Benton Barracks (or Camp Benton) was a

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

military encampment, established during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, at the present site of the St. Louis Fairground Park. Before the Civil War, the site was owned and used by the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association, which at the time was located on the outskirts of St. Louis. The barracks was used primarily as a training facility for Union soldiers attached to the Western Division of the Union Army. After the

Battle of Lexington The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord ...

, the Post and Convalescent Hospitals were added to the training barracks, in order to assist in treating hundreds of incoming wounded troops. Once the war ended, the barracks was dismantled, returning to its pre-war, civilian use as a fairground and race track. Nothing of the original barracks remains at this site today.

History

In 1861, Major-General

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

assumed command of the Western Department of War for the Union Army. General Fr émont ordered the establishment of a training barracks at the site of the St. Louis Fairgrounds. The barracks originally consisted of five buildings, 740 ft. in length and 40 ft. in width. Additionally, there was a two-story building erected for the headquarters of the Barracks Commander. The barracks could accommodate up to 30,000 soldiers. By 1863, Benton contained over a mile of barracks, as well as warehouses, cavalry stables, parade grounds, and a large military hospital. The hospital was built from the converted amphitheater on the fairground site and could accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers at a time. During the Civil War, under the administration of

Emily Elizabeth Parsons Emily Elizabeth Parsons (1824 – 1880) was an American Civil War nurse, hospital administrator, and founder of Mount Auburn Hospital in Massachusetts. Her posthumous memoir, ''Fearless Purpose: Memoir of Emily Elizabeth Parsons'', gives a rare ...

, it was the largest hospital in the West. Parsons recorded many of her experiences at Benton Barracks in her memoir. Another nurse at Benton Barracks,

Belle Coddington Arabella Letitia Graham Tannehill Coddington (December 30, 1842 – December 26, 1920) was a teacher in Iowa, and a nurse during the American Civil War. Wartime service Belle Graham Tannehill was a schoolteacher in Iowa as a young woman. She a ...

, wrote about her memories of the hospital in an 1895 reminiscence.

References

Bibliography

*Ravenswaay, Charles Van
''St. Louis - An Informal History of the City and its People, 1764-1865''
Bloomington: University of Illinois Press, 1991. *Scharf, John Thomas
''History of Saint Louis City and County''
St. Louis: L. H. Everts, 1883. *The United States War Department. ''The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies''. "Correspondence, Orders, etc., from June 13, 1862, to November 30, 1862." Series II: Volume IV. Washington D.C.: 1899. *Winter, William C
''Civil War in St. Louis: A Guided Tour''
St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, November, 1994.

External links

{{Commons category, Benton Barracks (Missouri)
Benton Barracks
The Civil War Muse American Civil War hospitals American Civil War forts Missouri in the American Civil War 1861 establishments in Missouri