Fort Riley

Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in North Central Kansas, on the Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 101,733 acres (41,170 ha) in Geary and Riley counties. The Fort consists of six functional areas, including the Main Post, Camp Funston, Marshall Army Airfield (MAAF), Camp Whitside, Camp Forsyth, and Custer Hill. The portion of the fort that contains housing development is part of the Fort Riley census-designated place, with a residential population of 9,230 as of the 2020 census. The ZIP Code is 66442.

Stationed units 1st Infantry Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1st Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division 1st Infantry Division Artillery (DIVARTY) Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade

Garrison 97th Military Police Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Garrison

Partners: 10th Air Support Operations Squadron, USAF 407th Army Field Support Brigade 902nd Military Intelligence Group Detachment 2, 3d Weather Squadron, USAF Danger Voice Signal University Irwin Army Community Hospital Warrior Transition Battalion 79th Ordnance Battalion (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) 923rd Contracting Battalion Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Fort Riley Resident Agency

Inactivated: 1st Signal Command, inactivated in 1969 121st Signal Battalion, inactivated 1995

History

Origins

The early history of Fort Riley is closely tied to the movement of people and trade along the Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail. These routes, a result of the then-popular United States doctrine of "manifest destiny" in the middle of the 19th century, prompted increased American military presence for the protection of American interests in this largely unsettled territory. In the 1850s, the United States established several military posts at strategic points to safeguard these emigration and commerce routes.

In the fall of 1852, a surveying party under the command of Captain Robert H. Chilton, 1st U.S. Dragoons, selected the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers as a site for one of these forts. This location, approved by the War Department in January 1853, offered an advantageous location from which to organize, train, and equip troops to protect the overland trails. The site was named Camp Center because surveyors believed it was near the center of the United States. In late spring, three companies of the 6th Infantry occupied the camp and began construction of temporary quarters.

On June 27, 1853, Camp Center became Fort Riley — named in honor of Major General Bennet C. Riley, who had led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail in 1829. The "fort" took shape around a broad plain that overlooked the Kansas River valley. The fort's design followed the standard frontier post configuration: buildings were constructed of the most readily available material — in this case, native limestone. In the spring, troops were dispatched to escort mail trains and protect travel routes across the plains. At the fort, additional buildings were constructed under the supervision of Capt. Edmund Ogden. Anticipating greater utilization of the post, Congress authorized appropriations in the spring of 1855 to provide additional quarters and stables for the Dragoons. Ogden again marshaled resources and arrived from Leavenworth in July with 50 6-mule teams loaded with materials, craftsmen, and laborers.

Work had progressed for several weeks when cholera broke out among the workers. The epidemic lasted only a few days but claimed 70 lives, including Ogden's. Work gradually resumed, and buildings were prepared for the arrival in October of the 2nd Dragoons. As the fort began to take shape, an issue soon to dominate the national scene was debated during the brief territorial legislative session that met at Pawnee in the present area of Camp Whitside, named for Colonel Warren Whitside. The first territorial legislature met there in July 1855. Slavery was a fact of life and an issue within the garrison just as it was in the rest of the country. The seeds of sectional discord were emerging that would lead to "Bleeding Kansas" and, eventually, Civil War.

Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War

Increased tension and bloodshed between pro- and anti-slavery settlers led to the Army being used to "police" the troubled territory. They also continued to guard and patrol the Santa Fe Trail in 1859 and 1860 due to increased Indian threats. The outbreak of hostilities between the North and South in 1861 disrupted garrison life. Regular units returned east to participate in the Civil War, while militia units from Kansas and other states used Riley as a base from which to launch campaigns to show the flag and offer a degree of protection to trading caravans using the Santa Fe Trail.

In the early stages of the war, the fort was used to house Confederate prisoners. In early 1862, the fort served as a temporary detention facility for 133 Confederate prisoners from Texas, who had been captured during the New Mexico campaign. The prisoners remained at Fort Riley for approximately one month before being transferred to Fort Leavenworth. During their stay, seven individuals died due to illness or injuries sustained in battle and were interred in the vicinity. In May 1863, Fort Riley again held Confederate prisoners, this time those captured following raids in the Council Grove, Kansas, region. However, the overall involvement of Fort Riley in the Civil War was relatively limited.

Post-Civil War and the Custer Era

The conclusion of the Civil War in 1865 saw Fort Riley again assume an important role in providing protection to railroad lines being built across Kansas. The summer and fall of 1866 witnessed the mustering in of the 7th Cavalry Regiment at Riley and the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad at the fort. In December, Brevet Major General George A. Custer arrived to take charge of the new regiment. Soldiers from the Kansas Volunteer regiments that were wounded in the Battle of Westport were brought to Fort Riley for recovery.

The following spring, Custer and the 7th left Fort Riley to participate in a campaign on the high plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado. The campaign proved inconclusive but resulted in Custer's court martial and suspension from the Army for one year—in part—for returning to Fort Riley to see his wife without permission. As the line of settlement extended westward each spring, the fort lost some of its importance. Larger concentrations of troops were stationed at Fort Larned and Fort Hays, where they spent the summer months on patrol and wintered in garrison.

Between 1869 and 1871, a school of light artillery was conducted at Fort Riley by the 4th Artillery Battery. Instruction was of a purely practical nature, and regular classes were not conducted. Critiques were delivered during or following the exercise. This short-lived school closed in March 1871 as the War Department imposed economic measures, which included cutting a private's monthly pay from $12 to $9.

During the next decade, various regiments of the infantry and cavalry were garrisoned at Riley. The spring and summer months usually witnessed a skeletal complement at the fort while the remainder of the troops were sent to Forts Hays, Wallace, and Dodge in western Kansas. With the approach of winter, these troops returned to Riley. Regiments serving here during this time included the 5th, 6th, and 9th Cavalry and the 16th Infantry Regiment. The lessening of hostilities with the Indian tribes of the Great Plains resulted in the closing of many frontier forts. Riley escaped this fate when Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan recommended in his 1884 annual report to Congress to make the fort "Cavalry Headquarters of the Army".

Cavalry School and Modernization General P. H. Sheridan, who was appointed general-in-chief of the United States army in 1883, recommended the enlargement of the post, and in 1886 the Kansas legislature adopted a resolution requesting the senators and representatives in Congress from that state to use their power and influence to secure an appropriation to carry out the ideas of the commanding general. Senators Preston B. Plumb and John J. Ingalls and Representative John A. Anderson, who represented the district in which Fort Riley was located, were especially active in behalf of the appropriation. The result of the combined efforts of the friends of the post was that in 1887 an appropriation of $200,000 was made by Congress for the purpose of establishing "a permanent school of instruction for drill and practice for the cavalry and light artillery service of the army of the United States, and which shall be the depot to which all recruits for such service shall be sent; and for the purpose of construction of such quarters, barracks and stables as may be required to carry into effect the purposes of this act", which would become the United States Army Cavalry School. That appropriation was the beginning of a series of improvements that amount practically to the rebuilding of the post, including a large cavalry riding hall.

In 1889, Summerall Hall was constructed as the second permanent hospital at Fort Riley and was later converted into the garrison command headquarters following the hospital's relocation. It was renamed in 1956 in honor of General Charles P. Summerall, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division during the late 1910s to early 1920s.

Fort Riley was also used by state militia units for encampments and training exercises. The first such maneuver occurred in the fall of 1902, with subsequent ones held in 1903, 1904, 1906–1908, and 1911. These exercises gave added importance to the fort as a training facility and provided reserve units a valuable opportunity for sharpening their tactical skills. Army horsemen and the training they received at the United States Army Cavalry School made them among the finest mounted soldiers in the world, and the school's reputation ranked with the French and Italian Cavalry Schools. Horse shows, hunts, and polo matches – long popular events on Army post – were a natural outgrowth of cavalry training.

Buffalo Soldiers

The 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments — the famed "Buffalo Soldiers," so called by the indigenous peoples for the similarity to the short, curly-haired buffalo that roamed the plains — were stationed at Fort Riley several times during their history. Shortly after their formation in 1866, the 9th Cavalry passed through en route to permanent stations in the southwest. They returned during the early 1880s and the early part of the 20th century before being permanently assigned as troop cadre for the Cavalry School during the 1920s and 1930s. The 10th Cavalry was stationed here in 1868 and 1913. On the eve of World War II, the 9th and 10th Cavalry joined the 2nd Cavalry Division, which was briefly stationed at Fort Riley.

World War I

America's entry into World War I resulted in many changes at Fort Riley. Facilities were greatly expanded, and a cantonment named Camp Funston was built 5 miles (8 km) east of the permanent post during the summer and fall of 1917. This training site was one of 16 across the country and could accommodate from 30,000 to 50,000 men.

The first division to train at Camp Funston, the 89th, sailed for France in the spring of 1918. The 10th Division also received training at Funston, but the armistice came before the unit was sent overseas. The camp was commanded by Major General Leonard Wood. A Military Officers Training Camp was established in the Camp Whitside area to train doctors and other medical personnel.

Spanish flu