Fort Buchanan was a

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

post founded in 1856 three miles southwest of present-day Sonoita in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, on the east slope of what is now called Hog Canyon. At the time, the area was under constant threat from hostile

Apaches The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

. Full-scale war with the local

Chiricahua Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans. Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua historically shared a common area, language, customs, and intertwined family relations with their fellow Apaches. ...

Apache was initiated by the Bascom affair in early 1861, during which Lieutenant

George Nicholas Bascom George Nicholas Bascom (1837 – February 21, 1862) was a United States Army officer in the New Mexico Territory and in the early months of the American Civil War. Biography George N. Bascom was born in Owingsville in Bath County, Kentucky. His a ...

and his patrol were based at Fort Buchanan. Sonoita-Fort Buchanan Bridge Ruins-1856

The post was officially abandoned in 1861, though troops of the

California Column The California Column was a force of Union volunteers sent to Arizona and New Mexico during the American Civil War. The command marched over from California through Arizona and New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and as far east as El Paso, ...

occasionally manned the post during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. In February 1865, Apaches attacked and burned the fort in the Battle of Fort Buchanan, forcing the small garrison to retreat. It was then abandoned for good, and

Fort Crittenden Fort Crittenden, originally Camp Crittenden, was a United States Army post built in 1867 three miles from Sonoita, Arizona, Sonoita, Arizona along Sonoita Creek. It was established to campaign against the Apache and to protect American American p ...

was established half a mile east on the flats in 1867. After having been lost for years, the ruins of the fort were rediscovered in 1929 by Harry J. Karns, mayor of

Nogales, Arizona Nogales (; English: or ) is a city in and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The population was 20,837 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and estimated 20,103 in 2019. Nogales forms part of the larger Tucson–Nogales L ...

, and Arizona Superior Court Judge W. A. O'Connor.

References

{{Authority control Buchanan Buildings and structures in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Arizona Territory History of Santa Cruz County, Arizona 1856 establishments in New Mexico Territory 1865 disestablishments in New Mexico Territory Ghost towns in Arizona