The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971 Page: 169
616 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Federal Fort Architecture in Texas
the supply line could be kept intact." The posts of this outer line were
Forts Richardson, Belknap, Merril, Griffin, Phantom Hill, Chad-
bourne, Concho, McKavett, Territt, and Clark, and Camp Cooper.
In addition to the lines, there were a number of miscellaneous
forts scattered throughout the triangle of defense. These "in-between"
posts each had a definite purpose, although they were not estab-
lished in groups as had been the case with the frontier-line garrisons.
Generally, the forts seem to have been established partly to extend
internal protection on the frontier and partly to serve as a buffer
protection along the Rio Grande." Fort Lancaster was built in
Crockett County on the old military road between San Antonio and
El Paso, for instance; and Fort Stockton was at a crossing.
There were three reasons for establishing these forts. The first
was to protect some isolated settlement from marauding Indians and
renegades, the second was to protect certain roads and mail lines,
and the third was to establish supply lines and arsenals."' A fourth
reason could have been to protect the reservation Indians from the
unscrupulous and greedy whites." This group included Forts Mason,
Davis, Stockton, and Lancaster, and Camp Verde.
At the outbreak of the Civil War the federal forts were surren-
dered to the Confederacy by General D. E. Twiggs, commander of
the Department of 'Texas at that time.l" During the war Texas was
not well fortified, although no Union invasion successfully pene-
trated the defense set up by the Confederacy in Texas. The Rio
Grande garrisons acted as stations for transporting supplies between
Mexico and Texas as well as protection against an invasion from the
lower Rio Grande. During the last two years of the war, the Frontier
Regiment was replaced by home defenses. In the spring of 1867,
Captain E. J. Strang, quartermaster general, was ordered to put
the frontier posts of Texas "in proper order for the reception of
troops,""" and federal troops began to reoccupy the line of prewar
fortifications.
"Richardson and Rister, The Greater Southwest, 144-145.
"Gregory, Fort Cozncho, 15.
"Frances Paul Prucha, A Guide to the Military Posts of the United States, 1789-I895
(Madison, Wisc., 1964), 14-20.
"Rister, Fo1t Griffin, 26; Frazer, Forts of the West, xv.
"Patsy McCloud Lorenz, "Fort Richardson and the Northwest Texas Frontier" (M.A.
thesis, University of Houston, 1963), 8.
"'J. Evetts Haley, Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier (San Angelo, Texas, 1952), 121.169
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971, periodical, 1971; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101200/m1/181/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.