#FlashbackFriday: Evolution of the Exchange—Post Traders and Canteens

In last week’s #FlashbackFriday, we talked about sutlers, civilians who beginning in 1776 were authorized to have concessions to supply the needs and wants of Army personnel.

By the Civil War, the sutler system had become corrupt. Exorbitant prices, usurious credit and inadequate service were frequent complaints, leading Congress to abolish the sutler system in 1866.

Because of the continued need for convenient trading facilities on military installations, in 1867 Congress authorized the establishment of post traders to replace the sutlers. Post traders were permitted to sell to military personnel items that were not government-issued.

A post trader’s store, Fort Hays, Kansas, 1871

Because of greater permanency in military installations by that time, post traders were more stationary than sutlers. But they made up a patchwork retail service that had no standardized supervision or operation.

Some outlying posts on the frontier had no trading establishments, and officers who found themselves restricted in buying their daily needs formed social clubs and called them canteens. Canteens were financed from the officers’ own funds and sold goods to members and their families without profit.

In 1880 at Vancouver Barracks, in what is now Washington state, Col. Henry Morrow, commander of the 21st Infantry Regiment, opened a small canteen to keep his Soldiers on post and away from the nearby town’s temptations. Soldiers could buy food, beverages, newspapers and magazines. They could also play billiards, cards and other games, and purchase materials and postage to write and send letters to their loved ones. (Vancouver Barracks is part of the modern-day Exchange, with facilities maintained by the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Exchange.)

Post trader stores, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1871

As canteens opened at military posts throughout the West, some posts were still served by post traders, who ran establishments that were part general store, part saloon. Once again, exorbitant prices and high interest rates became problems, leading some Soldiers into deep debt.

Unlike canteen operators, post traders encouraged Soldiers to drink, causing disciplinary issues. Still other posts didn’t have a canteen or a post trader, so troops found ways of getting into trouble in nearby towns.

When the War Department learned about this situation, it called for a study of canteens and post traders. Maj. Theodore Schwan, the assistant adjutant general, prepared a report that spelled out how post canteens on Army installations should operate. Schwan’s recommended that post canteens supply troops with necessary goods at moderate prices, and provides the means for exercise, billiards and other games. Wherever practical, the canteen was to be located in the same building as the library or reading rooms.

The post trader’s store at Fort Riley, Kansas, circa 1888. The entrance was the first-floor door on the left.

A couple of years after Schwan’s report, in 1892, the War Department changed the name “post canteen” to “post exchange.” On July 25, 1895, the War Department authorized local commanders to open post exchanges, which would operate under the same guidelines found in Schwan’s report.

Those rudimentary post exchanges evolved into today’s Army & Air Force Exchange Service. The Exchange will celebrate its 130^th birthday July 25.

Source: Exchange Post archives. 

A post canteen, Fort Keogh, Montana, circa 1890.