Fort Devens, Massachusetts

Fort Devens
Part of United States Army
Ayer / Shirley, Massachusetts, USA
Old postcard of Army cantonment at Camp Devens
Coordinates	42°32′42.08″N 71°36′48.01″W / 42.5450222°N 71.6133361°W / 42.5450222; -71.6133361Coordinates: 42°32′42.08″N 71°36′48.01″W / 42.5450222°N 71.6133361°W / 42.5450222; -71.6133361
Type	Fort
Site information
Owner	United States Army
Open to the public	Partially
Site history
Built	1917
Built by	United States Army
In use	1917-Present
Battles/wars	World War I World War II Korean War Vietnam War Persian Gulf War War in Afghanistan Iraq War
Garrison information
Current commander	Lieutenant Colonel Charlette K. Woodward replaced Lieutenant Colonel Steven F. Egan in a Change of Command ceremony as of June 2015

Fort Devens is a United States Army Reserve military installation in the towns of Ayer and Shirley, in Middlesex County and Harvard in Worcester County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was named after jurist and Civil War general Charles Devens. The nearby Devens Reserve Forces Training Area is located in Lancaster. Although closed in 1996, the fort was reopened the next day as the Devens Reserve Forces Training Area. The name reverted to Fort Devens in May 2007.

The fort has a population of 306 enlisted personnel, 2,151 reservists, 348 civilians, and 1,399 family members. It also maintains 25 ranges, 21 training areas, and 15 maneuver areas on nearly 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land. Furthermore, it is also home to the United States Army Base Camp Systems Integration Laboratory as well as the United States Army System Integration Laboratory.

Part of the former area of the military base is now home to Federal Medical Center, Devens, a federal prison for male inmates requiring specialized or long-term medical or mental health care.

The first military base on the site was established by Major Simon Willard, an English army officer, in 1656. Willard, a founder of the town of Concord, Massachusetts, was the commanding officer of “Willard’s Dragoons” of the Militia of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the earliest organized military forces in central Massachusetts. Willard's home was situated near the Verbeck Gate of Fort Devens, and was destroyed in 1676 in a Nehântick raid during King Philip's War. A memorial erected in 1934 marks the location today. During the Civil War the site was used for Camp Stevens, home to the 53rd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.