Fort Whipple, Arizona

  Fort Whipple is a former United States (U.S.) Army post originally established at Del Rio Springs, north of present day Chino Valley, Arizona, and later relocated to a site in present day Prescott, Arizona. The initial post was established by Major Edward Banker Willis and Captain Nathaniel J. Pishon on December 23, 1863. They led Companies C and F of the First California Volunteers and built the post under General Order #27 issued by General James Henry Carleton. The post was named Fort Whipple, after Amiel Weeks Whipple, an American military officer and topographical engineer. He served as a brigadier general in the American Civil War, and was mortally wounded on May 7, 1863, at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. The Governor’s Party arrived at Fort Whipple on January 22, 1864. Consisting of most of the officials of the new territorial government of Arizona, Governor John Noble Goodwin used the fort as his headquarters while he visited the territory to determine a perm...