Fort Duncan was a
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
base, set up to protect the first U.S. settlement on the
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
near the current town of
Eagle Pass, Texas.
History
A line of seven army posts were established in 1848–49 after the Mexican War to protect the settlers of West Texas and included
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...
,
Fort Graham
Fort Graham was a pioneer fort established in 1849 by Brevet Major R.A. Arnold (Companies F and I of the Second United States Dragoons) at the site of Jose Maria Village, an Anadaca camp on the western edge of present-day Hill County, Texas. I ...
,
Fort Gates
Fort Gates, was a United States Army fort established on October 26, 1849, as Camp Gates by Captain William Reading Montgomery and two companies of the 8th Infantry Regiment (United States), Eighth United States Infantry. The fort was located on th ...
,
Fort Croghan
Fort Croghan was the third of the first four forts established by the United States government to protect settlers from hostile Indians along the Texas frontier. From its establishment on March 18, 1849, by Lt. C.H. Taylor (Company A, Second Dra ...
,
Fort Martin Scott
Fort Martin Scott is a restored United States Army outpost near Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country, United States, that was active from December 5, 1848, until April, 1853. It was part of a line of frontier forts established to protect trave ...
,
Fort Lincoln Fort Lincoln may refer to:
*Fort Abraham Lincoln, an old military post near Mandan, North Dakota, now a state park
*Fort Lincoln Internment Camp, former military post and internment camp near Bismarck
* Fort Lincoln (Kansas)
* Fort Lincoln (Texas), ...
and Fort Duncan.
[Crimmins, M.L., 1943, ''The First Line of Army Posts Established in West Texas in 1849'', Abilene: West Texas Historical Association, Vol. XIX, pp. 121-127] Fort Duncan was established on March 27, 1849, when Captain
Sidney Burbank occupied the site with companies A, B, and F of the
First United States Infantry.
[Thompson, R.A., 2004, ''Fort Duncan, Texas: Rock of the Rio Grande Line of Defense'', Austin: Nortex Press, ] On November 14, 1849, the post was named Fort Duncan, after Col. James Duncan, a hero of the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...
.
The post consisted of a storehouse, two magazines, four officers' quarters, and a stone hospital, in addition to quarters for enlisted men. Construction was done half by the troops and half by hired workers. There was ample stone but no timber for building, and the men suffered from exposure. Company C,
1st Regiment of Artillery
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
, asked permission to construct quarters at its own expense. During the 1850s, Fort Duncan provided merchants and traders protection from border frontier outlaws and
Native Americans. The fort also served as a post for scouting Native Americans.
In 1854, Lt.s
Philip Sheridan
General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close a ...
,
Zenas Bliss,
Richard W. Johnson and Assistant Surgeon
Albert J. Myer
Albert James Myer (September 20, 1828 – August 24, 1880) was a surgeon and United States Army general. He is known as the father of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, as its first chief signal officer just prior to the American Civil War, the inventor ...
were stationed here, the Lieutenants after graduating from
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
.
Fort Duncan became involved in an invasion of Mexico on 2 October 1855, when
Texas Ranger
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 bo ...
Captain James H. Callahan led an effort to capture "runaway
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
", but confronted by Mexican regular troops,
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...
s and the ex-slaves, Callahan retreated to
Piedras Negras, which caught fire, threatening his force with annihilation until Capt. Burbank covered Callahan's retreat across the Rio Grande with Fort Duncan artillery.
Secretary of War
John B. Floyd
John Buchanan Floyd (June 1, 1806 – August 26, 1863) was the 31st Governor of Virginia, U.S. Secretary of War, and the Confederate general in the American Civil War who lost the crucial Battle of Fort Donelson.
Early family life
John Buc ...
ordered the post abandoned in May 1859,
but Lt. Col.
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nor ...
ordered the fort reoccupied in March 1860 during the
Cortina Troubles.
The fort at this time consisted of "25 buildings ... nearly all are stone and
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...
with
thatched roofs."
General
David E. Twiggs
David Emanuel Twiggs (February 14, 1790 – July 15, 1862), born in Georgia, was a career army officer, serving during the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and Mexican–American War.
As commander of the U.S. Army's Department of Texas when the ...
ordered the fort evacuated on 21 February 1861, just before the outbreak of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
.
However, Major
William H. French
William Henry French (January 13, 1815 – May 20, 1881) was a career United States Army officer and a Union Army General in the American Civil War. He rose to temporarily command a corps within the Army of the Potomac, but was relieved of active ...
was able to evacuate three companies of artillery at Fort Duncan and two at
Fort Brown to
Fort Jefferson and
Fort Zachary Taylor in Florida.
The
CSA garrisoned the fort with volunteers and Texas Rangers, renaming it Rio Grande Station, which became an important port for the export of cotton into Mexico.
Federal troops reoccupied Fort Duncan on 23 March 1868 by the
41st Infantry under the command of Lt. Col.
William R. Shafter, and Lt.
Henry Ware Lawton as
quartermaster
Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...
.
An additional unit of
Buffalo soldiers stationed at the fort, besides the 41st, was the
9th Cavalry.
This included George B. Jackson, later a businessman in
San Angelo called "the wealthiest black man in Texas" during the second half of the 19th century.
[Suzanne Campbell of ]Angelo State University
Angelo State University is a public university in San Angelo, Texas. It was founded in 1928 as San Angelo College. It gained university status and awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in 1967 and graduate degrees in 1969, the same year it too ...
, San Angelo, "George B. Jackson, Black (or African-American) Businessman, Rancher, and Entrepreneur," West Texas Historical Association, annual meeting, Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock ( )
is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the nort ...
, April 2, 2011 The
25th Infantry arrived under the command of Major Bliss in 1870, and the
Black Seminole Scouts
Black Seminole Scouts, also known as the Seminole Negro - Indian Scouts, or Seminole Scouts, were employed by the United States Army between 1870 and 1914. The unit included both Black Seminoles and some native Seminoles. However, because most ...
were organized at the fort, initially under the command of 2nd Lt. Henry Field Leggett, but later commanded by 2nd Lt.
John L. Bullis.
The post was abandoned once again on 31 August 1883.
Camp at Eagle Pass
Camp at Eagle Pass was established on 3 April 1886 as a sub-post of
Fort Clark until it was discontinued in February 1927.
[ The 3rd Texas Volunteer Infantry was based here from 25 May 1898 until 16 February 1899.][ The camp was ordered abandoned in 1904][ but a detachment of Signal Corps was placed here on 9 February 1911 while "Mexico was aflame with ]revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
" until 1914.[ The ]National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
was mobilized here in 1916, joining the Coast Artillery Corps
The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was an administrative corps responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States and its possessions between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artillery ...
,[ while the ]90th Aero Squadron
The 90th Aero Squadron was an Air Service, United States Army unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I.
The squadron was assigned as a Corps Observation Squadron, performing short-range, tactical reconnaissance over the III Co ...
operated DH-4Bs from here in 1919 until 1920, which included Jimmy Doolittle.[ Only a caretaker force remained to watch over the hospital from 1922 until final closure of the camp in 1927.][
]
Military Aviation
On 3 March 1911, Benjamin Foulois
Benjamin Delahauf Foulois (December 9, 1879 – April 25, 1967) was a United States Army general who learned to fly the first military planes purchased from the Wright brothers. He became the first military aviator as an airship pilot, and achi ...
and Philip Orin Parmelee
Philip Orin Parmelee (March 8, 1887 – June 1, 1912) was an American aviation pioneer trained by the Wright brothers and credited with several early world aviation records and "firsts" in flight. He turned a keen interest in small engines into ...
flew the US military's first cross country reconnaissance flight here from Laredo using a Wright Model B
The Wright Model B was an early pusher biplane designed by the Wright brothers in the United States in 1910. It was the first of their designs to be built in quantity. Unlike the Model A, it featured a true elevator carried at the tail ra ...
covering 106 miles in two hours at an altitude of 800 feet.[
]
Preservation
In 1933, the City of Eagle Pass Parks and Recreation Department began maintaining the old fort as a public park.[ The city formally acquired the property in 1938 at an auction price of $3760][ and converted it into Fort Duncan Park. In 1942 the mayor offered the fort to the military for use during World War II.][ The government used the Fort Duncan Country Club as an officers' club and the swimming pool for commissioned personnel stationed at Eagle Pass Army Air Field. The site was listed in the ]National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1971. Seven of the original buildings still stand today. In the early 1980s, the Fort Duncan Country Club caught fire and only the outer walls remain.
The Commander's Headquarters building has been converted into the Fort Duncan Museum, with exhibits of local and fort history and artifacts.
Gallery
File:Fort Duncan Texas historical marker.jpg, Texas historical marker, CSA
File:Fort Duncan Texas historical marker 2.jpg, Texas historical marker
File:Fort Duncan Texas Historical marker for barracks.jpg, Texas Historical marker for barracks
Fort Duncan in Eagle Pass IMG 0262.JPG, Fort Duncan Headquarter and Museum
File:US Infantry cap.jpg, Museum 19th century infantry hat, or shako
File:US Cavalry cap.jpg, Museum 19th century cavalry hat
File:John Deere plow.jpg, Museum John Deere
Deere & Company, doing business as John Deere (), is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, transmissions, gearboxes) used in heavy equipment, ...
plow
See also
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Maverick County, Texas
* Forts of Texas
References
External links
*
*
*
Fort Duncan Museum
*
*
{{Authority control
Duncan
Duncan may refer to:
People
* Duncan (given name), various people
* Duncan (surname), various people
* Clan Duncan
* Justice Duncan (disambiguation)
Places
* Duncan Creek (disambiguation)
* Duncan River (disambiguation)
* Duncan Lake ...
Duncan
Duncan may refer to:
People
* Duncan (given name), various people
* Duncan (surname), various people
* Clan Duncan
* Justice Duncan (disambiguation)
Places
* Duncan Creek (disambiguation)
* Duncan River (disambiguation)
* Duncan Lake ...
Museums in Maverick County, Texas
History museums in Texas
Military and war museums in Texas
Closed installations of the United States Army
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
National Register of Historic Places in Maverick County, Texas
Military installations established in 1849
1849 establishments in Texas