By Mick Woodcock

Some time in the late 1890s, Prescott photographer Erwin Baer journeyed a mile out of town to Fort Whipple to capture some military images on glass plates.  A surviving picture in the Sharlot Hall Museum was taken on a late winter’s day and shows that day’s guard detail in front of the fort’s guardhouse.

Fifteen enlisted men of the Eleventh U.S. Infantry have been ordered by the officer of the guard to “turn out”—not for an Indian attack but to pose for photographer Baer.  We assume this because the soldiers’ demeanor is relaxed, with their Model 1895 Krag-Jorgensen rifles grounded.  If in formation to march out and change sentinels at their posts, they would be in ranks with weapons at “shoulder arms.”

Fort Whipple guard house with part of the guard detail, about 1895. 

Photo taken by Erwin Baer. (Courtesy Sharlot Hall Museum Call Number: MIL-170p) 

The officer of the guard, on the left, has ordered the sergeant of the 
guard, third from left, to turn out the day’s guard detail.  They are 
the next twelve soldiers in line, two of whom are the corporals of two reliefs.  All the soldiers required to guard critical areas of the fort, under command of a corporal, comprised a relief.  We thus assume there were five privates in each relief.  One relief is not present—they are already on the five guard posts at the fort but their corporal is here. 

Standing between the officer of the guard and the sergeant is a bugler from an infantry company who is the day’s “duty trumpeter,” responsible for playing the bugle calls that regulated garrison activity.  The three men partially seen in the back are probably supernumeraries: one extra soldier for each relief.  One of the supernumeraries might also be “the colonel’s orderly.”  This was the soldier who had come out on top of the inspection held the previous afternoon at “guard mount.”  The custom was that the winner of the inspection would be free from all duty during his turn on guard.  Not only was he neat and clean with a soldierly bearing in ranks but also he had surpassed all others for such little things as wearing regulation socks.

The building behind them no longer stands but its architecture is of interest.  This guardhouse is built of stone with wooden double doors opening to a large central corridor.  The entrance is large because the entire guard detail must be able to rush outside on a moment’s notice.  While no floor plan survives, one side of the building probably had cells for prisoners and the other, accommodations for the guards.

Notice the shingle roof: there two vents allowed hot summer air in the attic space to dissipate outside.  The single chimney may indicate there was one central stove or perhaps a stove on each side with a long pipe running to a central flue.

We can only guess at the guardhouse furniture.  The office space probably had a table, a few barracks chairs, a Model 1876 iron composite bunk, and a kerosene lamp hung from the ceiling.  Other areas would have had hanging kerosene lamps as well.  Unseen but certainly in the central area was a circular wooden arms rack for the Krag magazine rifles issued to the Eleventh Infantry.  Each prisoner had a bunk, its wood slats supporting a cotton lint filled mattress with cotton duck mattress cover.  The miscreant soldier, however, had to strip his barracks bed and bring his own sheets, blanket, and pillow to the guardhouse.  For guards there would have been bunk beds for only two thirds of the detail because one third of them (called a relief) were always on posts around the fort—two hours on duty and four hours off in the guardhouse.  An entire tour of guard duty lasted twenty-four hours and soldiers not on guard had to remain in the guardhouse fully clothed. They could sleep, lounge or play cards or board games but not leave the building.

Guard duty was just one task that Fort Whipple soldiers performed every week.  Another was military training, of course, but most jobs were “fatigue”: housekeeping, kitchen “police” and maintenance of buildings, grounds and equipment.  All were performed every day except Sunday which was reserved for church, barracks inspection, and a dress parade.  And, yes, there was guard duty on Sunday.

(Days Past is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners, International (www.prescottcorral.org). The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Please contact Assistant Archivist, Scott Anderson, at SHM Archives 928-445-3122 or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information.)