National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1867, 1872, 1875, 1877, 1883, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
George W. Bradley to Major Marshall |. Ludington, May 18, 1869.

Inspection Reports, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889.

53


8. Fences and Walks

In addition to the adobe walls. that surrounded the post and depot
corrals at Fort Union, picket fences were erected at various places and
can be seen in historical photographs of the site. One such enclosure
was built around the parade ground, joining the officers! and enlisted
men's quarters on either end of the tract. A similar fence separated the
depot officers' quarters from the quartermaster, commissary, and clerk's
quarters. These structures were erected to secure privacy for the

officers and their families.

In 1877 a flagstone walkway was laid down in front of the laundresses'
quarters. Another was located in front of the officers' quarters. Other
improvements included a cobblestone pavement behind the enlisted
barracks and a graded road in front of the officers' quarters.

SOURCES
Arrott Collection, 1877, No. 4, p. 114. Report of October, 1877.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 266.

117


building up ah unnecessary post, until it has become by the unnecessary

41

waste of public money, an eye sore." Following that censorious

appraisal, Brigadier General Edward D. Townsend, Adjutant General of

the Army, ordered a halt to any additional construction. 42

Perhaps the most conspicuous manifestation of this adverse viewpoint
was the steady reduction of funds available for the maintenance of the
buildings. Commanding officers of Fort Union after 1870 found it
increasingly difficult to obtain funds for even the most minor kinds of
repairs. {n 1874, Major Andrew Jonathan Alexander summed up the
sentiments of a number of commanding officers when, after requesting
funds for repairs, he concluded "i feel that it is a hopeless task to
attempt to get any money for this purpose but | represent the facts as

part of my duty."43

Underlying the entire problem of structural deterioration at Fort
Union was the inescapable fact that beginning in the early 1870s, the
strategic importance of the fort, both as a depot and as a military
outpost, began to diminish. Although during the first few years of its
existence the third fort was the primary collection and distribution point
for other forts in New Mexico, by 1872, supply trains from Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, had taken over the role and regularly hauled their

41. Quoted in Woodward, "Fort Union, New Mexico," p. 254.

42. Brigadier General Edward D. Townsend to Brigadier General
Montgomery C. Meigs, October 13, 1869, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files,
Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

43. A. J. Alexander to Acting Assistant Adjutant General, District of
New Mexico, December 4, 1874, Letters Sent, Vol. 16, pp. 274-75,
Department of New Mexico, Records of U.S. Army Continental Commands,
RG 393, NA. See also Andrew J. McGonnigle to D. H. Hickes,
October 21, 1873, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office
of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

19


SPL

Illustration 12.

Plan of Corrais and Stables (HS 18
and HS26), Fort Union, 1867.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


the hao Bon.

avi |i PAT Det)
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bent : =:
: sae eee a : . \ Hy |
| -_ % {: , luaayp MY!
1 = BBM K ING? ae
ae 4 x Cena
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ae ; 2b AML \
7 ot
! 4 ae ed
! Goes :
re J a7 t
—
as TN
ol 77 age ta OX dA 701)
oR 7 4 7 ; | | Wi 7 R
ners & of oan B
Qo Sts Kh |
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: if Se rt
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t “a j

4

by ALP lng

Y


Ka


use them. Any person discovered in the act of committing a
nuisance on the floors of either of the sinks will be either

expelled from the Post or otherwise punished.

SOURCES
Arrott Collection, 1868. Card No. 00206. Second Lieutenant Leonard
Wightman to Captain George W. Bradley, July 16, 1868.

Fort Union National Monument. Research File. General Order No. 61,
November 27, 1876.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1867, 1873.

113


SOURCES
Arrott Collection, 1879, No. 2, p. 67. "Medical History, Fort Union,"
November 28, 1877.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division... Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1889.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photograph of Fort Union, SC~88008.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Estimate
for Repairs, June 30, 1874. .

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Inspection Report, 1867.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1872.

62



822

Hiustration 52.

The Machine Shop at Fort Union
Quartermaster Depot, 1866.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


SPL

ilustration 11.

Elevations of Company
Fort Union, 1867.

Courtesy of the National

Quarters,

Archives.


Such were the water needs of the fort that by 1883 two pumps
(powered by the aforementioned steam engine) with a combined pumping
capacity of 960 gallons per hour were being used to lift the water
through a 2% inch pipe. in October of the following year, the Secretary
of War authorized the expenditure of $3,000 for the installation of an
underground water supply system at the fort. This system, first
suggested in 1869 and evidently completed during the summer of 1885,
consisted of the placement of three-inch iron main pipes and one-inch
wrought iron secondary pipes. In this manner, the well in the center of
the mechanics' corral furnished water to each of the officers' quarters in
both the post and the depot, to the three depot offices, to the
commissary storehouse, to the transportation corral, to laundresses' row
via four hydrants, to the barracks via two hydrants, and to the hospital.

This system remained in use until 1891.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 2, p. 6. Inspection Report, 1889.

Arrott Collection, 1890, No. 6, p. 124. Sanitary Report of Major Henry
Lippincott.

Arrott Collection. “Fort Union, New Mexico, Locality and History of
Post, 1873." Medical History of Post, Vol. 52, p. 116.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1869, 1873, 1876, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
Andrew J. McGonnigle to Captain Augustus G. Robinson, August 22,
1870; First Lieutenant william F. Rice to Chief Quartermaster,
District of New Mexico, December 14, 1883; Deputy Quartermaster
General to Colonel Charles H. Tompkins, October 17, 1884; "Fort
Union, N.M. Office Brief as to Water Supply," April, 1888.

Inspection Reports, 1877, 1883, 1886, 1887.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868. :

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico~-Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," pp. 252-53.

‘

73


before the Post and Depot were completely functional and operating
according to plan.? William A. Bell, who viewed the almost completed
post in August, 1867, found it a "bustling place."

It is the largest military establishment to be found on the
plains, and is the supply centre from which the forty or fifty
lesser forts scattered all over the country within a radius of
500 miles or more are supplied with men, horses, munitions, or
[sic] war, and often with everything needed for their support.
It is not in the least fortified, as of course, such a precaution
would be useless; but it is a vast collection of workshops,
storehouses, barracks, officers’ quarters, and offices of all
kinds belonging to the different departments. The dwellings,
although built, as are all the other buildings, of sun-dried
bricks, are most comfortable. They are roofed with thin iron
sheeting, covered with earth. The rooms of the officers are
lofty and well-furnished. The hospital, containing about 120
beds, is a vgry fine building, to which two resident surgeons
are attached.

2. Brigadier General James H. Carleton to Brigadier General
Montgomery C. Meigs, April 26, 1863, (Arrott Collection, Highlands
University Library, Las Vegas, New Mexico), 1863, No. 2, p. 27; Chief
Quartermaster, Department of Missouri to Meigs, February 1, 1867, "Fort
Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster
General, Record Group (RG) 92, National Archives (NA); Captain Charles
McClure to C.H. DeForrest, May 6, 1867, M24 !GO 1867, Letters
Received, Records of the Office of the Inspector General, RG 159, NA.

3. William A. Bell, New Tracks in North America. A Journal of Travel
and Adventure Whilst Engaged in ‘the Survey for a Southern Railroad to
the Pacific Ocean during 1867-8 (Albuquerque: Horn and Wallace,
Publishers, Inc., 1965), p. 122. Other construction details were
provided by Eveline M. Alexander, a visitor in 1866: "[The fort] has
very fine officers' quarters that have just been completed. They are
built of adobe with zinc roofs. . . . Adobes are bricks made of mud and
dried in the sun. |! saw a large number of men engaged in making them.
They were busy at a place where the mud had previously been dug up.
They had wooden moulds just like a box with the top and bottom out.
These they would lay on the ground, scoop up two or three double
handfuls of the mud, and throw it in the mould, smooth it over with their
hands, then pull up the mould and put it in a new place, leaving the
brick standing. The sun dries these adobes in a few days, and then
they are ready for use. All the houses in this country are built of them,
and when they have a roof that does not leak they will last for years and
years. ..." Cavalry Wife: The Diary of Eveline M. Alexander,
1866-1867. Ed. by Sandra L. Myres (College Station: Texas A & M
University Press, 1977), p. 77.



bee

iiustration 50.

Fort Union Post Hospital
1913.

Courtesy of Fort Union
Monument.

CHS 57),

National




The 1888 inspection report, completed six years after the Arsenal
had ceased to function as such, enumerated five buildings, ail
single-story adobe structures. Three of these were officers’ quarters,
one a barracks, and one a stable. Most had undergone recent repairs, to
include painting, installation of new windows and shutters, and fixing of
roofs and fences. Probably these were the last substantive repairs made
to the Arsenal before the abandonment of Fort Union in 1891.

SOURCES

Assistant Inspector General Lieutenant Colonel Nelson H. Davis to
Inspector General Major General Randolph B. Marcy, September 10,
1869; Letter, Secretary of War Robert Lincoin to unidentified
recipient, November 24, 1883. Miscellaneous records of the
Quartermaster General's Office relating to Fort Bowie, Arizona, and
Fort Union, New Mexico. Microfilm roll MC 12. Arizona Historical
Society, Tucson.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Report, 1888.

Ruwet, Wayne. "The First Fort Union, its destruction and Replacement
by the Fort Union Arsenal." Unpublished manuscript dated 1969 in
the library of Fort Union National Monument.

Utley,, Robert M. Fort Union National Monument, New Mexico, p. 36.

122


lustration 2.
Fort Union Military Reservation, 1868.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

128




edt

iWustration 24.
Fort Union Post Officers’ Quarters

(HS 1-9), July, 1875. Note picket
fence and sidewalk in foreground.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


HS 36. Mechanics' Shops

The large U-shaped mechanics' corral was among those buildings
completed during the spring and summer of 1867. The structure
measured 31 feet by 23 feet 6 inches along the west side, 156 feet by 23
feet 6 inches along the south side, and 300 feet by 23 feet 6 inches along
the east side. The number and extent of the various shops which made
up the mechanics’ corral was graphically reported by Depot
Quartermaster, Captain George W. Bradley, in June, 1868:

The mechanic's [sic] corral is formed by the shops &
quarters enclosing it on three sides... . There is the
Superintendents [sic] Office at the entrance; then the Harness
Shop with two Saddlers, all, necessary tools, buckets & axes for
fires (which are in every room), but very little leather; next
Harness room for washing & cleaning harness, & making
repairs, having a large quantity of harness hung up, lists of
which are made daily by No!'s of articles: Tin-Shop with one
tinner, at present engaged in ‘repairing roofs, having much
material: Paint Shops with two painters & making & mending
Kegs etc. Blacksmiths [sic] Shop for repairing wagons, one
Blacksmith & one Striker, two forges, tools & material in
plenty: A long Wheelwrights [sic] Shop, with four men, &
much material & tools: These are ail on the west side,

On the South side are, first, two good rooms each
occupied as quarters by four men; next a Kitchen with Stove,
range & bake oven, two small store rooms, one dining room with
two tables laid with cloths & china furniture, being the mess
establishment of 32 mechanics who board here turning in their
rations, and having one cook authorized them. Next is another
set of mechanics quarters, and a room for storing laborers
tools, which was not open: Completing the S. side.

On the East side are, first, the Carpenter Shops, two
large & long rooms, where three carpenters were then employed
in making doors & sash for Fort Bascom, having a considerable
quantity of tools material etc. The next room, having a dirt
floor, was stored with wagon materials, wood, iron etc.; and
succeeding it were the Blacksmiths! Shops for Shoeing, three
rooms having also dirt floors; with quantities of Shoes; The
first room with two forges, the second with one, and the third
with three. A charcoal room ended the side.

All the shops were in fine working order, and capable of
doing an enlarged amount of work. There was much old
material standing in the Corral, in the shape of wheels, wagon
beds etc. - Police was fair.

68



Genevieve LaTourrette, whose father was Post Chaplain from 1877 to 1891,
mentioned a "hop room" which "had been beautifully decorated with flags
and greens." This room undoubtedly was the hall in an unoccupied set
of quarters which had been set aside for social functions. It was a
similar hall which in 1885 was the setting for the wedding of Genevieve
LaTourrette's sister.

The assignment of quarters was determined according to rank:
senior officers got first choice; junior officers occupied those quarters
that remained. The quarters were designed so that two officers could
share a building; each occupying one side of the structure. But in
reality, the number of officers which could be accomodated depended
entirely “upon the ranks of those stationed there." A ranking officer,
for example, could choose to occupy an entire building forcing junior
officers to fend for themselves. After 1879 congestion was not as severe
a problem as the population of the fort steadily dwindled.

The only two quarters to be specifically designated were the
Commanding Officer's Quarters and the residence of the Post Chaplain.
In 1867, the southernmost set of quarters (HS 1) was reserved for the
Reverend John Woart. During the later years of the fort, however, the
Post Chaplain, J.A.M. LaTourrette, occupied HS 3.

Throughout their existence, the nine quarters retained their original
form and function. The only major modification was the addition in 1887
of "bathing facilities." Because water pipes had been connected to the
quarters two years earlier, the "facilities" presumably consisted of
bathtubs and lavatories.

As suggested above, however, the Army's primary interest in the
quarters was in preventing their rapid deterioration. The circumstances
‘surrounding their initial transfer upon completion from the Depot
Quartermaster to the Commanding Officer was strangely prophetic. On
October 17, 1866, Captain Henry Inman informed Colonel Elisha G.
Marshall that HS 5 was ready for occupancy. Two months later after a
brief residence, Marshall returned the structure to the Quartermaster

26


Wlustration 47.

View of Corral Sheds (HS 44) in 1866.
Note hay corral in background.

Courtesy of Fort Union, National Monument.

218


HS 57. Hospital

The adobe Fort Unian hospital, built with stone foundation southeast
of the post, was completed early in 1864 at a cost of $45,000. Within
three years the complex was enlarged and in 1870 was described as

follows:

The hospital is located on the open prairie about 300 yards from
the post. It consists of three houses paralle! to, and 6 feet S
inches from, each other, each house being 81 feet long and 37
feet wide. A hall, 140 feet by 11 1/2 feet, traverses the
middle of these buildings perpendicular to their long axis.
There are six wards, each 29 1/2 by 19 1/2 feet, and 12 feet
high, containing 10 beds, giving 690 cubic feet air space to
each. Each ward has two windows in one end, and a square
opening in the ceiling which can be closed at pleasure. They
are warmed by stoves. The arrangement of the wards is bad in

a sanitary point of view. .

Two years later an inspecting officer termed the hospital "miserably
planned and illy adapted for its purpose," citing poor lighting and
ventilation as the principal structural deficiencies. In 1875 an adobe wall
measuring 86 feet long by 6 feet high by 1 1/2 feet thick was erected in
front of the hospital. The roof of the building was pitched and shingled
and, like the other structures, maintenance was an ongoing concern.
Repairs were especially extensive after a violent hailstorm in September,
1877, broke ninety-two panes of glass in the building.

Despite the problem of constant repairs, the Fort Union hospital
became an adequate facility with an increased capacity for thirty-six
beds. During a smallpox epidemic in 1877 the hospital was completely
filled and tents had to be raised to accommodate the overflow. Part of
the structure, that restricted to quarantine use, was destroyed by fire in
March, 1878. Again, repairs were made and by 1884 the Fort Union
hospital was considered one of the- best in the Department of the
Missouri. Late inspection reports indicated that the structure, though

97



the mid-1800s front porches were added to the structures. Yet
deterioration continued. Roofs almost always needed fixing, and the
adobe fabric of the walls was beginning to show its age. In 1887 the
barracks were deemed unsafe, with "many of the walls. . . propped up
with large poles and pieces of timber." Two years later an inspector
wrote that “they are tumbling down. . . [and] are barely habitable."
Their condition had not improved to any extent by the time of Fort

Union's abandonment.

SOURCES
Arrott Collection, 1866, card 00179. Major Elisha G. Marshall to Captain
Henry Inman, October 17, 1866.

Arrott Collection, 1866, No. 5, p. 28. Major Elisha G. Marshall to
Captain Cyrus H. DeForrest, December, 1866.

Arrott Collection, 1874, No. 2, p. 80. Major Andrew J. Alexander to
Acting Assistant Adjutant General, December 4, 1874. °

Fort Union National Monument. Photograph Files. Nos. 88015, 88016 ©

(1866).
Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's." Unpublished M.A. thesis, New Mexico Highlands

University, 1964. Pp. 19, 102.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Farnsworth, Captain
H.J., "Plan of a set of Company Quarters at the Post of Fort Union,
New Mexico," February, 1866.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Map of Fort Union,
1883.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1886, 1887, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Inspection Report, 1867.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Reports, 1881, 1885. .

33


iustration 58.

Historical Base Map.
Fort Union Ordnance Depot (Arsenal), 1866-1882.

240


8SL

Illustration 17.

Plan of Commissary

Storehouse

(HS 43), Fort Union Depot, 1866.

Courtesy of the National

Archives.


HS 27-29. Depot Officers' Quarters

The depot officers' quarters were begun during July and August,
1865, and although the depot quartermaster's residence (HS 29) was
completed by February 1, 1866, the other two structures were not
finished until the first half of 1867. Built on the same generous plan as
the residence of the post commander, these three structures each had
four spacious rooms on either side of a wide central hali. Each measuring
57 feet by 78 feet, excluding an 8-foot-wide front porch, the buildings
were described by Colonel Randolph B. Marcy in 1867 as being "far
better than any officers' quarters that | have seen at any other frontier
post." Each residence was enclosed on three sides by a ten-foot-high
adobe wall and connected one to the other in front by a
four-to-five-foot-high picket fence. Behind each set of quarters stood a
wooden privy. In 1885 HS 28 possessed a chicken house measuring 12
feet wide by 30 feet long by 10 feet high. In addition, each residence
probably had a small structure for the storage of firewood; there is no
evidence, however, to document the existence of these facilities. Each of

the nine post quarters possessed a wood house.

It is interesting that although the depot quarters were designed and
constructed on the same plan as HS 5, the initial cost of the post
commander's residence was considerably more: $16,900 compared to only
$9,324 for each of the three depot quarters. Because the exteriors of all
four buildings were essentially the same, it is presumed that the
significant cost differential was due to greater attention to the interior
finishing of HS 5. (The only significant exterior difference between the
two groups of structures is that the post quarters possessed pedimented
window cornices whereas the depot quarters displayed horizontal cornices.
Both were of an ornate style.)

Unlike other buildings at Fort Union, the depot officers' quarters
appear to have survived throughout most of their existence with only
minimal structural deterioration. Perhaps one reason for this extended
Period of structural integrity is that the Depot, unlike the Post; employed

a large number of civilian laborers who could be called upon regularly to

58





illustration 9.

Plan of Commanding Officer's Quarters
(HS 5), Fort Union, c. 1867.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

142


National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
Photographs of Fort Union, SC-88012 (1866), I11-SC-88020.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1867, 1869, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1885, 1886, 1887,
1889.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. {nspection Report, 1886.

Russell, Marian. Land of Enchantment: Memoirs of Marian Russell Along
the Santa Fe Trail. As dictated to Mrs. Hal Russell. Ed. by
Garnat M. Brayer. Evanston, Ill.: The Branding tron Press, 1954
p. 96.

29


HS 30. Quartermaster's Office

The depot quartermaster's. office was probably completed in late 1866
or early 1867. It was present in June, 1867, when Colonel Randolph B.
Marcy inspected Fort Union. The office measured 57 feet by 54 feet and.
contained four rooms, two of which measured 18 feet by 23 feet 6 inches,
and two of which measured 18 feet by 23 feet. The eight-foot wide front
porch enclosed only the front door and the two sets of windows on either
side of the door and did not extend across the entire front of the
building as did HS 1-9 and 27-29. An adobe wall ten feet in height
extended to the rear of the structure for a distance of 244 feet, and a
Picket fence connected the front of the office with HS 29. Colonel
Andrew W. Evans, who inspected the depot in 1868, reported that "five
clerks are employed. The offices are in very good order, and completely
and handsomely furnished and fitted up; the walls are adorned with plans

and views of the Depot, &c."

Like the depot officers' quarters, the quartermaster's office appears
to have been adequately maintained throughout its existence. On
November 28, 1877, the quartermaster's personal office and the adjoining
hall burned. The damage was not extensive, however, and the structure
was repaired during April, 1879.

During the 1880s the post commanding officer also maintained an
office in this structure. Possibly he located his office there earlier,
although documentary evidence suggests his presence at this location from
1885 until 1891. In 1889 two of the offices were occupied by the
quartermaster, while one room served the post commander, and the other
by the post adjutant, who may have occupied an office in this building
prior to 1885. The structure undoubtedly continued to serve as the
central office for the post and depot until the fort was abandoned.

61


pel

Ulustration 30.

The Military Prison (HS 17) years
after its abandonment. Note the
adobe wall surrounding the cells.

Courtesy of Fort Union National
Monument.


O6L

Ulustration 33.

Officers' Quarters
Union Depot.

Courtesy of Fort
Monument.

CHS 27), Fort

Union

National


still deficient in ventilation and despite numerous repairs to its roof and
woodwork, remained in good overall condition’ until it formally closed its

doors on April 20, 1891.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection. Estimate for Repairs, April, 1888. Medical History of
Post, #6, pp. 16, 75, 157.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1867, 1872, 1873, 1876, 1878, 1883, 1889.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photographs of Fort Union, SC-87994, SC-88007.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Post
Surgeon Carlos Carvallo to Post Adjutant, September 5, 1887;
Estimate for Repairs, June 30, 1875.

Inspection Reports, 1872, 1877, 1887, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. W.H. Davis to Brigadier General Montgomery C.
Meigs, May 8, 1865.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 4. A
Report on Barracks and Hospitals with Descriptions of Military Posts,
p. 260.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 8. A
Report on the Hygiene of the United States Army, with Descriptions
of Military Posts, p. 306.

98


Pran

ue mek



11. Machine Shop

This rectangular frame structure was located about 400 yards due
north of the Depot commissary storehouse. Used for sawing, planing,
and mortising wood, the machine shop was built in 1866 and stood one
and one-half stories high. On one side was a board fence within which
lumber was stored. The shop was located away from other Depot
buildings so as to reduce fire danger. Total cost of the structure was
$2,870.00.

SOURCES

Fort Union National Monument. Research Files. Copy of "Plan of Machine
Shop & Lumber Yard at Fort Union, New Mexico," February, 1866.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
Photograph of Fort Union, SC-88011.

120


HS 17. Prison

The military prison was one of the last buildings to be constructed
at Fort Union. Finished during June, 1868, the structure consisted of a
stone cell block which was completely enclosed by adobe walls and the
usual tin roof. The cell block contained ten cells, each of which
measured 8 feet long by 5 feet wide by 8 feet high. Each cell possessed
“a heavy wooden door. The entire structure measured 36 feet 7 inches by
48 feet. A plan of the prison drawn in May, 1867, shows the adobe
structure as having five windows on either side, one window on the
southeast end (where it joins HS 16), and two windows which flanked a
center entrance on the northwest end. Because this map was drawn
before the structure was built, it is mot known whether the completed
prison fenestration resembled that depicted in the May, 1867, pian. The
windows were apparently equipped with shutters. Although the Prison
was undoubtedly heated in some manner, there is no known documentary

evidence that the structure ever possessed a fireplace.

Constructed of stone, the Prison cell block represents the best
preserved structure at Fort Union. The adobe shell which surrounded it,
however, experienced the same structural .decline shared by most of the
Post's other adobe structures. During the summer of 1875, an intractable
prisoner named Charles McMann illustrated the unstable condition of the
fort's adobe buildings when he "broke through the walls of the Military
Prison and partly succeeded in breaking down the wall of the Cavalry
corral..." Ten years later, after the roof had been repaired and
painted, the windows repaired, the interior whitewashed and a ventilator
installed, Depot Quartermaster First Lieutenant James R. Cranston
reported that the building was only in "fair" condition. And although
Cranston submitted a proposal in 1888 for extensive repairs to the prison
(and to most other structures at the fort), the plan was apparently
rejected because in April, 1889, Inspector General Lieutenant Colonel
George H. Burton pronounced it to be "“old and tumbling down."
Apparently, however, the prison continued to be used until the

abandonment of Fort Union.

39


HS 45. Corral Sheds

This corral was used as both a stable for officers' horses and as a
makeshift animal hospital. Although no structures were proposed for this
150-foot by 200-foot enclosure on the March, 1866 plan, by September of
that year a vertical-plank stable stretched along the southeast and
southwest sides of the corral. A building of similar construction, used
for teamsters' quarters, ran along the northwest side and possessed a
plank roof. The remaining stables and quarters had earthen roofs. In
June, 1868, Major Andrew W. Evans inspected the corral and reported

that it comprised

a neatly kept stable for Officers horses; where also the Sutler
is permitted to keep his horses, and it was reported that he
furnished his own forage & man to take care of them. A fence
is run across the yard and another at right angles to it,
- making two enclosures at the East end, in one of which were
three yoke of excellent oxen. . . . On the South side of this
corral is a sort of mule Hospital; a stable in which were nine
mules & one horse, many of them ill; Two entire mules
represented as unmanageable &c. In the pen next to the oxen
were 13 poor mules. Police of stables was good; of pens
indifferent. By this corral was also a bakery for employees
mess, with two bakers, a stove & oven, and some mens
quarters.

The employees quarters and mess were located outside and adjacent to the
southeast wall of the yard. Probably they were also constructed of

vertically-placed pine slabs with earthen roofs.

These structures were not damaged by the 1874 fire, but because of
their poor condition they were dismantled and replaced by a single frame
stable built along the southeast side of the corral. Following this
construction the yard measured 110 feet by 190 feet and provided stable
space for officers' horses. Because the yard seemingly contained only
the one stable, sick and injured animals were most likely kept elsewhere.
In 1886, HS 45 was reported to be in "Bad" condition. By 1889 it had

been "torn down."

81




JL? '82

H3G (BSe-rsB)

Meworendun

To:

From

Reference: Vert jntoy/Nationa) Konuent, Pky. No. Ll4, udstorée Serue~
ture * ots Third Fort Union

Subjects Ten) -ittal of Final Report

{
We are pleased tol fur raed herewith copies of The Third Fort Union 1863-1891,
\

a Hintoric Structure keport prepared by Historiana dwight Pireaithley and

Jerome A. Orwene. This \reyort was prepared to provide deta to facilitate
, \

plauning in regard to managing, preserving, and interpreting the cultural

resources of Fort Unien National HMotinsent.

(SQD) DONALD 8. MARigy
John W. Bebght
FOR cociosure

ect "y
WASO-400-Hr, Uolland, w/l ene.

WAS0-408~Regiatrar’ of Cultural Kesources, Keren Rei, w/2 enc.
WASO-404~Chief wigtorian, w/) enc.

Supt., Fort Union;

-Hgx., darpers Ferty Center, ws enc.

RMR-Library, v/] gnc. ‘

DSC-PG~Hs. Raney, w/k enc. we

i Wy ats iy mY

4
}



pol

(Hustration 10.

Plan of Company Quarters at Fort
Union, 1866.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


Because of its incidental nature, HS 15 fared perhaps even worse
than other structures at the fort. Just before the 1875-1876 alterations
the Depot Quartermaster, Captain Amos S. Kimball, described it as being
“much out of repair." Although those modifications presumably improved
the condition of the structure, in 1883 another Quartermaster reported
that the eastern wall had entirely collapsed. Two years later, during
another period of occupancy, the army installed two lavatories and a
bathtub. Continued deterioration, however, could not be avoided, and
by October, 1889, HS 15 had been abandoned and was used exclusively
for the storage of ordnance and as a shooting gallery.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1866, No. 2, p. 9. Major John Thompson to Major
Roger Jones, June 5, 1866.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1867, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1883.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
Amos S. Kimball to Chief Quartermaster, District of New Mexico,
September 16, 1875.

Inspection Reports, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889.
National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Brigadier General James H. Carleton to Brigadier

General Montgomery C. Meigs, November 3, 1862.

Colonel Herbert M. Enos to Chief Quartermaster's Office,
September 24, 1867.

36


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HS _35. Sun Dial

The sun dial is located midway between the site of depot officers’
quarters HS 28 and the depot mechanics’ shops (HS 36). It consists of a
limestone pedestal with a base measuring 2 feet 9 inches square beneath a
rectangular column 3 feet 10 7/8 inches high by 1 foot 7 inches square.
A cap on top measures 1 foot 11 inches square. Hour marks are present
on the top and on the four sides. Date of erection of the sun dial is
unknown. Some time after 1897 the portion above the base was taken and
exhibited in front of Springer Hall at Highlands University, Las Vegas,
New Mexico. Most of the missing pieces were returned to their Fort
Union site in 1956-57. The gnomon, or triangular plate located on the
top of the sun dial, has been replaced.

SOURCE

Fort Union National Monument. Research files. Historical photograph of
the Fort Union sun dial dated 1897.

Note cards.

67


HS 40-42. Quartermaster Storehouses

qThe next three storehouses were similar both in appearance and
function. They appear on the March, 1866, plan of the fort and were
probably completed in 1867. In June, 1868, these structures, each 250
feet long by 35 feet 5 inches wide by 12 feet high, consisted of "two long
rooms with an entry, [and] contained the principal QM stores in bulk,
piled generally in fair order . . .. Windows [were] all glazed & iron
barred &c. Buckets of water & axes for fire were distributed
throughout."

Each of these buildings contained loading docks which ran the length
of the structures on both sides. HS 41 and 42 were constructed with flat
tin-covered roofs surrounded by brick cornices. HS 40, however,
possessed a most unusual (for Fort Union) hipped roof originally covered
with wood shingles but later covered with tin.

With one exception, these structures served as storehouses until
1891. In 1885, Depot Quartermaster First Lieutenant James R. Cranston
reported that HS 40 had been "Fitted up for Gallery practice with [a]
Gymnasium with sky light 6' x 6'," and a "bowling alley 70' x 4'." The
recreational use of the building was short lived, however, because four
years later HS 40 was again “In use as QM Storehouse." After its
construction, HS 42 briefly served as a commissary storehouse before
being used as a quartermaster facility.

As a whole these structures fared relatively well throughout their
existence. Their condition being variously described as "Good," "Fair,"
and "Dilapidated", they more than likely remained in use until the
abandonment of the fort.

76


at

2 4o2Ip-4b

historic structure report

historical data section
june 1982

lis

FORT UNION

THE THIRD FORT UNION 1863-1891

Color Seams
5412004

NATIONAL MONUMENT / NEW MEXICO


HS 61-62. _Cisterns

Two cisterns served the hospital, each measuring 24 feet in diameter
by 27 feet 3 inches deep. These were erected sometime before 1869 and
were located in the yard between the stewards' quarters and the
washhouse. Built of brick and lined with cement, the cisterns had a
holding capacity of 22,000 gallons of water. Use of the structures was
discontinued after placement of a water pipe between the post and the
hospital. By 1889 the cisterns possibly had been removed altogether.

SOURCES

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File Estimate
for Repairs, June, 1870.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 4. A
Report on Barracks and Hospitals with Descriptions of Military Posts,
p. 260.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 252.

102


9LL

Illustration 26.

A typical Post Officer's Quarters
(HS 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, or 9),
circa 1890.

Courtesy of Fort Union National
Monument.


ILLUSTRATIONS

125


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HS 63. Matron's Quarters and Laundry

Standing at the left rear of the hospital, this adobe building was
erected around 1866 to serve as a kitchen. By June, 1872, it had become
the matron's quarters. Five years later the matron's quarters was
restricted to a single room while the two remaining rooms were used as a
laundry. A shed and a bath room were attached to the matron's quarters
at approximately this time. The roof of the structure was pitched, and
in 1877 water spouting was added around it. A single brick chimney was
located in the center of the roof, indicating a double fireplace below to
heat two rooms. The structure was standing as of 1889 and presumably
was used until the abandoment of Fort Union in 1891.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1877, No. 2, p. 100; No. 4, p. 141. Medical History of
Post.

National Archives. Photographic “Archives Division. Historical

photographs of Fort Union, SC-88007.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Estimate
for Repairs, June, 1870.

Inspection Report, 1872.

103






HS 46. Teamsters' Quarters

The original teamsters' quarters in this main corral was much more
extensive than the eight room structure that replaced it. As _ initially
constructed, the quarters were L-shaped. One building stood at the
southwest corner of the main corral, the other along the southeast
corner. The northern end of this latter structure contained storerooms
for the yard master. The quarters in the southeast corner was
constructed of vertical slab walls with an earthen roof. Presumably the

other quarters was built similarly.

In 1868, Major Andrew W. Evans found the main corral to be
“composed on the W. and S. sides of quarters of Employees, teamsters
&c, rooms numerous, frequently Smali, many vacant, and of indifferent
character, and Stores of Yard master." in 1873, the room nearest the
entrance of the corral was designated the bell house. A cupola on the
roof of the bell house enclosed a bel! that was used by the wagon master
to notify his employees of the time of day. The cupola had a three- to
four-foot square tower topped by a pyramidal hipped roof and a short

spire.

The 1874 fire destroyed the storerooms and the quarters along the
southeast corner of the corral but left unscathed the L-shaped structure
in the southwest corner. The army shortly dismantled this last building
and replaced it with an eight-room adobe structure that measured 160 feet
by 20 feet. (The storerooms and the other set of quarters were not
rebuilt.) Complete by the summer of 1875, this structure likely served
as housing for teamsters until the abandonment of the fort. The old
cupola was apparently salvaged and placed atop the wagon master's office,
HS 47, following its construction during the winter of 1874-75.

83




HS 43. Commissary Storehouse

This structure was among the last to be constructed at Fort Union.
It does not appear on the March, 1866, plan by Captain Henry
J. Farnsworth although a separate undated plan for the building was
prepared under his direction. Commenced during the summer of 1867,
the cellar and foundation were completed by September and the storehouse -
was probably in service by the middie of 1868.

The initial plan called for the structure to measure 200 feet by 40
feet with a 12-foot-wide entrance hall that divided the storehouse into two
large rooms of equal size. In addition, the structure was to possess a
basement 9-10 feet deep running the entire length of the building. When
actually constructed, the storehouse differed from the plan in only one
respect: the basement extended only under the western half of the
storehouse and measured 107 feet long by 36 feet wide. Although its
final cost remains unknown, Captain Farnsworth estimated that the
storehouse as originally planned would cost $10,640.90

Unlike the four warehouses to the south, HS 43 had a stone wali on
its east side, as well as a board-and-batten shed-type extension attached
for the entire length of its south side. This addition had a shed-type
roof covered with wood shingles.

Prior to the construction of HS 43, commissary supplies were stored
in HS 42 and in three frame sheds located immediately to the north of the
adobe wall which formed the corral for HS 42. It appears that during
construction the southernmost of these sheds was demolished, but that
the other two remained standing and were "put to use as Stables for
trains & teams just from the road."

As initially conceived, the commissary storehouse was to be built
Parallel to the east ends of HS 40-42. But early in 1867 Colonel Herbert
M. Enos, Chief Quartermaster for the District of New Mexico, suggested
that it be placed parallel to, and at the north end of, the, previously
constructed storehouses. Enos reasoned that "by doing this the wall

78






HS 22. Guardhouse

Fort Union's Guardhouse contained three or four rooms measuring,
respectively, 32 feet 7 inches by 16 feet ("One Person Room"), 18 feet by
18 feet (Guard Room), and 18 feet by 13 feet (N.C.O. Room). Each room
contained a fireplace, and the structure might have possessed a porch
along its southeast and southwest sides. Like the prison, the post
guardhouse was probably not completed until sometime in 1868. The
finished structure measured 32 feet 7 inches by 36 feet.

The function of the guardhouse was to provide a central station for
the Corporal of the Guard and for the detention of prisoners on a
temporary basis. It continued to serve in that capacity until 1891.

Structurally, the Guardhouse differed little from the other buildings
at the fort with its leaky roof, falling plaster, and gradually eroding
adobe walls. Although the building underwent occasional repairs, the
general trend was toward structural instability and frailty. In 1889,
Lieutenant Colonel George H. Burton described it as “old and tumbling
down," and three months later Fort Union's commanding officer termed it
“dilapidated." Even though its condition remained bad, there is no
evidence that it was abandoned earlier than 1891.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1867, No. 1, p. 62. Captain William M. Lane to Captain
Henry Inman, February 13, 1867.

Emmett, Chris. Fort Union and the Winning of the Southwest, p. 342.

Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," p. 187.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1867, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1883, 1889.

48




SOURCES
Arrott Collection. "Fort Union, New Mexico, Locality and History of
Post, 1873." Medical History of Post, Vol. 52, p. 116.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1877.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photograph of Fort Union, 1866.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Reports, 1868, 1872.

90




vyOL

lustration 20.
Post building foundations under

construction, circa 1865.

Courtesy of Fort Union National
Monument.


OFFICERS QUARTERS PORT UNION ARSENAL



In addition, a row of young trees, planted along ‘either side of the
corral's interior, held the promise of abundant shades: The trees had

been removed, however, by the mid-1870s. ‘

HS 36 appears to have retained its origina! form and function until
1891 with only slight modifications. One major change occurred as a
result of a fire in February, 1876, that destroyed the machine shop, at
that time located north of the depot warehouses. By June, 1876, a new
building for the steam engine (HS 37) had been constructed in the
southwest corner of the corral and the machine shop (including a planing
mill) had been located in the shop formerly occupied by the wheelwright.
The wheelwright subsequently moved across the corral into the
carpenter's shop. Another change occurred around 1877 when a
telegraph office was installed at the northern end of the western wing of
the building. (Although the telegraph office is shown on an 1877 map of
the depot, no line linked Fort Union to the outside world until 1880.)
This was the location in 1868 of the superintendent's office and it is
unclear whether the telegrapher was the sole occupant or whether he

shared the office with the superintendent.

The mechanics! shops were neither regularly nor adequately
maintained, and they began to show signs of deterioration at a relatively
early date. An 1876 photograph reveals that most of the plaster had
fallen or been washed off the exterior walls. As a result, the exposed
walls began to bulge and in the following year had to be straightened and
anchored. Both in 1885 and 1886, inspections by the depot quartermaster
revealed that the structure was in "Bad" condition and required repairs
to the "Roof, doors, windows, walls, [and] chimneys." Nevertheless, the
blacksmith and carpenter shops apparently remained in operation until the
post was abandoned. The machine shop, however, and the shops along
the western side (except for the telegraph office which presumably
remained in use until 1891) had all been abandoned by October, 1889.

69




ele

Illustration 44.

Depot Quartermaster storehouses.
That on left is HS 40, with its
hipped roof. That on right is
HS 41, In the distance is HS 31,
the depot commissary's office.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


HS 10. Flagstaff

The flagpole’ at all 19th century military installations was the symbol
of not only the presence of the United States Army but also of the
permanence of the individual post. As a result, its erection and the
initial raising of the Stars and Stripes was attended to with considerable
flourish and ceremony.

On the morning of June 16, 1867, with the troops colorfully arrayed
and to the accompaniment of a canon charge, Corporal Joseph Schweigert
ceremoniously hoisted, for the first time, the United States flag over the
third Fort Union. \For 16 years the flagstaff remained in the center of
the parade ground opposite the Commanding Officer's Quarters. On
January "29, 1883, however, during a violent dust storm, the flagpole
toppled and "broke in small pieces." An 1884 map of the Post reveals
that when replaced the flagpole was relocated at the south end of the
parade ground halfway between HS 1 and HS 11.

Sometime between 1884 and 1889, the flagpole was moved to the
opposite end of the parade ground. But for some reason it was situated
slightly off center so that it stood closer to HS 9 than to HS 14. It was
undoubtedly from this final position that the remaining troops of the 10th
infantry lowered Fort Union's flag for the final time in May, 1891.

SOURCES

LaTourrette, Genevieve. "Fort Union Memories," p. 278.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and Plats of
Fort Union, 1873, 1876, 1877, 1882, 1884, 1889.

National Archives Microfilm. Fort Union Post Orders. Roll #2.

30




ble

Ulustration 45.

Depot Quartermaster Storehouses.
HS 41 at left, HS 42 at right.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1866, No. 2, p. 9. Major John Thompson to Major
Roger Jones, June 5, 1866.

Miscellaneous records of the Quartermaster General's Office relating to
Fort Bowie, Arizona, and Fort Union, New Mexico. Microfilm roll MC
12. Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. Sketch of cavalry stables
at Fort Union.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1867, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1882, 1883, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Quartermaster
General's Office. Consolidated Correspondence File. inspection
Reports, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1877, 1886, 1887, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Captain George W. Bradley to Major Marshall |.
Ludington, September 24, 1867; September 30, 1867; May 18, 1869.
First Lieutenant Alexander Sutorius to Colonel Herbert M. Enos,
September 30, 1867.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 8. A
Report on the Hygiene of the United States Army, with Descriptions
of Posts.

42


SOURCES

Army and Navy Journal, July 9, 1887.

Arrott Collection, 1876. Card No. 00269. Captain Francis Moore to

Acting Assistant Adjutant General, District of New Mexico, May 15,
1876.

Arrott Collection, 1878, No. 5, p. 81. Medical Report, November, 1878.

Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," pp. 33, 40, 45, 46-51, 54, 59, 62, 116, 117, 120, 121, 123,
131.


SOURCE

Arrott Collection, 1867, No. 1, p. 23. Colonel Elisha Marshall to the
Quartermaster General, January 18, 1867.

Arrott Collection, 1870. Card No. 00223. Fort Union Order No. 115,
September 19, 1870.

Arrott Collection, 1880. Card No. 00333. Fort Union General Order
No. 28, September 14, 1880. :

Arrott Collection, 1881. Card No. 00352. Fort Union Order No. 92,
December 3, 1881.

Arrott Collection, 1882. Card No. 00357. Captain Thomas K. Smith to
the Adjutant General, May 18, 1882.

Arrott Collection, 1886. Card No. 00392. Lieutenant Colonal Henry R.
Mizner to the Adjutant General, November 5, 1886.

Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," pp. 10, 14, 15, 16.

Lane, Lydia Spencer. 1 Married a Soldier, p. 149.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
George W. Bradley to Major Marshall |. Ludington, May 18, 1869.
Inspection Reports, 1872, 1877, 1887, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. inspection Report, 1880.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Reports, 1872, 1886, 1887, 1889.

47


86L

The Fort Union Sun Dial
1897.

Courtesy of Fort Union
Monument.

(HS 35),

National


Illustration 4.

Overview of the Fort Union Post, Quartermaster Depot,
and Arsenal, September, 1882.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

132


HS 19. Laundresses' Quarters

This set of Laundresses' Quarters measured 198 feet by 20 feet and
contained ten 20 foot by 20 foot cubicles when it was completed during
the summer of 1867. Each room contained a fireplace, but shared a
chimney with the adjoining compartment. If it were constructed on the
same plan as the other two sets of Laundresses' Quarters, HS 19 did not
possess a porch and each room contained a single door and window.

Initially erected as quarters for the employees of the post
quartermaster, the building gradually evolved into a kind of
multi-purpose facility until 1875, when it became another residence for the
‘post laundresses. At various times it served as a paint shop, as a shop
and quarters for a saddler sergeant (1872), and as quarters and
storerooms for non-commissioned officers (1873). Even after it became a
residence for laundresses, two of the ten rooms were used for the storage

of ice.

Because of its non-essential nature HS 19 probably received less
maintenance than the other buildings at Fort Union. On a map of the
fort dated 1883, the eastern end of the building was listed as having
collapsed. Although the wall was probably rebuilt, the quarters'
condition remained "Bad" throughout the decade in spite of moderate
repairs in 1886 and 1888. An 1889 inspection report characterized the
building as "falling down," the only structure on the post so designated.
HS 19 was undoubtedly occupied in 1888 when the last repairs took place,
but it is not definitely known whether the structure was inhabited at the
time the post was abandoned in 1891.

SOURCES

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division, Maps and plats at
Fort Union, 1866, 1867, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1883, 1889.

43






INustration 43.
Two Quartermaster warehouses at Fort Union Quartermaster Depot.
At left is HS 39, at right, HS 40.
Building in the distance is HS 30, Depot Quartermaster's Office.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

210


HS 38. Pump House and Well (Water System)

When initially constructed, Fort Union possessed several wells
scattered throughout the post. One was located in the transportation
corral, one was in the mechanics' corral, probably one stood in the post
quartermaster's corral, and one stood in the interior yard of each of the
four barracks. That in the mechanics' corral was 85 feet deep and
contained 30 feet of water. A force pump located within the well and
powered by two mules raised the water to the. surface. At that time,
before the existance of reservoirs, water was pumped directly into one or
two water wagons which then distributed it throughout the garrisons. In
1868 run-off from the well was channeled into a shallow ditch which ran
under the west side of the mechanics' corral and served to irrigate a
small plot of grass in front of the depot officers' quarters. During the
following year a pipe was installed which linked the depot cistern, the
well, and tanks in the transportation corral. This system provided water
to the corrals and obviated the need for the water wagon to that point.

The structural history of the reservoirs which were located adjacent
to the well is somewhat unclear. The first cement-lined brick structure
was constructed in 1870, had a capacity of 7,000 to 8,000 gallons, and,
as a precaution against fire, possessed a hand force pump on its roof.
This structure apparently served the fort until 1883 when a 13,000- to
15,000-gallon reservoir was added. Use of the earlier tank was then
discontinued, although the structure remained. The third reservoir was
constructed in 1888, measured 16 feet in diameter and 14 feet in height,
and had a capacity of 19,000 gallons. Built only three years before the
fort was abandoned, this final tank served as a secondary reservoir in
case of a malfunction in either the pump or the steam engine. Thus, by
1889 the depot contained three tanks, two of which were operable.

Furthermore, the post contained four smail tanks each of about 600
gallon capacity which were located near the four primary barracks. A
number of smaller barrels were located at each of the officers' quarters.
All of these tanks were used only in case of fire.

72


SOURCES
National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1876, 1889.
National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.

Inspection Reports, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

82



HS 16. Laundresses' Quarters

The Laundresses' Quarters, of which there were three sets at Fort
Union, were occupied by married enlisted men whose wives worked as
laundresses, as well as by local women who were employed at the fort as
laundresses. Occasionally the quarters were speciously occupied by
women of easy virtue. More than a few of these opportunists were

banished from the post for being women “of bad repute."

This row of quarters, located directly northeast of Company
Quarters HS 11 and 12, was probably completed during the summer of
1867. The building measured 20 feet by 244 feet, excluding the prison
(HS 17) on the northwest end, and contained eleven, separate rooms,
each of which measured 18 feet by 20 feet. When the structure was
initially constructed, the two rooms next to the Prison were used as
offices for the Post Adjutant and the Sergeant Major.

These Quarters apparently maintained the same function and
appearance throughout their existence. They experienced the same
degree of weathering as did other structures at Fort Union and they
underwent extensive repairs in 1874 and 1877. During the latter year the
broad flagstone walk in front of the structure was constructed. Although
HS 16 remained occupied and received a modicum of maintenance, its
condition continued to deteriorate. The annual inspection reports for
both 1885 and 1886 pronounced its condition as "bad."

SOURCES

Emmett, Chris. Fort Union and the Winning of the Southwest. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1965, p. 323.

Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," p. 103.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1867, 1872, 1877.

37


RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that a separate, comprehensive study of the Fort
Union Ordnance Depot (Arsenal) be programmed that will utilize records
of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance (Record Group 156) available in
the National Archives.

123


public by keeping transient people." The business evidently continued
until shortly before Fort Union's abandonment.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1872. Card No. 00244. Thomas Lahey and Edward
McDonald to Colonel John |. Gregg, November 1, 1872.

Arrott Collection, 1877, No. 3, p. 7. Report of Lieutenant Colonel
Nathan A.M. Dudley, July 18, 1877.

Fort Union National Monument. Document File. Inspection Report, 1887.

Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," pp. 118, 121, 176.

Ryus, William Henry. The Second William Penn: A True Account of
incidents that Happened Along the Old Santa Fe Trail in the Sixties.
Kansas City: The Press of Frank T. Riley Publishing Company,
1913. P. 124.

Woodward, Arthur. “Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail." National Park Service, 1959. P. 227.

107


7. Civilian Employees' Quarters (early)

Northwest of the depot stood six sets of quarters built early in the
third fort's existence to house civilian employees. Built in jacal fashion,
with upright sticks and planks chinked with mud, these quarters were
likely temporary and were replaced after 1868 by the more substantial
structure of HS 50.

SOURCE

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

116


02

INustration 40.

Depot Mechanics! Shops
1886.

Courtesy of the National

(HS 36),

Archives.


THE ARSENAL

The Fort Union Ordnance Depot (Arsenal) stood about one and
one-fourth miles west of the third fort. Composed of about twenty
structures, most of which were of adobe, the Arsenal served the needs of
the several forts in the region during the Indian ‘campaigns. Captain
William R. Shoemaker was in charge of the Arsenal from shortly after its
construction in 1866 until its closing in the summer of 1882. The entire
facility was encircled by an adobe wall measuring 4000 feet square. A
year after it closed the Arsenal was turned over to the Department of the
Interior for use as an Indian manual labor school.

It is apparent that some of the Arsenal buildings were structures
left over from the first Fort Union, part of which occupied the site
between 1851 and 1861. Information at hand about the individual
structures is sketchy at best, and most of that presented is taken from
inspection reports completed in 1869 and 1888. The earlier report
described the Arsenal as follows

Buildings. The storehouses and shops are of quality
constructed of adobe and shingled, of sufficient capacity, and
convenient in their arrangement. A part of them, including
magazine, are enclosed by an adobe wall.

Quarters. The quarters for the Commanding Officer is an old
log building, of inferior quality, and will soon be required to
be replaced by a better building.

Cisterns. Cisterns are being constructed at this Arsenal.
Water is supplied by water tanks, and hauled from a spring
some half mile distant.

Estimated costs for permanent improvements at the Fort Union
Arsenal were $30,400. These apparently included a new home for the
commanding officer, which was completed by 1876. This structure was
built of adobe bricks on a stone foundation and had a pitched, tin roof.
It measured 48 feet by 78 feet and contained seven rooms, besides a
hallway, pantry, bathroom, and water closet. A small covered porch was
attached to the front of the house.

121




iHustration 46.

Depot Quartermaster Storehouse HS 42 is al left.
Frame structure at right is HS 43, Commissary Storehouse.
Wood pillars at entrance gates were positioned to keep
wagon wheels clear of the gate posts.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

216


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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
LIBRARY
Denver, Colorado

HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT
HISTORICAL DATA SECTION J
THE THIRD FORT UNION, 1863-1891
FORT UNION NATIONAL MONUMENT
NEW MEXICO

by
Dwight T. Pitcaithley
and
Jerome A. Greene

United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Denver Service Center


As the nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the
Interior has basic responsibilities to protect and conserve our land and
water, energy and minerals, fish and wildlife, parks and recreation
areas, and to ensure the wise use of ail these resources. The
department also has major responsibility for American !ndian reservation
communities and for people who live in island territories under U.S.
administration.

Publication. services were provided by the graphics staff of the Denver
Service Center. NPS 1866



1 Coround Pan of Blackrmilacheg | Ne

arloa eat

1 Grout Wiew of Bospitel Store Bjonse.

y
i
1» Greand fran of

fy
| Aesptladsttnre Home.

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Leon

wtf Be

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1 Quot View f Balers.

tf nape

*  Greana Pian of Bakery.


This structure appears to have been started in 1879, for work on it
was suspended in January 1880, because of the reduced garrison at Fort
Union. Located at the right rear of the hospital proper, this brick-lined
latrine, like others at the post, probably was enclosed by an adobe wall
erected in a simple rectangular pattern. Probably it was an earth closet.
If HS 59 was ever completed its use was shortlived, for an 1883 plat
shows that a smilarly shaped latrine was built near the dead house, at
the extreme left corner of the hospital compound.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection. "Fort Union, New Mexico, Locality and History of
Post, 1873." Medical History of Post, #4, p. 19.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1878, 1883.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Report, 1872.

100


War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 8. A
Report on the Hygiene of the United States Army, with Descriptions
of Posts, p. 105.

60


HS 21. Chapel, School, and Library

Located next to the post guardhouse, HS 21 functioned variously as
a chapel, a schoolhouse, and a library through most of Fort Union's
existence. Despite the remoteness of the post, religion and education
remained important concerns for many of the soldiers and their families.
Although chaplains stationed at the fort were always of the Protestant
faith, Catholic soldiers attended mass given by traveling priests who
occasionally passed through the country.

HS 21 was built in 1867 to serve as a chapel, "the basement to be
used as a schoolroom for enlisted men &c." By 1869 the structure was
also functioning as a library, although three years later an inspecting
officer found it unsuitable for its purpose. Operation of the post school
was placed under the supervision of the chaplain. {It was to "be properly
policed each day by the prisoners under the charge of the guard at such
hours as will not interfere with the School." Both enlisted men and
dependent children attended classes in separate rooms of the building.

The adobe structure housed the schoolroom and library (300 volumes
by 1889) from the time of its construction. The post chapel, however,
was moved, according to an 1872 inspection report, to the north side of
the post quartermaster corral. In 1877 the church services were once
again held in the schoolroom, but in March, 1880, they were being held
in the post commander's office. By the late 1880s services were again
being held in the library room. The school functioned intermittently, its
operation dependent on enrollment and thus on the fluctuations of
garrison strength. Generally, an enlisted man was designated as
"overseer" of the school; qualified teachers were seldom encountered at
Fort Union, despite repeated requests by the post commander that a
"competent" school teacher be assigned there.

46




HS 55. Ice House

This structure, in which ice was stored and also used to refrigerate
vegetables and other perishable food, was built in 1868 along the row of
depot corral sheds at the north end of Fort Union. Little is known of its
Physical appearance, the major historical documentation of the structure
consisting primarily of plats of the fort. The early building was lost in
the June, 1874, fire that swept through the garrison. A new ice house
was erected in the same approximate location within two years. Built of
adobe and logs with a pitched plank roof and measuring 50 feet long by
25 feet wide, this structure had a capacity for 150 tons of ice and was
described as being in good condition as of 1886. Ice for this building
(and the earlier ice house) was obtained in winter from a pond specially
made by damming a small stream running by the fort.

SOURCES»
Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, pp. 5-6. Inspection Report, 1889.

Fort Union National Monument. Research Files. Special Order No. 4,
January 7, 1868.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1874, 1876.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photographs of Fort Union, SC-87987, CN 3652-1876.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

95


stores directly to the territory's sub-posts. “4 Supplies were thereafter

occasionally drawn from Fort Union but only on an emergency basis.°

This diminution of the fort's logistical responsibilities directly
affected the form and use of the fort's buildings. For example, following
the fire of 1874, the transportation corral was rebuilt on a much smaller

scale, reflecting a significant reduction in the demands being placed upon
+, 46 .
it.

Furthermore, as the need for the Fort Union Depot continued to
decline, one of the extraneous warehouses was converted into a
+ ; 47
gymnasium, bowling alley, and pistol range.

The gradual erosion of the post's strategic importance was greatly
accelerated in 1879 by the arrival of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Railroad in Las Vegas. Supplies destined for New Mexico's forts were
thereafter shipped by rail, and the need for the services offered by the

Fort Union Depot no longer existed. “8 Indeed, the coming of the railroad

44. Nelson Henry Davis, "Inspection Report," December 28, 1872;
Jeremiah Howard Gilman to Robert Macfeely, November 14, 1878, "Fort
Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster
General, RG 92, NA; Woodward, "Fort Union, New Mexico," pp. 277-79.

45. Gilman to Macfeely, November 14, 1878; Woodward, "Fort Union, New
Mexico," pp. 278-79.

46. John D. Creighton, "Diagram of Transportation Corral at Fort Union
Depot, NM," August 4, 1874, Fort Union, New Mexico, No. 12, Records
of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, RG 77, NA; Kimball, "Plan of
Fort Union, N.M.," July, 1876.

47. Kimball, "Plan of Fort Union, N.M.," July, 1876; First Lieutenant
James R. Cranston, "Annual Inspection of Public Buildings at Fort Union,
New Mexico on the 31st day of March 1885)," March 31, 1885, "Fort
Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster
General, RG 92, NA.

48. The need for a large garrison of troops at the post of Fort Union
was sharply reduced following the Red River War in 1874. This campaign
so demoralized the Plains Indians that troops from Fort Union were no
longer required to patrol the Southern Plains. From then until the
abandonment of the fort, local disorders provided the only diversion for
the isolated troops. Utley, Fort Union, pp. 49, 57-58.

20


222

Ulustration 49.

Fort Union Post Hospital

Courtesy of the National

(HS 57).

Archives.


0&2

illustration 53.

Sutler's
c. 1860s.

store

at

Fort

Union,


completely repaired. By the mid-1880s, water damage to many of the
structures was so great that walls had to be supported by logs. In 1886,
Colonel Henry Douglass, after an annual inspection, reported that:

The adobe buildings at this post were originally plastered on
the exterior to protect them from the washings of the violent
storms which prevail here during the summer. This plaster has
fallen off, leaving the walls exposed to the weather. There is
a heavy brick coping on top of the walls and the wall
underneath becomes furrowed and hollowed out, weakening the
walls very much, and the superincumbent weight of the coping
renders the wall very insecure. Corners of buildings cra

and fall out, whole sides of buildings fall out occasionally.

Indeed, during an inspection six months later, the side wall of a
squadroom separated from the roof and threatened to collapse completely

until it was pushed back into place and braced with "heavy timbers.>!

A vigorous program of regular maintenance could have prevented
some of the major structural problems at the post were it not for the
existence of an interesting paradox: during the summer months--the
season in which structural repairs could most easily be made--the

garrison was on patrol and absent from the fort. 32

It was the Army's
stated preference to have repairs to the structures performed by the
troops rather than by skilled civilian labor. But not only were the troops
regularly unavailable to work on the buildings, but they also lacked the
technical expertise needed to curtail Fort Union's structural decline. In
1870, for example, Commanding Officer Colonel J. Irvin Gregg

recommended that a "competent Mechanic or Architect be directed to

30. Colonel Henry Douglass, “Inspection Report of Fort Union, New
Mexico," September 1-5, 1886, File 1036 1886, Letters Received, Records
of the Office of the Inspector General, RG 159, NA.

31. Colonel William F. Drum, "Report of an inspection of the post of Fort
Union, N.M., made by Lieutenant Colonel W.F. Drum, 12th Inf., Acting
Inspector General, Department of Arizona, on the 16th, 17th, and 18th
days of March, 1887."

32. Colonel Nelson Henry Davis, "Inspection Report," December 28,
1872; John W. Pullman to Quartermaster General USA, June 30, 1873.

16


HS 58. Stewards' Quarters

* Little is known about HS 58 beyond its representation on a plat
accompanying an 1872 inspection report of Fort Union. Used to house the
stewards assigned duty in the hospital, HS 58 was probably built of
adobe with a plank roof. The structure apparently stood until the post

was abandoned.

SOURCES
National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Report, 1872.

99


QSL

illustration 16.

Plan of Depot Corrals at Fort Union,
1867.

Courtesy of the National Archives.



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to show signs of dilapidation. Southwest corner of Commanding Officer's
Quarters cracked and was in danger of falling out." From this date on,
the Army made no attempt to maintain the nine structures. In 1889 Lt.
George H. Burton reported that "the Officers' Quarters are probably in
better condition generally than the rest of the post with the one
exception noted above (hospital), and they all leak and the walls are
gradually washing away. Should it be desired to undertake a general
repair, it would be difficult to determine where to begin or where to
end." it is clear that the Army did not desire to perform the necessary
repairs and when the fort was abandoned in 1891 Officers Row, along

with most of the other buildings, was rapidly succumbing to the elements.

SOURCES

Alexander, Eveline M. Cavalry Wife: The Diary of Eveline M. Alexander,
1866-1867. Ed. by Sandra L. Myres. College Station: Texas
A & M University Press, 1977, p. 77.

Arrott Collection, 1866, No. 5, p. 28. Major Elisha G. Marshall to
Captain Cyrus H. DeForrest, December, 1866.

Arrott Collection, 1866, No. 5, p. 68. Major Elisha G. Marshall to
Captain Henry Inman, December 26, 1866. .

Arrott Collection, 1867, No. 1, p. 60. Captain Henry tnman to First
Lieutenant Granville Lewis, February 11, 1867.

Arrott Collection, 1867, No. 2, P. 80. Major Andrew J. Alexander to
Acting Assistant Adjutant General, December 4, 1874.

Arrott Collection, 1877, No. 3, p. 7. Lieutenant Colonel Nathan A.M.
Dudley to Assistant Adjutant General, July 18, 1877.

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 6. Inspection Report.

Boyd, Mrs. Orsemus B. Cavalry Life Tent and Field. New York: J.
Selwin Tait and Sons, 1894, p. 204.

Lane, Lydia Spencer. 1 Married a _ Soldier. Philadelphia: J.B.
Lippincott, 1893, pp. 143, 145, 146.

LaTourette, Genevieve. "Fort Union Memories," New Mexico Historical
Review, XXVI (October, 1951), p. 283.

28






Fort Union National Monument. Research Files.

Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," pp. 24, 25, 151-52.

Rickey, Don, Jr. Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay: The Enlisted
Soldier Fighting the Indian Wars. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1963, pp. 161-62.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 221.

109


88L

Illustration 32.

Depot Officers' Quarters under

construction, circa 1866.

Courtesy of the National

Archives.




OEL

Jilustration 3.

Plan of Post and Depot, Fort Union,

Courtesy of the National Archives.

1877.




HS 24. Bakery

The original site of the post bakery was in the second (and possibly
the third) cubicle from the northwest end of HS 23. The original 1866
plans for the post called for the end room of laundresses' row to be used
for the storage of coal and lime. It is doubtful that this ever occurred,
for on maps prepared after the buildings had been erected the lime
storage was located in the western end of HS 25. In any case, a map of
the post dated June 30, 1872, indicated that the end room was used for
the “Band Kitchen & messroom." During 1875, however, HS 25 was
extensively remodeled and the new facilities included both the quarters
and kitchen for the regimental band. As a result, HS 24 was converted
to laundresses' quarters. Because of the posting of two additional
companies to Fort Union, the original bakery apparently proved incapable
of meeting the increased demands placed upon it. Thus, in 1877, a new
oven was constructed on the site of the first oven, but oriented to the
north so that the bakery could occupy the northernmost room of HS 23.

The bakery remained in this location until the fort was abandoned
and possibly received better treatment, because of its important function,
than most of the other structures. in 1887 Colonel William F. Drum
remarked that “The Commanding Officer gave his personal attention to the
management of the bakery." Nevertheless, Lieutenant Colonel George H.
Burton noted two years later that the bakery was “ample in capacity, but
tumbling down."

SOURCES
Arrott Collection, 1865. Card No. 00165. Lieutenant Colonel Edward B.
Willis to Captain William H. Bell.

Arrott Collection, 1877. Card No. 00280. Second Lieutenant Ballard S.
Humphrey to Captain Amos S. Kimball.

Arrott Collection, 1877, No. 3, p. 7. Lieutenant Colonel Nathan A.M.
Dudley Report, July 18, 1877.

52


Miscellaneous Post Structures

1. Sutter's Store and Cognate Buildings

The post sutler at every military post was a civilian merchant
appointed to the position by the War Department. His facilities were not
owned by the army, although a committee of designated military officers
known as Post Council of Administration strictly monitored the prices and
quality of the sutler's goods. At Fort Union the large sutler's store
stood west and south of the depot officers' quarters. Built in the late
1860s, the structure was managed by the firm of Moore, Michel, and
Company, which also operated establishments at Fort Bliss, Texas, and
Tecolote, New Mexico. The Fort Union store supplied the other two and
generally had on hand upwards of $500,000 worth of merchandise.
Soldiers and settlers could purchase "coffee, sugar, soda, tobacco and
bacon, calico, domestic, linsey, jeans, leather and gingham, officers’
clothing, tin buckets, wooden tubs, coffee pots, iron 'skillets-and-leds,'

iron ovens, crowbars, shovels, plows and harness."

Structurally, the store was “built like a fort," with 150-foot-long
walls of brick two stories high with an open plaza in the center. Interior
rooms included an office, a safe room, and the store itself. Continuous
ownership of this building throughout Fort Union's active existence is
uncertain. Probably Moore, Michel, and Company remained until the
mid-1870s. By 1876 the post sutler was a man named John Dent, and in
March 1887, a Mr. E.D. Woodbury held the position. As the fort
developed, additional buildings were erected near the store to serve new
functions. These were apparently under the management of, though not
necessarily owned by, the post trader. In 1866 a hotel opened, followed
in 1870 by a restaurant, bowling alley, and saloon operated by Adolph
Greisinger. Bachelor officers assigned to Fort Union often took rooms in
the hotel. In 1872 Thomas Lahey and Edward McDonald leased the hotel
and ancillary establishments from Greisinger, requesting of the
commanding officer to “be allowed the privilege of continuing the
Restaurant business, sale of Beer & Cigars, and . . . to make our house
_an accommodation to the Officers of this and other Posts as well as to the

106


SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1873, No. 2. Locality and History of Post, 1873.
Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 1. Inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1876, 1877, 1889.

‘National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photographs of Fort Union, SC-87999, SC-88010, SC-88011,
SC-88018. .

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records .of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
Amos W. Kimball to Chief Quartermaster, Fort Leavenworth,
February 13, 1876. .

Inspection Reports, 1868, 1876, 1877, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. inspection Report, 1872.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 249.

70




Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain

National Archives.
District of New Mexico,

Quartermaster General.
Gilbert Cole Smith to Chief Quartermaster,
June 28, 1874.

Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886, 1889.
Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the

National Archives.
Inspection Report, 1868.

Inspector General.

88


A. Name and Number of Structures.

The Third Fort consists of fifty-six structures occupying approximately
100 acres. Numbers as designated on the List of Classified Structures go
from HB-01 through HB-64, with some numbers not used. All structures
belong to Category A. Fort Union was located 100 miles northeast of
Santa Fe, on the mountain. branch of the Santa Fe Trail. Moderan access
is via New Mexico Highway 477, eight miles from Interstate 25 at Watrous.
Las Vegas, New Mexico, lies approximately thirty miles to the south.

B. Proposed Use of Structures.

Continuation of public visitation for the purposes of historical

interpretation and research.
Cc. Justification for Use.

The ruins of the Third Fort Union mark the location of the major military
supply point along the Santa Fe Trail. Consisting of the post proper,
the quartermaster depot, and the hospital, Fort Union gave protection
and shelter to area inhabitants and travelers along the Santa Fe Trail,
and aided in the distribution of supplies to other forts in the Southwest.
The remaining adobe ruins and limestone foundations represent a prime
early example of the New Mexico Territorial style of architecture.

D. Provisions for Operating Structures.

Fort Union National Monument is operated by the National Park Service in
accordance with a Master Plan dated 1964, a Statement for Management
dated 1976, and other planning documents. The National Park Service
agreed during congressional hearings establishing the monument that there
would be no reconstruction of Fort Union. Current
preservation/stabilization efforts are therefore directed toward protection

of the ruins in their existing form.


HS 37. Steam Engine House

As noted earlier, a fire on February 13, 1876, completely destroyed
the depot's frame machine shop, the adjoining boiler house, and a portion
of the lumber yard. A new enclosure for the still-operable steam engine
was aimost immediately constructed at the southwest corner of the
mechanics! corral. This flat-roofed adobe structure measured 30 feet by
19 feet 6 inches and contained, in addition to the engine room, a wood
and lime room. The steam engine was linked to and provided power for
the planing mill and for other wood-working equipment in the adjacent
western wing of HS 36. In addition, during the early months of 1877 a
new pump was installed in the well of the mechanics' corral (HS 38) and
was connected to the steam engine "by a line of shafting so that water is

now raised by steampower, instead of Horsepower as heretofore."

By the mid-1880s the adobe structure had become so deteriorated
that it was at least partially, and possibly completely, rebuilt between
1885 and 1888. The reconstruction effort seems to have been an act of
futility, however, for an 1889 map of the depot depicts the "New Engine

House" as being torn down.

SOURCES

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1876, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Colonel
John C. McFerran to Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs,
March 25, 1865.

71


SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 5. Inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
Photographs of Fort Union, SC-87989, SC-87990, SC-87991,
SC~-87992, SC-88006.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records. of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1867, 1877, 1885, 1886, 1887.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. !nspection Reports, 1868, 1872, 1886.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 248.




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

illustration

RwWN-

Pian of Fort Union Post and Depot, 1866
Fort Union Military Reservation, 1868 . . .
Plan of Post and Depot, Fort Union, 1877

Overview of the Fort Union Post, Quartermaster Depot, “and

Arsenal, September, 1882 .

Plan of Fort Union Post and Depot, “4883

Plan of Post and Depot, Fort Union, 1889

Plans of various structures at Fort Union, 1866
Elevation of Post Officers' Quarters, 1867 . .
Plan of Commanding Officer's Quarters, c. 1867 .
Plan of Company Quarters at Fort Union, 1866
Elevations of Company Quarters, Fort Union, 1866.
Plan of Corrals and Stables, Fort Union, 1867 .
Elevation of Laundresses' Quarters, Fort Union, 1867
Plan of Depot Officers' Quarters, 1866 . . .
Plan of Depot Officers' Quarters, c. 1871 . .
Plan of Depot Corrals at Fort Union, 1867

Plan of Commissary Storehouse, Fort Union Depot, 1866.

Plan of the Fort Union Hospital, 1878
Depot Transportation Corral, 1874

Post building foundations under construction, c. 1865

Post Officers' Quarters under construction, c. 1866
Post Officers' Quarters under construction, 1866
Post officers' quarters under construction, 1866
Fort Union Post Officers' Quarters, July, 1875

Fort Union, Post and Depot officers' quarters, May, 1876

A typical Post Officers' Quarters, c. 1890
Fort Union Company Quarters, 1866 . . .
Fort Union Company Quarters, 1866

View of one of the Company Quarters, September, ‘1866.

The Military Prison at Fort Union . .

Left: Door of Military Prison, 1913

Right: Cell entrances of Prison .
Depot Officers’ Quarters under construction, < c. 1866
Officers' Quarters, Fort Union Depot . .
Depot Officers' Quarters without porch

Depot Quartermaster's Office

Depot Clerk's Quarters .

The Fort Union Sun Dial, 1897

Depot Mechanics' Corral, 1866. .
West wing of the Depot Mechanics’ Shops .
Depot Mechanics! Shops, 1886 . . . .
View of Depot structures . . .
View of Depot structures . .

Two Quartermaster Warehouses at Fort Union Depot
Depot Quartermaster Storehouses . . .
Depot Quartermaster Storehouses’ . .
Depot Quartermaster and Commissary Storehouses .

vii

126
128
130

132
134
136
138
140
142
144
146
148
150
152
154
156
158
160
162
164
166
168
170
172
174
176
178
180
182
184

186
188
190
192
194
196
198
200
202
204
206
208
210
212
214
216


HS 65. Deadhouse

The deadhouse, or morgue, was located in the extreme left
(northwest) corner of the hopsital complex. {t originally housed a
laundresses' quarters, too, and in early 1867 was described as follows:

One building 56 feet long 13 feet wide, 10 ft. high between sills
with six windows of fifteen lights each, eight by ten glass, and
two four-panel doors two feet six inches wide, six feet six
inches high, . . . built of adobe with tin roof.

A photograph of this rectangular structure in May, 1876, shows that
it then possessed a pitched, shingled roof with a chimney flue positioned

at the southwest corner.

The function of this building perhaps changed over the years. In
1872, for example, the deadhouse was indicated as consisting of a small
structure located adjacent to the stewards' quarters (HS 58). Four years
later the building in the far left rear of the hospital was again designated
as the deadhouse. It seemingly retained that function until the

abandonment of the post.

SOURCES
National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1872, 1876, 1883.

National) Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photograph of Fort Union, NA-165-FF-7-E-2.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Report, 1867.

105


SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 1. Inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photograph of Fort Union, SC-87992.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Estimate
for Repairs, June 30, 1874.
Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico~-Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 247.

75


2eL

SIlustration 29.

View of one of the Company Quarters
CHS 14) at Fort Union in September,

1866.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


HS 60. Wood House

This small structure was used to store wood for the fireplaces in the
hospital. Details of its construction are unknown.

SOURCE
National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Report, 1872.

101


HS 48-49. Granaries

The yard occupied by these two buildings was originally occupied by
a complex of three granaries and a wagon shed. Initially, only one long
L-shaped granary was envisioned, but by the fall of 1866 three granaries
and at least part of the wagon shed had been constructed. The three
granaries were of frame construction with board-and-batten exteriors and
pitched shingled roofs and were raised off the ground by short,
vertically-placed logs or posts. The northernmost granary measured
approximately 20 feet by 150 feet, the eastern one 20 feet by 160 feet,
and the center storehouse 20 feet by 80 feet. Along the southeast and
southwest sides of this corral was an L-shaped shed that sheltered
miscellaneous wagons and carriages. This structure was undoubtedly less
substantial and in all likelihood was constructed of vertical pine slab walls
with either a slab or an earthen roof.

These structures were carefully described by Major Andrew WwW.
Evans during his 1868 inspection of the depot.

On East side of the main corral. . . is the corral of
Forage-houses or _  granaries. These are open’ framework
buildings, three in number, raised from the ground on logs,
having sloping roofs, and are dry and well ventilated.
Carriage houses were here also, with private carriages in them
and that of the Sutler; and under Shelter were found 2
caissons of the Post guns, 4 yellow ambulances, 2 old Spring
wagons, a room of Single & Double trees, & four old battery
forges mot much cared for. Then a room with bran,
unserviceable sacks (over 10000 in number) &c. There was also
a shed engine house, enclosed & covered, having an old
double-deck Philadelphia fire engine, with hose & buckets; the
machine covered by a pauline.

The first granary stood in the centre, and had two rooms, the
first containing a lot of sacks; the second containing oats in
sacks, covering a Corn Sheller.

The second granary, on the North side, contained oats, and a
little flour.

The third granary, on the East side, contained corn at each
“end. . .

86



vel

Illustration 25.

Fort Union, Post and Depot officers'
quarters, May, 1876. Left. to right,
HS 1-9, and HS 27-29. Note cistern
CHS 34) in foreground.

Courtesy of the National Archives.




HS 25. Company Quarters

As originally planned and constructed, HS 25 contained the offices
and storerooms of the post quartermaster. When completed during the
summer of 1867, the structure measured 410 feet by 30 feet and comprised
(from the bakery northeastward) two privies and a lime storage, a
106-foot-long granary, a commissary storeroom, a small issuing room,
another commissary storeroom, quarters and offices for both the post
commissary and quartermaster, and, finally, a 100-foot storeroom for
quartermaster stores. Between 1867 and 1872 the large granary was
divided and the northeastern half became the post chapel. By 1872,
however, the depot quartermaster and commissary had absorbed the
responsibilities of the post quartermaster and commissary and the supplies
which had been stored in HS 25 were transferred to the depot. From
1873 to 1875 the now-extraneous structure served as quarters for the
Eighth Cavalry Band and "Extra Duty Men," and continued to house the
chapel.

In 1875 the army decided to expand Fort Union from a four- to a
six-company post. Though "much out of repair," HS 25 was extensively
altered to accomodate both a full company of soldiers and the regimental
band. The work was completed during the summer of 1876. The new
structure consisted of a kitchen (located over a former privy), a dining
room, a squadroom, an office and quarters for a first sergeant, and a
reading room, and in addition a kitchen, dining room, quarters,
squadroom, and storeroom ai! for the use of the band. Chapel services
were moved to HS 21. HS 25 served in this capacity until its
abandonment late in 1889, although in 1886 the depot quartermaster
reported that one of the rooms was being used as a "Theatre."

Available evidence indicates that both HS 25 and HS 15 were only
occasionally occupied and were employed when all six companies were
Present at the fort. As a result, those two structures experienced more
rapid deterioration than did the four original barracks. An 1883 map of
Fort ‘Union noted that the northeastern end of the building had "fallen in

ruins," and depicted the north wall as having "bulged." The collapsed

54


HS 23. Laundresses' Quarters

This set of Laundresses' Quarters, like HS 16, was completed during
the summer of 1867. It measured 292 feet by 20 feet, including the
guardhouse and the bakery, and contained eleven cubicles, each of which
measured 18 feet by 20 feet. Each cubicle contained a fireplace and
shared a chimney with its neighbor. Like its counterpart, HS 16, this
structure did not possess a porch.

Although used principally as quarters for laundresses, the building
also served other functions. Until 1877, the post bakery occupied the
second and possibly the third rooms from the northwestern end of the
structure. During that year the bakery was moved to the extreme
northwest end of the building and its former location was converted into
quarters. This conversion was: the only known instance of HS 23 ever
being significantly altered. In 1869 the depot quartermaster, Captain
George W. Bradley, reported that one of the rooms was used as the post
library. Although Bradley did not specify in which room the library was
located, in all probability it occupied a cubicle close to the guardhouse in
order to be more centrally located. By 1872 the library had been moved
to one of the barracks. The building's use as quarters for laundresses
continued until the fate 1880s. Thereafter, according to a medical report
of October 1889, the building was used for the storage of ordnance
Property.

SOURCES

ArrOte agulection, 1889, No. 1, p. 1. Medical Inspection, October 9,

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1883, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
George W. Bradley to Major Marshall 1. Ludington, May 18, 1869.

Inspection Reports, 1885, 1886.

50


12

corral. Following these structural modifications, the fort remained

relatively unchanged until the late 1880s when several structures were

dismantled because of their deteriorated condition. '3

Indeed, from the moment they were completed until their
abandonment in 1891, the fort's adobe structures were in an almost
constant state of unremitting deterioration. The territorial style of
architecture proved to be lamentably inadequate on the exposed plains of
eastern New Mexico. The flat, tin-covered roofs were unable to provide
sufficient protection from the wind-driven rain and hail storms which
plagued that level open country. As a result, cracks developed, water
seeped through the roofs and walls into the adobe, walls separated from
the roofs and threatened to collapse, and floors and foundations rotted.
The physical decline of the structures was hastened by two additional
factors: the inability of the troops to perform the necessary repairs at a
time when strict economy measures prohibited the employment of citizen
craftsmen and a pronounced unwillingness on the part of Army officialdom
to appropriate sufficient funds for annual maintenance. Because the
structural decay was quite apparent as early as 1867 and continued to
manifest itself throughout the life of the post, its causes warrant further

analysis.

When Captain John Cours McFerran, Chief Quartermaster of the
District of New Mexico, prepared the initial plans of Fort Union, he
indicated that all structures were to have shingled roofs, which by
definition would be pitched. '4 But on April 26, 1863, General Carleton

12. Amos K. Kimball to Chief Quartermaster Fort Leavenworth,
February 13, 1876, “Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the
Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA; Kimball, "Plan of Fort
Union, N.M.," July, 1876.

13. "Plan of Fort Union, N.M.," 1889, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files,
Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

14. Carleton to Meigs, November 3, 1862, Letters Sent, Vol. 13,

Pp. 132-133, District of New Mexico, Records of U.S. Army Continental
Commands, RG 393, NA,

12




HS 18. Cavalry Corral

The Cavalry Corral was enclosed on the southeast and southwest
sides by HS 15, 16, and 17 and on the northwest, northeast, and a
portion of the southeast side by an adobe wall twelve feet high. Within
the corral, the Army constructed two parallel stables each measuring 250
feet by 30 feet. These wooden structures were built on stone foundations
and possessed pitched, shingled roofs. The two stables were open
structures until the mid-1870's when they were completely enclosed with
vertical plank siding. Along the wall which ran southeast and southwest
from the two stables to the northwestern end of HS 15 were long
shed-like stables which were built into the corral wall. These structures,
one of which measured 174 feet by 16 feet and the other 100 feet by 10
feet, consisted of a shed roof which extended into the corral from the
wall and which was supported by wooden posts. In addition, a June 30,
1873, map of the Post shows a sink adjacent to, but outside of, the

northwestern corner of the corral.

In September, 1867, Depot Quartermaster First Lieutenant Alexander
Sutorious, noted that the "Post Corral was about one fifth completed, the
walls being all up and the roofs on." It is presumed that the stables
were completed sometime during the following spring and summer.

The stables remained in use probably until the late 1880's. Although
the evidence is both conflicting and confusing, it seems that both
buildings were demolished sometime between March 18, 1887, when
Lieutenant Colonel W.J. Drum alluded to their existence, and 1889, when
a map of the Post listed them as having been "Torn Down." (The
structural chronology of the stables within the cavalry corral is
imprecise. Neither the stables nor the sheds are depicted on maps of the
Post after 1883. Although inspection reports after 1883 clearly reveal
that the stables were present, it is impossible to determine the extent of
the structures during the 1880's or precisely when they were abandoned

and torn down.)

4


HS 20. Wheelwright, Carpenter, Blacksmith Shops

The building containing HS 20 and HS 21 was probably among those
completed during the summer of 1867. It measured 214 feet by 30 feet
and contained three large rooms with one smaller chamber usually used
for coal storage. Built in the Territorial Style like most of the buildings

in the post corrals, it did not possess a porch.

For most of its existence this structure housed shops for a
wheelwright, a carpenter, and, at the northeastern end, a blacksmith.
During the 1870s, however, one of the rooms was used as a messroom for
prisoners. It then reverted briefly to a shop. In later years, because
of its poor condition, HS 20 was used as a storehouse.

During the 1870's HS 20 suffered from the elements as much as any
other structure at Fort Union. During the following decade, however,
the building experienced a rapid structural decline. A map of the post in
1883 noted that the walls of several of the rooms were bulging and that
the northeastern end of the blacksmith's shop had completely collapsed.
Within two years the building was considered unsafe and was used only
for storage purposes. HS 20 continued to deteriorate and between 1886
and 1889 it was totally dismantled.

SOURCES
National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1867, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1883, 1889.
National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain

George W. Bradley to Major Marshall !. Ludington, May 18, 1869.

Inspection Reports, 1870, 1885, 1886.

45


HS 39. Quartermaster Storehouse

The southernmost of the five depot storehouses appears on the
March, 1866, plan of the fort and was probably completed during the
following year. This warehouse measured 200 feet by 20 feet (half as
wide as the other four storehouses) and contained nine rooms.

Because HS 39 was divided into relatively small rooms, the structure
was used primarily for the storage and disbursement of small items.
During the summer of 1868, Captain George W. Bradley inspected Fort
Union and vividly described the building.

The first warehouse of Q.M. Stores is divided into a number of
small neat rooms: No. 1 was empty; No. 2 was the
Store-keepers room or office; No. 3 contained Hardware neatly
arranged on shelves, Such as Carpenters tools, screws, bolts,
augers, &c much material of al sorts: No. 4 was the issue room
of the M.S.K.; No. 5 contained Stores for Shipment in boxes &
condemned property; No. 6 contained bits, Straps, Saddles,
Surcingles girths, citizen-Saddles, blankets &e. for
transportation; No. 7 contained on Shelves, Horse medicines &
Stationary, blanks, Spirits-Nitre, Lamp chimneys, Inks, &c,
&c. in good & neat order; No's 8 & 9 contained unserviceable
Stores to be presented for condemnation.

Like other buildings of the depot, the storehouse suffered from
exposure to the elements. In 1877, Depot Quartermaster Captain Amos S.
Kimball recommended that the structure be plastered, painted, the roof
repaired, and the walls straightened and anchored. But it appears that
the function and plan of the building did not change throughout the
twenty-five years of its use. tn 1886, an eight-foot-wide loading dock
running the length of the structure was added on the north side, and
although the condition of the building fluctuated, it seemingly remained in
use until 1891. HS 39 was described as being in fair condition as of
1889.

74



9EL

Illustration 6.

Plan of Post and Depot, Fort Union,
1889.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


yw aie
ieee

RESERVA TION PR

ee oe

lel po
Hin ge
HE eS
ne &



Following the Confederate reversal at Apache Canyon in March of
1862, Fort Union, New Mexico Territory, entered its third and final
phase, Established in 1851 as a supply post on the Santa Fe Trail, the
initial collection of hastily constructed log huts gave way ten years later
to a massive, if no less hastily constructed, earthen fort designed in an
eight pointed "star" configuration. The anticipated Confederate force
under the command of Brigadier General Henry H. Sibley never reached
the fort, however, and its dank interiors quickly became both physically
intolerable and strategically superfluous. Recognizing that neither the
by-now decrepit log fort nor the progressively sodden "star" fort were
adequate for the storage and disbursement of supplies to New Mexico's
sub-posts, the Army promptly approved plans for a new and greatly
expanded post and quartermaster depot which would satisfy all logistical
needs and present a more commanding appearance than either of its

Predecessors. 1

Designed by Captain John C. McFerran, Chief Quartermaster of the
District of New Mexico and refined by Depot Quartermaster Captain
Henry J. Farnsworth, the mew complex consisted of three separate
military entities: the Post proper, an elaborate Quartermaster Depot, and

1. The wisdom of locating New Mexico's primary supply depot in the far
eastern portion of the territory seems somewhat questionable. The major
Indian campaigns of the 1850s were conducted in the southern and
western sectors of New Mexico--far from the effective supply capabilities
of Fort Union. Some, including Brigadier General James H. Carleton,
commander of the district of New Mexico, favored relocating the post and
depot to Albuquerque. But the momentum generated over the previous
ten years appears to have kept the fort in its original location. Robert
M. Utley, Fort Union National Monument, New Mexico (Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1962), No. 35; National Park Service
Historical Handbook Series, p. 50; Chris Emmett, Fort Union and the
Winning of the Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965),
p. 281. In June, 1862, Major Henry D. Wallen reported that "the log
huts at the old [first] post are very much decayed and not susceptible
of being repaired. The quarters and store-houses inside the field work
[star fort] are damp, badly ventilated and not fit to be occupied except

in an emergency .... | would respectfully urge the immediate
necessity of erecting new quarters and_ store-houses at this
point. . . ." Wallen to Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs, June 30,

1862. Miscellaneous records of the Quartermaster General's Office relating
to Fort Bowie, Arizona, and Fort Union, New Mexico. Microfilm roll
MC 12. Arizona Historical Society, Tucson.


fl Hi} JA A —
a) | Coe

i 7 ae
pro mt PE Post Corral 102. - Plan
4 rv a
j i — For? Union, Trew Meiica. an
FE arn tet fT] . a

Stoukle reap,

me TITTITT 1 ee, T ~ Seales 1 inate = $00 fath 10
FF Ziplanakine: t=
Zitimas tm rad indiond watts Ie kermeteagde,
fea TF - ola tne brim
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t c ad Fbr8 Unie, 7eicalneyite,
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I of ha asddittons,albpations, anelrepairs manta
| fir ha your imding Teme 80,
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His sis cis sie sia Bic sts | sll aia | Gaflsseh
(eee ie hee

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Li.



National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
George W. Bradley to Major Marshall |. Ludington, May 18, 1869.
Colonel Nathan A.M. Dudley to Assistant Adjutant General, July 18,
1877.

Inspection Reports, 1870, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Colonel! Herbert M. Enos to unidentified recipient,
September 24, 1867.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 4.
Report on Barracks and Hospitals with Descriptions of Military Posts,
p. 260.

49


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank the following individuals and institutions
for their assistance in the completion of this study: Richard W. Sellars,
Chief, National Park Service Southwest Cultural Resources Center, Santa
Fe, New Mexico, who accomplished much of the initial documentary
research; Melody Webb, National Park Service Southwest Regional
Historian, Santa Fe; the staff of Fort Union National Monument,
particularly Unit Manager Carol Kruse, Park Technician Jennifer Freed,
and Chief of Interpretation James Boll; and the staffs of the Donally
Library, Highlands University, Las Vegas, New Mexico; the National
Archives, Washington, D.C.; the New Mexico State Archives and Records
Center, Santa Fe; the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; the University of
Colorado Library, Boulder; and the Denver Public Library.

iii


89L

Mlustration 22.

Post Officers' Quarters
under construction, 1866.

Courtesy of the National

(HS

1-3)

Archives.


26L

Ulustration 34.

Depot Officers' Quarters (HS 27,
HS 28, or HS 29) before the porch
was erected.

Courtesy of the National Archives.




Corn Hotise.

650" ©

----

yd

Er

saetieaaens Litt

HE

LEA

S Magan Currat

Mula Stablee

Side elevation of Stables

#

PLAN OF DEPOT CORRALS AL
~ FORT CNIOXK, Nw MM,

BVT, MAJOR. ager INMAN, A. QML CNA,
Dayan te Tohin heanbert

AO! Bay 1867

Desiqued by BVP COL, HM. BROS, Ohl. Or Mr Diet NB.
\

Pave
| . ; oT

Bud. elevation af Stables



HS 33-34. Cisterns

The depot contained two circular cisterns which were located between
the depot offices and warehouses. Evidence indicates only that the
northern cistern (HS 33) was in existence by June, 1868, and that the
southern one (HS 34) was under construction in October, 1869. Each
reservoir measured 15 feet in diameter and 16 feet deep. Each was lined
with brick, and possessed a low domed top constructed of brick and
covered with plaster. An opening approximately 2 feet by 3 feet
provided access into each cistern, which had a capacity of 20,000 to
22,000 gallons. Both cisterns were connected by pipes to the roofs of
the depot warehouses. Sometime prior to 1876 each reservoir was
enclosed by a decorative pipe and chain fence.

In 1883, the depot quartermaster obtained two "double action force
pumps" and probably installed them on the two reservoirs the following
year. When fitted out with rubber hoses, these pumps provided
additional protection against fire. Although documentary evidence is
uncertain, both cisterns probably remained in use until the abandonment
of the post.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1873, No. 2. Inspection Report, 1873.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photographs of Fort Union, SC-88019, 623.19789.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Brigadier General Edward D. Townsend to the Quartermaster
General, October 13, 1869; First Lieutenant William F. Rice to Chief
Quartermaster, District of New Mexico, December 15, 1883.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," pp. 251-52.

66


marked the passing of an era. Freight wagons no longer creaked over
the Santa Fe Trail and into Fort Union to be repacked or repaired. The
spirited industry that characterized the depot during its initial years of
operation had vanished. The post stood plaintive and muted, neglected
by its creator and rendered obsolete by America's transportation
revolution. Yet efforts to abandon the fort were continually thwarted by
the territory's military commanders. Fort Union lingered on for an
additional twelve years and at the end represented nothing more than a

decaying relic from another age.

It is evident that although the fort was conceived in greatness and
heavily financed during the initial stages of construction, the third Fort
Union became merely another unwanted western fort shortly after its
construction. Plagued by official neglect and hostility, ineffective roofs,
incessant winds, and drenching seasonal rains, the fort fought and lost a
twenty-five year battle against progressively, foundering adobe
structures. When the fort was finally and officially abandoned in 1891, it
was literally a shell of its former self. Many of the structures had been
abandoned for years, and the remainder were only marginally habitable.
The troops who marched away from Fort Union on May 15, 1891, left
behind a post which had clearly outlived its usefulness and which, for a
variety of reasons, had been relegated to spend its last years as a

frontier outpost in ignominious decay.49

49. There was much local sentiment for retaining Fort Union, but owners
of the Mora grant, on which the post stood, wanted the army to move, a
desire that nicely coincided with government intentions to abandon the
fort. Army and Navy Journal, October 19, 1889.

21


HS 32. Depot Clerk's Quarters (Post Office)

The depot clerks' quarters, like HS 30 and 31, measured 57 feet by
54 feet, contained four rooms, and was completed by June, 1867.
Differing from those structures, however, HS 32 throughout its existence
: possessed a board fence in its rear. Apparently the western end of the
244-foot-long enclosure was changed to adobe in 1874 when the adobe wall
was constructed for the commissary office, but the north and south sides
of the enclosure remained of wood.

Originally, HS 32 was used as quarters for the clerks of the depot,
but during 1876-1877 the partition between the northern two rooms was
removed, perhaps to accomodate the fort's postmistress, Mrs. J.W. Brent,
who was occupying the building by 1883. Information regarding the use
of HS 32 as a post office remains unclear. !n November, 1875, the
commanding officer of Fort Union, Captain Henry A. Ellis, reported that
"The Post Office at this place is a small tumble down structure of mud
and broken boards utterly unsuited for the purpose to which it is
applied." Ellis requested that a more suitable building be erected by the
Post Office Department for the preservation of Fort Union's mail. Two
sets of plans were submitted and the request, initially denied, was later
approved. But the new. structure never materialized. Given the
apparent decrepit nature of the mud-and-board building in 1875 and the
removal of the partition in the clerks' quarters shortly thereafter, it
seems likely that HS 32 became the location for the post office at that
time, when further occupation of the enfeebled structure became
untenable. If this were the case, Mrs. Brent occupied the building and

carried on postal transactions there from roughly 1876 until just before
1885.

in the latter year she evidently vacated HS 32, for it was described
in an inspection report as an officers' quarters. While serving in this
capacity, a lavatory was installed in the structure. Between 1886 and
1889, HS 32 reverted once again to a quarters for the depot clerks. By
October, 1889, the building had been abandoned.

64


Ulustration 8.

Elevation of Post Officer's Quarters
(HS 1-4, 6-9), Fort Union, 1867.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

140


Other structures in the post corral included a well "with forcepump
and horsepower" and a water tank both of which were located northwest
of the two stables. When the underground water system was installed in
1885 the well was abandoned. According to an 1889 plat of the fort, a
sink was located in the center of the corral.

SOURCES

National Archives, Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1867, 1872, 1876, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
George W. Bradley to Major Marshall |. Ludington, May 18, 1869.
Inspection Reports, 1872, 1887.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the

Adjutant General. First Lieutenant Alexander Sutorius to
unidentified recipient, September 30, 1867.

57


sand.°? While each may have been temporarily successful, the result was
always the same. Three years after Lydia Lane's evening of
embarrassment, the district quartermaster reported that "all the roofs

1
leak more or less."

From then until 1891, the occupants of the fort
enjoyed only sporadic relief as the roofs continued to deteriorate.**
Perhaps it was because of the sodden condition of the buildings in 1875,
that Assistant Surgeon Peter Moffatt was prompted to inquire whether
adobe quarters were a "fruitful source not only of rheumatism, but

sciatica, and other forms of Neuralgia."=°

The impairment of the roofs was hastened by the incessant wind
which harassed the fort and regularly preyed on wooden oprivies,
woodsheds, sections of adobe walls, the post flagstaff, gates, and

20. Captain Amos S. Kimball, “Report of additions, alterations, and
repairs to public’ buildings required at the Post of Fort Union, New
Mexico," June 30, 1877, "Fort Union, Consolidated Files, Records of the
Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA; Lieutenant Colonel
William F. Drum to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Arizona,
July 19, 1888, File 736 1888, Letters Received, Records of the Office of
the Inspector General, RG 159, NA; First Lieutenant John W. Pullman,
"Estimate of Repairs required on Public Buildings at Fort Union Depot
N.M. for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874," "Fort Union,"
Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General,
RG 92, NA.

21. Colonel John Irvin Gregg to Captain A.J. McGinnigle, July 13, 1870,
"Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

22. William H. Gardner, "Medical Record for the 9th of April, 1874,"
Arrott Collection, Medical History, No. 1, p. 25; Major Andrew J.
Alexander to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of the Missouri,
March 29, 1875, Letters Sent, Vol. 16, pp. 312-13, Department of New
Mexico, Records of U.S. Continental Commands, RG 393, NA; Genevieve
LaTourrette, "Fort Union Memories," New Mexico Historical Review, XXVI
(October, 1951), p. 283; Captain George H. Cook, map, “Fort Union,
N.M.," 1883, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of
the Quartermaster General RG 92, NA.

23. Peter Moffatt, "A Report on the Hygiene of the United States Army
with Descriptions of Military Posts," in Circular No. 8, Surgeon General's
Office (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1875), p. 306.

14


HS 11-14. Company Quarters

Commenced in 1865 under the direction of Depot Quartermaster
Captain Henry J. Farnsworth, the first set of company barracks
(probably HS 14) was completed and occupied by December, 1866.
Another set (probably HS 13) was not quite finished by that date but was
nevertheless occupied. Prior to December, 1866, the troops had been
living in quarters in the star fort, but in October a severe rainstorm
flooded those quarters and the troops subsequently moved into the
unfinished barracks. The two remaining quarters were probably
completed the following summer. Farnsworth described the completed
structure as standing "one story high, [with] adobe walls 18 inches
thick, stone foundation, tin roof, and battlement or cornice of brick 18
inches high and 18 inches thick. . . ." He estimated that each building
cost approximately $12,527.

in 1870 the four barracks with their structural deficiencies were

depicted as follows: .

The barracks are one story high, with flat tin roofs, which, in
this climate, do not answer, for the reason that where artillery
is used, the firing springs the nails and solder, and severs the
attachments. The adobe settles and causes the tin also to
loosen; the tin rusts; the high winds detach it; and, in every
respect, it is more expensive and less serviceable than
shingles.

The squad rooms are ceiled; each measures 72% by 26% feet by
12 feet high, and contains twenty-one movable single bunks,
giving 1,098 cubic feet per man. Each has three ventilators,
being round tin pipes ten inches in diameter, and three and a
half feet long, extending above the roof, and located in the
ceiling twenty-three feet from each other.

The four "U"-shaped structures were arranged in such a manner that
they formed the perimeter of two large rectangles enclosing two
courtyards each measuring approximately 260 by 116 feet. At either end
of each courtyard was a well from which water was drawn, initially, by
hand. By June, 1873, the well -adjacent to HS 14 was equipped with
horsepower, a force pump, and possibly a small reservoir. Each of the

31


(bo FORT UNION, NEw MEXICO

Drawn oy ohn. Lantert, uniter the iirection’ or

CAPT. H: INMAN, “ 5. A. i

Depot. Quartermaster, darizary: 1967. wg Bs ae

so « Steiale 16 Peet. ta tinch.



Ulustration 57.

Historical Base Map, The Third Fort Union
and Fort Union Quartermaster Depot, New Mexico Territory, 1863-1891.

238


National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant Generali. Colonel Herbert M. Enos to unidentified recipient,
September 24, 1867.

51




examine the buildings" because Gregg did not "know of any repairs that

can be made that will check this tendency [of the adobe walls to settle

33 Three years later Depot Quartermaster Pullman requested

outward]."
Permission to hire four masons, two painters, and one carpenter to
Perform urgently needed repairs. He argued that the work could be
accomplished in half the time (and at only a slightly additional cost) than

if it were done by troops.24

with a classic display of Army intransigence, Brigadier General
Montgomery C. Meigs denied the request and replied that:

If troops cannot keep the buildings they occupy from tumbling
down, then the law of Congress is inoperative. | do not think
it impossible for a company of American troops to take care of
their own quarters. The people of a Mexican village, less
educated--not more apt--build their villages without recourse to
the outside world, and even provide all the material, to shelter
themselves. “

Thus, during the 1880s, repairs were imperfectly accomplished by
troops without the aid of civilian skilled labor, and the buildings
continued to deteriorate. By 1886, the condition of the buildings was so
poor that requests were again made for "a citizen tin-smith for repairing
leaky roofs, a citizen mason to repair walls and a citizen carpenter to

36

repair wood work." The request was never honored, and in 1890,

following a specially ordered inspection, Colonel Eugene A. Carr

33. Colonel John Irvin Gregg to William A. Kobbe, Regimental Adjutant,
November 21, 1870, Arrott Collection, 1870, No. 3, p. 57.

34. First Lieutenant John W. Pullman to Quartermaster General USA,
June 30, 1873.

35. Brigadier General Montgomery Cc. Meigs, 9th Endorsement
(October 2, 1873) of First Lieutenant John W. Pullman to Quartermaster
General USA, June 30, 1873. See also Colonel Robert Allen to Colonel
Daniel Henry Rucker, November 22, 1874, "Fort Union," Consolidated
Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

36. Colonel Henry Douglass, “Inspection Report of Fort ‘Union, New
Mexico," September 1-5, 1886.

17



Ulustration 7.
Plans of various structures at Fort Union, 1866.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

138


SOURCES
Arrott Collection, "Fort Union, New Mexico, Locality and History of Post,
1873." Medical History of Post, Vol. 52, p. 116.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1873, 1874, 1876.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photographs of Fort Union, SC-87988, SC-87999.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Estimate
for Repairs, June 30, 1874.
Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
inspector General. Inspection Reports, 1868, 1872.

84


99L

Ulustration 21.

Post Officers‘ Quarters
construction, circa 1866.

Courtesy of the National

under

Archives.


National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1872, 1877, 1885.

National Archives. Record Grup 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Letter, Colonel Herbert M. Enos to unknown
recipient, September 24, 1867.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 8. A
Report on the Hygiene of the United States Army, with Descriptions
of Posts. By John S. Billings. Washingtén: Government Printing
Office, 1875.

38


which forms the corral to the Subsistence Storehouse can be used as one
of the walls of the building to be constructed, and will make the Depot

more uniform in appearance."

As the primary storage facility for commissary stores, this warehouse
was probably inspected and repaired more frequently than other depot
structures. The annual inspection reports referred to its condition as
fair to good, and in all likelihood the building continued in use until the

abandonment of Fort Union.

In 1885 a loading platform was added to HS 43, but there is no
indication as to which side it was constructed on. Placement of the
platform on the south side would have entailed the removal of the frame

extension built almost two decades earlier.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 1. Inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866; "Proposed Plan for a Commissary Storehouse,
Depot, Fort Union, N.M.," undated.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photograph of Fort Union, SC-87991.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Colonel
Herbert M. Enos to Colonel Langdon Cheves Easton, April 15, 1867;
Major Andrew J. Alexander to Colonel George W. Getty, May 2,
1867.

Inspection Reports, 1867, 1877, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. First Lieutenant Alexander Sutorius to Colonel
Herbert M. Enos, September 30, 1867.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868. .

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 249.

79


OLL

lustration 23.

Post officers' quarters under construction, 1866.

Courtesy of the National Archives


902

Ilustration 41.

View to south of Depot structures.
on right, from right, are
Quartermaster Storehouses (HS 42,
41, 40, and 39), followed by the
Teamsters' Quarters (HS 46). At
left is the Corral and Sheds (HS 51)
followed by Civilian Employees
Quarters. Cupola is atop Wagon
Master's Office (HS 47).

Courtesy of the National Archives.


96L

View of the Depot Clerk's Quarters
(HS 32).

Courtesy of the National Archives.


HS 26. Post Quartermaster Corral

The post quartermaster corral was completed during the summer of
1868. Surrounded on three sides by HS 19-25, this corral was enclosed on
the northeast by a 12-foot-long adobe wall which linked HS 25 to HS 19.
Although Captain Henry Inman planned in 1867 to erect two "Mule
Stables" in the corral, he constructed only one. The new = stable
measured 160 feet by 30 feet, contained a total of thirty-four stalls, and
was erected perpendicularly to the adobe wall. Each stall opened to the
outside and possessed an individual door. The structure had a pitched
shingled roof and an exterior of horizontal plank siding. In 1869 Depot
Quartermaster George W. Bradley reported that the post corral contained
stables for 100 mules. Existing evidence indicates that the corral
contained only the one stable in 1869 and that it measured 160 feet by 30
feet. An 1872 diagram of the proposed extension of this structure
reveals that the stalls were 10 feet wide and thus the stable could
accomodate twenty-six animals excluding the eight stalis reserved for
officers' horses. Even if two animals occupied each stall, the total would
be far below 100. Either Bradley overestimated the capacity of the corral
or at that early date the corral contained several temporary structures
that were never represented on maps of the fort and which were
subsequently removed. During 1872 the building was extended to a total
length of 198 feet containing thirty-eight stalls and a Carriage House
measuring 15 feet by 30 feet. The stalls for the post quartermaster's
animals faced the center of the structure and access to them was gained
through a single entrance at the southwestern end of the building. Both
the officers' stables and the carriage house possessed doors on either
side of the structure.

A second stable was added in 1875-1876, when the fort was expanded
to accommodate six companies. This probably identical stable was
constructed parallel to, and north of, the 1868 structure. These
buildings remained standing until sometime just prior to 1889 when they
were dismantied.

56


HS 44. Corral Sheds

The March, 1866, plan of the post labeled this yard the "Train
Corral" and listed its dimensions as 150 feet by 200 feet. While the map
indicated that the yard contained no structures, a photograph taken in
September, 1866, clearly reveals several shed-type buildings with vertical
slab sides and pine slab roofs located along the northeast, northwest, and
southwest sides of the yard. These jacal stables were initially used by
transient trains, although an 1873 map of the transportation corral
designated the area as the “Mule Herd Corral." Yet this did not
necessarily mean a change in functions. The same map, perhaps
erroneously, outlined an adjunct structure built beyond the southeast
corral and listed it as the Teamsters Mess."

Following the fire of 1874, the yard was expanded to encompass an
area 320 feet long by 190 feet wide. Frame sheds with roofs sloping
towards the interior were constructed on all but the southwest side.
(That side was marked by a four-foot-high adobe wall that divided this
yard from HS 45.) Entrance to the corral was gained through a double
gate at the western corner. The "Horse & Mule Yard," as this area was
called after its reconstruction, stood until the mid-1880s, when high wind
severely damaged the sheds and they were dismantled.

SOURCES

National. Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1883, 1889.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photographs of Fort Union, SC-87988.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the

Inspector General. Major Andrew W. Evans to Acting Assistant
Adjutant General, District of New Mexico, June 16, 1868.

80



6. Commissary Sergeant's Quarters

North of the depot commissary storehouse (HS 43) stood the quarters
of the depot commissary sergeant and his family. A frame building of
board-and-batten -construction, the quarters had a partial porch and a
picket in front. The pitched roof was of plank, and a shed addition was
built onto the rear. There was a fireplace located at the east end and a
flue at the west end of the quarters. Exactly when the building was
constructed is unknown. It was standing in 1886 and presumably lasted
through the abandonment of Fort Union five years later.

SOURCES

Fort Union National Monument. Historical photograph of Fort Union,
"Residence of Commissary Sergeant Thomas Keeshan located just
north of the Commissary warehouse, 1886."

115




9. Post Cemetery

The cemetery serving the garrisons of the three forts stood about
one and one-fourth miles northwest of the post near the bluffs north of
the arsenal grounds. Early in its existence the cemetery, measuring
approximately 350 yards long by 50 yards wide, was enclosed by neither
wall -nor fence. in the spring of 1866 some 150 interments were made,
only about thirty being marked by headboards. Many of the graves
contained the remains of soldiers whose identities had become lost, and
they were listed as "unknown." A few were marked with marble slabs.
According to the records, 184 military burials occurred in this cemetery
up until 1887. As of 1873 an adobe wall enclosed this tract. In 1892,
after Fort Union was abandoned, 286 remains were disinterred from the
cemetery for reburial in the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, Kansas.

SOURCES
Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," pp. 209-10.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1868, 1887.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1873.

Woodward, Arthur. "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 186.

118


HS 1-9. Post Officers' Quarters

The Post of Fort Union possessed a row of nine Officers': Quarters:
eight for Junior Officers and a larger one in the center of the line for
the Commanding Officer. Like all the buildings at Fort Union, they were
constructed in the Territorial Style with adobe walls which rested on
stone foundations and were topped with a brick coping 18 inches high and
18 inches thick. A covered porch 8 feet wide supported by wooden
columns extended across the entire front of each set of quarters. All
nine structures had walled backyards. The buildings were apparently
begun in 1864 but because of numerous unexplained delays were not
completed until 1867. According to contemporary photographs and
correspondence, the Commanding Officer's Quarters (HS 5) and the set of
quarters on the north end of the line (HS 9) were completed in February
of that year while the remaining seven sets were finished during the
summer. When completed, the structures cost an estimated $16,000 for
HS 5 and $14,122 each for the eight smail quarters.

The nine structures were quite impressive for the plains of eastern
New Mexico. The smallest room in the Commanding Officer's Quarters
measured 17 by 15 feet while the largest measured 18% by 19 feet. And
although the Junior Officer's Quarters contained only 6 rooms they were

equally expansive.

The officers' quarters served not only to house the posts officers
but also, as in most military outposts, as the social center of the fort.
Teas, dances, weddings, and social gatherings of all kinds were held
there. Mrs. Orsemus Boyd, whose husband served at Fort Union during
the 1870's later vividly recalled the setting in one of the quarters prior

to a ball.

The quarters at Fort Union had an equally wide hall which was
superb for dancing, and three rooms on each side. We had
only to notify the quartermaster that a hop was given, when
our barren hallway would immediately be transferred [sic] into
a beautiful ballroom, with canvas stretched tightly over the
floor, flags decorating the sides, and ceiling so charmingly
draped as to make us feel doubly patriotic.

25


Ulustration 13.

Elevation of Laundresses' Quarters (HS 23), Fort Union, 1867.
Bakery at right was actually erected at the extreme left of the line.

Courtesy of the National Archives

150




Part |: Administrative Data Section


002

iMustration 38.

Depot Mechanics! Corral (HS 36),
view to the south showing shops.
Note well at left center. Photograph
taken in 1866.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


=~ FN AS ~

Timther

Lue Aurth

Doseviption
Wivvr's Quarters
Company on
Hospital .

Corrats .

OM. Shops.

Launelress Quarters.
Stables

Sheds. .
UM bmployce’s Buarters
Hay and Wood Fare.
DAL Store Houses .
Thansters Quarters.
Flag Stal?
OM. Office

wel pTM


: Elevation. of a. sel of Ofivers’ Quarters at the Lost of .

FORT UNION, NEW: MEXICO”. —
, _ Drawn. by John. Lambert uuder the direction: of.

CAPT. H. INMAN, US.

Depat Buarlermasker, January ISC67

Scale 8 feet to Linch. nn

Estimated cost, including wll kinds of labor & material. Sr4222.


STRUCTURE IDENTIFICATION
FORT UNION

1 Officers’ Quarters
2 Officers’ Quarters

3 Officers’ Quarters

4 Officers’ Quarters

5 Commanding Officer’s Quarters
6

7

8

HS

Officers’ Quarters
Officers’ Quarters
Officers’ Quarters
Officers’ Quarters
Flagpole

Company Quarters
Company Quarters
Company Quarters
Company Quarters
Company Quarters
Laundresses’ Quarters
Prison

20

| 63. Matron’s Quarters and Laundry
64 Bathhouse
| 65 Dead House

———— a DEPOT

1 i "27 Officers’ Quarters

| "28 Officers’ Quarters

onjor Oy OLE Oe "29° Officers’ Quarters
5

= Cavalry Corral and Stables
Laundresses’ Quarters
TTT eee need Wheelwright, Blacksmith,
J | and Carpenter Shops
| | 21° Chapel
|_| . ward House
° hal ha eo |nf l “23° Laundresses’ Quarters
i} "24 Bakery
Poa coo | * 25 Company Quarters
I 26 Quartermaster Corral and Stables
57 Hospital
FORT UNION | “88 Stewards’ Quarters
| 59° Latrine
1 HOSPITAL “60 Wood House
' 61 Cistern
| COMPLEX 62. Cistern
|
|

30 Quartermaster's Office
4 3 2 1 “31 Commissary’s Office
“32 Clerk's Quarters ( Post Office )
“33° Cistern
34° Cistern
35 Sun Dial
* 36 Mechanics’ Shops

= A} * 37. Steam Engine
/ \ 38 Pump House and Well
SS “39° Quartermaster Storehouse
~N 40 Quartermaster Storehouse

/ of \ "41° Quartermaster Storehouse
yf \ “42 Quartermaster Storehouse
VOX “43 Commissary Storehouse
/ “44 Corral Sheds
/ ) * 45 Corral Sheds
, ) \ 46 Teamsters’ Quarters
a N "47 Wagon Master's Office
< / ‘ ~ "48 Granaries
wa 4 \ ~N "49 Granaries
a Wa \ NX "50 Civilian Employees’ Quarters
aN ~ “51 Corral and Sheds

) © -7° SITE OF SECOND Sy "32 well

"53 Unidentified

(ON FORT UNION ) “54 Lime (Gesso) Mill

N 4 " e Hou
| AREA OF ‘ SS ON-os (1861-1862) | “~~ Cc be Depot Transportation Corral
‘ , 4 LEGEND

WATER PIPE
( ! == HISTORIC ROAD

HISTORICAL BASE MAP
THE THIRD FORT UNION AND

UNION QUARTERMASTER_ DEPOT,
W MEXICO TERRITORY, 1863-1891

Location of Principal Structures
3 discussed in Historic Structure Report
Dimensions shown are approximate

apo rest FORT UNION NATIONAL MONUMENT, NEW MEXICO

T
v20 METERS UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR / NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 402426 000 A
~pectapa 7

\ _/| sutuer's “~S a

\

‘
(
COMPLEX i
\

848

‘e

a
ofa
ae



rick Capping

pS’

Tare

<=

Pare

SS

=

Masonry?
Kupble

Bick Comping ®

Llevations of a set of Company Quarters at the Post of

FORT, UNION, NEW MEXICO

brawn be Sahn Lambert, urider the direction of
CAPT: H. INMAN, USUAL
Depot. Quartermaster, Jaraury 1867,

Scala leet. to Linck.



SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1867, No. 1, p. 62. Captain William B. Lane to Captain
Henry Inman, February 13, 1867.

Emmett, Chris. Fort Union and the Winning of the Southwest, p. 342.

Fort Union National Monument. Research Files.

Giese, Frederick Dale. "Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," p. 187.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1867, 1872.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1870, 1877, 1885, 1886, 1888, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1872.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 4.
Report on Barracks and Hospitals with Descriptions of Military Posts.

40


110
[| STRUCTURE IDENTIFICATION

101-103 Storehouse
104 Oil House

105 Armory

oof | 106 Tinner and Blacksmith Shop
107 Saddler and Carpenter Shop
108 Storehouse

109 Powder Magazine
110 Ammunition Magazine
111 Stables

112 Tool House

113 Barracks

114 Commanding Officer's Quarters

— ° ° °. ° > 115 Office
— 116 Clerk Quarters
117 Cisterns
118 Gun Shed
119 Coal House
120 Bakery
——— Corral Fence
. —-°— Arsenal Wall
100 ° 300 400 FEET
i r ; ‘
oO 20 120 METERS

HISTORICAL BASE MAP
FORT UNION
ORDNANCE DEPOT ( ARSENAL ),
1866-1882

FORT UNION NATIONAL MONUMENT, NEW MEXICO

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR / NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

402)25,0018
DSCIFEB 82


202

Ilustration 39.

West wing of the Depot Mechanics'
Shops (HS 36) showing arched
doorway still standing on the site.

Courtesy of the Nationa! Archives.


Illustration 48.
View of the Depot Corral and Sheds (HS 51), looking across
the dirt roof of the sheds bordering the north end of the enclosure.
Long frame buildings in the background are Granaries (HS 48-49).
Photograph taken in May, 1866.

Courtesy of Fort Union National Monument.

220


View of Corral Sheds, 1866 .
View of the Depot Corral and Sheds, 1866
Fort Union Post Hospital . : . .

Post Hospital in 1913

Commissary Sergeant's Quarters, 1886 .
Machine Shop at Fort Union Depot, 1866 .
Sutler's store at Fort Union, c. 1860s

Post sutier's complex,

Plan of the Commanding Officer's Quarters, Fort Union ‘Arsenal

mid-1880s

Top: Fort Union Ordnance Depot, 1888

Bottom: Commanding Officer's Quarters, Fort Union Arsenal

The Third Fort Union and Fort Union and
Fort Union Quartermaster Depot, New Mexico Territory, 1863-1891
Fort Union Ordnance Depot,

Historical Base Map.

Historical Base Map.

viii

1866-1882 .

218
220
222
224
226
228
230
232
234

236

238
240


Illustration 55.
Plan of the Commanding Officer's Quarters, Fort Union Arsenal.

From Plans of Officers! Quarters at the Arsenals and Armory
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1876), p. 15.

234


War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 4.
Report on Barracks and Hospitals with Descriptions of Military Posts.
By John S. Billings. -Washington: Government Printing Office,
1870.

34


5. Bathhouses

In 1870 an inspecting officer observed that there existed no facilities
for bathing at Fort Union. Two years later the post surgeon requested
that a bathhouse be erected for the treatment of venereal disease. Some
soldiers infected with syphilis were sent to Las Vegas to soak in the hot
springs available there. No bathing facility was raised at the fort until
1878, when a bathhouse was installed inside the post hospital.

SOURCES

Giese, Frederick Dale. “Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880's," pp. 202-203.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Plan of the Fort
Union Hospital, 1878.

War Department. U.S. Surgeon General's Office. Circular No. 4.
Report on Barracks and Hospitals with Descriptions of Military Posts,
p. 261.

114


Illustration 42.

View looking east at Depot buildings.
Right to left, Mechanics' Shops (HS 36) and
Quartermaster Storehouses (HS 39-42).
Note hip roof on HS 40.

Courtesy of the National Archives.

208


requested that the roofs of the new fort be covered with tin, reasoning
that "Tin occasionally painted, will last for a great many years, is secure
against water and against fire. 15 Authority for the change was soon
forthcoming, and the redesigned roofs possessed a mere six inch pitch. '&
The tin panels which covered the roofs were soidered together and finally
painted in an attempt both to protect the metal and to create a
waterproof seal.!? The Army failed on both counts. Almost from the
beginning the paint peeled, the’solder cracked, the tin panels separated,

and water seeped into the walls and the ceiling plaster. '8

Lydia Spencer Lane, wife of Commanding Officer Major William B.
Lane, experienced the effects of the faulty roofs one evening as she
prepared a dinner for seventeen. Just after she called her guests to the
table and turned to make a final adjustment to the setting, she heard an
“ominous crack," and before she could move, the plaster ceiling collapsed
dealing her no physical harm but "filling every dish with plaster to the
top."!9 Similar experiences were recorded later in the fort's experience,
but the Lane misfortune is memorable because the commanding officer's

quarters had only recently been completed.

Throughout its twenty-five year campaign to solve the problem of
the leaking roofs, the Army tried coating the tin panels with ordinary
paint, with asbestos paint, and finally with a combination of coal tar and

15. Carleton ta Meigs, April 26, 1863, Letters Sent, Vol. 12, p. 147,
District of New Mexico, Records of U.S. Continental Commands, RG 393,
NA.

16. Lieutenant Colonel Henry R. Mizner, “Inspection Report,"
September 5, 1884, File 976, 1884, Letters Received, Records of the
Office of the Inspector General, RG 159, NA.

17. Captain Andrew J. McGonnigle to Captain Augustus G. Robinson,
July 13, 1870, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of
the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

18. Woodward, "Fort Union," p. 255.

19. Lydia Spencer Lane, | Married a Soldier or Old Days in the Old
Army (Albuquerque: Horn and Wallace, Publishers, Inc., 1964), p. 146.

13


a detached Arsenal. The Post possessed a row of nine officers' quarters
which faced, across a wide parade ground, four sets of nye shaped
barracks. Behind the barracks were located two rectangular structures
with long ells at the north and south ends which housed the post
laundresses, the guardhouse, the prison, the bakery, and the post
quartermaster storerooms. Immediately behind these buildings were
located the post corrals. The Depot, which was adjacent to and
immediately north of the Post, contained a row of six structures which
_ served as officers' quarters and Depot offices. Across another wide
parade ground were located an extensive mechanics' corral and, to the’
north of it, five large rectangular storehouses. Behind these buildings
spread the transportation corral which serviced teams and transportation
vehicles. -The post hospital was located several hundred yards southeast
of the Post and constituted a complex of its own with steward's quarters,
washhouse and kitchen, bathhouse, and assorted other structures. The
Arsenal was located to the west of the Post and Depot on the site of the
first Fort Union.

With its vast array of storehouses, corrals, maintenance facilities,
barracks, and officers' quarters, the third Fort Union, upon its
completion, presented to early visitors an imposing collection of territorial
style military buildings. The spaciousness of the quarters, the
distinctive facades, and the grand scale of the Depot's operation imparted
a heightened sense of determination and purpose, of stability, and of
permanence. Beneath its dramatic exterior, however, the complex
possessed structural defects which rivaled those exhibited by either the
log or earth forts it replaced. Those defects, and the inability of the
Army to remedy them, plagued every commanding officer of the post
between 1867 and 1891 and constituted a far greater irritant to the troops
than did the specter of hostile Indians. But in 1863, as construction
commenced, the possibility of the general deterioration of Fort Union's
structures seemed remote.

Work began on the fort in April, but progress was slow. Two years
Passed before the hospital was completed, and not until early 1867 were
the officers' quarters ready for occupancy. Indeed, it was late 1867


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PART I:

PART II:

PART lil:

ADMINISTRATIVE DATA SECTION .

STRUCTURAL HISTORY OF THE THIRD FORT UNION,

1863-1891 . .

1-9.
10.

11-14,

15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.

27-29.

30.
31.
32.

FORT STRUCTURES, 1863-1891

Post Officers' Quarters .
Flagstaff . .
Company Quarters.
Company Quarters.
Laundresses' Quarters .
Prison .
Cavalry Corral .
Laundresses' Quarters .

Wheelwright, Carpenter, Blacksmith Shops

Chapel, School, and Library

Guardhouse .
Laundresses' Quarters .
Bakery . .

Company Quarters . .
Post Quartermaster Corral
Depot Officers' Quarters
Quartermaster's Office .
Commissary Office.

Depot Clerk's Quarters (Post Office)

Cisterns

Sun Dial .
Mechanics' Shops
Steam Engine House

Pump House and Well (Water ‘system)

Quartermaster Storehouse
Quartermaster Storehouses
Commissary Storehouse .
Corral Sheds.

Corral Sheds.

Teamsters' Quarters
Wagon Master's Office
Granaries

Employees' Quarters
Stable Sheds . +
Transportation Corral well
Unidentified

Lime (Gesso) Mill

Ice House

Depot Transportation Corral

Hospital .

iti

vii

23
25

31
35
37
39
41
43
45
46
48
50
52
54
56
58
61
63
64
66
67
68
1
72
74
76
78
80
81
83
85
86
89
91
93
94
94

m))

96
97


92L

Iustration 1.

Plan of Fort Union Post and Depot, 1866

Courtesy of the National Archives.


HS 64. Bathhouse

Early. plats of Fort Union show this structure as a shed. Some time
between 1872 and 1877 it was fitted out for a bathhouse for the hospital,
and during the latter year a furnace boiler was added to the structure.
By 1889, however, the bathhouse had been removed, perhaps replaced by
another building in the hospital complex.

SOURCES

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the

Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1872, 1877.

104


HS 31. Commissary Office

The commissary office was probably completed about the same time as
HS 30, and in plan and design was identical to it. Apparently the two
buildings differed only in the type of fence which enclosed them. While
HS 30 possessed a ten-foot-high adobe wall, the commissary office was
originally surrounded by a board fence. This was somewhat changed in
1874 when an adobe wall was constructed along the south and west sides
of the rear enclosure. The north portion of the old board fence

apparently remained intact.

Although the building was primarily used as the commissary office,
at different times it also served as the forage master's office, and as an

officers' quarters.

Like many of Fort Union's buildings, HS 31's condition fluctuated
according to a number of factors. During the 1880s it was variously
described as "Bad," "Good," and "Fair." In 1886, a lavatory was
installed but by 1889 the building had been abandoned.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 4. Inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1883.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Estimate for Repairs, June 30, 1874.

Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886, 1888.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Inspection Report, 1867.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
inspector General. Inspection Report, 1872.

63




37

pronounced the fort "totally unfit for habitation." The following year

Fort Union was abandoned.

\f the structures at Fort Union suffered from problems of design and
from insufficient and ineffective maintenance, they were equally plagued
by a belief on the part of numerous high-ranking Army officers that the
sprawling complex was extravagant, expensive, and of little strategic
importance. Beginning in 1870, these officials recommended that first the
depot and later the post should be abandoned. 38 When Colonel Randolph
B. Marcy visited the post during the summer of 1867, he expressed
surprise at "the elaborate and expensive character of the buildings that
have been and are now being erected at this post ..." and further
stated that the depot's officers' quarters were "far better than any

officers' quarters that | have seen at any other frontier post."99

During
a subsequent inquiry into alleged unauthorized construction at Fort
Union, Major General William A. Nichols, Assistant Adjutant General of the
Department of the Missouri, more pointedly observed that "the post has
been costly beyond its true value, and whilst severe economy has been
necessary elsewhere, it was very wrong to be lavishing money there."40
Two years later in 1869, Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan caustically
remarked that "it Fort Union has grown into proportions which never at
any time were warranted by the wants of the public service.

Quartermasters and Commanding Officers have gone on increasing and

37. Quoted in Emmett, Fort Union, p. 402.

38. Ibid., pp. 349, 385, 398-400; Thomas J. McLaughlin, "History of
Fort Union, New Mexico," (MA thesis, University of New Mexico, 1952).

39. Colonel Randolph B. Marcy, "Inspection Report," June 25, 1867,
1648 M 1867 filed with £151 1867 Letters Received (Main Series) 1861-70,
Records of the Office of the Adjutant General, RG 94, NA.

40. Major General William A. Nichols, Endorsement (September 26, 1867)
of Colonel Randolph B. Marcy, "Inspection Report," June 15, 1867. See
also Brigadier General John Pope, 2nd Endorsement (October 5, 1875) of
Captain Amos S. Kimball to Chief Quartermaster, District of New Mexico,
September 16, 1875, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the
Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

18


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ie

Scale 1+ soofeot





E. Cooperative Agreements.

Local cooperative agreements exist for the purpose of providing wild land
and structural fire protection.


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BLL

Ilustration 27.

Fort Union Company Quarters.
Barracks at right front is a portion
of HS 13, while that in distance is
HS 14, Photograph taken in
September, 1866.

Courtesy of National Archives.


Part Ili: Fort Structures, 1863-1891

23


OgL

Illustration 18.

Plan of the Fort Union Hospital
(HS 57), 1878.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


o8L

illustration 28 .

Other half of the preceding
photograph taken in September,
1866. At left is HS 13. Distant
structure is HS 14. Photo taken in
the courtyard.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, pp. 5-6. Inspection Report, 1889.

Arrott Collection. “Fort Union, New Mexico, Locality and History of
Post, 1873." Medical History of Post, Vol. 52, p. 116.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1874, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

92


veL

Mlustration 5.

Plan of Fort Union Post and Depot,
1883.

Courtesy of the National Archives.


HS 47. Wagon Master's Office

There is no evidence that this structure existed previous to 1876.
Before its construction, the corral office was probably located in HS 50 at
the south end of the structure. The wagon master's office, although
undoubtedly constructed during the winter of 1874-1875, first appears on
the July, 1876, plan of the fort. It was an adobe structure that
measured 23 feet by 32 feet, contained two rooms, and possessed a flat
earthen roof. The building was topped by the cupola that had formerly
been located on the bell house. HS 47 probably remained in use until
1891.

SOURCES
National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1876, 1877, 1883.
National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.

Inspection Reports, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

85






Part fl: Structural History of the Third Fort Union, 1863-1891


HS 51. Stable Sheds

On the March, 1866, plan of the fort this yard was labeled "Train
Corral" and it measured 150 feet by 200 feet. By the summer of 1868 it
contained both stables and quarters. The stables formed an "L" along
the southwest and most of the northwest sides of the corral. The
quarters consisted -of two rectangular structures, one located east of the
yard entrance and the other outside of, and adjacent to, the northwest
side of the yard. Both sheds and quarters were constructed of vertical

slab sides and slab roofs.

Major Andrew Evans noted that the yard was "formed of the same

jackal and stockade . . .and houses where live some Mexican Employees
with their women." In 1873 the yard was labeled "Train Corral No. 2"

and the following year the stables were labeled "Mule Sheds."

None of the structures was damaged by the 1874 fire except for the
extreme eastern end of the quarters near the yard entrance. Like those
in the main corral, these buildings were dismantled following the fire.

During reconstruction of the corral the’ yard was enlarged to
measure 200 feet by 300 feet and the animal stalls were rebuilt along the
southwest and northwest walls of the yard. These sheds measured 305
feet by 13 feet (southwest) and 198 feet by 13 feet (northwest) and
contained stalls for fifty-four animals. Although no photographs of the
sheds have been located, they probably were identical to the frame sheds
of HS 44.

In October, 1889, the stables were being used by Troop G, Sixth
Cavalry because the post's stables had been dismantled. A map of the
depot prepared in that year labeled the corral the "Hay Yard," a
designation entirely compatible with its use as stables. The stables likely

remained in use until 1891.

91




HS 56. Depot Transportation Corral

The depot transportation corral underwent a dramatic structural
change between the mid-1860s and 1891. The fire of June 27, 1874,
destroyed half of the original corral and forced the army to rebuild the
entire complex. The first set of stable sheds, built primarily of pine
boards and slabs, was intended to serve only until a permanent corral
could be erected. Plans to replace these flimsy sheds were never
realized, however, and they continued to be "poor affairs, with log & dirt
roofs" until 1874. Because of the dilapidated condition of the structures,
the fire destroyed the entire eastern half of the corral before the troops
could contain the blaze. Recognizing that the corral sheds were "quite
worthless, and should have been replaced by adobes long ago," the army
razed the remaining structures and rebuilt the corral on a reduced scale
and on a revised plan. The new quarters and offices were of a plain
adobe style as were the exterior and interior walls of the corral. The
granaries and sheds were of board-and-batten and _ frame-shed
construction. The smaller corral, fulfilling the diminished needs of the
depot, served until the abandonment of the fort, although several of the
animal sheds were dismantled during the mid-1880s.

SOURCES

Arrott Coilection. "Fort Union, New Mexico, Locality and History of
Post, 1873." Medical History of Post, Vol. 52.

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, pp. 5-6. inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1876.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photograph of Fort Union, SC-87987.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File.
Inspection Reports, 1874, 1885.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Reports, 1868, 1872.

96






98L

Wlustration 31.
Left: Door of Military Prison (HS 17), 1913.

Courtesy of Fort Union National Monument.

Right: View of cell entrances of Prison (HS 17).

Courtesy of Fort Union National Monument.


4. Toilets

Privies, sinks, or earth closets were vital fixtures for the health
and comfort of personnel at Fort Union. Consisting of pits dug in the
ground and lined with stone or brick and enclosed with adobe walls, the
privies were regularly disinfected by the application of chemicals and the
spreading of dirt over their floors. Some of the ground plans for Fort
Union show the locations of privies; frequently, however, the smailer
sinks were covered and relocated on sites deemed more healthful or
otherwise suitable. According to post records, a new privy was under
construction on the south side of the fort in July, 1868, to accommodate

twa new companies assigned to the garrison.

A detailed accounting of some of the sinks at Fort Union in 1876
appeared in Post General Order No. 61 of that year:

The following arrangement of Sinks for the troops and
faundresses at this Post is hearby ordered.

Company "K" and Band 9th Cavalry will use in common the
sink now partially constructed and located on the outside of the
wall at the North East corner of the present Band Quarters. It
will be completed as speedily as practicable under the direction
of Captain Parker who will be held responsible that it is kept in
clean condition, care being taken that the deposits are covered
over twice each week with earth or ashes.

The sink located East of the Guard House will be enlarged
under the direction of the A.Q.M., according to plan this day
furnished him and be used in common by the men of Co. "C"
and "F" 15th Infy and "E" 9th Cavalry and the prisoners of the
Post.

The Provost Sergeant will be charged with the care of this
sink and observe the same rules as those prescribed for the
sink of "K" Ca. and Band. The two sinks located in the South
and North Corrals for use of laundresses will be used
exclusively for the women of the garrison and under no
Pretense will the enlisted men of the command be permitted to

112


perform repairs. Nonetheless, by the late 1880s these structures also

began to show some signs of neglect and disuse.

In November, 1871, HS 28 was totally gutted by fire and was not
repaired until sometime between June, 1876, and June, 1877. At the same
time all three structures were the subject of extensive repairs. In 1885
and during the early months of 1886 the quarters were again thoroughly
reconditioned. During this latter renovation lavatories, and probably
bathtubs, too, were installed in all three buildings. Yet in September,
1886, Colonel Henry Douglass reported that the structures were in a "a
dilapidated condition." Possibly severe summer rain and hail storms could
have erased earlier structural improvements. Whatever the case, the
structures thereafter deteriorated rapidly, and by October, 1889, all
three had been abandoned as quarters. Only HS 28 continued to be of
service. Reported as being in “Bad" condition, it functioned for awhile

as the past school.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 4. inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photographs of Fort Union, SC-87996, SC-88009, NA 165-FF-7-E-1.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Report
of Captain Henry Inman, February 1, 1867; Estimates for Repairs,
1874, 1876, 1888.

Inspection Reports, 1871, 1875, 1877, 1885, 1886.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the
Adjutant General. Inspection Report, 1867.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1872.

59


Mlustration 56.

Top: Fort Union Ordnance Depot (Arsenal), 1888.
In background is the Commanding Officer's Quarters.

Courtesy of Fort Union National Monument.
Bottom: Another view showing the Commanding Officers' Quarters,
Fort Union Arsenal.

Courtesy of Fort Union National Monument.

236


SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 4. Inspection Report, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of

Fort Union, 1883.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence
for Repairs, June 30, 1874.
Inspection Reports, 1877, 1885, 1886, 1888.

National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the
Adjutant General. Inspection Report, 1867.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1872.

65

Office of the
File. Estimate

Office of the

Office of the


v6L

ilustration 35.

View of the Depot Quartermaster's
Office (HS 30). .

Courtesy of the National Archives.


For all its complexity, however, the new Fort Union never possessed
several structures usually deemed essential to frontier military life.
Throughout its existence, the fort lacked both a school building and a
chapel. A structure which would have served both uses was proposed in
February, 1867, but General Ulysses S. Grant rejected the idea with the
admonition that "such buildings should be postponed unti! the troops had
been provided with more comfortable quarters."* Religious services and
school classes consequently were conducted in unused rooms in various
buildings within the post.° In addition, a headquarters building for the
post never was constructed or, apparently, even contemplated. The post
commander occupied an office in the depot quartermaster's office.®

Once completed, the structures at Fort Union changed very little.
Only three events modified the use and shape of the fort in the
twenty-five years of its existence: the arrival of two additional
permanent companies of troops and two devastating fires. On July 15,
1866, Brigadier General James H. Carleton requested permission to modify
the initial plan of the post so that two companies of infantry troops could

4. Arthur Woodward, "Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa
Fe Trait," (n.p.: National Park Service, 1959), p. 246.

5. First Lieutenant Henry Hollingsworth Humphreys, "Report of
Inspection of Public Buildings at Post Fort Union, New Mexico, made in
compliance with Par. 1092 R.A.R. 1863," June 30, 1872, "Fort Union,"
Consolidated Files, RG 92, NA; Captain Amos Samuel Kimball, "Plan of
Fort Union, New Mexico," June 30, 1877, “Fort Union," Consolidated
Files, RG 92, NA; Lieutenant Colonel william Findlay Drum, "Report of an
Inspection of the post of Fort Union, N.M., made by Lieutenant Colonel
W.F. Drum, 12th Inf., Acting Inspector General, Department of Arizona,
on the 16th, 17th, & 18th days of March, 1887," File 969 1887, Letters
Received, Records of the Office of the Inspector General, RG 159, NA;
Lieutenant Colonel George H. Burton, “Report of an Inspection of the
Post of Fort Union, N.M. made by Lieut. Col. Geo. H. Burton Inspector
General, Division of the Pacific and Department of California, on the 3rd
& 4th of April, 1889," File 977 1889, Letters Received, Records of the
Office of the inspector General, RG 159, NA.

6. First Lieutenant James Reed Cranston, "Annual Inspection Report of
Public Buildings at Fort Union, New. Mex on the 31st day of March’1885,"
"Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

10


SL

iustration 15.

Plan of Depot Officers’
(HS 28), c. 1871.

Courtesy of the National

Quarters

Archives.


922

{lustration 51.

Commissary Sergeant's Quarters,
1886. This structure was located
north of the Depot Commissary
Storehouse (HS 43).

Courtesy of Fort Union National
Monument.


HS 52. Transportation Corral Well

Original plans for the depot specified that a well be located in the
center, or main yard, of the transportation corral. By 1868, a covered
weil and tank for reserve water storage had been constructed. Although
no photographs or written descriptions of them have been located, the
tanks were probably of brick construction similar to those in the
mechanics' corral (HS 38). Because of increased reliance on this latter

well, HS 52 apparently remained in use for only a year or two.

Following abandonment of the well, the reserve tank appears to have
been linked by pipe to the mechanics! corral well as early as 1869. When
the underground water system was installed in 1885, however, the line
bypassed this tank in favor of another to the northeast. The unused
tank was then dismantled between 1884 and 1889.

SOURCES

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1884, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. First
Lieutenant William F. Rice to Chief Quartermaster, District of New
Mexico, December 14, 1883.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

Woodward, Arthur. “Fort Union, New Mexico--Guardian of the Santa Fe
Trail," p. 252.

93


portions of the tin roofs.°4

in early November, 1885, for instance,
Sentry Box No. 1 simply blew away in a blizzard.2> During dry periods,
the driving winds were accompanied by blowing sand. The powdery
substance not only filtered into the quarters and lodged "round the
windows and doors in little yellow mounds," but it also accumulated
in drifts large enough to obstruct the road leading into the shop and

26 So severe was the problem in 1872 that

warehouse area of the depot.
the depot quartermaster requested permission to build an adobe wall
across the northwest side of the depot grounds.2” Authority was not
forthcoming, however, and the drifts continued to pose problems for

everyone except the post children. 28

The cumulative effect of the violent rain, hail, and wind storms on
the structures soon became readily apparent. As early as August, 1869,
the exterior plaster that had been applied to protect the adobe had begun
to fall off. And although a "yellow wash" was then applied with some
positive results, First Lieutenant John Wesley Pullman, Depot
Quartermaster, reported four years later that "The buildings are of
adobes and bare from ail plastering suffer more or less by each
rain,. . ." | Pullam further observed that if they were not quickly
plastered some of the structures "will . . . be liable to fall down in less

29

than one year." The structures did not fall, but neither were they

24. Captain George H. Cook to Post Adjutant, Fort Union, N.M.,
April 24, 1883, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of
the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA; LaTourrette, "Fort Union
Memories," p. 278.

25. Woodward, "Fort Union," p. 285.

26. Lane, | Married a Soldier, p. 151.

27. Colonel Nelson Henry Davis, "Inspection Report of Fort Union,
N.M.," December 28, 1872, 11 M1 1873, Letters Received, Records of the
Office of the Inspector General, RG 159, NA.

28. Frederick Dale Giese, “Social Life at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the
1880s," (MA thesis, New Mexico Highlands University, 1964),.p. 116.

29. First Lieutenant John W. Pullman to Quartermaster “General USA,

June 30, 1873, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of
the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

‘ 15


National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
George W. Bradley to Major Marshall !. Ludington, May 18, 1869.

Inspection Reports, 1870, 1885, 1886.

44


HS 50. Employees' Quarters

This section of the main corral was constructed according to the
March, 1866, plan of the fort and was completed and in use by the fall of
1866. Built of vertical pine slabs and possessing an earthen roof, this
structure, at least initially, contained mess facilities and possibly
quarters for employees and teamsters of the depot. During the early
years of the structure it apparently housed two mess rooms. Major
Andrew Evans observed that the structure contained

mess houses of employees; the larger having one long
mess-room of the Yard men with a large, good stove, tables &
benches, & a Store room; 62 men boarding here, turning in
their rations, & having Cooks provided for them. This is
known as the Alligator Mess. The other mess, having separate
cooking, is smaller, better, and more exclusive.

The precise use of this building in the years preceding the fire is
unclear. Originally conceived as teamsters' quarters, by 1868 it
contained two mess facilities and no quarters. An 1873 map of the depot
lists the smaller mess as the "Old Mess House" and the larger one as a
storehouse. This map also depicts an office at the southeastern end of
the building. During the following year, the entire structure was listed

as quarters.

Whatever its use, HS 50 was not touched by the fire but was
nevertheless dismantled because of its poor structural condition. In its
place, the army erected a smaller L-shaped structure that measured 58
feet by 23 feet by 84 feet. These new quarters initially contained six or
seven rooms, but by 1885 there were only five rooms. Completed by the
summer of 1876, the building served as “Teamsters Quarters and Mess
House" and was constructed of adobe with an earthen roof. There are no
known photographs of this structure after its 1875 reconstruction. it is
assumed that it possessed an earthen roof similar to that on the wagon
master's office (HS 47).

89


2€2

lustration 54.

Post sutler's

Courtesy of
Monument.

complex,

mid-1880s.

Fort Union National


stating that "Three fire places or Chimneys smoke so that a man's life
would be endangered in occupying same." Although the obstacle of the
chimneys was apparently overcome, the next residents of the structure
reported a host of other structural problems. From the occupancy of
Colonel Williams and Lydia Spencer Lane in 1867 until the abandonment of
the post in 1891, the officers' quarters at Fort Union were in an almost
constant state of disrepair. Bulging walls, leaking roofs, and rotting
floors appear to be the normal circumstances under which these quarters

were occupied.

Lydia Lane vividly recounted several instances of falling ceiling
plaster and the inability of the roof to provide shelter from the rain.
Although during the early 1870s, the plaster ceilings were replaced with
wood, the Army was never able to prevent the roofs from leaking or the

exterior plaster from washing away.

Indeed, inspection reports, official correspondence, and _ other
contemporary accounts are rife with descriptions of the structural
deterioration of the post in general and the officers' quarters in

particular.

The incessant deterioration of the quarters was apparently slowed
only intermittently as repair funds became available or when emergency
repairs were undertaken out of dire necessity. Certainiy the latter was
the case in 1874 after Commanding Officer Andrew J. Alexander reported
that "unless something is done the whole rear walls of the Commanding
Officer's Quarters will fall down and portions of the ceilings in all
quarters are continually falling." The Installation of wooden ceilings
solved the problem of falling plaster but did not affect the leaking roofs.
Three years later, the Commanding Officer reported that many of the
rooms in the Officers' Quarters needed plastering, all required painting,
and the roofs continued to leak, and that in addition, “the floors to all
the verandahs are rotted, and in some instances are unsafe for the
children to play over." But during the mid-1880s, extensive repairs were
made to Officers Row and following several inspections their condition was
listed as "Good." By 1887, however, the buildings again were “beginning

27


illustration 19.

Depot Transportation Corral (HS 56),
showing portions burned in 1874.

Courtesy of the National Archives

162


FORT UNION. No Ma

co
Fram Cnrrut — | Cahalladte Inpat Caveat
Corre? Tet on
jyeaso |
iE

gee

Whe batts holdiiiy + of Uber Covnnls
2 pee geen of how

+S nigon Corriot.

3

te

ThE

\_ Depot of Commissary, Clothing & Qr. Mr. Stores

Lepot Oficers Quarters
705 = 4
io ic =. |

taf

ror me

4 . Ey i

af
t

ee en



be garrisoned there along with the original complement of four troops of
cavalry.’ Although the request was approved, conflicting opinions
concerning the desirability of cavalry over infantry garrisons for frontier
service prevented the alterations from taking place until nine years

8 By the mid-1870s, the dilemma had_ resolved itself and in

later.
September, 1875, Depot Quartermaster Captain Amos S. Kimball prepared
plans for augmenting the garrison by two infantry companies. Kimball
Proposed converting the unused storeroom buildings of the post into
squadrooms and mess facilities.° The plan received official approval, and

the necessary modifications were completed by the following summer. '°

Fires in June, 1874, and in February, 1876, further altered the
appearance of the fort. The earlier blaze destroyed the entire eastern
half of the transportation corral and prompted its reconstruction on a
much more modest scale. '! The second fire destroyed the depot's
detached lumber yard and machine shop. The steam engine was not
seriously damaged and, along with the salvaged and repaired woodworking

equipment, was relocated in the southwest corner of the depot mechanics'

7. Carleton to Captain Joseph McClellan Bell, July 15, 1866, "Fort
Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster
General, RG 92, NA.

8. Bell to Carleton, July 16, 1866, M117 DNM 1866, Letter Received,
District of New Mexico, Records of U.S. Army Continental Commands, RG
393, NA; Woodward, "Fort Union," p. 232.

9. Captain Amos S. Kimball to Chief Quartermaster District of New
Mexico, September 16, 1875, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of
the Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA.

10. Captain Amos S. Kimball, "Plan of Fort Union, N.M.," July, 1876,
Fort Union, New Mexico, No. 14, Records of the Office of the Chief of
Engineers, RG 77, NA.

11. Gilbert Cole Smith to Chief Quartermaster, District of New Mexico,
June 28, 1874, "Fort Union," Consolidated Files, Records of the Office of
the Quartermaster General, RG 92, NA: Kimball, "Plan of Fort Union,
N.M.," July, 1876.

1


wall was apparently rebuilt in 1885 and the building otherwise sufficiently
repaired for Depot Quartermaster Cranston to describe its overall
condition as. "Fair." Four years tater, however, all six barracks were in
an obvious state of advanced neglect. "They are tumbling down and are
more or less propped up with poles. The floors are out of order; the
roofs all leak. They are barely habitable." By October, 1889, HS 25

was used only for the storage of ordnance property.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1877, No. 3, p. 7. Lieutenant Colonel Nathan A.M.
Dudley to Assistant Adjutant General, July 18, 1877.

Arrott Collection, 1889, No. 1, p. 3. Inspection Report by First
Lieutenant Frederick Wooley, October 9, 1889.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1867, 1872, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1833, 1889.

National Archives. Record Group 92. Records of the Office of the
Quartermaster General. Consolidated Correspondence File. Captain
George W. Bradley to Major Marshall |. Ludington, May 18, 1869.
Captain Amos S. Kimball to Chief Quartermaster, District of New
Mexico, September 16, 1875.

Inspection Reports, 1870, 1872, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889.
National Archives. Record Group 94. Records of the Office of the

Adjutant General. Colonel Herbert M. Enos to unidentified recipient,
September 24, 1867.

55






2. Good Templars Lodge Hall

During the 1860s three lodges of the international Order of Good
Templars, an organization in which members pledged total abstinence from
alcoholic beverages, were established at Fort Union. They were composed
of members of, respectively, Company H, Eleventh Missouri Volunteer
Cavalry; Company A, First California Volunteer Infantry; and all other
soldiers so inclined at the post. Organization of the lodges took place in
1864, with Company K, First California Volunteer Cavalry, assuming a

prominent role.

Plans for a temple, or lodge building, were prepared in the spring
of 1865 and the structure was nearly completed by late November, 1866.
A seven-sided hall located between the hospital (HS 57) and the old star
fortification (immediately west of the present visitor center), the facility
offered abstaining soldiers camaraderie in non-alcoholic pursuits, such as
card-playing, reading, and relaxation. Members who violated their
pledges were dismissed; some later repented and were readmitted to the
ladge. Membership at one time included about seventy persons, but the
rolls seem to have tapered off during the latter years of the post.
Occasionally .a room in the structure was used as a chapel in which
religious services were conducted. In 1867 the building was described as
having been “constructed of logs driven in the ground. The spaces
between are filled with mud. The building is covered with timbers and
mud." Probably Masonic meetings were also held in the Good Templars
Lodge Hall until 1875, when the Masons moved their meeting place to
nearby Tiptonville.

SOURCES

Arrott Collection, 1866, card 00181. Major Elisha G. Marshall to Colonel
Herbert M. Enos, November 25, 1866.

Arrott Collection, 1867, No. 2, p. 77, card 00187. Post Chaplain John
Woart to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, May 27, 1867.

108


3. Recreational Facilities

Despite the remote location of Fort Union, its soldiers managed to
improvise various forms of recreation and entertainment. Sports such as
boxing, fencing, running, rotler-skating, bicycling, handball, and
throwing weights were popular. Many of these activities took place in an
old adobe building used as a gymnasium on the post. For the less
“physically inclined, billiard tables were available both in the company
barracks and at the sutler's store. Officers found recreation in lawn
tennis, played in 1885 on a court built in front of the post adjutant's
office, while baseball was particularly enjoyed by many of the officers and
enlisted men. In June, 1887, for example, a game was played on the fort
Parade ground between the Kramer Club, composed of men of Troop E,
Sixth Cavalry, and the Post Nine, made up of Tenth Infantrymen, with
the former team narrowly emerging victorious. Still another pastime was
horse racing, conducted at a track five miles long laid out in 1878 a mile
northeast of the post hospital.

Many of the soldiers and their dependents enjoyed martial and
contemporary airs played by the regimental bands routinely posted to Fort
Union. In May, 1876, a bandstand was under construction, one of
several that successively stood at the fort throughout the 1880s.
Concerts were thus generally performed in the open, although inclement
weather sometimes forced the musicians to seek dry quarters in the
library room. The band occasionally travelled to towns like Raton and
Las Vegas, as well as to other New Mexico forts, to entertain.
Music-lovers at Fort Union also attended occasional performances at the
Post opera house, sometimes used, too, for birthday celebrations,
dramatic presentations by traveling companies, and special parties. Social
dances often took place in one or another of the old storehouses.

110



As the nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the
Interior has basic responsibilities to protect and conserve our land and
water, energy and minerals, fish and wildlife, parks and recreation
areas, and to ensure the wise use of all these resources. The
department also has major responsibility for American Indian reservation
communities and for people who live in island territories under U.S.
administration.

Publication services were provided by the graphics staff of the Denver
Service Center. NPS 1866


HS 58. Stewards' Quarters . . . . . . . 99

HS 59. Latrine . . : : : . . . . . 100
HS 60. Wood House . . . . . : . . : 101
HS 61-62. Cisterns . . . . . . . . 102
HS 63. Matron's Quarters and Laundry . . . . . 103
HS 64. Bathhouse : : . . . . . . . 104
HS 65. Deadhouse . 7 . : . : . . : 105
MISCELLANEOUS POST STRUCTURES . . . . . . . 106
1. Sutlers' Store and Cognate Buildings . . . . . 106
2. Good Templars Lodge Half . . . . . . . 108
3. Recreational Facilities : : : : : : . : 110
4. Toilets. . . . . : . : . . : : 12
5. Bathhouses . . : : : . . . . : 114
6. Commissary Sergeant's Quarters . . . . . . 115
7. Civilian Employees’ Quarters (early) . . . . . 116
8. Fences and Walks. : : : . : : . . W17
9. Post Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . 118
10. Markers. : : . : : . : : . . 119
11. Machine Shop . : : : : . . : . : 120
THE ARSENAL. . . . . . . . . . . . 121
RECOMMENDATION . . . 7 . . . . . . . 123

vi


The fire that swept through the transportation corral in June, 1874,
originated in or near a privy which was located at the southern end of
the eastern granary and "was brought on by some one lighting a Pipe and
throwing away the burning match, or by spilling or dropping fire out of
a Pipe or from a Segar. . . ." During the course of the blaze, all of the
structures in this yard were completely "laid . . . in ashes." At the
time of the fire, the three granaries contained a total of 15,244 pounds of
oats, 604,195 pounds of corn, and 57,318 pounds of bran, all of which
was burned, smoked, or soaked beyond recovery.

Immediately after the fire, Depot Quartermaster Captain Gilbert Cole
Smith reported that "the grain houses need not necessarily be rebuilt as |!
can find room for grain in the storehouses." The granaries were rebuilt,
however, albeit on a much smaller "scale. By the summer of 1876, two
relatively small structures each measuring 13 feet by 100 feet had been
erected in the forage yard. These new granaries were of frame
construction with board-and-batten exteriors and pitched shingled roofs.
Each had three large doors on one side and perhaps on both sides. Like
their predecessors, these buildings rested on foundations of posts or logs
measuring approximately two feet in height and which were spaced about
three feet apart. These two structures probably continued in use as

granaries until 1891.

SOURCES

Arrott Coilection, 1874. First Lieutenant John H. Mahnken to the
Assistant Adjutant General, Department of the Missouri, August 15,
1874.

Fort Union National Monument. Historical photograph, CN3652.

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1876.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
photograph of Fort Union, SC-87988. —

87


wells was apparently covered by a well house but the exact form and
extent of those structures remains unknown. According to an 1883 map
of the Post, a sink (privy) was located within the confines of the
southern quadrangle. Although the sink was conveniently situated in the
exact center of the enclosure, it is doubtful that it remained there for
any length of time because of its proximity to the two wells. (This sink
is mot represented on any map either prior to, or after, 1883.) The
quadrangle-side entrances were protected by a shed type porch which
extended completely around the three courtyard sides of each structure.

Each of the four barracks initially contained two squadrooms, a mess
room, kitchen, ration room, reading room, ordnance room, storeroom, and
an orderly room. The function of these rooms changed only slightly
between 1867 and 1891. In 1872, the reading room had been allotted to
the First Sergeant. Two years later structures 11, 13, and 14 each
possessed a bathroom which probably was located in what was formerly
the orderly room. in 1886, lavatories and new bathtubs were installed in
the quarters, probably in the same rooms. As in the case of the
Officers' Quarters, this latest hygienic improvement followed the
introduction of water pipes to the quarters.

The Library, like the Chapel, initially had been situated in the
building which surrounded the Post Corral, but by June, 1872, had been
moved to one of the barracks. In 1886, Depot Quartermaster 1st Lt.
James R. Cranston listed it as part of HS 14. Whether it had been
located there for the previous 14 years is not known.

Although during the 1880's the Chapel occupied the same room as the
Library, it had been located in several other structures prior to its move
to the Barracks. In 1889 the Post Library and Reading room occupied
the Squadroom of HS 14. The two L's were "used by Troop G - 6th
Cavalry for shops and store rooms."

Maintenance of the barracks was a constant need. As early as 1874

Parts of the ceilings were collapsing, endangering lives and property,
and by 1881 most of the structures were "more or less out of repair." In

32


ese

Hlustration 14.

Plan of Depot Officers'
(HS 27-29), 1866.

Courtesy of the National

Quarters

Archives.


10. Markers

Two markers are present on the Fort Union property. One, located
next to the sun dial (HS 35), is a three-foot-high meridian marker placed
on the site in 1871. The north face reads:

U.S.
MERIDIAN
AND
LATITUDE MARK
EXPLORATIONS
WEST OF THE
100TH MERIDIAN
WAR DEPARTMENT

The south face reads:
LONG.
LAT.
U.S. Engineers
187 [illegible]
West of the prison (HS 17) and east of the parade ground is a U.S.

Geodetic Survey marker. It is inscribed "6835.493 Above Tidewater.
Aug. 1867."

SOURCE

Fort Union National Monument. Research Files.

119


HS 53. Unidentified

This structure located ‘in the Depot Corral remains unidentified.

HS 54. Lime (Gesso) Mill

Lime burned in kilns located some distance from Fort Union was
processed at HS 54 to make gesso, or plaster, for use in the various post
quarters. The mill was not present in the 1866 plan of the post,
although by June, 1868, it was described as an octogonally-shaped
structure. Later plans indicate that the mill was destroyed by the fire of
June, 1874, and was not rebuilt. A photograph of the structure
indicated that it was of board-and-batten construction with a shingled
roof.

SOURCES

National Archives. Cartographic Archives Division. Maps and plats of
Fort Union, 1866, 1873, 1874.

National Archives. Photographic Archives Division. Historical
Photograph of Fort Union, SC-87987.

National Archives. Record Group 159. Records of the Office of the
Inspector General. Inspection Report, 1868.

94


HS 15. Company Quarters

Historic Structure 15, as well as its counterpart (HS 25) on the
other side of the Post Corral, proved to be one of the most versatile
structures at Fort Union. Subjected to the administrative vicissitudes of
the post, it was repeatedly modified to fill the needs of the. moment.
Constructed in the Territorial Style, the structure was one of two
facilities which were adapted into a barracks to accomodate two additional
companies of troops when Fort Union was expanded from a four- to a
six-company post. Occupancy of HS 15 was, however, sporadic at best,
especially after 1879.

Initial plans called for HS 15 to extend the entire length of the Post
Corral and to principally contain storerooms for the Post Quartermaster
and Commissary. But when actually constructed (it was probably finished
during the summer of 1867) it stretched only two-thirds of the distance
and contained, from west to east, a privy and lime storage, a coal
storage with an adjoining blacksmith's shop, a large granary, a harness
room, and quarters and offices for both the post commissary and
quartermaster sergeants. But between 1867 and 1872, the duties of the
Post Quartermaster and Commissary were absorbed by the Depot
Quartermaster. Thus, by 1872 the offices and quarters formerly occupied
by those individuals had been converted into commissary granaries.
Other changes to the 30 by 275 foot structure by 1872 included an
ordnance storeroom adjacent to the privy, and a granary and stables
where the coal storage and blacksmith's shop had been located. The
following year, the stables were apparently turned back into workshops.

Between 1875 and 1876, HS 15 was transformed into company
quarters as part of the plan to expand the fort to a six-company post.
The alterations effectively changed the interior character of the
structure. A kitchen was built on the site of the earlier privy, and the
troops also added a dining room, a squadroom, and office and quarters
for a first sergeant, and two storerooms. It was in this form that the
building remained until the late 1880s.

35