Fort Sill

Fort Sill U.S. military reservation, Comanche co., SW Okla., 4 mi (6.4 km) N of Lawton; est. 1869 by Gen. Philip Sheridan. A 95,000-acre (38,445-hectare) field artillery and missile base, it is the home of the U.S. Army Artillery and Missile Center. Fort Sill was named in memory of Joshua W. Sill, a Civil War general. The Wichita, Kiowa, Comanche, and other Native American groups were given homes on the reservation and trained in agriculture; Geronimo (who is buried in the Apache cemetery there), was imprisoned at the fort. The reservation was almost abandoned in 1904; it was revitalized by the establishment (1911) of a school that was to become the U.S. army's main field artillery training base. There are 48 designated historic sites in the Fort Sill area.

Fort Sill a fort near Lawton, Oklahoma, staked out in 1869 to stop Native American tribes from attacking settlers along the borders with Texas and Kansas and to keep order in the area. Campaigns involved frontier scouts such as “Buffalo Bill” Cody and “Wild Bill” Hickok and included the Red River Campaign, which was launched in response to tribal warfare in 1874. Geronimo and 341 other Apache prisoners were brought to the fort in 1894; Geronimo died and was buried there in 1909. Troops camping at Fort Sill included the Buffalo soldiers, black regiments that built many of the stone structures still standing on the site, and Troop L of the 7th Cavalry, a Native American unit considered one of the best troops in the west. In 1901, 29,000 homesteaders registered at Fort Sill for the land lottery. The fort continues today as the U.S. Army Field Artillery School. It is the only army fort built on the South Plains during the Indian Wars that is still active.

Fort Sill see Fort Sill .