Fort Mitchell, Nebraska, was an Army fort in service from 1864 to 1867, located in present-day

Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska Scotts Bluff County is a county on the western border of the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 36,084. Its county seat is Gering, and its largest city is Scottsbluff. Scotts Bluff County is incl ...

. First constructed northwest of Mitchell Pass as Camp Shuman, Fort Mitchell was manned in the autumn of 1864 by Company "H" of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry under

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

J. S. Shuman. It was named in honor of General Robert B. Mitchell, who ordered the establishment of this post to protect traffic along the

Great Platte River Road The Great Platte River Road was a major overland travel corridor approximately following the course of the Platte River in present-day Nebraska and Wyoming that was shared by several popular emigrant trails during the 19th century, including th ...

between Julesburg and South Pass and the nearby Scott's Bluff stage station. Fort Mitchell was abandoned after the

Fort Laramie Fort Laramie (; founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte Rivers. They joi ...

peace conference of 1867. The ground plan of Fort Mitchell consisted of a

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

with a

sally port A sallyport is a secure, controlled entry way to an enclosure, e.g., a fortification or prison. The entrance is usually protected by some means, such as a fixed wall on the outside, parallel to the door, which must be circumvented to enter and ...

, firing loopholes, and a

sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

. Today no trace of the

sod Sod is the upper layer of turf that is harvested for transplanting. Turf consists of a variable thickness of a soil medium that supports a community of turfgrasses. In British and Australian English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', ...

structure remains at the site west of the

North Platte River The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately long, counting its many curves.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 21, 2011 I ...

bend northwest of Scott's Bluff. Mitchell Pass and the city of

Mitchell, Nebraska Mitchell is a city in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Scottsbluff, Nebraska Scottsbluff micropolitan area, Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,548 at the 2020 United ...

, derive their names from this military post. Retrieved 2012-02-19.

References

External links

"FORT MITCHELL, 1864-1867" Waymark

Buildings and structures in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska Pre-statehood history of Nebraska National Register of Historic Places in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska {{Nebraska-NRHP-stub