Fort Leavenworth

The Buffalo Soldier story starts here. In 1866 Congress authorized four Black regiments, the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 10th Cavalry was formed at Fort Leavenworth on September 21, 1866, under Col. Benjamin Grierson. Its troopers became known as Buffalo Soldiers, a name given by the Native nations they fought, and the term later covered all the Black regiments raised that year. A statue of a cavalry rider on the post honors the 9th and 10th, and in Leavenworth the Richard Allen Cultural Center occupies a former Buffalo Soldier's home.

What the plaque says

Fort Leavenworth Established in 1827, Fort Leavenworth is the oldest army post in continuous operation west of the Missouri River. Serving as the army's chief base of operations on the Central Plains, the fort furnished troops and supplies for military operations as far away as the Pacific Coast. Troops stationed at the fort were given the task of maintaining peace on the frontier and protecting trade on the newly established Santa Fe Trail. With the establishment of the Oregon-California Trail in the 1840s, travelers on that trail also received protection. In 1834 the fort became headquarters for the U.S. Dragoons, the army's first permanent mounted regiment. With the onset of war with Mexico in 1846, the Army of the West organized at the fort for its epic journey to California and northern Mexico. When Kansas achieved territorial status in 1854, the first office of the territorial governor was at the fort. In 1881 General William T. Sherman established a school that evolved into the Command and General Staff College, the highest ranked school in the army educational system. One notable student, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, graduated in 1926 with highest honors in his class. Erected by Kansas State Historical Society & Kansas Department of Transportation

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Quindaro Townsite — 19 mi
  The wooded ruins of a free-state river port built on a Wyandot woman's land in 1857, a crossing for people escaping slavery in Missouri and later the home of Western University.
• Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum — 21 mi
  A hangar at Atchison's airport built around Muriel, a 1935 Lockheed Electra 10-E of the model Earhart vanished in, saved from scrap, restored over three decades and brought to her birthplace in 2016.
• Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site — 27 mi
  Three brick buildings in Fairway from the manual labor school the Methodist church ran for Shawnee and other Native children from 1839, which the Shawnee Tribe now calls by its plain name, a boarding school.

More markers nearby

• The City of Leavenworth — 1.3 mi
• Historic Fort Leavenworth — 11 mi
• Kansas Indian Reservations — 17 mi
• Atchison — 19 mi