Guard Hill Engagement J11
In Aug. 1864, part of Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson’s corps threatened the left and rear of Union Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s army. As Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt’s division approached on 15 Aug. to protect the Federal flank, Anderson ordered Brig. Gen. William T. Wofford’s infantry brigade and Brig. Gen. Williams C. Wickham’s cavalry brigade across the forks of the Shenandoah River to confront Merritt. Wickham was overwhelmed, however, on 16 Aug., and his troopers retreated toward Front Royal, while Union Brig. Gen. George A. Custer’s brigade drove Wofford from Guard Hill. Sheridan then retired north to Charles Town, W.Va.

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Trevilian Station Battle W210
In June 1864, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan led a Union Calvary raid against the Virginia Central Railroad here, which Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton and Maj. Gen Fitzhugh Lee defended during a two-day battle. On 11 June, the first day, Union Brig. Gen. George A. Custer’s brigade got between Lee’s division and the rest of Hampton’s cavalry and captured Hampton’s supply wagons. The Confederates counterattacked and virtually surrounded Custer, who led his troopers in a breakout charge just as Federal reinforcements arrived. Hampton recaptured his wagons, then withdrew two miles west of the station while Lee bivouacked a mile east.

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Mountain Road EA5
Mountain Road was originally an Indian trail, it became the main thoroughfare from Richmond to Charlottesville in the 1700s. During the American Revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette traveled this road on his march to Yorktown. Thomas Jefferson used it on his trips to Richmond and Williamsburg. During the Civil War, on 11 May 1864, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan encountered Confederate skirmishers as his men destroyed the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad tracks here at Glen Allen. Sheridan and Brig. Gen. George A. Custer then rode south into the Battle of Yellow Tavern.

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Fort Riley KS27
Here where the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers unite to form the Kansas, Fremont's expedition of 1843 camped and reported great numbers of elk, antelope and Indians. In 1852 the army selected the site for a Western outpost, temporarily called Camp Center. Next year, when construction began, the post was named for Col. Bennett Riley.

New York Tribune editor Horace Gtreeley, jolting across Kansas in a stagecoach in 1859, wrote approvingly of the location, saying "the barracks are comfortable . . . the officers' quarters spacious and elegant, and the stables most extensive and admirable."

Fort Riley was a major outpost on the Indian frontier, defending the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. The storied 7th Cavalry was organized here in 1866 with Lt. Col. George A. Custer second in command. A cavalry school, recommended earlier by Lt. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, was established in 1892 and became the world's largest.

Training centers on the post have included Camp Funston, established in 1917 and rebuilt in 1940, and Camp Forsyth, established in 1940. Since World War II the 1st, 9th and 10th Infantry divisions and numerous nondivisional units have trained here.

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Fort Hays KS41
This noted u.S. Army post was established in 1865 as a headquarters for troops given the task of protecting military roads, guarding the mails, and defending construction crews on the Union Pacific Railway. Fort Hays also served as a major supply depot for other army posts in western Kansas. The coming together of the fort, the railroad, and the Smoky Hill Trail resulted in the creation of nearby Hays City, where free-spending soldiers, freighters, and railroad workers frequented dance halls, saloons, and gambling houses. During its brief career as the most lawless town on the frontier, more than 50 "boot hill" burials took place. Some of them were caused by James C. Hickock, better known as "Wild Bill," who served for a time as local law officer. At various times Fort Hays served as home to the 7th U.S. Cavalry commanded by George A. Custer, and the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th U.S. cavalry regiments. While serving as an army scout, the famous Buffalo Bill Cody also spent time at the fort. Although Fort Hays was abandoned in 1889, four original structures still stand, including the blockhouse, guardhouse, and two officers' quarters.

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Historical Kansas KS98

Seven miles ahead you will drive through the southern edge of Fort Riley, established as Camp Center in 1852. The fort was visited by Horace Greeley, noted editor of the New York Tribune, when he traveled by stagecoach to the Pike's Peak region in 1859 to determine if reports of gold discoveries were humbug. Of Fort Riley, "I hear that two millions of Uncle Sam's money have been expended in making these snug arrangements, and that the oats largely consumed here have often cost three dollars per bushel!"

The famous Seventh U.S. cavalry was organized at Fort Riley in 1866 with George A. Custer second in command. Riley remained a cavalry post through World War II, though by the early 1940s fuel-burning engines had replaced oats-eating horses.

When you reach the reservation, Marshall Field, one of the army's oldest airports, will be seen to the right. Here a young lieutenant in 1912 dropped colored cards from his aircraft to direct artillery practice. The cards were weighted with iron nuts; the "bomb" chute was a stovepipe. The lieutenant was H.H. "Hap" Arnold, who became commanding general of the USAAF in World War II. Junction City, three miles farther on, has been an army town since its inception in 1857.

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Historical Kansas KS97

You are on the eastern edge of a Bluestem pasture region known as the Flint Hills. Extending past Junction City, this nutritious grazing area averages 60 miles in width, and reaches south into Oklahoma. For centuries buffalo in great numbers grazed its acres. Eventually they were succeeded by rangy Texas cattle. "Texans shipped up the horns and we put the bodies under them," old Kansas cowmen used to say. Today the Flint Hills fatten more than a million fine cattle annually.

White men exploring this region in the early 1800s found only a few Kaw Indian villages. Several miles west, Osages attacked Fremont's 1843 expedition and stole some of its best horses. Later this area was part of an Indian reserve for the Potawatomis.

The Connecticut Kansas colony - of Beecher Bible and Rifle fame - settled at Wabaunsee, 15 miles northwest, in 1856. This Free-State colony erected a stone church in 1862, which still stands. Farther northwest is Manhattan, established in 1855, the home of Kansas State University designated a land grant college in 1863. Above Manhattan is Tuttle Creek reservoir.

Fort Riley is 34 miles ahead. J.E.B. Stuart, George A. Custer and George Patton, Jr., were among world-renowned cavalrymen once stationed there.

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