From Travel Kansas website: (
visit link)
"When visitors arrive at the entrance to Fort Leavenworth, it typically takes about 5 minutes to get a visitor's pass. The army requires photo ID, car registration and proof of insurance. They will inform you of any restrictions to where you may go on the Fort. Only US residents are permitted to tour Fort Leavenworth."
The Frontier Army Museum is free and open to the public. There are many cool things to see inside, so we recommend a visit VERY HIGHLY :)
But before you go inside, take a few minutes OUTSIDE looking at these 1820s-vintage garrison and siege guns. A sign between the guns tells about the history of these two guns, and of Fort Leavenworth too.
The actual text of the sign is overlaid on a background of military topographical maps from long ago. It reads as follows, from top left to bottom right:
[photo of Union Army officers at an artillery line]
Photograph showing a heavy artillery battery of 24-pound gun and 30-pound parrott gun mounted on siege carriages
[below, a drawing of a siege carriage]
Line drawing of a siege carraige for 24-pound guns taken from the 1851 Ordinance Manual.
[topo map of old Fort Leavenworth showing location of Fort Sully]
M1819 24 POUNDER SIEGE AND GARRISON GUNS
These two gun tubes were emplaced at Fort Sully. They, along with many other similar tubes, had been in storage at Fort Leavenworth Arsenal since its opening in 1859. The gun on the right was produced by McClurg Wade & Co. Fort Pitt Foundry, Pittsburg PA in 1838. The gun on the left was manufactured by the West Point Foundry in 1826.
FORT SULLY
During the Civil War, Fort Leavenworth functioned as an Arsenal, a supply base, and a training and organizational camp for volunteer troops. A series of earthworks were constructed on a hill overlooking the National Cemetery. The position was fortified with these two 24-pound siege and garrison guns mounted within the works as the fort's primary armament along with field gun emplacements and rifle pits. Although technically a battery, the entire complex was named Fort Sully after Brigadier General Alfred Sully, who had been stationed at Fort Leavenworth at the outbreak of the war. Two more gun positions were constructed South and West of the main parage and post hospital. All these positions were abandoned at the end of the Civil War.
[photo of a 24-pound gun]
Photo of one of these two 24-pound guns mounted at Leavenworth National Cemetery after the Civil War.
[photo of lined up 24-pound gun tubes]
24-pound guns stored in the Ordinance Yard at Fort Leavenworth