Fort Clark Springs
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Fort Clark was a U.S. Military fort in operation for almost 100 years, from 1852 to shortly after WWII. Many buildings contribute to this designation, both Association and privately owned, as well as remnants and ruins from the Fort's nineteenth century frontier days to the twentieth century days of World War II. Fort Clark was established June 20, 1852 at Las Moras Springs by two companies of the First Infantry under the command of Major Joseph H. LaMotte along with an advance and rear guard of U.S. Mounted Rifles (later the 3rd Cavalry). Located at the headwaters of Las Moras Creek, the spring, named "The Mulberries" by Spanish explorers was a site long favored as camp grounds for Comanche, Mescalero, Lipan, and other Indians. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the big spring was a stopping place on the eastern branch of the great Comanche War Trail into Mexico. The original site was a trip of 1 to 2 miles in width extending from Las Moras Springs downstream about eight miles. In 1849 Lieutenant W.H.C. Whiting, during his reconnaissance for a practicable route between San Antonio and El Paso, recognized its military potential and recommended the location as a site for a fort. The land was leased from S.A. Maverick. Two Companies (C and E) of the First Infantry encamped near the Springs. Later, the garrison was moved up the hill from the Spring. By 1853 quarters for the soldiers were nearly completed and in 1854 three grass-covered officers' quarters were built. In 1855 a stone hospital and a two-story storehouse were erected.With the onset of the Civil War and the secession of Texas, the Federal soldiers left Fort Clark, March 19, 1861 and returned December 12, 1866. Until August 1862 the Fort was occupied by the Second Texas Mounted Rifles. It later served as a supply depot and a hospital for Confederate troops and civilians in surrounding areas.With the establishment of Fort Clark, a neighboring settlement of Las Moras came into existence when Oscar B Brackett established a supply village for the Fort. The town's name was changed to Brackett in 1856, and later to Brackettville. The stage ran through the settlement and for almost a century the town and the Fort remained closely identified. Fort Clark is perhaps most famous as the home for the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts. After twenty years of protecting Mexico's northern states from hostile Indians for the Mexican Army, they came to Fort Duncan in 1872 and to Fort Clark to serve the Army as scouts. The Indian Scouts served at Fort Clark from 1872 until 1914. Lt. John L. Bullis, later a general, served as their commander from 1873-1881. Fort Clark is also noted as the headquarters for Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie's raiders. He led raids into Mexico to punish renegade Indians, playing a decisive role in bringing to an end the Indian depredations in Texas.Comanche's on horseback swept down from north on moonlit nights, raiding, killing, taking horses, mules and cattle, escaping across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Lipan's and Kickapoos from Mexico slipped across the border into Texas, destroying, stealing, murdering, and returning quickly to safety.Outlaws of every nationality fled from one side of the border to safety on the other side. Hundreds of pioneers were forced to abandon their homesteads.On May 17, 1873 Mackenzie, accompanied by Lt. Bullis and the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, led troops of the 4th U.S. Cavalry into Mexico on a punitive expedition against the Lipan's. Other sorties followed. Again in 1878, Mackenzie was recalled to Fort Clark to stop the Kickapoos was on Texas. Mackenzie with Bullis and Seminole Scouts and a large peace-time army crossed the border to effectively stop the Mexican Army and end the Mexican-Indian hostilities forever. The last Indian depredation in the Military district of the Nueces was in 1881.Many infantry units and virtually all cavalry units, including the 9th and 10th Black "Buffalo Soldiers", were stationed at Fort Clark at various times. During the Spanish-American War, Fort Clark was garrisoned by the Third Texas Infantry. With the Indian Wars at an end, the Fort was threatened with closure, but turmoil along the border due to the Mexican Revolution revitalized the military need for the Fort, as did the First World War, which soon followed. In 1941, the 5th Cavalry was transferred to Fort Bliss and Fort Clark was then manned by the 112th Cavalry, Texas National Guard Unit, until their deployment for combat duties in the Pacific. Later, more than 12,000 troops of the second Cavalry Division trained at Fort Clark until their deployment in February 1944. The war also added another feature to the history of Fort Clark, that of having a German POW sub camp on the 4,000 acre reservation.By the end of World War I, the technological advancement of modern arms signaled the obsolescence of the horse cavalry. Yet it was not until June 1944, that full mechanization of the cavalry caused the government to close Fort Clark, one of the last horse-cavalry posts in the country. The Fort was officially deactivated in early 1946, and later that year was sold to Brown and Root Company for salvage and later used as a guest ranch. Fort Clark is truly a fort closure that became a success story, and is"Living History Today".
Fort Davis
The implementation of these plans were delayed by 19 years.
Fort Concho National Historic Landmark
Established in 1867, along the banks of the Concho River, Fort Concho was built to protect frontier settlements, patrol and map the vast West Texas region, and quell hostile threats in the area.Constructed for the most part of native limestone, Fort Concho consisted of at least forty buildings and covered more than 1600 acres.Fort Concho served as regimental headquarters for some of the most famous frontier units like the 4th and 10th Cavalry. Notable military commanders such as Ranald Mackenzie, Benjamin Grierson, and William 'Pecos Bill' Shafter commanded here. Elements of all four regiments of the Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at the post during its active period.At full strength Fort Concho supported 400-500 men made up of companies of infantry and troops of cavalry, staff officers and support personnel.In June 1889 the last soldiers marched away from Fort Concho and the fort was deactivated. After almost twenty-two years Fort Concho’s role in the settling of the Texas frontier was over.Today, Fort Concho National Historic Landmark encompasses most of the former army post and includes twenty-three original and restored fort structures. The old frontier army post is now a historic preservation project and museum which is owned and operated by the City of San Angelo, TexasTour Text Provided by: www.fortconcho.com
Pena Colorado
CAMP PEÑA COLORADO. Camp Peña Colorado, originally known as Cantonment Peña Colorado, was a post of the United States Army for almost fifteen years in the late 1800s. It was located about four miles southwest of the site of present-day Marathon in north central Brewster County. The post was built on Peña Colorada Creek near a large spring and beneath a high bluff called Peña Colorada (Spanish for "red rock," known also in English as Rainbow Cliffs), after which the creek, spring, and the army post itself were named (though the namers were not fastidious about Spanish grammatical gender).Indians had apparently occupied the area around Peña Colorada Springs for thousands of years. In historical times the site had been a major stopping place on the Comanche Trail to Mexico. It was first occupied by United States soldiers in late August 1879, when Companies F and G, Twenty-fifth United States Infantry Regiment, moved there from Fort Stockton. The location lay on the road connecting Fort Clark and Fort Davis, was also on the prospective southern route of the transcontinental railroad, and was within practicable supporting distance of Fort Stockton to the northeast and Fort Davis to the northwest.The establishment of Camp Peña Colorado was likely part of a larger army strategy to increase pressure on the Apaches living in the Trans-Pecos region, who were still forcefully resisting white settlement. It is probably not coincidence, either, that the outpost was founded the same month thatVictorio and his Warm Springs Apaches escaped confinement on the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico and began their flight across the Southwest and Trans-Pecos.The primary mission of the garrison at Camp Peña Colorado, as it turned out, was to provide escort through the region, perform scout duty, and pursue bandits, border raiders, horse thieves, and the like. In July 1880 the garrison was relieved by two companies of the Twenty-fourth United States Infantry. In September Company K, First Infantry, assumed garrison duties. This company, by monthly reports, indicated its chief occupations as road building and escort duty; it remained at the post for four years. During this time the spartan post consisted of several crude huts made of stone and mud and included two long, narrow buildings, one to serve as enlisted men's barracks and the other as a storehouse. Other buildings included two smaller huts for officers' quarters and a stone granary. The coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1882 just to the north, however, brought material refinement in living conditions at the post with the increased availability of commodities from the East.After July 1884 the garrison was principally composed of units of the Tenth United States Cavalry. Among the Tenth's famous "buffalo soldiers" who served at Camp Peña Colorado was Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the army's only black officer at the time. The cavalry was needed for scouting missions and inspection of the Mexican border for Apaches and bandits. The Third Cavalry replaced the Tenth in the summer of 1885, when Geronimo and his band were causing trouble in Arizona and New Mexico. Units of the Third Cavalry made up the garrison until relieved by a temporary detachment of the Eighteenth Infantry.Camp Peña Colorado was finally abandoned in late January 1893. By that time the settling of the country around the post was well along, and the need for United States Army troops in the Big Bend had shifted closer to the border. The site of the camp is located on Post Ranch, part of the Combs Cattle Company. The company's founder, David St. Clair Combs, early trail driver and prominent Texas rancher, donated the land around Peña Colorada Springs for a park in 1935. A historical marker was erected the next year on the location of the former outpost. The park is still enjoyed by residents of the area, among whom the spot is commonly known simply as the Post.BIBLIOGRAPHY: Clifford B. Casey, Mirages, Mysteries and Reality: Brewster County, Texas, the Big Bend of the Rio Grande (Hereford, Texas: Pioneer, 1972). M. L. Crimmins, "Camp Pena Colorado, Texas" (West Texas Historical and Scientific Society Publication 6 [1935]). William H. Leckie, The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967). Clayton W. Williams, Texas' Last Frontier: Fort Stockton and the Trans-Pecos, 1861–1895 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1982).Richard A. ThompsonWhenCITATIONThe following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Richard A. Thompson, "CAMP PENA COLORADO," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qcc48), accessed August 03, 2015. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.report an error
