Army Architecture in the West: Forts Laramie, Bridger, and D. A. Russell, 1849-1912 (review)

Popular illustrators and Hollywood directors helped create and perpetuate the image of western military posts as expansive fortifications, surrounded by wooden palisades, reinforced with imposing guard towers in each corner, and protected by a central gate that could be closed to ward off incessant Indian attacks. Yet, truth be told, few such structures were ever built on the vast landscape stretching between the Great Plains and the Pacific coast. Rarely was there a need for such extensive fortifications since the troop strengths at most installations were relatively small and American Indians almost never made concentrated attacks upon them. Furthermore, the shortage of timber and other building materials, plus inadequate congressional budgets for constructing such edifices, made it impractical to imitate this architectural model.

Hoagland, Associate Professor of History and Historic Preservation at Michigan Technological University, challenges the widespread assumptions and goes beyond Willard Robinson's American Forts: Architectural Form and Function (1977) to present an innovative social history of frontier military life. Her book, effectively illustrated with more than 120 photographs and architectural sketches, demonstrates that each post adopted its own unique architectural plan. War Department directives and military manuals provided theoretical plans for every kind of structure conceivably needed at a post, right down to the bunk dimensions allowed for each enlisted man and the size of privies. Senior officers, however, realized that innovation was a necessity and that no post could be constructed purely by army regulations. Commanders also understood that installations would change over time based on the exigencies of Indian campaigns and other assignments. Forts therefore evolved not by any grand plan, but rather by the short term need to build additional facilities that could accommodate larger numbers of troops.

Hoagland speaks to the importance of army architecture throughout the entire West, but her choice of three Wyoming forts allows a more focused impression of contrasting case studies. While Forts Laramie and Bridger had their origins as fur trading posts, their initial army missions were to protect the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, and to prevent intertribal warfare among Northern Plains tribes. Fort D. A. Russell, born a decade and a half later, served a vital role in protecting the Union Pacific Railroad, and, in turn, its growth was guaranteed by its close proximity to this new "ribbon of iron" that projected into the West.

By stressing the "village" theme of the frontier military post, Hoagland intertwines social history with architectural history. She discusses the soldiers as laborers who helped build and repair the forts, the civilians who were employed by the army and lived in post housing, the officers and their wives who tried to "civilize" the community, the class distinctions that separated officers from enlisted men in their private lives, and the symbiotic relationships that developed between the forts and nearby towns. Equally valuable is the book's discussion of technological innovations in construction materials that included logs, lumber, stone, brick, adobe, concrete, and even prefabricated buildings shipped from eastern manufacturers.

Not all western military posts were destined for longevity, but wherever soldiers and their families garrisoned even the smallest of installations, they worked toward improving its creature comforts. The chapter subtitled "Furnishings and Conveniences" examines the contents of the buildings to show their improvement over the passage of time. This not only included comfortable furniture and artful decorations, but also the development of better heating and ventilation conveyances, dependable sanitation systems, and modern lighting sources.

A final section of the book offers insightful analysis of the changing factors that spelled doom for some posts, and survivability for others. Both Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger were officially abandoned in 1890 because the era of the Plains Indian wars had drawn to a conclusion and they remained too isolated to fit the international mission of the so-called New Army. Today, the former occupies...