Whereas January 8, 2019, marks the 150th anniversary of Fort Sill, a military installation operating in the Lawton-Fort Sill region of Oklahoma; Whereas the site of Fort Sill was staked out on January 8, 1869, by Major General Philip H. Sheridan, and the garrison was first called Camp Wichita ; Whereas Fort Sill is named after Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed in the American Civil War and was a friend to Major General Philip H. Sheridan; Whereas the first post commander at Fort Sill was Brevet Major General Benjamin Grierson; Whereas, in 1877, Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, the first African American to graduate from West Point, was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Sill; Whereas, in 1898, the Fort Sill garrison was down to 27 officers and soldiers as the cavalry left for battles in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and Lieutenant Allyn Capron, Jr., who had joined the Rough Riders , was the first officer killed in Cuba; Whereas the last Indian land in Oklahoma opened for settlement in 1901, and 29,000 homesteaders registered at Fort Sill during July of that year for the land lottery; Whereas Fort Sill played a major role in expanding the nearby city of Lawton, which was named after Major General Henry W. Lawton, a Fort Sill quartermaster who was killed in the Philippines in 1899 and was a Medal of Honor recipient; Whereas, on August 6, 1901, the town of Lawton was established and quickly grew to become the third largest city in Oklahoma, later becoming part of the greater Lawton-Fort Sill community; Whereas, with the disappearance of the frontier, the mission of Fort Sill gradually changed from cavalry to field artillery, with the first artillery battery arriving at Fort Sill in 1902, and the last cavalry regiment departing in May 1907; Whereas, the School of Fire for Field Artillery was founded at Fort Sill in 1911 and continues to operate as the United States Army Field Artillery School