Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park
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Description
Tour of the Historic Buildings at Fort Hartsuff
1. Fort Hartsuff Guardhouse and Jail
Fort Hartsuff’s guardhouse served as a work location for soldiers performing guard duty and as a jail. It contained four rooms: one for storing rifles and ammunition, another for confining soldiers with minor infractions, a room for civilian prisoners or military deserters, and a room with cramped wooden cells for soldiers with serious offenses like gambling or being drunk and disorderly. Behind the guardhouse was a small exercise pen with a latrine. Prisoners had about 30 minutes for exercise each morning and evening. Guard duty was seen as a prestigious assignment, allowing soldiers to avoid more strenuous or tedious jobs. Selection was competitive, based on skills like drill standards and uniform neatness. Guards also helped local law enforcement in various operations to include the capture of local horse their Doc Middleton and serving on a task force in an attempt to capture railroad robbers.
2. Fort Hartsuff Laundress Quarters/Bakery/Commissary Sergeant Quarters
The laundress quarters was a very active building. It housed the Commissary Sergeant, the Baker, and of course, the Laundresses and their families. Another name for the laundress quarters was “Suds Row.” The Commissary Sergeant lived in this building because it was close to the storehouse, and he was also in charge of the wagon scale that was located behind the Laundress Quarters.
3. Fort Hartsuff Stables
Even though Fort Hartsuff never housed cavalry other than an occasional visiting detail, there was still a need for horses and mules both to ride and to pull wagons. Typically thirty mules and ten horses were housed in this building. The company saddler sergeant had his quarters in a corner room. The saddler was responsible for the health of the animals as well as the maintenance and repair of the harness and leather goods on the post. Though normally exempt from field duty, the saddler could volunteer for hazardous field service.
4. Fort Hartsuff Blacksmith/Carpenter Shop
During the 1870s, the U.S. Army had a policy of constructing its forts from whatever materials were available locally. With plenty of lime, sand, water, and gravel in the vicinity, this policy dictated concrete buildings at Fort Hartsuff. The Blacksmith/Carpenter’s Shop is a notable exception. It was built of board and batten construction with lumber cut by the fort’s own steam-powered sawmill.
5. Fort Hartsuff Quartermaster's Storehouse
Typically 1870’s Army posts with both Infantry and Calvary were laid out so that the infantry barracks were on one side of the parade ground with a mirror image cavalry barracks on the other side. Fort Hartsuff was no exception. But when the post was downsized to a single company of infantry, the cavalry barracks were no longer needed to house the cavalry personnel. What was needed was a place to house the quartermasters and commissary material.
6. Fort Hartsuff Post Hospital
Fort Hartsuff was originally designated as a two-company post with a company of infantry and a company of cavalry to be housed here. However, before construction was completed it was decided to place a single company of infantry here. Rather than waste the foundation that had already been poured for the cavalry officer’s quarters, the plans were modified to change the structure into the post-hospital.
7. Fort Hartsuff Commanding Officer's Quarters
Even by today’s standards, the Commanding Officers Quarters is a large house. By 1870’s standards, it must have seemed like a mansion. Designed and constructed as the personal home of the Commanding Officer, his family, and his servants, the quarters were quite luxurious. They helped to earn Fort Hartsuff the honor of being “The most pleasant duty station in the Department of the Platte.”
8. Fort Hartsuff Officer's Quarters
This large two-story duplex housed the post surgeon, the two lieutenants, their families (if married), personal cooks, and servants. Military protocol at the time dictated a distinct separation between officers and enlisted men, with the enlisted men not even permitted to speak to an officer without permission. Visiting officers and dignitaries stayed here while visiting.
9. Fort Hartsuff Enlisted Men's Barracks
If Post Headquarters was the brain of the fort, then the barracks was the heart. Most of the forty to sixty enlisted men stationed at the post lived here. When viewed today with very few people in it, the barracks seem huge. However, when filled with a full company of soldiers, the barracks would seem crowed with a decided lack of privacy.
10. Fort Hartsuff Post Headquarters
The post headquarters was the administrative nerve center for the daily activities at the fort. The Commanding Officer, Adjutant, Commissary Sergeant, and Quartermaster each had an office in the building. It was there that duty rosters, orders, requisitions, and the like were written. The post headquarters now houses the park office and gift shop. A film on the history of Fort Hartsuff is available for viewing.
11. Fort Hartsuff Parade Grounds
Most of the buildings at Fort Hartsuff are arranged around the 500' x 500' Parade Ground. This area was where the posting of the colors and retreat, roll call, the changing of the guard, exercises, drills, and recreation, such as baseball, were conducted. The lone feature on the parade ground was the ninety-seven-foot tall flagpole
12. Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park
Fort Hartsuff was built in the fall of 1874 to protect new settlers in north central Nebraska from raids by the Lakota Sioux. One hundred fifty years later, Fort Hartsuff still stands as an incredible example of a small military post from the Plains Indian Wars. Nine original buildings and several more reconstructions are set around a parade ground measuring 500 feet by 500 feet. These include a post headquarters, hospital, storehouse, a blacksmith and carpenter shop, stables, a guardhouse and jail, living quarters for officers, barracks for soldiers, the commanding officer's quarters, and a building for laundresses, the commissary sergeant, and the post bakery. Most buildings are furnished with items from that time period and can be explored by visitors. Today, Fort Hartsuff operates as a State Historical Park under the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
