Fort Scott National Historic Site

During the Civil War, the Union Army reestablished a military post at Fort Scott to defend the middle border. It served as a supply base for operations in Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory, and a recruitment and training center for Union troops. The First Kansas Colored Infantry, the first African American unit from a northern state to see battle in the War, several companies of Indian Home Guards, and the 6th Kansas Cavalry were among the units organized and/or trained at Fort Scott. Activity in the city boomed, as hundreds of supply wagons came and went often returning from the front loaded with refugees left homeless by the ravages of war. The population swelled with soldiers, entrepreneurs, and refugees. A general hospital treated sick and wounded soldiers and if supplies allowed, attended to the needs of desperate civilians. Although Fort Scott eluded attack by Confederate forces, the possibility was never far away in the minds of the citizenry.