Fort D. A. Russell
  


Fort D. A. Russell
1869 Map od Fort D. A. Russel
Description of Military Reservation
at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming
Beginning at the N. W. corner of the City of Cheyenne. Thence due south one mile to Union Pacific Railroad. Thence north 51½° West (by compass) 73 chains thence south (by compass) 40 chains, thence west (by compass) two Miles. Thence north (by compass) one mile 40 chains, thence due north one mile 45 chains, thence east (by compass) two miles 33 chains, thence south (by compass) 33 chains, thence due south one mile 62 chains, to the point of beginning.
The magnetic variation is 15° 31′ East.

Fort D. A. Russell was established in 1867 as a frontier infantry and cavalry post serving as a supply depot and to protect transcontinental railroad construction crews. The Fort, with its strategic location and railroad connection, was declared to be a permanent post by the War Department in 1885 and an extensive building program began.
Units of the 30th Infantry and 2nd Cavalry were the first occupants of the fort when it was founded as a temporary base in 1876. In 1884, it became a permanent base. It was the home to three Black regiments: the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th Infantry (the famous Buffalo Soldiers) for much of the late 19th century.
Fort Russell was enlarged to a brigade-sized post in 1906. In 1930 the post was renamed to Fort Francis E. Warren after a Cheyenne resident who served as United States Senator for 37 years. With the beginning of World War II, Fort Warren became a Quartermaster Training Center with twenty thousand men in training here. In 1947 Fort Warren was assigned to the Air Force and became Francis E. Warren Air Force Base.
  
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