View source for Jefferson Barracks, Missouri

The Jefferson Barracks Military Post, located on the Mississippi River at Lemay, Missouri, which is just south of St. Louis, Missouri, was an active U.S. Army installation from 1826 through 1946.

===History===

In 1826 General Edmund P. Gaines (Commander of the Western Department of the Army), Brig. General Henry Atkinson (commanding officer of the sixth infantry regiment), explorer William Clark, and Missouri Governor John Miller spent several days searching the banks of the Mississippi River for the perfect location for a new post to replace Fort Bellefontaine. A site near the city of "Vide Poche" or Carondelet, ten miles (16 km) south of St. Louis, was recommended and then approved by Major General Jacob J. Brown, Commanding General of the Army.

On July 10, 1826, two days after the deed to the land was signed, the first military troops -- six officers and 245 enlisted men of Companies A, B, H and I, commanded by Brevet Major Stephen Watts Kearny -- arrived at the new post and started building temporary quarters that they named Cantonment Miller in honor of Governor Miller. In 1827 the military post was formally named Jefferson Barracks in honor of Thomas Jefferson who had died the year before. Even William Clark's son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, Sr. , would join the ranks of Jefferson Barracks. It was also designated the first "Infantry School of Practice."[1]

The first conflict that the men of Jefferson Barracks were involved with was the Black Hawk War in 1832. Troops were deployed from Jefferson Barracks to push "hostile Indians" back into their village in present day Iowa. Chief Black Hawk was captured and brought back to Jefferson Barracks.

In 1832, the United States Regiment of Dragoons were formed and stationed at Jefferson Baracks. The dragoons, trained to fight mounted or dismounted, were the first unit of permanent cavalry in the United States Army. They were formed and stationed at Jefferson Barracks.

===Mexican-American War===
Jefferson Barracks became a major military post during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) when it served as a rest and supply station for the troops heading to Mexico.
[edit] Civil War

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Jefferson Barracks served as a military hospital for both sides and a recruitment depot for the North. In 1862 construction of the Western Sanitary Commission's hospital facilities began at Jefferson Barracks. By the time that the hospital complex was complete, it could hold 3,000 patients. By the end of the first year of the war, over 5,000 sick and wounded had been admitted and, by the end of the war, well over 18,000 soldiers had been treated at Jefferson Barracks Hospital. In 2002, The Missouri Civil War Museum was founded, which is still being restored today. The MCWM is being brought to life in the old 1905 Post Exchange Building.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Barracks_Military_Post

http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/parks/j-b.html

[[category:Rensselaer William Foote Papers]]
[[category:Foote Family Papers]]