Army posts in the Trans-Mississippi West from 1866 to 1898 were more like small towns than forts. Military posts provided their inhabitants with urban services, and possessed a social structure that was a microcosm of nineteenth-century American society, complete with a ruling middle class, and a lower working class. The officer class constituted the ruling middle class of garrison society, while the enlisted men comprised the lower class. This study will show that the social structure of the western military garrisons, based on a military caste system, dominated the daily lives of the inhabitants, both military and civilian.While frontier service and the dangers of combat may have lessened the social division between officers and soldiers in the field, this distinction was maintained while at the posts. Officers dined, lived, and attended social functions separately from the enlisted men. This social division also applied to the civilian members of the garrison community. Prominent civilians such as ranchers and prosperous business people associated with the officer class, while less prominent civilians were identified with the enlisted class. / Department of History