Fort Jackson was established in 1917, and named Camp Jackson for the seventh U.S. President, General Andrew Jackson, Carolina native. The camp was a training ground for recruits, but was originally a sandy thin forest; within 90 days of the arrival of the first company the camp was a functioning training camp with hundreds of buildings, 10,000 troops, and graduating recruits. Camp Jackson was deactivated as a regular Army installation in 1922, and abandoned by the Army, although it was used until 1940 by National Guard troops as an encampment area.


With the U.S. involvement in World War II, the post was reactivated and again used to train recruits. An additional 53,000 acres was acquired to expand the camp, and the fort's first female soldiers, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, arrived to replace male soldiers from administration for combat duty.


The post was scheduled to be again deactivated after the war, but the onset of the Cold War and Korean War kept training demands up, and the post has never again been seriously considered for reduction. While a large number of military installations have experienced deactivations and downsizing, the post has only increased in size throughout the years.


In 1973, Fort Jackson was appointed as a U.S. Army Training Center, and since 1995, Fort Jackson has become home to new training facilities and schools. The U.S. Army Soldier Support Institute, the Department of Defense Chaplain Center and School, and the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment. Fort Jackson is today the biggest and most active Initial Entry Training facility in the U.S Army. Fort Jackson has seen hundreds of thousands of recruits, and was the post of some famous people, including Sgt. Leonard Nimoy (Spock), and Pvt. Jim Croce.