Fort Dodge History

Fort Dodge, was one of the most important forts on the western frontier. It is located to the east of the Caches and present day Dodge City. The fort was established on April 10, 1865 by Captain Henry Pierce, by order of Major General Grenville M. Dodge. The fort’s primary purpose was to protect the wagon trains along the Santa Fe Trail on their way to New Mexico.

The need for a fort at this location was great; an unusually large camp site for the fort was situated where the dry route and the wet route of the Santa Fe Trail intersected. The dry route came across the divide from Larned on the Pawnee River, while the wet route followed the river. The dry route, often called the Hornado de Muerti, the journey of death, was often without water the whole distance and trains would lay up to recruit after making the passage. When the Indians discovered this popular stopping off point, they began to attack the many unwary emigrants and freighters traveling through the area.

Initial fortifications were crude earth dugouts excavated along the north bank of the Arkansas River. Many men first stationed there were Confederates who preferred a fight with the Indians to languishing, perhaps dying, in northern prisons. The soldiers had no lumber or hardware, so they had to use the available materials, grass and earth, to create the 70 sod dugouts. These were 10 X 12 feet in circumference and seven feet deep. A door to the south faced the river and a hole in the roof admitted air and light. Banks of earth were bunks for the soddies that slept from two to four men. Sanitation was poor and spring rains flooded the dugouts. Pneumonia, dysentery, diarrhea and malaria were common that first year in the isolated fort.

In 1867 Fort Dodge was relocated and rebuilt in stone buildings. In 1868 Comanche and Kiowa Indians attacked Fort Dodge, killing four soldiers and wounding seventeen. As a result, General Philip H. Sheridan came to Fort Dodge in the summer of 1868. He pitched his camp on the hill north of the fort and started outfitting his command against the Indians.

In the fall of 1868, General Alfred Sully took command at the fort in preparation for winter campaign against the plains Indians. When the preparations for the expedition were well under way and his army practically ready to march, General Sully was sent home and General George A. Custer carried on the campaign.

The abandonment of Fort Dodge in June, 1882, created surprise among the Dodge City people who were terrified of the Indian raids.

After its abandonment, part of the buildings were demolished, some removed. The military reservation was transferred to the Interior Department on January 12, 1885 and was converted to the Kansas Soldiers Home in 1889. When rebuilding and repairing began on the Soldiers Home, the character of the famous old post was sustained.