Military Training at Fort Snelling

For more than 120 years as an active military base, Fort Snelling offered many kinds of military training, from mock battles and trench warfare to instruction in ceremonies and parades, where soldiers mastered skills they would need in the Army. Its location and climate provided training opportunities unavailable at many other military bases in the United States, including learning to cross difficult winter terrain with snowshoes and cross-country skis. During World War I, Fort Snelling hosted Officers' Training Camps between May and November 1917 as part of a program held at sixteen locations around the nation to prepare large numbers of officers for service in the war. Four thousand recruits trained there in tactics, trench building, and defense, and also took part in bayonet drills and mock battles. Soldiers at Fort Snelling also learned military parade, practicing marching and drilling in ceremonial formations at the Upper Post on what is now the Neiman Sports Complex.

Minnesota · United States