188 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 176 



to afford privacy for the enlisted men occupying the barracks (fig. 

 15). 



Centrally located with respect to the whole post, the barracks were 

 doubtless among the earlier of the large buildings undertaken, but 

 there is record of the fact that not until January 1868 were the troops 

 completely housed (Mattison, 1951, p. 28). These barracks could 

 have provided little more than minimum housing needs, in dormitory 

 and mess space, and it is difficult to see how these two buildings could 

 have served all the needs of 238 men, for whom they were plamied. 

 The average strength of the post during most of its history was, how- 

 ever, only about 110 (Mattison, 1951, p. 24) . 



Like the majority of buildings at the fort, the barracks were built 

 of field stone, adobe brick, timber, and related materials, in the same 

 style as that previously described for the Hospital, and were provided 

 with chimneys of common fired brick (fig. 17; pis. 39-^1). Excava- 

 tions were made at the site of the barracks on the south side of the 

 parade ground, and this site was, for convenience, designated as the 

 South Barracks. As was the case at the site of the Hospital, this 

 site was well covered with grass sod and weeds. It had been dis- 

 turbed in only one area since the final collapse of the remains of the 

 structure after the fire of 1894. This collapse had left a somewhat 

 uneven surface, with occasional low mounds of adobe-brick rubble 

 near building lines, and a depression marking the site of a small cellar 

 (fig. 17). At the front of the building site, portions of the stone 

 masonry of footings were visible throughout parts of their course 

 (pi. 39, h). No known photograph or sketch shows the barracks 

 buildings. 



Only a part of the site of the South Barracks was excavated (fig. 

 17). This part was the west half of the "body" — the company room 

 or dormitory of the original — and the entire West Wing, extending 

 to the rear (southward). The other half of the whole site, the east 

 half of the "body" and the East Wing, was left unexcavated; this 

 half of the remains of the original structure had been covered by 

 parts of the root cellar mentioned, made in 1915, and superimposed 

 on parts of the sites of the Hospital and South Barracks. Removal 

 of the part of this sam,e large earthwork lying over the West Wing 

 of the Hospital had been completed prior to excavation at the site of 

 the South Barracks, and experience gained there suggested that 

 removal of this part would not be warranted. 



The irregular mounds of rubble of accidentally fired adobe brick and 

 common fired brick were visible particularly at the site of the West 

 Wing (pis. 39, & ; 41, &). In the front area, the west half of the com- 

 pany room, little or no deposit had been preserved lying on the original 

 surface of the ground, except at the southwest corner adjacent to the 

 West Wing, and this front area had been considerably altered, prob- 



