May 1907. Fort Sill was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Key Facts
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Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Sill
- https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=FO038
- https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=AP003
- https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ok-fortsill/
- https://fortsillapache-nsn.gov/history-and-traditional-culture/history/