Fort Scott

Fort Scott National Historic Site is named after General Winfield Scott, who achieved renown during the Mexican–American War. During the middle of the 19th century, the fort served as a military base for US Army action in what was the edge of settlement in 1850. For the next decade, it would be one of the most important forts in the expanding frontier, seeing action in both the American Civil War and Plains Indian Wars. Though no battle was ever fought within its walls, Fort Scott saw plenty of violence and death, serving as a hospital and holding facility for both Union and Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Although the fort was abandoned in the 1870s, some structures survived including four officer’s barracks, a dragoon’s barracks, two infantry barracks, a hospital, guardhouse and stables. Today, the fort has been restored to its original appearance, and a park of five acres of tallgrass prairie is being restored as an ecology project.