Kansas Military Timeline1744 - French build Fort Cavagnial near present site of Fort Leavenworth, closed 1764 1827- Colonel Henry Leavenworth establishes Fort Leavenworth; first permanent white settlement in what became Kansas 1842 - U.S. Army establishes Fort Scott to protect the "Permanent Indian Frontier" 1853 - Fort Riley established in 1853 as Camp Center. Built to protect travelers on both the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. 1856 - John Brown and followers murder 5 pro-slave men in "Pottawatomie Massacre" 1858 - Marais des Cygnes Massacre, Linn County, five free-state men murdered 1859 - Camp Alert established by the U.S. Army along the Pawnee River. The post was later moved and renamed Fort Larned. 1863 - William Quantrill and his Confederate guerillas raid Lawrence, town burned and 150 people killed 1864 - During retreat of General Sterling Price's Rebel Army from Westport (Kansas City, Missouri), Union troops under General Samuel Curtis win decisive victory at Battle of Mine Creek, Linn County Fort Ellsworth established to protect the Kansas Stage Line. 1865 - Fort Hays built to protect military roads and the Smoky Hill Trail Fort Dodge was also established as a supply depot Fort Wallace started as Camp Pond Creek, near present-day Wallace 1866 - Colonel George Armstrong Custer joins newly organized 7th Cavalry at Fort Riley Fort Ellsworth renamed Fort Harker 1868 - Intense Indian-White hostilities on plains of Kansas leads to General Phil Sheridan's "Winter Offensive" against Cheyenne 1878 - Chiefs Dull Knife and Little Wolf of the Northern Cheyennes led their people in a flight from starvation on the reservation in Oklahoma to thier home lands in Yellowstone. The trek climaxed on Sept. 27, 1878, when 284 braves, women and children made their final stand on the bluffs of Ladder Creek, now Beaver Creek, just south of Scott County State Park. This encounter with the U.S. Cavalry was the last Indian battle in Kansas. The site--Squaws Den Battleground--drew its name from the pit in which the women and children were placed after helping to dig rifle pits for the warriors. The breastworks the Indians dug to withstand the attack by soldiers are still visible. 1891 - Comanche, cavalry horse and survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer massacre), dies at Ft. Riley 1898 - "Twentieth Kansas," commanded by Frederick Funston of Allen county, sails for Philippines to help suppress insurrection 1915 - Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with the rank of second lieutenant 1917 - Camp Funston, on Ft. Riley reservation, established to train troops for service in World War 1918 - Major General James G. Harbord, Americus, is General John J. Pershing's chief of staff 1941 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and U.S. enters WWII 1942 - A prisoner of war camp was built in Concordia 1943 - Abilene's Dwight D. Eisenhower named Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe 1945 - End of WWII; Eisenhower visits Abilene on Victory Tour 1967 - Captain Riley Leroy Pitts, a resident of Wichita and commander of C Company, 2d Battalion, 27th Infantry serving in Vietnam, received order for his unit to reinforce another company. Pitts died in the conflict and received the Medal of Honor for giving his life in combat. 1968 - The 69th Infantry Brigade and the 995th Maintenance Company of the Kansas National Guard were called to active duty to serve in Vietnam from April 1968 until the end of 1969. 1970 - Anti-war protests disturb several college campuses; student union fire at Kansas University linked to these activities 1972 - By the end of the Vietnam era, 900,000 Kansans had served in the military, 700 died or were listed as missing in action. 1975 - Lloyd Stearman, a native of Wellsford, died. Stearman, a graduate of Kansas State Agricultural College, working with Walter Beech and Clyde Cessna, formed Travel Air Manufacturing in Wichita. The aviation pioneer later built thousands of training planes for World War II. 1976 - James Jabara of Wichita, the world's first jet ace, died. Colonel Jabara flew 163 missions as a combat pilot during the Korean War, piloting an F-86 Sabrejet at speeds up to 700 miles an hour. |
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