Fort Dodge (US Army Post)
| Fort Dodge | |
|---|---|
| Fort Dodge, Kansas | |
 Fort Dodge
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| Coordinates | 37°43′50″N 99°56′5″W / 37.73056°N 99.93472°WCoordinates: 37°43′50″N 99°56′5″W / 37.73056°N 99.93472°W |
| Type | Military base |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs |
| Controlled by | United States |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Condition | Repurposed as the Kansas Soldiers' Home |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1865 |
| Built by | U.S. Army |
| In use | 1865-1882 |
The site of Fort Dodge in the U.S. state of Kansas was originally an old campground for wagons traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, just west of the western junction of the Wet and Dry Routes and near the middle or Cimarron Cutoff. On March 23, 1865, Major General Grenville M. Dodge, who commanded the 11th and 16th Kansas Cavalry Regiments, wrote to Colonel James Hobart Ford to propose establishing a new military post west of Fort Larned. On orders of Col. Ford, Captain Henry Pearce, with Company C, Eleventh Cavalry Regiment, and Company F, Second U.S. Volunteer Infantry, from Fort Larned, occupied and established Fort Dodge on April 10, 1865.
Fort Dodge was named for General Grenville M. Dodge. General Dodge wrote in his autobiography: "Fort Dodge was named after me, not as an honor, by a command that I was sent out there in the winter, after it was too late to furnish them lumber or anything for an encampment and they had to make dug-outs in the Bluffs for the purpose of wintering and the Colonel in command of the detachment wrote me that they were so mad at being sent there in the winter with so little accommodations that they had named the place Camp Dodge. This location was a celebrated crossing of the Southern Indians of the Arkansas Valley. There was a practicle (sic) ford of the Arkansas near here and the trails all centered here an it had been an important point during all the time I was in command of the plains. From Camp Dodge, when a permanent post was ordered there, they named it Fort Dodge and after the war when the fort was abandoned, a city had grown up there, which is now known as Dodge City." [1]. It has, however, been claimed that the post was named for Col. Henry Dodge. Moses Henry Dodge (he dropped the "Moses" when he came of age) led the Second Dragoon Expedition of 1835 in a circuit to and from Fort Leavenworth, west along the Platte River to Colorado and back east along the Arkansas River and the Santa Fe trail, passing through the future location of Dodge City and Fort Dodge. There is no evidence that he established a camp at the site.
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