Military Post History

Military Post History. Jefferson Barracks. , Beginning of the Barracks , Places hold stories of the people and events that shape the culture of the St. Louis region. Jefferson Barracks was once the largest military post in the United States. In 1826, the United States military purchased common land from the village of Carondelet to build a military post named for President Thomas Jefferson who died the same year that the military post opened. Jefferson Barracks started out as a base camp for troops fighting against Native American Peoples who were forcibly removed from their homelands by the United States federal government. The first conflict that soldiers from Jefferson Barracks fought in was a war against those led by Sauk war chief Black Hawk in 1832. Jefferson Barracks served as a departure point for the federal government's operations to open land to settlers who would colonize the Louisiana Territory. , Central Location , The United States military used Jefferson Barracks as the outfitting and training center for the western half of the United States because of its central location near St. Louis and along the Mississippi River. Over the course of 120 years of military use, these barracks housed a weapons and ammunition storage facility, engineer base, cavalry post, general hospital treating soldiers wounded as far away as Mississippi, center for soldiers entering and leaving the military, and a basic training center. Jefferson Barracks has been decommissioned since World War II and became a public park in 1950.