Indian Wars:  Fort Douglas

14th Infantry Frontier Posts & Assignments

Fort Douglas

From Wikipedia:  Camp Douglas (named after Stephen A. Douglas by Abraham Lincoln) was established in October 1862 as a small military garrison about three miles east of Salt Lake City, for the purpose of protecting the overland mail route and telegraph lines along the Central Overland Route.  In 1878, the post was renamed Fort Douglas.  During World War I Fort Douglas was used as an internment camp for Germans living in the U.S. and also to house German naval prisoners of war.  The fort was officially closed in 1991, but a small section of the original fort is used by the Army Reserve and includes the Fort Douglas Military Museum.

Fort Douglas was built by the federal government primarily to keep "The Mormon Threat" under control.  After Brigham Young decided to dissolve the State of Deseret and join the union in order to prevent a civil war, the military base remained.

One of the most essential forts in the United States, Ft. Douglas served to protect the mail routes and settlers against Indian attacks as well as providing a home for troops who fought in Mexico, the Philippines, the horrible trenches of Europe, and the islands of the Pacific.

On the 25th of June 1876 General George Armstrong Custer and his troops were annihilated at the Battle of Little Bighorn by the combined forces of several thousand Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. The Fourteenth Infantry, stationed at Camp Douglas, was ordered to join General George Crook to pursue the Indians in the Wyoming Territory and into the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory.  The troops of the Fourteenth Infantry distinguished themselves in the Sioux campaign, primarily by marching and enduring, but particularly under fire at Slim Buttes.  Companies B, C, and F finally returned to Camp Douglas in October, 1877, completing a march of well over 2,000 miles, most of it on foot.

	Artillery practice at Fort Douglas
14th Infantry Band, Fort Douglas, Utah 1877.  Photo courtesy of The Church of Latter Day Saints, Historical Department
	Inside the barracks

Acknowledgements:
Indian Wars:  Fort Douglas
Copyright © 2012  14th Infantry Regiment Association
Last modified: November 01, 2012