Wolf Creek, pictured here near the bridge at the entrance gate to the national monument.
NPS Photo
The original water source for Fort Union was Wolf Creek. A modest, perennial stream, it flowed less than a mile from the original fort. Among the many fatigue duties (other duties, as assigned) for the troops, hauling water from the creek to the fort was an important one. Typically in this era, in the absence of public water systems, water was distributed by water wagons that were filled at the water source. The first Fort Union was built close to the side of a sandstone mesa, and there were also springs in the area. (William Shoemaker, commander of the Fort Union Arsenal, used a spring to water the duck pond at his arsenal residence.)
The first fort also had the luxury of an ice house--actually, two ice houses, which were subterranean structures topped with low roofs. Ice cutting was another fatigue duty for the troops. Small dams were built in Wolf Creek, and when the water froze in winter, the troops cut blocks of ice out of the ponds and hauled them to the ice houses. Ice provided for food preservation, cold drinks and even ice cream in the summer.
1886 water wagon, pictured here at Fort Verde, Arizona.
Library of Congress
With the Confederate invasion of New Mexico, the army decided to move the fort away from the mesa, fearing that Confederate artillery on the top of the mesa could easily conquer the fort in its original location. But the army needed to make sure the new fort was still close enough to the vital water supply at Wolf Creek. The second fort was built about one mile east of the mesa and perhaps half-a-mile from the creek. The new recruits, who were constructing the earthen fort by hand, also dug a tunnel from the fort to the creek, to ensure a water supply in case they were besieged. Unfortunately, the tunnel collapsed, so they resorted to digging a well inside the fort.
Drainage at the new fort location was poor. Barracks, built partially below ground level, were prone to flooding, and even the powder magazine was excessively damp. After an especially severe rainstorm and flood in 1866, the troops moved out of the fort entirely and set up in tents outside the fort's walls. The army finally decided to build a third fort, and water issues at the third fort would be improved.
The small brick structure behind the mules is the well house covering the main well for the third Fort Union. The brick structure on the right with the chimney housed the steam engine that powered the well's pump.
New Mexico Highlands University--Arrott Collection
Some of the Comforts of Home
When the army constructed the third Fort Union, it gave the water system a major upgrade. The main well for the fort was in the mechanics corral. Drilled to a depth of about 85 feet, it was originally pumped by animal power, which was quickly replaced by a steam engine. Water was distributed around the fort to the Depot offices, the hospital and officers' houses by water wagon. The two barracks for privates each had two wells of their own, and there was a well in the transportation corral.
In the mid-1880s, indoor plumbing arrived at Fort Union. Pipes connected the main well to the officers' quarters, the hospital, the Depot offices and the transportation corral. Despite these improvements, bathroom facilities remained rudimentary.
We know there was a bathhouse at the hospital. There may have been one more bathhouse at the fort. In any case, bathing facilities were woefully inadequate for a garrison of 200-300 troops. No doubt some soldiers bathed in the same style as Private Eddie Matthews, who wrote home saying, "Have just taken my Saturday evening bath....We borrow a tub from one of the laundresses, put on a large pot of water. When it is warm enough, [we] put it in a tub and jump in."
The disposal of human waste was even less advanced. Officers and their families relied on chamber pots and privies (outhouses). The garrison used the "sinks," which were basically very large pits. (This was actually an improvement over conditions at the second fort, where the ditch surrounding the fort and nearby fields were used in lieu of proper "sinks.")
Fort Union fire engine, right vehicle, next to vehicles carrying hoses.
New Mexico Highlands University--Arrott Collection
Firefighting
Firefighting had a high priority at Fort Union, as shown by the modern firefighting equipment pictured at right. Buildings were heated with wood fires, ashes from these fires required disposal and the wind blew almost all the time, so there was ample opportunity for mishaps. "Another unpleasant trick the breezes had of darting playfully down the chimney, sending the fire and ashes half-way across the room, so that we had to be on guard to prevent a conflagration," observed Lydia Lane, wife of the post commander in the late 1860s.
The commanding officer’s quarters in the second fort was destroyed by fire in 1864. A series of fires in the 1870s destroyed much of the transportation corral, offices at the Depot, the lumber yard and machine shop and part of the hospital. Part of the post trader's complex burned in 1889, and one of the stables even caught fire on Christmas in 1883.
In the event of fire, the soldiers all became firefighters. The fort rules published in 1881 said that after the fire alarm sounded (the firing of a cannon), “companies will fall in…on their respective company parades [and] each company will then be marched in double time …to the scene of the fire…”
Rear of Fort Union hospital, showing gutters draining into cistern, at left center.
New Mexico Highlands University--Arrott Collection
When plumbing was added to the fort in the mid-1880s, fire hydrants were installed at the mechanics corral, officers' row and in front of the privates' barracks. The fort kept a large supply of stored water on hand in case of fire, using primarily cisterns (underground storage tanks).
The cisterns were filled by collecting rain water off the roofs. They each held about 20,000 gallons of water (about the same volume of water as a 16 foot x 34 foot swimming pool). There were two cisterns at the hospital and two at the Fort Union Depot. Finally, there was an above-ground storage tank at the mechanics corral (near the main well) that held thousands of gallons.
