Fort Sill

Fort Sill was named by General Orders No. 25, HQ, Department of the Missouri, U.S. Army, on July 2, 1869. The post honored the memory of Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed at the Battle of Stone River, Tennessee, in December 1862. Previously called Camp on Medicine Bluff Creek or Camp Wichita, this frontier post was established in Indian Territory to pacify and protect Indian tribes of the Southern Great Plains. By 1901, Indian reservations near Fort Sill were opened to settlement for homesteaders, and as the need for frontier outposts disappeared, Fort Sill endured by changing from a cavalry center to an artillery center. Today, its history is preserved in the Fort Sill Museum within the original post buildings.

Lawton, Oklahoma · United States