 In Defense of a Nation
In November 1887, a regiment of 84 infantry soldiers, commanded by Major William Lyster, arrived at “The Camp at Highwood.” Their task was to protect the citizens and businesses of Chicago from rioting and social unrest caused by striking workers. Thus began the first of Fort Sheridan's many functions as a U.S. Army post.
Officially designated "Fort Sheridan" in 1888, the military post welcomed its first cavalry troops in 1892. Two years later, President Grover Cleveland ordered the entire garrison of infantry, artillery, and cavalry to Chicago to restore order during the Pullman Strike. It was the first and only time that Fort Sheridan's soldiers responded to civil unrest.
Training for war
The Spanish-American War of 1898 marked a change in the fort's function – from domestic protection to a training and administrative center. When conflict increased between European powers in the mid-1910s, the United States' participation in World War I became imminent. Fort Sheridan became a U.S. military training center for Army recruits from Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, preparing soldiers for the battles that lay ahead.
Combat and cavalry soldiers trained alongside Army engineers, whose main job was to clear land and build roads through the European battlefield. The ravines surrounding Fort Sheridan were used extensively to practice bridge construction. In addition, soldiers dug extensive trench systems at the southeast end of the fort to simulate battle conditions. Other wartime drills included basic artillery use and communications, sometimes provided by signal flags and carrier pigeons.
The National Security Act of 1920 established a Civilian Military Training Camp at the fort, which served to ensure domestic security. Young soldiers and officers alike received instruction that included radio communication and gas mask use to prepare for chemical warfare.
In the air and on the ground
When the threat of another world war shadowed the country in 1940, the U.S. Army opened a Recruit Reception Center at Fort Sheridan. It was during World War II that the fort became a major center for training anti-aircraft artillery units. The shoreline of Lake Michigan provided a site for three coastal artillery ranges, and large quantities of practice ammunition were fired over the lake.
In 1944, the U.S. assigned Fort Sheridan with the responsibility of administering prisoner of war (POW) camps in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. These camps held 15,000 POWs.
The POW camp at Fort Sheridan housed German prisoners who served as cooks and general laborers; they were issued new clothes and paid 80 cents a day in canteen coupons. Today, nine German POWs are buried at Fort Sheridan 's military cemetery. The cemetery is administered by the U.S. Army and the grounds are maintained by the Lake County Forest Preserves District. Presently, only retired members of the Armed Forces are eligible for burial, but in the past, soldiers and their families were buried there.
Fort Sheridan supported a regular army unit at the conclusion of World War II and sent troops to the Korean Conflict. In the early 1950s, the Army built an airfield at the Fort, which remained in use for 20 years. The 3,500-foot-long paved runway was used for anti-aircraft and coastal artillery training. In the late 1960s, it was named Haley Army Airfield in honor of Captain Patrick Lawrence Haley, a helicopter pilot killed in Vietnam.
The Cold War and Vietnam
In the 1950s and 60s, the threat of air attacks by the Soviet Union loomed. Fort Sheridan coordinated systems for Nike Missile sites in the Midwest in response to the threat. These surface-to-air missiles were designed to detect and destroy enemy aircraft. By 1974, all the sites were inactivated, as the Soviet army converted to Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, which could not be deterred by Nike Missiles.
During the Vietnam conflict, Fort Sheridan served as an administrative and logistics center. Regular army troops were deployed to combat areas. And by the end of the 1980s, the fort's focus had shifted once again; it maintained only Reserve forces and supervised recruiting activities.
In 1988, the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended that Fort Sheridan be closed. Training activities at the base continued as Reserve and National Guard troops served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early 1990s.
A lasting legacy
The fort was officially closed on May 28, 1993, although the Army retained some of the property for Reserves training. Today, Fort Sheridan remains a proud testimony to all who served there. Thanks to its National Landmark Status, the historic structures, including the original 64 Holabird & Roche buildings, remain to keep the final watch.
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