Texas Historical marker for Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Elliott

Fort Elliott was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

post in the

Texas Panhandle The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...

, operational between 1875 and 1890 and named for Major Joel H. Elliott, a casualty of the

Battle of Washita River The Battle of Washita River (also called Battle of the Washita or the Washita Massacre) occurred on November 27, 1868, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Southern Cheyenne camp on the Washita Rive ...

in 1868. The decision to establish Fort Elliott in what was to become

Wheeler County Wheeler County is the name of several counties in the United States: * Wheeler County, Georgia * Wheeler County, Nebraska * Wheeler County, Oregon * Wheeler County, Texas Wheeler County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of t ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, was made in December 1874 by

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

Nelson A. Miles Nelson Appleton Miles (August 8, 1839 – May 15, 1925) was an American military general who served in the American Civil War, the American Indian Wars, and the Spanish–American War. From 1895 to 1903, Miles served as the last Commanding Gen ...

as an advance supply post during the campaign to clear the

of American Indians after the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. Major James Biddle established a temporary post on 3 February 1875 with four troops of the 6th US Cavalry and four companies of the 5th Infantry and the permanent location of the fort on 5 June 1875, twenty-seven miles west of

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

near the headwaters of Sweetwater Creek.Crimmins, M.L., 1947, Fort Elliott, Texas, in The

West Texas Historical Association The West Texas Historical Association is an organization of both academics and laypersons dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the total history of West Texas, loosely defined geographically as all Texas counties and portions of coun ...

Year Book, Vol. XXIII, October 1947, Abilene African-American troops, familiarly called "

Buffalo soldiers Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This nickname was given to the Black Cavalry by Native American tribes who fought in t ...

," served in this area. In subsequent years, the fort was garrisoned to protect the borders of the Panhandle with Indian Territory, and the

cattle drive A cattle drive is the process of moving a herd of cattle from one place to another, usually moved and herded by cowboys on horses. Europe In medieval central Europe, annual cattle drives brought Hungarian Grey cattle across the Danube River ...

s from Texas to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

. The town of Mobeetie in Wheeler County, where

Timothy Dwight Hobart Timothy Dwight Hobart (October 6, 1855 – May 19, 1935) was an American businessman, best known as the manager of the JA Ranch. He was also mayor of Pampa, Texas Pampa (from the Quechua: ''pampa'', meaning "plain") is a city in Gray Count ...

and

Temple Lea Houston Temple Lea Houston (August 12, 1860 – August 15, 1905) was an American attorney and politician who served from 1885 to 1889 in the Texas State Senate. He was the last-born child of Margaret Lea Houston and Sam Houston, the first elected pre ...

were early settlers, grew beside it. Among the troops serving there were Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, the first

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

graduate of

West Point Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

, Captain Emerson H. Liscum and Lieutenant

Frederick Dent Grant Frederick Dent Grant (May 30, 1850 – April 12, 1912) was a soldier and United States minister to Austria-Hungary. Grant was the first son of General and President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Grant. He was named after his ...

References

External links

* * {{cite web , url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=48385 , title=Site of Fort Elliott , year=1936 , trans-title=Mobeetie in Wheeler County, Texas - The American South (West South Central) , website=HMDB.org , publisher=The Historical Marker Database Closed installations of the United States Army

Elliot Elliot (also spelled Eliot, Elliotte, Elliott, Eliott and Elyot) is a personal name which can serve as either a surname or a given name. Although the given name has historically been given to males, females have increasingly been given the name ...

Buildings and structures in Wheeler County, Texas