CARLISLE, Pennsylvania — Cradled in the Cumberland Valley, just west of the Susquehanna, and flanked by the Blue Mountain range to the north and the northernmost tip of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the south, sits the Carlisle Barracks. It is one of our nation’s oldest military installations, dating back to its inception as an outpost in the 1750s.Back then, Carlisle was simply an intersecting trade route developed by the native tribes. Traders, along with the natives and new settlers, headed toward the forks of the Ohio and made their last stop before the Allegheny Mountain range.The British, under the leadership of Col. John Stanwix, sought to defend the colony of Pennsylvania, then under siege from both hostile tribes and their ally France during the French and Indian War. This military post was established to secure the colony for the Crown.
It was here that Gen. John Forbes, along with thousands of colonial troops and the British military, began to cut the road that ultimately led to the capture of Fort Duquesne, marking a turning point in the French and Indian War.
Months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress authorized a magazine and laboratory here. Within short order, the town began expanding from the barracks into a manufacturing base and arsenal.
