40. FORT McPHERSON 

(no visitors), a few miles southwest of Atlanta, is a permanent cantonment maintained by the United States Army. From the highway only a few of the red-brick barracks are visible through the iron picket fence; other rows of buildings can be seen only by entering the grounds. In addition to the 236 acres of this reservation, 1,500 acres in Clayton County are to be utilized by the Quartermaster Corps Regional Supply Depot, designated in September 1940.

This post was first established in 1867 on the present site of Spelman College and named McPherson Barracks for General James Birdseye McPherson, a Union commander who was killed in the Battle of Atlanta. The land had then been used intermittently as a drill ground for more than 30 years. A cartridge factory and barracks, established there by the Confederate Government after the secession acts, was destroyed by retreating soldiers when General Sherman captured Atlanta. After the war the difficulty of enforcing Union regulations upon the conquered people led to the establishment of the Third Military District in Atlanta. It was shortly afterward that McPherson Barracks was set up as a ten-company garrison.

In 1875 an unfavorable inspection report of housing conditions led to consideration of a new site for the post. During the 188o's the land and buildings were sold to the American Baptist Home Mission Society for the use of the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, which later became Spelman College. Some of the barracks were repaired and used for a time as dormitories. In 1885 the present site was selected and construction work was begun. Four years later the post was first garrisoned by the Fourth Artillery.

When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Fort McPherson was designated as a depot to train recruits for the field. A general hospital also was established on the grounds and in its year of operation handled 1,342 cases. When the hospital was dismantled in 1900, the frame buildings were moved, intact on rollers and placed in various new locations throughout the post.

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Leonard Wood, then a lieutenant stationed here, joined Colonel Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" to fight in Cuba. Later he became a major general under President Theodore Roosevelt's administration and served with distinction during the first World War. Stanley D. Embick, who in 1899 was stationed at the post as a second lieutenant, returned here in 1938 as its commanding general. In 1940 Lieutenant General Embick was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as representative of the army on the joint defense board of the United States and Canada.

From 1914 to 1917 the reservation was abandoned except for a small detachment of quartermaster, hospital, and civil service corps that served as caretakers. In 1917, however, a succession of events quickened activities at the fort. The Federal Government set up a base hospital and later an officers training camp in which 2,500 civilians were given 90 days' instruction and commissioned in the army. During the summer of that year a war internment barracks was built west of the fort. The first 800 German prisoners were men taken from vessels interned in United States ports when war was declared. A barbed wire enclosure was placed about the yard, and during the summer Atlanta people often used to drive by and see the prisoners, in sleeveless shirts and white drill trousers, walking aimlessly about the grounds. At one time 1,411 men were interned here.

During the first World War and afterward a motor transport general depot functioned at Camp Jessup, adjacent to the post and now a part of it. In 1921 all Fort McPherson's available buildings were cleared for use by the base hospital. Rehabilitation shops were set up for instructing the disabled soldiers in useful trades, and it became a common sight to see rows of khaki-clad men, crutches leaning against the wall, applying themselves to the mastery of various trades and handicrafts.

The decade of the 1930's was uneventful. Since the beginning of the national defense program, however, the post has been in full action. 

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