Fort Sill
Fort Sill is Located near Lawton Oklahoma.
History
Fort Sill was established in 1869 by Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan who led a Campaign into Indian Territory to stop hostile indian tribes from raiding border settlements in Texas and Kansas.
At first the post was called "Camp Wichita" and the indians called it "the Soldier House at Medicine Bluffs." Sheridan later renamed it in honor of his West Point classmate and friend, Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed during the Civil War.
Fort Sill in 1874
The Old Corral and Guardhouse
Geronimo
One of Ft. Sill's most famous prisioners was Geronimo.
In 1894 Geronimo and 341 other Apache prisoners of war were brought to Fort Sill where they lived in villages on the range. Geronimo was granted permission to travel for a while with Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show and he visited President Theodore Roosevelt before dying there of pneumonia in 1909. He was buried on Ft. Sill.
General Sherman
General Sherman arrived in 1871 to find several Kiowa Chiefs boasting about a wagon train massacre. When he ordered their arrest while having a meeting on the porch of Gen. Grierson's home two indians tried to assassinate him. In memory of this event that building is now called the Sherman House.
The Sherman House
Today Ft. Sill as the U.S. Army Artillery Training Center remains the only active U.S. Army installation of all the forts established in the Southwest during the indian wars.
Panoramic Views