Carlisle Barracks Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle , Pennsylvania . It is part of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command and is the site of the U . S . Army War College . It is the nation ’ s second oldest active military base . Early history . At the intersection of Indian trails along Letort Creek , in the eighteenth century the town of Carlisle became the jumping - off point for traders and settlers heading over the Alleghenies on their way west . A brief 1756 encampment at Carlisle preceded the more permanent settlement in May 1757 , when Col . John Stanwix marched upstream with British regulars and provincials during the Seven Years War ( also known as the French and Indian War ) . After the American Revolutionary War , from 1783 – 1837 , the town of Carlisle was significant as the frontier gateway , as a greatly increased wave of land - hungry migrants moved west . During the war , the Army had erected numerous substantial brick buildings at Carlisle Barracks for military stores and to accommodate the workmen of the ordnance department of the Army . While the facility might have been used to store ammunition and explosives , its lack of access to water transportation made it impractical because of the difficulty of overland travel . The Hessian Powder Magazine , now Hessian Guardhouse Museum , was built in 1777 . In 1794 , Carlisle Barracks became the center of intense military activity with the outbreak of the Whiskey Rebellion . President George Washington journeyed to the Barracks to review the troops — perhaps as many as 10 , 000 men . The crisis was posed by farmers in southwestern Pennsylvania , who refused to pay a tax on the commercial whiskey they distilled from their corn crops . They had found corn processed as alcohol more easily transported east over the Alleghenies and more profitable to sell than was corn as grain . President Washington recommended the Barracks as the site for a Federal military academy , but Pennsylvania lost that political battle to the state of New York and its West Point location . The government decided to clear up ownership of the post ; in 1801 , the government paid $ 664 . 20 for the 27 acres ( 110 , 000 m² ) which it had been renting from William Penn ' s heirs . In 1838 the School of Cavalry Practice was established at Carlisle Barracks . It was the Army ' s small but elite mounted force , the forerunner of the Armor School now at Fort Benning , Georgia . Capt . E . V . Sumner found most of the Barracks buildings in disrepair , the maneuver area less than adequate , and the horses in short supply . Overcoming these problems included drilling his recruits at the double time on foot to simulate the trotting of the missing horses . Another mounted organization , horse - drawn light artillery , also established its school at Carlisle Barracks . In 1839 , Capt . Samuel Ringgold arrived to begin training recruits and testing equipment for the " flying artillery , " as it was sometimes called . Civil War . From the early Civil War days , south - central Pennsylvania was rife with rumors of a Confederate invasion up the Shenandoah - Cumberland Valley from Virginia to Pennsylvania . Although many miles from the combat front , the garrison at Carlisle became a central supply center for ordnance stores , horses , and quartermaster supplies under Capt . Daniel H . Hastings . Recruits once destined for Indian - fighting units on the western frontier were prepared to replace casualties in Regular Army units . Entire units were sent to the Barracks to refit before specific deployment . In June 1863 , " the Rebels are coming ! " was a cry with substance . In spite of a small defensive Pennsylvania militia and home guard force , Brig . Gen . Albert G . Jenkins ' Confederate cavalry entered Carlisle on 27 June . Jenkins led his mounted brigade east along the Trindle Road , where they bivouacked while they took rations by wagon from the town . He had levied a demand for food for his 1 , 500 men and forage for their horses . Three North Carolina brigades occupied Carlisle Barracks ; the troops camped on the parade grounds . Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart ' s cavalry division approached Carlisle from the east on the afternoon of Wednesday , 1 July . Depleted by a sweeping march around the Union Army , Stuart hoped to find needed provisions — unaware that other Confederate units had already sought the same Carlisle provisions . Stuart sent a demand for surrender of the Federal forces under the command of Brig . Gen . William Farrar Smith . When his demand was refused , Stuart initiated a short bombardment . When a second demand was refused , Stuart ordered his troops to shell the town and , later , to torch the barracks . " See Battle of Carlisle . " Postbellum era . After the Civil War ended , the Barracks returned to its pre - war mission of receiving , training and forwarding cavalry recruits destined for the Indian wars on the western frontier . But , as Army operations moved west , the War Department moved this function to the St . Louis Arsenal in Missouri . There it had access to transportation on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers . On 20 April 1871 , Carlisle Barracks was officially " discontinued as a sub - Depot for the Mounted Recruit Service . " The installation was available for new uses . In 1879 , the War Department passed control of the post to the Department of the Interior . The US Congress had authorized the Bureau of Indian Affairs ( BIA ) to found the first Indian boarding school for the education of Native American children . With the Indian Wars at an end , the government sought a way to integrate the children into the life of the European - American culture . The Carlisle Indian Industrial School operated until 1918 . Commanding General of the Army William T . Sherman had acceded to the petitions of Richard Henry Pratt to use the barracks for a model Indian School . The goal was for children to learn English and European - American ways , to gain an education apart from the reservations , and live among European - American men and women . Pratt believed Native Americans needed such education to be able to protect their lands and societies . He became the school ' s founder and first superintendent . He based the school ' s program on his experience since 1875 in supervising and educating Indian prisoners - of - war at Fort Marion in St . Augustine , Florida . Twenty young Indian men gained further education at Hampton Institute , a historically black college , and private schools in New York . Twentieth century . On 1 September 1918 , with World War I underway , the Army took back Carlisle Barracks . It used the facility to respond to a wide set of changing Army and security needs . At the end of WWI , the Army established General Hospital No . 31 as a pioneering rehabilitation center there . For two years , the hospital provided medical treatment , mental reconditioning and vocational training for more than 4 , 000 afflicted soldiers returned from service with the American Expeditionary Force s in France . Medical Field Service School . In the fall of 1920 , the Medical Field Service School was established under Col . Percy M . Ashburn ' s command . Drawing on the lessons of WWI , the school developed medical equipment and doctrine suitable for the battlefield . More than 30 , 000 officers and NCOs passed through the school during its 26 - year tenure at Carlisle Barracks . They applied classroom instruction and field exercises to train in care of casualties and disease prevention , the latter a major problem for the military until improvements in sanitation and antibiotics . Six Army schools . When the Medical Field Service School departed in 1946 for Fort Sam Houston at San Antonio , Texas after World War II , educational innovation continued . From 1946 until 1951 , six Army schools were located at Carlisle Barracks . First was the Army Information School , followed shortly by the School for Government of Occupied Areas , and then the Adjutant General ' s School ( for Army lawyers ) . The next year brought the Chaplain School and the Military Police School . Finally , the Army Security Agency School began highly classified operations in 1949 and stayed for two years before being displaced . U . S . Army War College . In the spring of 1951 , the U . S . Army War College , senior educational institution of the U . S . Army , relocated to Carlisle Barracks . Established in 1903 and formerly located in Washington , D . C . , the college had functioned as part of the General Staff during its early years . It chiefly prepared selected officers for high command . Distinguished graduates of that period included John J . Pershing ( Class of 1905 ) , Dwight D . Eisenhower ( 1927 ) , and Omar N . Bradley ( 1934 ) . Classes were suspended in 1940 during the preparedness mobilization for World War II , and not resumed until a decade later at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , for the 1950 – 51 academic year . The new commandant , Lt . Gen . Joseph M . Swing , relocated with the college to Pennsylvania in July 1951 and turned over command to his successor , Lt . Gen . Edward M . Almond , just in time for the arrival of the first Carlisle - based class . At Carlisle , the Army War College grew steadily as it performed its mission of preparing officers for leadership at the highest levels . The college soon outgrew its main academic building ( the current Upton Hall ) and transferred to the newly constructed Root Hall in 1967 . Two specialized agencies evolved into integral parts of the Army War College : the Strategic Studies Institute , first formed in 1954 ; and the Military History Institute , established in 1967 . The Center for Strategic Leadership , a state - of - the - art war gaming complex that opened in 1994 , contributed another dimension to the college and to Carlisle Barracks ' history as a distinctive U . S . Army campus . BRAC . In 2005 the Carlisle Barracks was originally listed as a candidate for closure under the Army ' s realignment process and BRAC hearings . On 15 August 2005 , BRAC 2005 was approved , and Carlisle Barracks will remain open . In 2006 , Carlisle Barracks broke ground on a significant project to construct new military housing , work that had been postponed pending BRAC review .