Barracks for the Soldiers

Barracks for the Soldiers. . Near here stood two picket barracks, 60' x 20' with thatched roofs. Built around 1850 as temporary barracks until stone barracks costing $5,000 could be built, these two dilapidated, leaky building were never replaced. Various military units were quartered here for twenty years. Usually only about 50 enlisted men were stationed here, although at times there were more., Like soldiers the world over, the enlisted men got the worst housing, bad food, low pay and a life of guard duty, patrolling and constructing fort building. Most were Irish and German immigrants unable to find other work. Drunkenness and desertion were common. During 1854, there was a small revolt at the fort when some drunken mounted rifle men took over a laundress's house one night, threatening to kill anyone who came to get them. Besides drinking, free time was spent gambling, reading, playing games, listening to music by the small Army band, hunting and fishing. , Fort Inge saw all three of the mounted groups depicted above: U.S. Dragoons, U.S. Mounted Rifles, and 2 Cavalry. Very few forts had this distinction., Captions , 1849 Company C, 2nd Dragoons , 1854 Mounted Rifles , 1860 Company K, 2nd Cavalry