Fort Steilacoom was an ex-sheep ranch of the Puget Sound Agricultural Co., an off-shoot of the Hudson Bay Co., being no longer needed, was gladly leased to the Quartermaster’s Department for the use of the troops.1 Bennett Hill’s Co. of the First Artillery was the first to occupy it and we were his successors with Company C. of the Fourth Infrantry.2 The location was on the plain which is now the site of the Insane Asylum, and has many advantages.3 The soil was level and hard and had produced some magnificent oak trees on the edge of the parade ground overshadowing the officers’ quarters.
Nothing Worthy of Note Transpired Today (archive.org) The transcribed journals of Civil War General August Valentine Kautz that detail his daily life and activities during his post at Fort Steilacoom in 1850.
https://archive.org/details/nothing-worthy-of-note-transpired-today-the-northwest-journals-of-august-v.-kautz/page/n57/mode/2up