Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

period and were intended to serve as officers’ quarters. Construction was of sun-baked adobe
walls, excavated basements, plastered interiors, wood floors, gable roofs with asbestos shingles,
and were of a two-story design. Screened porches were included in the front and back.
Over the years, these quarters have been modernized many times, especially by the Works
Projects Administration in the 1930s, including the replacement of roofing with asphalt strip
shingles and covering the exterior walls with stucco for preservation of the adobe.
The four buildings fronting the northern side of the old parade field were all constructed as
double barracks in 1883. During the six years preceding their construction, the living conditions
for enlisted men were spartan. Icy drafts blew through the canvas-adobe seams in the winter and
choking dust in the summer. Scorpions, tarantulas, and rattlesnakes were frequent roommates.
The summer heat could be oppressive and ramadas were built to provide shade.
These new accommodations were a marked contrast, affording adequate heating, ventilation,
luxurious space, and some privacy for the NCOs. Their engineering includes stone masonry
foundations, wood frame walls with wood drop siding, and beaver board interior lining. They
were designed with open porches on both floors along the longitudinal axis to provide shielding
from summer heat and protection from the elements for occupants using the outside stairs. Although
many modernization projects have been executed, to include heating, cooling, floor covering,
drop ceilings, fluorescent lighting, and new partitioning, the general exterior appearance of
the structures has not changed.
All of these barracks-style buildings were again used for troop housing in 1951 when the
fort was reopened to train Engineer Aviation units. Today they are still in use as administration
buildings. Each is named for a famous cavalry unit stationed in the Huachucas.
Cpl. William B. Jett was with the 4th Cavalry at Fort Huachuca in 1884 and was one of
the soldiers who took part in the construction work. In his diary he remembered not only the
comforts, but the hard work at Huachuca.
Fort Huachuca was a picturesque place nestling at the foot of the mountains about
eight miles from Huachuca Station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and like most other
government forts of that day. was supplied with water running down from the mountains. As
long as we were in the fort quarters, there were more comforts at hand than I had anywhere
else during my stay in the West. There was some hard work, however, in the Fort, and I have
not forgotten carrying the hod of mortar on my bony shoulder many a day up to the men who
were laying the sun-dried adobe bricks in the erection of barracks. 116
All of the new construction up until this time was supervised by quartermaster Capt. E. B.
Hubbard, who had been assigned two years earlier for this purpose. (From the time of Huachuca’s
founding in 1877 until 1941, responsibility for construction fell upon the shoulders of the post
quartermaster who was tasked with furnishing quarters for the troops.) Hubbard’s skill as an
engineer was exceeded only by his reputation as a dedicated drinker. Hubbard had quit the U.S.
Military Academy after one year to enlist in an Ohio artillery battery in 1861. When the Civil
War ended, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 32d Infantry and sent to Camp
Bowie, Arizona. He was promoted to a captain of the Quartermaster Corps in March 1881, with
duties at Fort Huachuca.
He was brought up on charges for drunkeness at least three times. He avoided a courtmartial
in October 1882 by swearing off the liquor. It was a promise he did not abide by. On 13
March 1883, he was reported staggering around his yard clad only in an old undershirt. He
refused to retreat indoors, even after he was informed that he was in plain sight of the married
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HUACHUCA ILLUSTRATED