Fort Scott, named for General Winfield Scott, was established by U.S. Dragoons in 1842 as a western outpost on the military road marking the "permanent Indian frontier" from Minnesota to Louisiana, midway between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Gibson. By 1853 the Indian frontier had moved west and troops were withdrawn, and two years later the buildings were sold at auction and became the town of Fort Scott. From 1855 to 1860 the area stood at the heart of the territorial struggle over slavery, and in 1858 Jayhawkers raided the town in an attempt to free one of their members from jail, killing one local resident. With the onset of the Civil War, Fort Scott was reactivated as the Union headquarters and supply depot for southeast Kansas, and the town was threatened by Confederate guerrillas from Missouri until 1865. After the war the post was abandoned, then in 1869 the army returned and headquartered troops at Fort Scott to protect railroad construction in southeast Kansas before abandoning the post again in 1873. The restored fort is now a National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service.