and inadequate. Built of adobe bricks, Fort Larned consisted of an officer's quarters, two combination storehouses and barracks, a guardhouse, two laundresses' quarters, and a hospital, with a bakery and meat house being later additions. After its establishment, nearby Plains Indians began to respect the trail commerce. In August, 1861, Colonel Leavenworth, reporting from Fort Larned, stated the Indians had left the Santa Fe trail area and there was no apprehension of any hostilities. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Fort Larned witnessed its first action and hostility from the Indians. Soldiers in the regular army were removed from the post to join the growing conflict in the East, leaving the fort to be operated by volunteer troops from Kansas, Colorado, and Wisconsin. Raids and harassment of travelers by Plains Indians increased during the Civil War years. On July 17, 1864, Kiowa Indians raided Fort Larned and stole 172 horses and mules from the corral. The raiders were pursued but never caught. In 1865 a system of escorting wagon trains was established, and all merchants were forbidden travel westward beyond Fort Larned without an armed escort. Though the fort was never directly involved in any Civil War engagements, one incident nearly brought the fighting to Larned. In May 1862, Confederate General Albert Pike arranged an alliance with some Kiowa and Seminole Indians with intentions of capturing Forts Larned and Wise. The plan was never carried out, as the Indians left for their annual hunt when the weather improved. Fort Larned was the site of a meeting between General Winfield Scott Hancock and several Cheyenne chiefs on April 12, 1867, in which Hancock intended to impress the Dog Soldier chiefs with his military power. After the meeting, Hancock, along with George Armstrong Custer and the 7th U.S. Cavalry traveled west of Fort Larned to a combined Cheyenne and Lakota camp, inciting the villagers to flee. Hancock ordered the village burned, beginning a summer of warfare known as Hancock's War. Fort Larned assisted in bringing Hancock's War to an end by supplying the Medicine Lodge Treaty. During the winter of 1868–69, U.S. Major General Philip H. Sheridan launched a campaign against the Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche Indians in the Great Plains region. Sheridan's men attacked any who resisted, taking their supplies and livestock and pushing the remaining Indians back into their reservations. By the end of the Winter Campaign, Sheridan had