Fort Sill is a United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles (137 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. It covers almost .
The fort was first built during the Indian Wars. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark and serves as home of the United States Army Field Artillery School as well as the Marine Corps' site for Field Artillery MOS school, United States Army Air Defense Artillery School, the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, and the 75th Field Artillery Brigade. Fort Sill is also one of the four locations for Army Basic Combat Training. It has played a significant role in every major American conflict since 1869.
History
The site of Fort Sill was staked out on 8 January 1869, by Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, who led a campaign into Indian Territory to stop tribes from raiding border settlements in Texas and Kansas.
Sheridan's massive winter campaign involved six cavalry regiments accompanied by frontier scouts such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, Ben Clark and Jack Stilwell. Troops camped at the location of the new fort included the 7th Cavalry, the 19th Kansas Volunteers and the 10th Cavalry, a distinguished group of black "buffalo soldiers" who constructed many of the stone buildings still surrounding the old post quadrangle.
At first, the garrison was called "Camp Wichita" and was referred to by the Indians as "the Soldier House at Medicine Bluffs." Sheridan later named it in honor of his West Point classmate and friend, Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed during the American Civil War. The first post commander was Brevet Maj. Gen. Benjamin Grierson and the first Indian agent was Colonel Albert Gallatin Boone, grandson of Daniel Boone.
Other forts in the frontier fort system were Forts Griffin, Concho, Belknap, Chadbourne, Stockton, Davis, Bliss, McKavett, Clark, McIntosh, Inge, Phantom Hill, and Richardson in Texas. There were "sub posts or intermediate stations" including Bothwick's Station on Salt Creek between Fort Richardson and Fort Belknap, Camp Wichita near Buffalo Springs between Fort Richardson and Red River Station, and Mountain Pass between Fort Concho and Fort Griffin.
Peace policy
Several months after the establishment of Fort Sill, President Ulysses Grant approved a "peace policy" placing responsibility for the Southwest tribes under Quaker Indian agents; the first Quaker agent assigned to the Kiowa and Comanche agency was Lawrie Tatum. Fort Sill soldiers were restricted from taking punitive action against the Indians, who interpreted this as a sign of weakness. The Indians resumed raiding the Texas frontier and used Fort Sill as a sanctuary.
In 1871, General of the Army William Tecumseh Sherman arrived at Fort Sill from Fort Richardson, Texas, while on a tour of Army posts throughout the country. Sherman was at Fort Richardson when they became aware of the Warren Wagon Train Raid, in which seven muleskinners were killed by Indians when their wagon train was ambushed. Soon after Sherman arrived at Fort Sill, the Indian Agent brought several Kiowa chiefs to tell their story about attacking the wagon train. When Sherman ordered their arrest during a meeting on Grierson's porch, two of the Indians attempted to assassinate him. In memory of the event, the Commanding General's quarters were dubbed Sherman House.
The Army arrested three chiefs during the porch skirmish: Satank, Satanta and Addo-ete. Sherman ordered them to Texas for a civil trial for the alleged crimes. When the three were put into a wagon and taken under cavalry escort to Fort Richardson, Satank began his death song. A mile down the trail, he grabbed the carbine of one of the troopers in the wagon. Before he could cock and fire it, he was hit by several shots fired by the escort. Satank was left against a tree and the column continued on its mission. A marker on Berry Road near the curve marks the spot where Satank, an honored warrior, fell. His grave is in Chiefs Knoll in the post cemetery.
Satanta and Addo-etta were tried by Texas courts on 5 and 6 July, the first time Indians had been tried in civil courts. They were sentenced to death by hanging. Supporters of the Quaker peace policy convinced Governor Edmund J. Davis to commute the Indians' sentences to life imprisonment. Then in October 1873 they were paroled.
Red River War
In June 1874, the Red River War was waged against the Comanches, Kiowas and Southern Cheyennes by the US Army. The year-long struggle was a war of attrition that involved relentless pursuit by converging military columns.