Fort Sanders was a

wooden Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

fort constructed in 1866 on the

Laramie Plains The Laramie Plains is an arid highland at an elevation of approx. in south central Wyoming in the United States. The plains extend along the upper basin of the Laramie River on the east side of the Medicine Bow Range. The city of Laramie is the ...

in southern

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

, near the city of Laramie. Originally named Fort

John Buford John Buford, Jr. (March 4, 1826 – December 16, 1863) was a United States Army cavalry officer. He fought for the Union as a brigadier general during the American Civil War. Buford is best known for having played a major role in the first day ...

, it was renamed Fort Sanders after General William P. Sanders, who died at the

Siege of Knoxville The siege of Knoxville (November 19 – December 4, 1863) saw Lieutenant General James Longstreet's Confederate States Army, Confederate forces besiege the Union (American Civil War), Union garrison of Knoxville, Tennessee, led by Major General A ...

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 ...

. This was the second fort to be named after Sanders, the first being in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

. The fort was originally intended to protect travelers on the nearby

Overland Trail The Overland Trail (also known as the Overland Stage Line) was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail w ...

from Indian attacks, but later the garrison was tasked with protecting the workers of the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

railroad when it arrived in the spring of 1868. In 1869 the town of Laramie (originally called "Laramie City") was created about north of the fort. Fort Sanders became less important following the construction of Fort D. A. Russell in

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

in 1868, but the

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * Dep ...

maintained it until 1882 when the buildings were sold.

Layout

The fort grounds were by , including a parade ground. The post was originally built for four companies, but was later expanded to accommodate six. Nearly all of the buildings were constructed of wood except for the stone guardhouse, which was built in 1869 and remains the only structure standing on the original site today. At least two additional buildings from the fort were moved to other locations in Laramie and survive today. The post Commander's quarters were moved to LaBonte Park and have been used as community center, and since 2010 the headquarters of the nonprofit food access organization

Feeding Laramie Valley Eating (also known as consuming) is the ingestion of food, typically to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, he ...

. Another building became the Cavalrymen Supper Club.

References

External links

* L.C. Bishop,
Emigrant Trail Map Series: Fort Sanders
, 1959
Fort Sanders Guardhouse
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office {{Authority control Sanders Pre-statehood history of Wyoming Buildings and structures in Albany County, Wyoming Sanders National Register of Historic Places in Albany County, Wyoming