Located just a few miles south of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, the Jefferson Barracks Military Post is the oldest operational military installation west of the Mississippi River. Originally established in 1826 as the country’s first Infantry School of Practice, Jefferson Barracks received its name in honor of President Thomas Jefferson who had died earlier that same year. Jefferson Barracks was established on land that Thomas Jefferson had actually obtained as part of the Louisiana Purchase, which added to the argument that the first major military installation should bear his name.
Jefferson Barracks was primarily a supportive military installation overseeing the westward expansion in the new western territory and assisting in protecting the early white settlers. In its early years of activity, troops from Jefferson Barracks were regularly called upon to keep hostile Indian groups at bay and keep the peace between them and the new intruders. At times, the Army actually had to protect not only the white settlers from the Indians, but they also had to protect the Indians from the settlers who were at times fighting with the nearby tribes over land and hunting rights.
Troops from Jefferson Barracks also took part in the Black Hawk War of 1831-1832 which led to the realization that the western frontier was an enormous territory and the Army at the time was unsuited in patrolling it. This action is directly responsible for the formation of the United States Regiment of Dragoons at Jefferson Barracks in 1833. The Dragoons were an armed regiment of mounted cavalry troops who were highly mobile and could travel far distances in a short period of time. This mounted cavalry unit actually became the very first permanent cavalry unit in the United States Army.
Jefferson Barrack’s 1st Dragoons, which were eventually re-designated the 1st Cavalry in 1861, participated in virtually every conflict in America such as the Seminole War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War and much of the Indian expeditions involving the Cherokee, Iowa, Kansas, Mahas, Pawnee, Potawattomie, Osage, Otoe, Sac, and Sioux Indians.
By the time the American Civil War erupted in 1861, many of the most well-known and prominent leaders of the war had been assigned to Jefferson Barracks while in the Federal Army. In fact, at one time or another approximately 220 Civil War Generals served duty at Jefferson Barracks such as Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Montgomery Meigs. Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnson, and Braxton Bragg also served here, as did American President Zachary Taylor and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
U.S. troops from Jefferson Barracks played a leading role in the first action of the Civil War in Missouri. This was the capture of the Missouri State Volunteer Militia at Camp Jackson on May 10, 1861, an operation led by Capt. Nathaniel Lyon who would later ride off into immortality in the Battle of Wilson Creek and become the first General to die in the Civil War.
Lyon’s unit at the Camp Jackson Affair included two companies of the 2nd U.S. Infantry under the command of Capt. Thomas Sweeny, and one regiment of the 1st U.S. Volunteers commanded by Francis Blair both of whom would serve with distinguished honors for the Union Army in the Civil War.