This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JQB.2ACE/306.1.1
Message Board Post:
Fort Halleck Military Reservation (1867-1886)
Established as Camp Halleck by Captain S.P. Smith July 26, 1867, to protect the
California Emigrant Trail and construction work on the Central Pacific Railroad. The Camp
was named for Major General Henry Wager Halleck at that time Commander, Military Division
of the Pacific. In May 1868, it became headquarters for the Nevada Military District
when Fort churchill was abandoned.
On April 5, 1879, it became Fort Halleck. The nine-square mile reservation was set
aside October 11, 1881. Then it was a two-company post, with about 20 buildings of wood,
adobe and stone construction, arranged around the side of a rectangular parade ground.
Troops from the fort took no part in local Indian troubles. However, they saw action
in February, 1873, against the Modoc Indians of northern California; against the Nez Perce
uprising in Idaho in 1877; in 1878, against the Bannocks in Oregon; and against the
Apaches in Arizona, 1883.
The fort was closed December 1, 1886
From Nevada Historical Marker 47 information
The Nevada Historical Soceity has Fort Hallect records on micro film. Alas, they only
list officers and not enlisted men.
The records for June 1880 show, for the Army. the following on the rolls.
1st Cavalry Co. 61 total enlisted men.
8th Infantry 48 total enlisted men.
(Nothing in our files except the 1880 census gives us names of enlisted men:
We also had a description of the fort from:
U.S., War Department, Surgeon General's Office, Report on Barracks and Hospitals with
Descripton of Military Posts, Circular No. 4, Washington D.C., December 5, 1870. Page 452
Hope this helps. Arline in Reno