View source for Newport Barracks

{{hatnote|For the barracks of the same name in North Carolina, see [[Newport Barracks, North Carolina]].}}
[[File:Newport-barracks-kentucky.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Newport Barracks]]
'''Newport Barracks''' was a military [[barracks]] on the Ohio River, across from Cincinnati, Ohio in [[Newport, Kentucky]]. It was operational from 1803 until 1894.

==History==
In 1803, [[James Taylor, Jr. (Kentucky)|James Taylor Jr.]] solicited the help of his cousin, [[James Madison]], who was then U.S. secretary of state, to persuade the federal government to relocate [[Fort Washington, Cincinnati, Ohio|Fort Washington]] in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]] across the Ohio River to Newport, Kentucky. The post was {{convert|4|acre|m2}} in the original tract, purchased from old Colonel Taylor estate for $1. In 1806, two additional acres were bought for $47.  Taylor was hired as the superintendent of the construction of the barracks.  He was to erect three buildings.  John Metcalf of Fleming County and Dan Mayo of Newport contracted for the brick and stone work at $7 per thousand bricks and 75 cents per perch of stone.  Stephen Lyon did most of the carpentry and Amos B. Watson of New York was the joiner.

[[File:Newport308.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Army at Licking River, from Harpers]]

Colonel William Boyd arrived in Newport in March 1811 with 600 men who pitched their tents in the fields adjacent to the Barracks.  Newport was an infantry recruiting center for Ohio and Kentucky and furnished equipment and soldiers for the newly acquired [[Louisiana Territory]]. During the [[War of 1812]], the post furnished soldiers to go to the front in the second war with Great Britain. Gen. James Taylor Jr. was Quartermaster General and paymaster of the Northwestern Army during this war, thus Newport was an important army supply depot. British prisoners were also brought to Newport.

One of the two [[School of Practice|Schools of Practice]] (School of Practice for U.S.A. Field Musicians) were established at Newport in the 1830s. The two schools, the other being located at [[Fort Columbus]], [[Governors Island]], in [[New York Harbor]], were the United States Army's institute for musical training before and during the [[American Civil War]]. At these schools, they trained drummer boys the techniques needed to drum. Little more is known about the school at Newport Barracks, as there are few surviving records, but [[Dan Emmett]], the creator of ''The Drummer’s and Fifer’s Guide'', the leading textbook used to teach field musicians during the Civil War, references the school in his forward.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Damm|first=Robert|title=Hell on the Wabash|url=https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=coe-publications|website=Mississippi State University}}</ref>

In 1842 Taylor asked the government for $20,000 to make improvements at the Barracks.  After 35 years of use they were in need of repair.  Not only was it approved but Captain J R Irwin of the Quartermaster Department who was sent to Newport to hasten the undertakings, requested money to purchase some additional land, erect officers and laundress quarters and build a hospital.  On 7 January 1845 Irwin informed [[Thomas Jesup|General Thomas Sidney Jesup]] that the new hospital was ready for patients, the enlisted men were in their barracks and two sets of officers quarters needed only a stockade to finish them.

In 1848 the city of Newport gave to the government all the land lying between the barracks and the [[Ohio River|Ohio]] and [[Licking River (Kentucky)|Licking River]]s. These waterfronts included several acres and were given free to the government, with the stipulation that in case the barracks was ever abandoned the property would revert to the city.

Newport Barracks became a depot of the Eastern Department of the Recruiting Service until 16 July 1859 when it was made an independent department. During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], although Kentucky was a [[slave state]] and a politically divided border state, it remained in the Union. Wounded and dying from the war were brought to Newport as well as [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] prisoners. It is also said that [[Jefferson Davis]], General [[Robert E. Lee]] and Union General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] did tours of duty at the Newport Barracks.<ref>See {{cite web |url=http://www.northern-kentucky.com/city-of-newport.htm |title=City of Newport Kentucky in Campbell Was Once Known as Sin City County KY |accessdate=2007-03-20 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070401210907/http://www.northern-kentucky.com/city-of-newport.htm |archivedate=2007-04-01 }}.</ref>

After the Civil War ended, the Barracks lost their usefulness as one company posts were giving way to larger installations.  Its location at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers subjected it to frequent flooding, especially during the floods of 1882, 1883 and 1884. In light of that factor, the Secretary of War purchased {{convert|112|acre|km2|1}} on a hill above the Ohio River three miles (5&nbsp;km) east of Newport which became [[Fort Thomas, Kentucky|Fort Thomas]].  By November 1894 all personnel and equipment was transferred to the new army post and on January 2, 1895, Colonel Cochran formerly transferred Newport Barracks to the City of Newport.  The city eventually built [[General James Taylor Park]] on the grounds.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*[http://www.nkyviews.com/campbell/text/barracks_1894.htm Newport Barracks from the Kentucky Post, 1894]
*[http://www.rootsweb.com/~kycampbe/newportbarracks.htm A Short History of the Newport Barracks]

==External links==
*[http://www.nkyviews.com/campbell/newport_barracks.htm Historical Images and Texts of Newport Barracks]
*[http://kyclim.wku.edu/factSheets/newport.htm Climate Fact Sheet: Newport Barracks]
*[http://www.nkyviews.com/kenton/text/text_harpers_3fer.htm Our Army at Cincinnati]
*[http://www.cincinnatimemory.org/gsdl/collect/greaterc/archives/HASH0132/7d526a55.dir/ocp000100slide.jpg Newport Barracks 1851]
*[http://www.cincinnatimemory.org/gsdl/collect/greaterc/archives/HASH0170/c44f6a4f.dir/ocp001007slide.jpg Flood 1884]

{{Kentucky in the War of 1812}}
{{Kentucky in the Civil War}}
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[[Category:American Civil War army posts]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Campbell County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Forts in Kentucky]]
[[Category:Kentucky in the War of 1812]]
[[Category:Kentucky in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:War of 1812 forts]]
[[Category:Newport, Kentucky]]
[[Category:American Civil War hospitals]]
[[Category:1803 establishments in Kentucky]]