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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13fc6e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54497 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54497) diff --git a/old/54497-0.txt b/old/54497-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ad90944..0000000 --- a/old/54497-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1863 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Concho, by J. N. Gregory - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Fort Concho - Its Why and Wherefore - -Author: J. N. Gregory - -Release Date: April 7, 2017 [EBook #54497] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORT CONCHO *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - _FORT CONCHO MUSEUM - San Angelo, Texas_ - - -_A people who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestry -will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote -descendants._—Macaulay - - -The Department of the Interior on October 7, 1961 designated this Fort -as a National Historic Landmark. - - [Illustration: Fort Concho - 1867-1889] - - - - - [Illustration: Fort Concho: Its Why and Wherefore] - - - - - Fort Concho - ITS WHY AND WHEREFORE - - - J. N. Gregory - - _Cover by A. J. Redd_ - - First Printing 1957 - Second Printing 1962 - Third Printing 1970 - - _NEWSFOTO YEARBOOKS_ - _San Angelo, Texas_ - - - Dedicated - to the pioneer - men and women - of our Southwest. - - - - - FOREWORD - - -Many people who visit the Fort Concho Museum and look over the parade -ground and buildings of old Fort Concho, naturally ask the question, -“Why did the United States Government build a fort in this place, and -what did the fort accomplish?” - -The object of this pamphlet is to answer that question, and to present -the answer to the inquiring visitor at as small a cost as the printer -makes possible. - -Two maps of Texas will be found in the envelope at the back of the -pamphlet. The smaller is a reproduction of one published in 1856, not -too accurate from a geographic standpoint, but as accurate as the -knowledge of the times allowed. The other map, accurate from the -geographic point of view, endeavors to show the locations of some -thirty-four forts and camps that were established and built by our War -Department on the Texas Frontier during the Indian days. - - -The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that brought to a close the war between -the United States and Mexico, February 2, 1848, and the subsequent -Gadsden Purchase of 1853, set the plan for the present boundaries -between the two countries. A vast area of plains, deserts and mountains, -an unmapped and untraveled wilderness was now owned by the Northern -Republic. It was inhabited mostly by Comanche, Apache, Kiowa and other -warlike Indian tribes, and it stretched from the settlements of South -and East Texas, and from the lower Missouri River area to the new -American settlements on the Pacific Coast. - -Great events were in the making when in California in 1848, gold nuggets -were found in the tailrace of Sutter’s Mill. The word passed around -quickly, and the first modern international gold rush was on. It put the -first sizeable amounts of precious metals into the coffers of the -nations of the world since the Spanish Conquistadores ransacked the -treasure houses of Peru and Mexico. It brought about modern mining -practices, and before the end of the century, the search for gold was so -international and intense that comparable strikes had been made in South -Africa, Australia, Canada and Alaska, resulting in fresh redistribution -of populations, not only in the United States but also in other portions -of the world. The problems accompanying such redistribution were -plentiful, and they are still plaguing us to this day. - -But the lure that led men to our West was not gold alone. The El Dorado -of man’s dreams, be it a gold vein, oil patch, store on Main Street, -cattle ranch, or farm in Peaceful Valley, can very well lie in any new -and unexplored lands. So it was then. Few men could afford for -themselves, families and belongings the cost of passage by sailing ship, -around the Horn or by portage at the Isthmus of Panama, from Boston, New -York, Charleston, New Orleans, Galveston or Indianola, to San Francisco. -Besides that, a fellow who was bent on making a trip liked to look over -the country lying between home and his proposed destination. So, many -found their El Dorado, not on the Pacific Coast but along the trails -between the Great River and the Pacific Ocean. - -The inhabitants of the crowded East and the folks of the South felt -their race-old urge to get on the move towards more freedom and -opportunity. Old windy Horace Greeley was soon to advise, “Go West, -Young Man.” So go West they did, young and old, first by small companies -on horseback or in buckboards, then later by trains of covered wagons -which carried their families and all earthly possessions, grouped -together for companionship as well as for protection against the -Indians. - -Population movements in the United States have generally gone from East -to West in parallel lines, once the Atlantic seaboard was settled. And -so this great gold movement from East to West brought settlement of the -intermediate lands between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean -by the natural contrasting types of North-South peoples. - -The great Oregon and Santa Fe Trails serviced the people of the more -northerly parts of our country, but for those in the southern parts a -newer trail had to be found and by simple geography it had to cross -Texas. You could enter the State from the sea at Galveston, Indianola or -Corpus Christi, or by way of the land through Fort Smith in Arkansas, -thence across the Indian Territory to the Red River; or directly from -Louisiana through the fairly well settled and organized counties of East -Texas. But no matter how you entered, there was only one way to get out, -and so all trails converged on the Paso del Norte (present El Paso). To -get out of Texas south of El Paso would land you in Mexico. To get out -north of El Paso would take you across the Llano Estacado which in those -days was considered a vast treeless plain, unbroken by any topographic -changes, and completely devoid of water holes. - -The accompanying map, published in 1856 in Yoakum’s History of Texas, -shows clearly the political subdivisions and settlements of Texas in -those times. A substantial part of the State, from the Panhandle to the -upper Rio Grande, appears to be completely uninhabited and, therefore, -politically unorganized. In a vague manner, this vast area might be -assumed to be an unannexed portion of the counties of Bexar, El Paso, -Presidio and Travis. This map does not speak approvingly of the Llano -Estacado. Staked Plains, some called it. - -From 1848 on to the recent past, various trail drivers, army officers -and railroaders laid out trails from the settled parts of Texas to the -Paso del Norte, always taking advantage of springs and water holes and -avoiding the Llano Estacado and the great limestone canyons of the Rio -Grande and its tributaries. That is, all did but the builders of the -Southern Pacific Railroad. They came later, but yet too early to have -the know-how of an Arthur Edward Stilwell. But that is another story. - -A North-South trade route had existed for some two hundred years -connecting Spanish Santa Fe, far north toward the headwaters of the Rio -Grande, south through the Paso del Norte to the settlements in the -mother country of Mexico. The Santa Fe Trail extended to California, -would cross this trade route at Santa Fe, well up in the Rocky -Mountains, while the route through Texas would cross it at El Paso. And -so these two places became the supply dumps where the great wagon trains -took on horses, mules, beef and other supplies that would see them -across the final leg of the journey west. It was a great opportunity for -traders who had the supplies to sell, and the procuring middle man, the -one who contacted both producer and merchant, was a man with great savvy -and ability known as the Comanche Indian. - -The Comanche despised walking; it was not adaptable to his method of -making a living. He was a plains Indian, and somewhere back in the -sixteenth or seventeenth century had somehow accumulated his first -mustangs from offsprings of those horses lost by the Conquistadores from -Spain. Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in America, there were no -horses, as we recognize them now, on either of the American continents. -Now the Comanche as a mounted man probably roamed the great plains from -present Wyoming to Durango, Mexico. It was easy to make a living on such -a range. It abounded in buffalo; and the wise Comanche knew all the -water holes. He drove the wily Apaches to the south until they crossed -the Rio Grande and settled in a quasi-peaceful manner in Mexico, or -later chose Arizona and New Mexico and preyed on the settlers, -immigrants and prospectors. - -From the records, the Comanche does not appear to have been a breeder of -horses, cattle or sheep. But as a procurer of such livestock, he had no -peer. Many years before Lewis and Clark were sent to evaluate the -Northwestern part of the Louisiana Purchase lands that Mr. Jefferson had -bought from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803, the Comanche had learned to find -his greatest pleasure and profit during his daring raids into the -settlements of Mexico, raiding in great force as far south as the cities -of Chihuahua and Durango. - -The emotional inspiration for such forays on peaceful people was -regarded as pure cussedness, but a more profound study shows that the -trophies of such raids, excepting the scalps taken, were horses, cattle, -sheep and slaves. Many of the stolen horses were for the Comanche’s -personal use, because it took many animals to make the great raid during -the Mexican Moon. The balance of the trophies was used for barter. - - [Illustration: Indians Capturing Wild Horses] - - [Illustration: _G. Catlin_ - _Comanches Capturing Wild Horses_ - _From “The North American Indians,” Vol. II, by George Catlin, - London, 1841. The place: the Red River; the time: 1834._] - -Years before the purchase of 1803, he was trading his stolen stock, and -possibly his slaves, to the French traders from the Spanish-French -border near old Natchitoches (pronounced Nacotish) on the lower Red -River. Or in later times, upon return from a successful raid, he roared -out of Mexico and across the Rio Grande into Texas south of the Chisos -Mountains. If short of war paint, he replenished his favorite red color -from the outcroppings of cinnebar near Terlingua Creek, then headed -through the badlands and out upon the range country by way of Persimmon -Gap. From the Gap, he went to Comanche Springs (present Fort Stockton), -crossed the Pecos River at Horsehead Crossing, then rode north to the -Sand Dunes to water a famishing flock, after which he headed east to the -Sulphur and the Big Spring. Then he turned northward around the Cap Rock -that marks the eastern extremity of the terrible Llano Estacado, to -proceed on north till he actually scrambled out upon that plateau. Then -he proceeded towards Santa Fe to meet somewhere, possibly at Casas -Amarillas, in that then desolate region, the Comancheros, or middle men -between himself and the Mexican settlers of the upper Rio Grande Valley -near Santa Fe.[1] He traded his trophies to the Comancheros for guns, -ammunition or other less practical adjuncts that might suit his fancy of -the moment. His Mexican Moon was then over and he returned to his -portable village which he had left in some watered canyon that cut down -eastward from the Llano Estacado. - -The route as followed by these Indians was a well marked trail, and -during the time of our westward migrations, it was well known and -appears on the maps of the times. Another route into Mexico broke off -the Western Trail at the Big Spring and ran down the valley of the North -Concho River, across the Edwards Plateau, then through the passes of the -Balcones Escarpment to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico near the present -city of Eagle Pass. Mr. Evetts Haley refers to these trails as the Great -Comanche War Trail, and gives a wonderful description of the activity on -them in his recent book, _Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier_. An old -map from the Army files in the National Archives calls the western -branch the Grand Comanche War Trail. But call the trails what you may, -they were still a stiff pain in the neck to anyone crossing them, and -for the wagon trains and cattle herds going west, crossing was -inevitable. - -The greater raids into Mexico appear to have occurred rather regularly -in September when the weather was most favorable, and the chief -objectives could be struck during the light of a full moon. Thus, to the -unhappy but fully expectant Mexicans, the September full moon was known -as the Comanche Moon. At this time Mars, the red God of War, hangs low -and molten in the late summer night’s sky and reflects a light that is -as red as the sand and clay soils of the Indian Territory. - -Another favorite trick of these versatile middle men was to raid the -settlements down the Rio Grande Valley south from Santa Fe and drive off -the stock to a rendezvous with the Comancheros, who in turn traded them -to unknowing Mexican settlers at other points on the river. During such -raids it was deemed ethical but unprofitable to kill the settlers, since -without them there would be no stock to drive off in a later raid. -Besides, these Mexican settlers did not seriously molest the buffalo. - -Such business sagacity however, did not apply in later times to the -Republic of Texas, where each succeeding year saw new settlers break -ground and homestead farther up the river valleys, whose streams had -their origins in the motherland plains of the Comanche and Kiowa. - -After its establishment in 1836, the infant republic found itself -fighting a hot war on two fronts. The settlers near the Rio Grande, from -Del Rio to the mouth of that river near Brownsville, suffered from raids -out of Mexico by both Mexicans and Indians, while the northern prongs of -the new settlements were exposed to the Comanches and Kiowas. It was a -bitter struggle, fought generally in small isolated settlements where -the determined Anglo-Saxon fought for his new home against an equally -determined Indian fighting to preserve his ancient homeland and range. A -Saxon’s scalp decorating a Comanche’s war shield might be avenged by an -Indian’s entire skin decorating a rude barn door. - -Matters were better controlled after the annexation of Texas by the -United States and after the close of the Mexican War. But it took -manpower and supplies to do it, something the new republic had been slow -in acquiring. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided, among other -things, that the United States would make every effort to keep the -Indians from raiding into Mexico; so in about 1849, the United States -Army, mostly cavalry and mounted infantrymen (Dragoons), moved into -Texas. They proceeded to establish a string of forts and camps from -previously established Brown near the mouth of the Rio Grande to Duncan -near Eagle Pass. For the upper Rio Grande in Texas, they set up what was -later to be Fort Bliss (El Paso). As a northern line of defense for the -settlers, they established, starting with Fort Duncan, the forts of -Lincoln (D’Hanis), Martin Scott (Fredericksburg), Croghan (Burnet), -Gates (Gatesville), Graham (Hillsboro) and Worth (Fort Worth). Only a -few of the forts were ever protected by stockades. The war was one of -movement. The places were supposed to be strategically located and -manned by several companies of cavalry and some infantry; places from -where punitive expeditions could set out, establish supply bases, then -try to run down the Indian raiders. - -The standing army of the United States during the 1850’s was numbered at -about fifteen thousand men and the personnel of the Texas forts -accounted for about from one-fifth to one-third of that number. Many of -the officers and men were veterans of the Mexican War, the forts usually -being named in honor of American soldiers who lost their lives in that -war. Many Civil War leaders, both Confederate and Union, received much -field training from 1849 to the outbreak of that war in 1861, building -and manning the forts, chasing, but seldom catching, the Indians, -guarding the wagon trains and mail bags and exploring the wilderness for -better trails and water holes. - -There is a record, one of many left by the famous Captain Jack Hays of -the Texas Rangers. It tells how he was hired by certain merchants of San -Antonio who were anxious to trade with the merchants of Chihuahua, -Mexico. His assignment was to find in 1848, a route from San Antonio to -privately owned Fort Leaton where the Conchos River of Mexico meets the -Rio Grande, and from which point to Chihuahua the going would be -reasonably good. Hays and his mounted company of frontiersmen managed to -make it to Leaton and back to San Antonio, but they found the going so -rough that the journey took them three and one-half months. (Present -Southern Pacific Railway west to Alpine). There were too many deep -canyons along the tributaries of the Rio Grande. - -The decade following 1849 was most active. The army detachments under -capable officers explored to find routes from East Texas and from San -Antonio to El Paso. But the wagon trains did not wait for their -findings; they often made their own way and did their well-known -creditable job. Mr. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, and himself a -distinguished veteran of the Mexican War, did about all in his power to -aid the new state of Texas, the Mexican settlements and the immigrant -trains. He made treaties with the Indians and arranged reservations for -them. This latter deal was not too successful. Friendly East Texas -Indians almost starved on the reservations, and the more warlike plains -tribes had no idea of staying there even when they agreed to move in. -The old men’s tales of conquest and horse stealing were more than the -young bucks could take. - -Mr. Davis built new forts and, recognizing the great problems of -communications that existed between such far flung positions, sought to -remedy those by importing in 1856, through the seaport of Indianola, -camels and their Arabian drivers. - - [Illustration: _G. Catlin_ - _Comanche Village_ - _From “The North American Indians,” Vol. II. by George Catlin, - London 1841. Picture by Catlin, 1834, escorted by General Henry - Leavenworth and regiment of U.S. Dragoons._] - -The camels were concentrated at Camp Verde in Southern Kerr County, and -breeding and testing immediately proceeded at a good pace. Tests for -their strength and endurance carried the caravans across the Continental -Divide and back, and the results were very gratifying. The Civil War put -an end to the experiments. The last camel herd, before final sellouts to -the carnivals, was privately owned near Austin in the early 1880’s. - -By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, the War Department had -finally followed the advice of such able soldiers as Joe Johnston and -Chase Whiting. The forts received a new alignment and were manned mostly -by cavalry. Supplies were sent in as before, from bases like San -Antonio. The wagons, pulled by oxen or mules, were well guarded in most -instances by soldiers. The contracts for furnishing the supplies and -their transportation were let to civilians. - -The new alignment caused the abandonment of some interior forts and -camps. The line on the lower Rio Grande was extended up the river by -building Fort Hudson near the Devil’s River, about thirty miles north of -San Felipe. Out in far Western Texas, they built Fort Quitman, down the -river from El Paso. - -Several things were done to discourage the Comanche and Kiowa whose -depredations along the Grand War Trail had been greatly stepped up. The -War Department flanked the trail on the west by the building of a -sizeable establishment in a beautiful and romantic spot in the Davis -Mountains and named it Fort Davis in honor of the secretary. Near this -spot, more than three hundred years before, had passed the shipwrecked, -unhorsed and enslaved, but still valiant Spaniard, Cabeza de Vaca. He -would later write, in his report to his Viceroy describing his journey -after leaving the great arid plains to the north, of a valley through -which flowed “limpid waters.”[2] - -After Fort Davis, the Department unveiled Fort Lancaster (western -Crockett County) as a flanker to the east of the trail. It was cozily -situated in the mesas not far from the Pecos River and beside Live Oak -Creek that flows delightful spring water. - -Then the War Department built Fort Stockton (Pecos County), smack in the -middle of the Grand Trail and right beside the best spring of water on -its entire route. - -Now to further protect immigrants and mail bags on the route west and to -protect settlers of central and northern Texas who were still moving -higher up the river valleys, it set up Fort Chadbourne as a pivot -between the new western line and the new lower Rio Grande Valley line. -From Fort Chadbourne on northeasterly to the Indian Territory were Forts -Phantom Hill (Abilene) and Belknap (New Castle). But Chadbourne was a -near miss, because it was not well located and its water supply was not -adequate. However, not until the Civil War was over was it finally -abandoned in 1867 and a new site chosen for its replacement at the -confluence of the North, South and Middle Concho Rivers. This new -position would be called Fort Concho, and here eventually would be built -the city of San Angelo. - -As the decade preceding the outbreak of the Civil War was closing, the -great wagon trails from San Antonio and East Texas to El Paso must have -been a sight to behold. Most of them converged on Castle Gap and the -Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River, from where they had a choice of -two routes to El Paso. The California Overland Mail (Butterfield -Overland Mail), 2,795 miles from St. Louis to San Francisco, entered -Texas by way of Fort Smith, Arkansas, followed the line of forts -southwesterly to the middle Concho River then turned westerly up that -valley, then through Castle Gap to Horsehead Crossing. From here the -early route followed up the Pecos River to Pope’s Crossing near the -present Red Bluff Reservoir, thence westward to El Paso, by way of -Delaware Creek and the Hueco Tanks. A more southerly route from -Horsehead Crossing was probably a better choice. It went from the -Crossing direct to Fort Stockton, Leon Springs, Toyahvale, Fort Davis, -thence to Van Horn’s well and El Paso. It also had the advantage of -servicing the westerly line of forts. - -The original run over this new mail trail to California was made in 1858 -and the New York Herald sent a special news correspondent, one W. L. -Ormsby, to be a through passenger on the mule-drawn coach so that he -could report the trip. The poor fellow was only twenty-three years old, -but age being in his favor, he lived through it all. His description of -the trail from between the upper water holes of the Middle Concho River -(near present Stiles) to Castle Gap and the Horsehead Crossing is most -illuminating. - -“Strewn along the load, and far as the eye could reach along the -plain—decayed and decaying animals, the bones of cattle and sometimes of -men (the hide drying on the skin in the arid atmosphere), all told a -fearful story of anguish and terrific death from the pangs of thirst. -For miles and miles these bones strew the plain....” - -It appears from this on the spot observation, that the trails across -level plains country were very wide. The wagon trains did not move in -single file. That would expose them too much to Indian attacks, and -besides, the longer the line, the worse the dust. The old wagon wheel -ruts, still noticeable to this day along the route described above by -Ormsby, cover a wide area on the plains east of Castle Gap, before they -converge at that narrow pass. These can be seen west of the China Ponds -where they move westerly about three miles south of the land grants -known as the alphabet blocks, given later by the State of Texas to the -Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Rail Road. (Try -painting that one on a narrow gauge box car!) - -During 1858 and 1859, Captain Earl Van Dorn, soon to be a member of the -Confederate High Command, vigorously carried the war to the Indians and -pushed them north, back across the Red River. They didn’t remain there -long. Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 and the Federal soldiers -marched out of the forts and left them to the Confederate forces. Again -the proper manpower was lacking. Some forts were abandoned so as to -shorten the defense line and some of these, as at Lancaster, were burned -by the Indians. The Indians, now spurred on by Union agents, carried on -a still more bloody and aggressive warfare on the Texas frontier. -Confederates, and Ranger Companies, coupled with frontiersmen reacted -promptly and vigorously, but it was a long line of defense from the Red -River to the Rio Grande. Defend it they did, against the Indians, and -against lawless elements such as deserters and others renegades, hostile -Union sympathizers and border ruffians from without the state. - -The Negro slave was emancipated by proclamation in Texas on June 19, -1865 (June’teenth), about two months after General Lee surrendered the -Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.[3] The last land -battle of the Civil War was fought on May 13, 1865, in Cameron County, -Texas when invading Federal forces were routed near Brownsville. That -engagement is known as the Battle of Palmito Ranch. - -From the end of the war until 1867, the frontier settlements had no -organized military forces to protect them from the Indians, and it was -against the law for Texans to carry guns. Added to this were the -turmoils of Reconstruction which were about as bitter in the populated -parts of the state as they were in other parts of the South. - -The occupying United States Army under General Phil Sheridan was now -mostly recruited from among the Negroes, and the army was not used -against the Indians until 1867, when orders went out to get busy and put -the forts and camps in order.[4] General Sheridan’s name was about as -popular in Virginia and Texas as General W. T. Sherman’s was in Georgia -and Mississippi. - - [Illustration: _Action West of Horsehead Crossing._ - (_Castle Gap is at the upper left._)] - -But both Sherman and Sheridan came to Texas, and Sherman, after narrowly -escaping the loss of his scalp on the Texas frontier, finally realized -the necessity of a last organized military effort to either rid the -country of the Indians or give it back to them. That was in 1871. -However, in 1869, a new alignment of the forts had been seen as -necessary. Never again reoccupied were certain of the interior ones such -as Worth, Graham, Gates, Croghan, Martin Scott, Lincoln, Chadbourne and -Ewell (La Salle County). Fort Belknap, on the Salt Fork of the Brazos -River in Young County, had been the largest military post in North Texas -prior to the Civil War. In 1867, the 6th Cavalry was ordered to prepare -it for reoccupation. They worked for five months, but then this fort was -ordered evacuated and its place was taken by a new one, Fort Griffin, -some thirty-seven miles up the Clear Fork of the Brazos from Belknap. - -Now to extend the northeasterly trending line of forts closer to the -Indian Territory, the Army built Fort Richardson near the present town -of Jacksboro. - -The site chosen as the replacement for Fort Chadbourne, to be called -Fort Concho, was at the confluence of the North Concho River with the -combined waters of the Middle Concho, Spring Creek, Dove Creek and the -South Concho, the last three named streams being fed by bountiful -springs. This abundance of water and the geographically central location -marked the spot as the natural convergence of trails from East, -Northeast and South Texas before they headed westward for Horsehead -Crossing and El Paso. Nature had been kind to this oasis in an otherwise -desolate region. The fishing was extremely good and the clear waters of -the streams supported mussels, the variety that produces gem pearls, -hence the Spanish name of Concho. Herds of buffalo grazed within sight -of the new fort. Quail and turkey were plentiful. - -These three new positions, Concho, Griffin and Richardson, located on a -line 220 miles long, as yet unconnected by either telegraph or rail, -would soon be the centers of men, supplies and animals for the campaigns -that finally broke the concerted powers of the Indians. These campaigns -carried the soldiers from the Indian Territory and the New Mexico -Territory on the North, to the actual interior of Old Mexico on the -South. - -From the times in 1866 and 1867 when Richardson and Concho were ordered -built until 1871, the troops undertook no organized campaigns against -the Indians. The settlers suffered constantly and the Indians learned -new tricks. Many more learned how to live off government bounty on the -reservations in Indian Territory, then hit the war path along with their -wild brethren from the Texas Panhandle. They were amply protected on -their return to the reservations by the Indian agents in charge, who -believed their wards could do no wrong. Why, they would ask, would an -Indian steal cattle when he had all the buffalo meat he wanted? - -A cavalry expedition out of Fort Concho working the edges of the Llano -Estacado in 1872, captured a Comanchero who told how he and his -companions traded the Indian arms, ammunition and supplies for cattle, -horses and sheep that they had stolen during their raids. He even showed -the soldiers the well worn trails across the Llano Estacado towards -Santa Fe and the valley of the Rio Grande. Thus the secret was finally -revealed to the Army. It seems unbelievable at this time that such -ignorance could prevail over the cries and protests of the Texas -ranchmen who were losing cattle by the tens of thousands.[5] But such -was the case, and in 1867, the Comanches even stole horses from the post -herd at Fort Concho. We must remember that in that same year the mild -policies of President Andrew Johnson in Washington were overruled by the -radicals in the United States Congress, and the bitter years of -reconstruction followed for the Southern States. All former Confederate -soldiers were deprived of the vote, and radicals, carpetbaggers, -scalawags from the South and freed Negroes ruled the State. The Army was -used, not to fight Indians, but to guard the new social system. - -The prospect appeared brighter for the settlers when in the Fall of -1869, one hundred soldiers from Fort Concho managed to engage an Indian -force on the Salt Fork of the Brazos River. It was a drawn fight, but -immediately thereafter a larger force from the same fort engaged and -defeated the Indians in the same area. Texans were cheered by the news -of this new tone of aggressiveness shown by the Army. It was the only -way. The war had to be carried to the Indians the same way Earl Van Dorn -had carried the fight to them on the eve of the Civil War. - -But the time for real action had not arrived even as late as 1869. On -February 18, 1870, a citizen was killed and scalped within one-quarter -of a mile of the post limits at Fort Concho. In January of the same -year, eighteen mules were stolen from the Q.M. corral at that same post. -The same year, 1870, while Colonel Grierson was building Fort Sill in -the Indian Territory, Chief Kicking Bird, a Kiowa, defeated the Command -of Captain C. B. McClellan near the present town of Seymour. As late as -March of 1872, a wagon train was waylaid near Grierson Springs in Reagan -County and the teamsters killed by the Indians. Two companies of the 9th -Cavalry came upon the scene by accident, engaged the Indians but -withdrew before a decision was reached.[6] - - [Illustration: Cavalry and wagon] - -The lamentations of the border people were finally heard in Washington -and in April, 1871, General W. T. Sherman came to San Antonio. The next -month, accompanied by General Randolph B. Marcy and an escort of -seventeen men, he left for an inspection of the frontier. General Marcy -was the same officer (then, Captain Marcy) who, in 1849 and later, had -played such an important part in exploring and reporting to Congress on -trails through Texas. The great explorer was still an outdoor man of -action. - -The little expedition proceeded by way of Boerne, Fredericksburg, the -old Spanish Fort on the San Saba which had withstood a great Comanche -Indian siege in 1758, Fort McKavett, Kickapoo Springs and Fort Concho. -From Fort Concho it followed the military trail on northeasterly by the -remains of Fort Chadbourne and Phantom Hill and on towards Belknap. - -General Marcy’s journal is of great interest. He relates: - -“We crossed immense herds of cattle today, which are allowed to run wild -upon the prairies, and they multiply very rapidly. The only attention -the owners give them is to brand the calves and occasionally go out to -see where they range. The remains of several ranches were observed, the -occupants of which have either been killed or driven off to the more -dense settlements, by the Indians. Indeed, this rich and beautiful -section does not contain, today (May 17, 1871), as many white people as -it did when I visited it eighteen years ago, and if the Indian marauders -are not punished, the whole country seems to be in a fair way of being -totally depopulated.” He continues: - -“May 18th, 1871—This morning five teamsters, who, with seven others, had -been with a mule wagon train en route to Fort Griffin (Captain Henry -Warren’s) with corn for the post, were attacked on the open prairie, -about ten miles east of Salt Creek, by 100 Indians, and seven of the -teamsters were killed and one wounded. General Sherman immediately -ordered Colonel Mackenzie to take a force of 150 cavalry, with thirty -days’ rations on pack mules, and pursue and chastise the marauders.” - -An interesting angle to this affair was that Sherman’s party had been -observed by the same Indians who murdered the teamsters, but were -unmolested by them because they were waiting for the wagon train which -they considered nearer top priority. Sherman realized later that he had -nearly lost his scalp.[7] - -This Colonel Mackenzie had reported in at Fort Concho as commanding -officer on September 6, 1869. Born in New York, July 27, 1840, and -christened RANALD SLIDELL, he had graduated first in his class at West -Point in 1862. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War, -received several wounds in action, and was a brigadier general when that -war closed. The remainder of his professional life was devoted to active -high command in the Indian wars. At various times he served at Forts -Brown, Clark, McKavett, Concho and Richardson, engaging in his last -Indian fight at Willow Creek, Wyoming in 1876. He was retired from the -Army for disability in 1884 and died a bachelor at New Brighton, New -York in 1889. - -Along with Mackenzie, Colonel William Rufus Shafter who arrived to -command at Fort Concho in January, 1870, the War Department had its two -best young officers serving in the West Texas theatre. - -Shafter had no West Point training. Born in Michigan on October 16, -1835, he entered the Union Army in the Civil War as a first lieutenant -and by the end of that war had been breveted brigadier general of -volunteers. He was later awarded The Congressional Medal of Honor for -service during that war. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel of -regulars in 1869 and first saw service in West Texas with the 24th -Infantry at Fort McKavett. Later in life he was to command the American -armies in Cuba during the Spanish American War. - -During the summer of 1871, while commanding forces at Fort Davis, he set -out with cavalry from both Forts Davis and Stockton and pursued a large -raiding party of Indians from the Fort Davis area northeasterly until -the trail moved into the great sand dune country near where the city of -Monahans now stands. He spent fourteen days in this pursuit but as was -usual in such matters, could never force an engagement. However, he -learned that the heretofore dreaded sand dunes contained fresh water a -few feet below the surface in several places, and that the area was a -great refuge for Indians and was one of those rendezvous where -horse-and-cattle stealing Indians met the Comanchero traders from New -Mexico. - -The command at Fort Concho, as at the other forts, rotated in a -perpetual manner. After service elsewhere, Mackenzie returned to Concho -to organize five companies of the 4th Cavalry and a headquarters company -for service at Fort Richardson, nearer the Indian Territory. His column -moved out March 27, 1871, cavalry, pack mules and wagons. The bachelor -commander even allowed wives of the men to accompany the expedition as -far as the new headquarters at Fort Richardson. - -The weather was crisp and cold as they forded the North Concho and soon -passed Mt. Margaret, named after “the most accomplished, loving and -devoted wife of one of our favorite captains, E. B. -Beaumont”—(Beaumont-Beautiful Mountain), so wrote Captain Robert G. -Carter, historian and winner of The Congressional Medal of Honor in the -Indian Wars, who was a member of the expedition. (Mt. Margaret is the -outstanding hill at Tennison.) They pitched camp the first night at old -Fort Chadbourne, from where they followed the military trail passing en -route huge herds of buffalo, as they went on by old Forts Phantom Hill, -Belknap and on into Richardson. - -Two months later, in May, Colonel Mackenzie roused his 4th Cavalry at -Fort Richardson and set out to obey General Sherman’s orders issued -after the killing of the teamsters at Salt Creek. But it began to rain. -After a futile chase Colonel Mackenzie headed for Fort Sill, commanded -by Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson. There he learned that Sherman had left -but not before the Chiefs Satank (Sitting Bear), Big Tree and Satanta -(White Bear) had returned to the reservation at Sill and boasted of -murdering the teamsters. Mackenzie arrested and escorted the three -Indians to Jacksboro for trial in the Texas court. Satank purposely got -himself killed by a guard on the march, but Satanta and Big Tree were -later sentenced to prison in the state penitentiary at Huntsville. The -duplicity of these reservation Indians should now have been apparent to -even Grierson and the Indian lovers in Washington and Austin, but it was -not. - -A good insight into the Indian problem of the times, and of which we -have a written record, appeared at the trial of the two Indian chiefs -during July of 1871 in the little log courthouse on the public square of -Jacksboro. Charles Soward was the presiding judge. Samuel W. T. Lanham, -later to be a two term Governor of Texas, was the district attorney. The -court appointed Thomas Fall and Joe Woolfork of the Weatherford Bar to -represent the defendants. - -Thomas Williams, the foreman of the Jury, was a frontier citizen and a -brother of the Governor of Indiana. - -The principal witnesses against the defendants were Colonel Mackenzie, -Lawrie (or Lowerie) Tatum, the Indian Agent who had heard their -statements at Fort Sill and Thomas Brazeal, the teamster who had escaped -from the Salt Creek massacre. - -Our Captain Carter wrote: - -“Under a strong guard accompanied by his counsel and an interpreter, the -Chief, clanking his chain, walked to the little log courthouse on the -public square. The jury had been impaneled and the District Attorney -bustled and flourished around. The whole country armed to the teeth -crowded the courthouse and stood outside listening through the open -windows. The Chief’s attorneys made a plea for him, and referred to the -wrongs the red man had suffered. How he had been cheated and dispoiled -of his lands and driven westward until it seemed there was no limit to -the greed of the white man. They excused his crime as just retaliation -for centuries of wrong. The jurors sat on long benches, each in his -shirt sleeves and with shooting irons strapped to his hip.” - -Satanta got up to defend himself before his accusers. Over six feet -tall, the perfect figure of an athlete and well known as the orator of -the plains who could sway councils of both whites and Indians, he could -well have influenced the jury by mute silence, but instead he lied and -dissembled to save his life. He never mentioned the wrongs done his -people by the whites. Instead, speaking through the interpreter, he -proceeded as follows: - -... “I have never been so near the Tehannas (Texans) before. I look -around me and see your braves, squaws and papooses, and I have said in -my heart, if I ever get back to my people, I will never make war upon -you. I have always been the friend of the white man, ever since I was so -high (indicating by sign the height of a boy). My tribe have taunted me -and called me a squaw because I have been the friend of the Tehannas. I -am suffering now for the crimes of bad Indians—of Satank and Lone Wolf -and Kicking Bird and Big Bow and Fast Bear and Eagle Heart, and if you -will let me go, I will kill the three latter with my own hand....” - -The evidence against the two Chiefs was debated by the jury and both -were sentenced to death. This sentence was later commuted to life -imprisonment. - -Now, a few statements from the court record as to what the District -Attorney had to say point to some of the misunderstandings of the times -when it came to the Indian problems on the western frontiers. - -The following excerpts from his plea before the court show clearly, not -only the feelings of the frontiersmen towards the uncontrolled Indians, -but also the contempt in which they, both frontiersmen and Indians, held -the people who by appeasement, crookedness and ignorance tried to manage -the Indian affairs of the nation from a far away city: - -“Satanta, the veteran council chief of the Kiowas—the orator—the -diplomat—the counselor of his tribe—the pulse of his race; Big Tree, the -young war chief, who leads in the thickest of the fight, and follows no -one in the chase—the mighty warrior, with the speed of the deer and the -eye of the eagle, are before this bar in the charge of the law! So they -would be described by Indian admirers, who live in more secured and -favored lands, remote from the frontier—where ‘distance lends -enchantment’ to the imagination—where the story of Pocohantas and the -speech of Logan, the Mingo, are read, and the dread sound of the -warwhoop is not heard. We who see them today, disrobed of all their -fancied graces exposed in the light of reality, behold them through far -different lenses. We recognize in Satanta the arch fiend of treachery -and blood, the cunning Cataline—the promoter of strife—the breaker of -treaties signed by his own hand—the inciter of his fellows to rapine and -murder, as well as the most canting and double-tongued hypocrite where -detected and overcome! In Big Tree, we perceive the tiger-demon who -tasted blood and loved it as his own food—who stops at no crime how -black soever—who is swift at every species of ferocity and pities not at -any sight of agony or death—he can scalp, burn, torture, mangle and -deface his victims, with all the superlatives of cruelty, and have no -feeling of sympathy or remorse. We look in vain to see, in them, -anything to be admired or even endured. Powerful legislative influences -have been brought to bear to procure for them annuities, reservations -and supplies. Federal munificence has fostered and nourished them, fed -and clothed them; from their strongholds of protection they have come -down upon us ‘like wolves on the fold’; treaties have been solemnly made -with them, wherein they have been considered with all the formalities of -quasi nationalities; immense financial ‘rings’ have had their origin in, -and draw their vitality from, the ‘Indian question’; unblushing -corruption has stalked abroad, created and kept alive through - - “‘—the poor Indian, whose untutored mind, - Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.’ - -“... For many years, predatory and numerous bands of these ‘pets of the -government’ have waged the most relentless and heart-rending warfare -upon our frontier, stealing our property and killing our citizens. We -have cried aloud for help.... It is a fact, well known in Texas, that -stolen property has been traced to the very doors of the reservation and -there identified by our people, to no purpose....” - -Mackenzie realized those things and knew he could receive no cooperation -from Grierson at Fort Sill, so in September, acting on orders, -concentrated a force of eight companies of the 4th Cavalry, two -companies of the 11th Infantry and thirty Tonkawa Indian scouts at old -Camp Cooper near Fort Griffin. The infantry would be used to guard the -supply bases as he moved northwesterly in the hope of engaging the wild -brethren under Chief Quanah. He bivouaced in the mouth of Blanco Canyon -and lost sixty odd horses to an Indian raid that night. The next day the -command moved up the canyon and later came out on the flat prairie of -the Llano Estacado. A large retreating body of Indians was sighted but a -Norther blew up, and Mackenzie was forced back down the canyon by the -cold weather. He withdrew to Fort Richardson where the command arrived -in late November. He accomplished nothing and as for himself, he -received an arrow wound during a small skirmish in the canyon. - -With the coming of spring, things picked up. Mackenzie received orders -in May to establish a camp of cavalry and infantry on the Fresh Fork of -the Brazos, from which his cavalry should operate in pursuit of hostile -Indians. He moved out of Fort Richardson in June while Shafter at Fort -Concho organized wagon trains and supplies, these coming from as far -away as Fort Brown. He was to meet Mackenzie near the mouth of Blanco -Canyon, where the base was to be established. By September, 1872, -Mackenzie and his cavalry had moved from Blanco Canyon to Fort Sumner -(New Mexico), thence north to Fort Bascom (New Mexico), then -southeasterly to Palo Duro Canyon and south to his base camp in Blanco -Canyon. He had found no Indians or Comancheros, but he had followed well -marked Comanchero trails across the Llano Estacado and had no trouble in -finding water holes. The Staked Plains were not nearly so tough as the -high army echelons had been led to believe. - -Puzzled by the lack of Indians he set out for the headwaters of the Red -River and on September 29, discovered a large camp on a tributary of the -Red, northeast of Palo Duro. He immediately attacked with five companies -of cavalry, routed the braves, burned 262 Indian lodges, and captured -127 women and children, and an estimated 3,000 head of horses. His own -losses were light if we except the fact that the Indian braves returned -that night and recovered all of their horses by stampeding them. -Mackenzie never forgot that midnight raid. - -This drubbing had a salutary effect on the Indians. The captives were -sent to Fort Concho for prisoner exchange, and many warriors sought -safety on the reservations. Their Chief Satank was dead and Chiefs -Satanta and Big Tree were in the penitentiary at Huntsville. The next -spring the remaining one hundred captive women and children at Fort -Concho were delivered back to the reservation at Fort Sill amid great -rejoicing by the braves. They began to feel that the pale face was not -such a bad hombre after all. Evetts Haley says that some of the braves -so seriously considered settling down that they even sent their women -into the fields to see what work was like. - -Things now looked better and the Indian lovers persuaded Governor Edmund -J. Davis to issue pardons to Satanta and Big Tree. This infuriated -General Sherman. That was in April of 1873. Trouble immediately started -again. - -But meanwhile Mackenzie had returned to Fort Concho, where he arrived in -January of that year, and set up the headquarters of the 4th Cavalry -Regiment. Then in March, the 4th itself left Fort Richardson for Concho, -and the 7th Cavalry took over at Richardson.[8] The 4th headed for Fort -Concho, the same column, soldiers, wagons, wives and their household -plunder that had moved north to Richardson two years before. General -Sherman had decided to do something about that other Texas frontier, the -Rio Grande, and he wanted Mackenzie with his 4th Cavalry to handle the -job. - -Things were not, and never had been, peaceful along the Rio Grande. It -was another frontier with two parts. From Ringgold Barracks, opposite -the Mexican city of Camargo, on down to the mouth of the Rio Grande, a -man by the name of Juan Cortina, once a general in the Mexican Army that -had opposed General Zachary Taylor’s invasion of Mexico, sought to make -a living in the grand style. He was very successful as a bandit and -became the “Robin Hood” of his side of the border. During the Civil War -his banditry ceased. He became a trader and did well because the Rio -Grande became the only outlet of the Southern Confederacy. But with the -close of the war, he resumed his favorite role as a bandit and declared -that the Nueces River and not the Rio Grande, was the border between his -country and the United States. - -The result was that he and other lesser bandits overran the entire -country from the Rio Grande to the Nueces, killed for the pleasure of -killing and drove into Mexico tens of thousands of Texas cattle. In -1875, one of his raids came within seven miles of Corpus Christi. Truly, -his activities were as fearsome and as costly as were those of the -Indians on the other frontiers of the state. But the United States Army -did little about it, being unable to catch raiders in Texas, and -unwilling to attack them in Mexico. The Texas Rangers, recreated in -1874, began to effectually take care of the matter. Thirty-one of these -men, under their able commander Captain Leander H. McNelly, began to -take a bite out of these raiders in 1875, killing them not only in Texas -but pursuing and attacking them in Mexico itself. - - [Illustration: Indians with horses and travois] - -General Porfirio Diaz came to power in Mexico about this time and ended -the Cortina troubles by arresting and confining that gentleman to the -environs of Mexico City. The Rangers took care of the rest of the gangs. - -Along the upper Rio Grande, the raids into Texas were made by Indians: -the Kickapoos, Lipans and Apaches. These tribes had settled in that -great arid and sparsely inhabited area that extends south of the Rio -Grande from Laredo to El Paso. That part of Mexico was a no-man’s land. -The small Mexican and Indian villages were a law unto themselves. The -Mexicans often joined the Indians on their raids, and the cattle and -horses brought back found a ready market in the Mexican villages. - - [Illustration: _G. Catlin_ - U. STATES’ INDIAN FRONTIER IN 1840. - _Shewing the positions of the Tribes that have been removed west of - the Mississippi. By George Catlin._] - -The Lipans, like the Apaches, were natives of the Great Plains country. -The Kickapoos were easterners, and had been termed “friendly Indians,” -upon their arrival west of the Mississippi River. The term “friendly -Indian” often used in writings and reports of the times referred in the -larger sense to those tribes such as the Kickapoos, Cherokees, Choctaws, -Chickasaws, Seminoles, Delawares and others that had once been powerful -tribes in the eastern United States, but because of the encroachment of -the white settlers, they had, by treaty, coercion or force during the -early 1800’s, been continually moved by the United States Government -from their ancestral or reservation lands in the East. They finally -ended up at various times on reservations assigned them in what is now -Kansas and Oklahoma (Indian Territory). Here they usually encountered -hostility from the native tribes of the Great Plains whose superior -numbers threatened their entire existence. They were considered -intruders and were obliged to turn to the United States troops, where -possible, for protection. Their natural ability as “trackers” made them -a necessary unit in any force of troops that sought to engage hostile -Indians. - -The Seminoles from Florida were pretty well mixed with Negro blood upon -their arrival in East Texas, and later in the Indian Territory. The -reason for this was that prior to the Civil War many run-away Negro -slaves had sought and found sanctuary among these Indians, living at -that time in the fastnesses of the Everglades. - -During the latter days of the Civil War, December of 1864, a company of -frontier scouts out of Fort Belknap discovered a freshly abandoned -Indian camp west of the ruins of old Fort Phantom Hill. The scouts -estimated that perhaps 5,000 Indians had camped there. - -During the preceding fall, Comanche and Kiowa Indians in large numbers -had broken up the settlements on the northern frontier in Young County. -Therefore, it was assumed, and assumed too hastily as it turned out, -that these Indians had occupied the camp and were on the march to find a -permanent spring and summer location from where they could further raid -the settlements. - -Actually these Indians were friendly Kickapoos from the Indian -Territory, and as it turned out, they were probably peacefully moving -themselves and their entire tribe to join a tiny remnant of the tribe -that had, years before, settled in Old Mexico, some forty miles west of -Laredo. - -The hasty assumption that these Indians were hostile led to the Battle -of Dove Creek fought on Sunday, the 8th of January, 1865. The scene of -the battle was the Indian encampment on the south bank of Dove Creek -about three miles above its confluence with Spring Creek, and fifteen -miles southwest of the present Tom Green County court house. - -After the discovery of the abandoned camp near Phantom Hill, the Indians -were trailed by scouts. Confederate regulars had been concentrated at -Camp Colorado, and militia had been moved from Erath, Brown, Comanche -and Parker Counties. - -These two columns of troops, numbering some 400 men, concentrated above -the Indian encampment before daybreak. They attacked at daylight. It was -an impetuous charge and was met by deadly fire from the Enfield rifles -of 600 braves, well protected by the underbrush of the creek bottom. The -militia, respectfully referred to by the regulars as the “flop eared -militia,” suffered heavily in their charge. They broke and fled and were -of no more value in the field. - -The regulars, now badly outnumbered and outflanked, were slowly forced -back and withdrew towards Spring Creek, fighting from the shelters of -the oak groves as they retired. This action continued all day, and they -encamped that night with all their wounded and the reformed militia on -Spring Creek, about eight miles from the original battle ground. They -left twenty-two dead on the field and carried away about forty wounded. - -The long retreat to the mouth of the Concho River started the next -morning in a blinding snow storm that made pursuit by the Indians -impossible. They resorted to captured Indian ponies as food supply. - -It had been a most unfortunate affair. The Kickapoos crossed the Mexican -border in the Eagle Pass area and settled down about forty miles inland. -Always irked by memories of the unprovoked Dove Creek fight, they -thereafter heartily joined future raids into Texas. They were no longer -“friendly Indians.” - -It was this matter of raids into Texas in the upper Rio Grande country -that attracted General Sherman’s attention in March of 1873, when he -ordered Colonel Mackenzie and his 4th Cavalry to Fort Concho. From -Concho they moved to Fort Clark, only about thirty miles from the -Mexican border. At Fort Clark a conference of high ranking officials was -held, including apparently the Secretary of War, General Phil Sheridan, -Mackenzie and others. No orders were issued but after the conference was -over, the “brass” reviewed the 4th Cavalry. The “ten-year” men in the -regiment knew that something big was brewing. - -Dark and early, on the morning of May 17, 1873, Colonel Mackenzie led -400 men of his 4th Cavalry and twenty or thirty Seminole scouts under -Lt. John L. Bullis, on a drive across the Rio Grande into Mexico. - -After four days and night of continuous riding and fighting, the small -expeditionary force, carrying their supplies in their pockets and with -no time taken out for sleeping, recrossed the river and were back on -friendly Texas soil. They had covered some 160 miles and had burned -three Kickapoo and Lipan villages, killed a considerable number of -braves, captured forty women and children, plus the chief of the Lipans, -and had driven the remainder of the tribes into the Santa Rosa -Mountains. - -Washington and Mexico City both hit the ceiling over this invasion of a -friendly nation. Mackenzie could show no written orders for the action. -Had he failed, he would have been court-martialed, and he knew that -beforehand. But President Grant stood by his officer, and the incident -soon blew over. In fact a year or two later most of the remaining -Kickapoos were persuaded to accept Uncle Sam’s hospitality. They went -from Mexico to Fort Sill, by way of Fort Concho, and were given a cozy -place on a reservation in the Indian Territory.[9] - -By this time it is apparent that our Colonel Mackenzie was the -fair-haired boy of President Grant and Generals Sherman and Sheridan. -During the Civil War, Grant had regarded him as his ablest young -officer. Now if things got out of line, you would simply “dress on -Bobs.” - -Truly, things were about to get out of line again. Some foolish policy -of appeasement was still rampant in Washington, so Satanta and Big Tree -were released from the penitentiary. This combined with other factors, -such as the restlessness of the Indians on the reservations, and the -slaughter of the buffalo, united the efforts of the Comanche tribe. -Along with the Kiowas, now aided by the Cheyennes, they started trouble -all over again. Once more the raids, during the spring of 1874, hit the -Texas frontier, and as usual the soldiers while sleeping, had their -horses stolen. Buffalo hunters in their lonely camps on the Panhandle -plains were murdered and scalped. - -Just east of the old Adobe Walls ruins, on the north side of the -Canadian River in what is now northeastern Hutchinson County, -twenty-eight men and one woman fortified themselves in three new adobe -buildings that had just been completed as a trading post in anticipation -of the northern migration of the great buffalo herds. - -They were awakened before daylight on the morning of June 27, 1874, by a -sharp cracking noise. The newly cut cottonwood ridge pole that supported -the roof on one of the three buildings had settled, and the sod-covered -roof threatened to collapse at any moment. Fifteen men worked until -daylight propping up the roof. That accident saved the lives of all at -the Walls, for just as daylight came, being awake and outside, they saw -to the eastward, an estimated 700 mounted Indians riding hard for the -settlement. The attacking force was less than half a mile away when it -deployed in a great converging arc. - -Billy Dixon, the buffalo hunter and frontier scout described the charge -in a dramatic manner: - -“There was never a more splendidly barbaric sight. In after years I was -glad that I had seen it. Hundreds of warriors, the flower of the -fighting men of the Southwestern Plains tribes, mounted upon their -finest horses, armed with guns and lances, and carrying heavy shields of -thick buffalo hide, were coming like the wind. Over all was splashed the -rich colors of red, vermilion and ochre, on the bodies of the men, on -the bodies of the running horses. Scalps dangled from bridles, gorgeous -war-bonnets fluttered their plumes, bright feathers dangled from the -tails and manes of the horses, and the bronzed, half-naked bodies of the -riders glittered with ornaments of silver and brass. Behind this -head-long charging host stretched the Plains, on whose horizon the -rising sun was lifting its morning fires. The warriors seemed to emerge -from this glorious background.” (Life of Billy Dixon, by Olive K. Dixon, -The Southwest Press, Dallas, Texas.) - -The three buildings were about equally manned by the whites. Doors were -closed and then barricaded, as were the windows and transoms, by sacks -of flour and grain. The first charge was broken up at the very walls of -the buildings by the lead from the big buffalo guns. Thanks to the thick -abode walls and to the dirt covered roofs, there was no danger of being -smoked out by fire. - -The fight raged until noon. Two of the whites, unable to reach the -buildings, had been killed in the first onslaught. All of the horses and -oxen were dead or driven away. The Indians had lost heavily and now -withdrew, out of range. They could be seen moving about in the distance -but they did not attack again. - -It was on the third day of the siege that Billy Dixon drew a bead on a -mounted Indian, 1,538 yards away on a ridge, and shot him dead. He was -firing a .50 calibre Sharp’s rifle, the largest of the buffalo guns. - -During the next two or three days other buffalo hunters drifted into the -Walls until the garrison numbered about a hundred men. William Barclay -“Bat” Masterson had been present since the beginning of the fight and -had, like most of the other defenders, distinguished himself by his cool -behavior under fire. - -By the end of the sixth day, the Indians had broken up into bands, the -Comanches under Quanah, the Kiowas under Lone Wolf, and the Cheyennes -under Stone Calf and White Shield. These bands then proceeded to work -over the other buffalo hunters on the south and central ranges. They -accomplished their objective. Buffalo hunting by the whites was -discontinued for that year. - -Down in San Antonio, General Christopher C. Augur, the Department -Commander, fully backed by General Sherman, ordered full scale war. All -Indians off their reservations were declared hostiles and the campaign -against them took the form of a real squeeze play. It was relentlessly -carried out by a man-sized army under able lieutenants. - -Colonel Nelson A. Miles was ordered to march westerly out of Camp Supply -in the Indian Territory; Colonel John Wynn Davidson was to move west out -of Fort Sill; Major William R. Price was to move down the Canadian out -of Fort Union, Territory of New Mexico; Colonel G. P. Buell was to leave -Fort Griffin, proceed north to the Red River then move up that stream, -and Colonel Mackenzie’s command headed northwesterly out of Fort Concho -for his old camping ground at Blanco Canyon. It appears that Colonel -Grierson was left out altogether. The campaign got under way in the late -summer of 1874. - -Colonel Mackenzie marched out of Fort Concho with eight companies of -cavalry and three of infantry. He moved northwesterly up the North -Concho River for his first objective—the camp in Blanco Canyon.[10] - -(Mackenzie appears to have been overall commander. However, the -biography of Nelson A. Miles seems to give Miles considerable credit for -subduing the Indians in our West. He was a volunteer in the Union Army -during the Civil War and rose to high rank, higher than that reached by -Mackenzie. Biographies can often be misleading, parts of them being word -of mouth stories from the principal himself. Miles could never have been -called a ‘modest’ man. Prior to his death he followed the example of -some of the Pharaohs of Egyptian history, and built his mausoleum on the -bank of a great river, in his case not the Nile, but the Potomac. It was -perfectly legal to do this, the site chosen being in the Arlington -National Cemetery, a place reserved for the remains of United States -servicemen. However, the timing of the construction of the mausoleum, -built even before he died, and the fact that he chose to plant himself, -not only in the most prominent spot to be found, but right in what had -once been General Robert E. Lee’s front yard, leads one to believe he -might have taken a slight advantage of his biographer.) - -The campaign lasted until the latter part of December, 1874, when -through ice and snow, Mackenzie’s 4th Cavalry drifted into Fort Griffin. -By this time the other commanders had accomplished their objectives and -returned to their stations. - -The strategy had been simple enough. The commands from the north, east -and west were to drive the tribes towards the rough country and the -canyons in the headwaters of the Red River, where Mackenzie, moving in -from the south, would destroy them. The actual carrying out of the -plans, was, as is usual, another thing. Variations in the weather were -severe; drinking water was scarce and when found usually had the same -effects on the drinkers as would castor oil; wood for fires was -generally lacking; corn for horses was an eternal problem; and the long -supply lines were constantly threatened by an alert enemy. - -But it all worked out as planned. The four commanders, Miles, Buell, -Davidson and Price drove the tribes before them after spirited -engagements. On October 9th, Buell, moving up the Red River, destroyed a -camp of 400 lodges on the Salt Fork of that river. The usual plan of -operation was for each commander to use his friendly Indian scouts as -guides to locate a fresh Indian trail. After that it was hard riding -and, if possible, surprise attack on a village. Most of the supplies -came from the nearest forts, such as Sill, Fort Bascom, New Mexico and -Camp Supply in the northwestern part of the Indian Territory, and Fort -Griffin on the Brazos. It was during this campaign that plans were made -to locate Fort Elliott as a new defense in the Panhandle.[11] - -Mackenzie’s 4th Cavalry covered many a weary mile. His biggest Indian -fight occurred in the Palo Duro Canyon where he surprised a large camp -in late September and reported the capture of 1,424 ponies, mules and -colts. Remembering his past experience with captive horses, he had the -entire herd shot rather than risk the possibility of their recapture -during the night by the braves. - -This campaign broke up any further concerted action by the Indian -tribes. It had been long in materializing, and that, to many, still -seems hard to understand. Satanta was recaptured and sent back to the -penitentiary at Huntsville, but ended it all a short time thereafter by -jumping head first out of a second story window. - -The other Kiowa Chief, Big Tree, upon being recaptured and imprisoned, -this time at Fort Sill, became a model prisoner. After gaining his -freedom, he became the Kiowa’s principal chief, caused a little trouble -in 1890 that was squelched without bloodshed by the soldiers, and he -then settled in a cottage near Mountain View, Oklahoma. He died, a -deacon in the Baptist Church November 18, 1929. - -However much the Comanche tribes might by now be reduced in number, -their spirits remained high and restless on their reservations. As late -as 1878 and 1879, small war parties raided as deep into Texas as Fort -McKavett. But there was no coordinated action. - -The extinction of the buffalo in our southern region was completed about -1878, and then the hunters turned in force against the remaining herds -on the northern parts of the Great Plains. These herds lasted about four -more years. - -The men in the forts could be, and were, still busy. Colonel Grierson -took over at Concho in 1875. That same year, Colonel Shafter, with nine -troops of the 10th Cavalry and two companies of infantry, left after -rendezvousing at that post and headed for the Indian country near Blanco -Canyon. His supply train consisted of sixty-five wagons drawn by -six-mule teams, a pack train of nearly 700 mules and a beef herd. This -was in July. Good rains had fallen and water holes were expected to be -full. It took the expedition seventeen days to cover the 180 miles. (The -author cannot verify the reported strength of the mule train.) - -Only a few Indians were met, so Shafter divided his command. His own -division out of Fort Duncan, returned to that post about December 18, -1875, after having explored the country now known as the South Plains of -Texas and New Mexico. One of his lieutenants, Geddes, leading a division -from Mustang Springs, near present Midland, on south to cross the Pecos -on a southwesterly course below Independence Creek, reached the Rio -Grande. There they engaged in a small Indian fight, then retraced their -steps to avoid the great canyon country, crossed the Pecos, and in a -worn out condition reached Fort Clark. Geddes then rested up and -returned to Fort Concho. - -The entire expedition had explored and mapped what had been a vast and -unknown area, and had encountered only a few wandering bands of Indians. -It appeared that the Indian problems had at last been solved. - -However, the final settlement of that problem came in 1880. An Apache -Chief, one Victorio, long confined to a reservation in the Territory of -New Mexico, hit the warpath with all of his tribe and their belongings; -warriors, squaws, papooses and portable lodges. Colonel Grierson, now -General Grierson, left Fort Concho and with detachments from Forts -Concho, Stockton, Davis and Quitman, sought to force an engagement in -that wild and mountainous and desert land that lies on both sides of the -Rio Grande, from El Paso on the west to the Davis Mountains on the east. -The United States cavalry was no match for the elusive Victorio, who -avoided any but guerrilla actions, and worked back and forth across the -Rio Grande, until Grierson, disgusted, returned to Fort Concho. His -forces had not been allowed to cross into Mexico and he thought that the -Mexican forces, also chasing the Apaches, had not fully cooperated with -him. - -This may or may not have been so, but the end of the new war came in the -fall, when General Terrazas, then Governor of Chihuahua, forced an -engagement by trapping and surrounding the old chief. Only a few -survivors were able to escape this well planned but short campaign by -the Mexican forces. - -The usefulness of the forts, so far as protection against the Indians -was concerned, now ended. The accompanying map shows their relative -locations and the dates on which they were organized and abandoned. Only -one, Fort Bliss at the Paso del Norte, serves the United States Army at -this time. - -Fort Concho remained active until 1889, but it was only another army -post. Small parties of Indians roamed the frontier even in the 80’s, but -the Texas Rangers and the frontiersmen took care of them. - -Of all of those that were abandoned during the last century, Fort Concho -is the best preserved. It took time to build it, and when finally -abandoned, its lovely stone buildings and the land on which they stand, -reverted to the original landowners, Adams and Wickes, the United States -Army having been only a rent-paying tenant. - -Just what do some of the others look like at this time? Fort Worth is -covered somewhere under a modern city that bears its name. The -foundations of old Fort Mason can be seen on a hill within the city -limits of Mason, the cut stones of its buildings having been removed for -construction work elsewhere. The same goes for old Lancaster, where only -a few gaunt white limestone chimneys can be seen rising against the -mesas. However, if you care to walk over to them, you will see the old -foundations and a small graveyard. That is all that is left. - -If a Comanche or Kiowa Indian observed Fort Phantom Hill today for the -first time, he would probably name it, “Many chimneys that do not -smoke.” The buildings are gone and he would not be interested in their -foundations. - -Some of the limestone houses at Fort McKavett are still being occupied, -and many of the other old fort buildings are outlined by roofless walls. -Several of the original buildings of Fort Stockton still remain and have -been converted into gracious homes. Fort Davis is a line of stone and -adobe shells, the timbers of the overhanging porches being long gone -except where the late Andrew Simmons restored a few, and built a -creditable museum in one building. - -Fort Clark, rising by the beautiful Las Moras Springs, is a combination -of the old and the new, having seen service in the last World War. It is -interesting to observe that in its case, it is unfortunately the new and -not the old that is missing. - -The old Spanish Fort (presidio) on the San Saba River? Enough of the -rubble remains to outline the outer wall of the large courtyard. This -was a massive stone fortification and each of its four corners was -protected by a protruding circular stone tower. The State Highway -Department has restored one of these towers and a part of the outer -wall. The old Mission, San Saba de la Cruz, across and down the river -from this presidio, disappeared along with its administering priests -during the great Comanche attack against the Spaniards and their Apache -allies, back in 1758, or thereabout. - -The preservation of the existing buildings of Fort Concho, and the -restoration of the destroyed ones, were begun in 1930 by Mrs. Ginevra -Wood Carson, a gracious and far-sighted lady of San Angelo. She had -already started the West Texas Museum in about 1928, and it was located -in the new Tom Green County Court House, where it soon outgrew its -housing facilities She therefore turned her attention towards the old -Fort. The original Administration or G.H.Q. Building of Fort Concho was -privately owned but in excellent condition, and it stood at the Eastern -end of the old Quadrangle. Mr. R. Wilbur Brown, Sr. of San Angelo -recognized the far-sightedness of Mrs. Carson. He bought the -Administration Building from its owners and deeded it toward a museum of -pioneer days and the preservation of old Fort Concho. - -Mrs. Carson then moved the museum collection from the Court House into -the Administration Building and changed the name of West Texas Museum to -Fort Concho Museum. - -The history of Fort Concho since its abandonment in 1889, when the -garrison lowered the flag for the last time, and marched away, its band -playing “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” had not been spectacular. It could -easily have become a rock quarry, as had Lancaster, Mason and others. -Actually, some of the barracks buildings on the North Side of the -Quadrangle did suffer that inglorious fate. But the houses on Officer’s -Row, the Administration Building, Hospital and Chapel were, for many -years, the finest buildings in the surrounding area. In 1905, the Concho -Realty Company was formed by certain citizens of San Angelo, and the -fort grounds, with all the structures were bought by the company from -the Adams and Wickes Estate for $15,000.00. A real estate addition was -then organized and the various buildings sold to private individuals. - -The most elaborate of these had been the Post Hospital. It occupied a -position outside, and just off the Southeast corner of the Quadrangle. -This building burned in 1910, and some years later its remaining stone -walls, partitions and chimneys were cleared away. - -The Fort Concho Museum Board, a group of citizens, works to purchase, -preserve and restore the buildings of the Fort, and collect the display -items of interest that pertain to pioneer days in the Southwest. - -Up to the present time the accomplishments of the Board have been -considerable. The items relating to pioneers have overflowed the -Administration Building. Further space has been gained for them by the -restoration of two Barracks Buildings and their Mess Halls on the North -side of the Quadrangle. The Powder House, once located on the banks of -the Concho River, has been removed and rebuilt, stone by stone, at a -position just North of the restored Barracks. The Post Chapel, -beautifully preserved, and a part of the Museum, stands at the Eastern -end of Officer’s Row. Six of the original nine Officer’s homes have been -bought by the Board with money contributed by individuals and from small -Museum revenues. The old Parade Ground, occupying the center of the -Quadrangle is marred and hidden from view by recent structures on its -Western end and a large 1907 school house now occupies its center. A -Comanche war-party (assuming one existed today, one bent on the -destruction of Fort Concho) would return baffled to its portable village -for the simple reason that the Indians, like any other visitors, could -not find Fort Concho, even though years back having been designated a -National Historic Landmark. - -There are other fort buildings standing nearby that are owned and used -today as warehouses by different San Angelo firms. Their beautiful stone -is usually covered by applications of various colored stucco, but you -can still identify them by their alignments and shapes. - -Some years back the Santa Fe Railroad presented the City with one of its -steam locomotives. This “Iron Horse” of bygone days is now resting on -its rails near one of the restored Barracks. It is a part of the Museum, -and is a valuable item; therefore, it is hoped that its longevity -against the ravages of rust will be secured by the erection of a -suitable structure over and around it. - -Now take your time and browse through the Fort Concho Museum. Drive -through the City over streets that bear the names of Beauregard, -Mackenzie, Shafter, Grierson and Chadbourne. It is all worth it, because -without it, there would soon be little to show us of the comparative -life that existed in our Southwest only a few short years ago. - - - - - Footnotes - - -[1]Comancheros: Renegade Mexicans, half breeds and outlaw Americans who - lived in Mexican settlements in New Mexico, from whence they - traveled in small bands, usually by wagon or oxcart, to the Llano - Estacado where they met the Comanches, Kiowas or other Indians and - traded guns, ammunition, whiskey and other desirable items for the - products of the raids. (Robert T. Neill, San Angelo, Texas.) - -[2]Perhaps this was Limpia Creek.—Dr. R. T. Hill. - -[3]On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger, U.S.A., landed at - Galveston and issued a general order declaring that “in accordance - with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all - slaves are free.” - -[4]The Negro regiments on the Texas frontier during these Indian times - were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry. - -[5]During the Civil War the cattle on the open Texas ranges increased - many fold with the loss by the Confederacy of control of the - Mississippi River. After that war they so far exceeded local demand - that cattle drives on a much larger scale than ever before - attempted, got under way. The Chisholm and Western Trails, “from - anywhere in Texas,” on north through the western part of the Indian - Territory entrained cattle in Kansas for the Eastern feedlots. The - Goodnight-Loving Trail running west along the Middle Concho River, - thence north along the Pecos and on parallel to the Front Ranges, - supplied cattle for the new ranches being opened from New Mexico to - the Canadian Border. - - Obviously the Comanche and Kiowa did not overlook this opportunity - for cattle rustling. - -[6]Captain Lewis Johnson, 24th Infantry, related, “That was the year in - which I changed stations twice, marching from Fort Stockton all the - way to Fort Brown. On my way,—in March, 1872, I think, occurred an - attack on a freight-train at Howard’s Well. (Grierson Springs, - Reagan County). It was a train from San Antonio, intended for Fort - Stockton.” Testimony before House Committee on Military Affairs, - 45th Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, D.C., Dec. 4, 1877. - -[7]The Salt Creek Massacre took place near the town of Graham. - -[8]When, at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in present Montana, June - 25, 1876, General George A. Custer and his entire command were - massacred by the Sioux Indians, that command was composed of - elements of the 7th United States Cavalry. The massacre took place - about three years after the 7th marched into Fort Richardson. There - is no evidence of Custer having been at Richardson. At this time, he - was probably somewhere on the Missouri River. - -[9]This action was not a pursuit following a “fresh trail” into Mexico. - It was a carefully planned attack on Indian villages in that - country, the locations of which had been accurately ascertained - beforehand. - - Later on, during 1876 and 1877, Lt. John L. Bullis acting under the - command of Colonel Shafter, conducted six such raids into Mexico, - all on the upper Rio Grande from Laredo to points southwest of the - mouth of the Pecos River. Bullis was a very brave and competent - soldier and was awarded a sword by the Texas Legislature. Camp - Bullis, near San Antonio, was named for him in 1917. - -[10]A regiment of cavalry on the Texas frontier after the Civil War - could, at maximum strength, muster about 929 men. A company of - maximum strength could muster about 90 men. - - A regiment of infantry varied in number more than a similar cavalry - unit, and was smaller, mustering generally about 460 men, while a - company varied from 25 or 30 men, on up to 60 or 65 men. - -[11]“A large trade has sprung up in Western Texas in cattle, which are - driven up into Kansas to the railroad at or near Fort Dodge. They go - up by what is termed the Pan Handle of Texas—. Fort Elliott is - established there for the purpose of aiding cattle merchants who buy - cattle in Texas and drive them up to the railroad; and thence the - cattle are taken to Ohio or Illinois and fed until spring, when they - are sent East. The trade amounts to two or three hundred thousand - annually.” Statement of General W. T. Sherman, November 21, 1877, - before the Committee on Military Affairs, in relation to the Texas - Border Troubles, House of Representatives, 45th Congress, 2d - Session. - - - [Illustration: The Federal Forts In Texas During the Indian Era, - 1845-1889] - - [Illustration: Texas, 1856] - - [Illustration: Fort Concho] - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - -—Silently corrected a few typos. - -—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - -—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Concho, by J. N. 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margin-left:0; text-indent:0; }</style> -</head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Concho, by J. N. Gregory - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Fort Concho - Its Why and Wherefore - -Author: J. N. Gregory - -Release Date: April 7, 2017 [EBook #54497] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORT CONCHO *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - -<div id="cover" class="img"> -<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Fort Concho: Its Why and Wherefore" width="500" height="754" /> -</div> -<p class="center"><i>FORT CONCHO MUSEUM -<br />San Angelo, Texas</i></p> -<p class="tb"><i>A people who take no pride in the -noble achievements of remote ancestry -will never achieve anything -worthy to be remembered with pride -by remote descendants.</i>—<span class="sc">Macaulay</span></p> -<p class="tb">The Department of the Interior on -October 7, 1961 designated this Fort -as a National Historic Landmark.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_2">2</div> -<div class="img" id="fig1"> -<img src="images/p02.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="262" /> -<p class="pcap">Fort Concho -<br />1867-1889</p> -</div> -<div class="box"> -<div class="img"> -<img src="images/p03.jpg" alt="Fort Concho: Its Why and Wherefore" width="350" height="211" /> -</div> -<h1><span class="ss"><span class="large">Fort Concho</span> -<br /><span class="smaller">ITS WHY AND WHEREFORE</span></span></h1> -<p class="center"><span class="large"><b>J. N. Gregory</b></span></p> -<p class="center small"><i>Cover by A. J. Redd</i></p> -<p class="center small">First Printing 1957 -<br />Second Printing 1962 -<br />Third Printing 1970</p> -<p class="center"><i>NEWSFOTO YEARBOOKS</i> -<br /><i>San Angelo, Texas</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div> -<p class="tbcenter">Dedicated -<br />to the pioneer -<br />men and women -<br />of our Southwest.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_5">5</div> -<h2 id="c1"><span class="small">FOREWORD</span></h2> -<p>Many people who visit the Fort Concho Museum and look over -the parade ground and buildings of old Fort Concho, naturally ask -the question, “Why did the United States Government build a fort -in this place, and what did the fort accomplish?”</p> -<p>The object of this pamphlet is to answer that question, and to -present the answer to the inquiring visitor at as small a cost as the -printer makes possible.</p> -<p>Two maps of Texas will be found in the envelope at the <a href="#map1">back of the pamphlet</a>. -The smaller is a reproduction of one published in -1856, not too accurate from a geographic standpoint, but as accurate -as the knowledge of the times allowed. The other map, -accurate from the geographic point of view, endeavors to show the -locations of some thirty-four forts and camps that were established -and built by our War Department on the Texas Frontier during -the Indian days.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div> -<p class="tb">The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that brought to a close the -war between the United States and Mexico, February 2, 1848, and -the subsequent Gadsden Purchase of 1853, set the plan for the -present boundaries between the two countries. A vast area of -plains, deserts and mountains, an unmapped and untraveled wilderness -was now owned by the Northern Republic. It was inhabited -mostly by Comanche, Apache, Kiowa and other warlike Indian -tribes, and it stretched from the settlements of South and East -Texas, and from the lower Missouri River area to the new American -settlements on the Pacific Coast.</p> -<p>Great events were in the making when in California in 1848, -gold nuggets were found in the tailrace of Sutter’s Mill. The word -passed around quickly, and the first modern international gold rush -was on. It put the first sizeable amounts of precious metals into -the coffers of the nations of the world since the Spanish Conquistadores -ransacked the treasure houses of Peru and Mexico. It brought -about modern mining practices, and before the end of the century, -the search for gold was so international and intense that comparable -strikes had been made in South Africa, Australia, Canada and -Alaska, resulting in fresh redistribution of populations, not only -in the United States but also in other portions of the world. The -problems accompanying such redistribution were plentiful, and -they are still plaguing us to this day.</p> -<p>But the lure that led men to our West was not gold alone. The -El Dorado of man’s dreams, be it a gold vein, oil patch, store on -Main Street, cattle ranch, or farm in Peaceful Valley, can very well -lie in any new and unexplored lands. So it was then. Few men -could afford for themselves, families and belongings the cost of -passage by sailing ship, around the Horn or by portage at the Isthmus -of Panama, from Boston, New York, Charleston, New Orleans, -Galveston or Indianola, to San Francisco. Besides that, a fellow -who was bent on making a trip liked to look over the country -lying between home and his proposed destination. So, many found -their El Dorado, not on the Pacific Coast but along the trails between -the Great River and the Pacific Ocean.</p> -<p>The inhabitants of the crowded East and the folks of the -<span class="pb" id="Page_8">8</span> -South felt their race-old urge to get on the move towards more -freedom and opportunity. Old windy Horace Greeley was soon -to advise, “Go West, Young Man.” So go West they did, young and -old, first by small companies on horseback or in buckboards, then -later by trains of covered wagons which carried their families and -all earthly possessions, grouped together for companionship as well -as for protection against the Indians.</p> -<p>Population movements in the United States have generally gone -from East to West in parallel lines, once the Atlantic seaboard was -settled. And so this great gold movement from East to West -brought settlement of the intermediate lands between the Mississippi -River and the Pacific Ocean by the natural contrasting types -of North-South peoples.</p> -<p>The great Oregon and Santa Fe Trails serviced the people of -the more northerly parts of our country, but for those in the -southern parts a newer trail had to be found and by simple geography -it had to cross Texas. You could enter the State from the sea -at Galveston, Indianola or Corpus Christi, or by way of the land -through Fort Smith in Arkansas, thence across the Indian Territory -to the Red River; or directly from Louisiana through the fairly well -settled and organized counties of East Texas. But no matter how -you entered, there was only one way to get out, and so all trails -converged on the Paso del Norte (present El Paso). To get out -of Texas south of El Paso would land you in Mexico. To get out -north of El Paso would take you across the Llano Estacado which -in those days was considered a vast treeless plain, unbroken by -any topographic changes, and completely devoid of water holes.</p> -<p>The <a href="#map2">accompanying map</a>, published in 1856 in Yoakum’s History -of Texas, shows clearly the political subdivisions and settlements -of Texas in those times. A substantial part of the State, from -the Panhandle to the upper Rio Grande, appears to be completely -uninhabited and, therefore, politically unorganized. In a vague -manner, this vast area might be assumed to be an unannexed portion -of the counties of Bexar, El Paso, Presidio and Travis. This -map does not speak approvingly of the Llano Estacado. Staked -Plains, some called it.</p> -<p>From 1848 on to the recent past, various trail drivers, army -officers and railroaders laid out trails from the settled parts of -Texas to the Paso del Norte, always taking advantage of springs -and water holes and avoiding the Llano Estacado and the great -limestone canyons of the Rio Grande and its tributaries. That is, -all did but the builders of the Southern Pacific Railroad. They -came later, but yet too early to have the know-how of an Arthur -Edward Stilwell. But that is another story.</p> -<p>A North-South trade route had existed for some two hundred -years connecting Spanish Santa Fe, far north toward the headwaters -<span class="pb" id="Page_9">9</span> -of the Rio Grande, south through the Paso del Norte to the -settlements in the mother country of Mexico. The Santa Fe Trail -extended to California, would cross this trade route at Santa Fe, -well up in the Rocky Mountains, while the route through Texas -would cross it at El Paso. And so these two places became the -supply dumps where the great wagon trains took on horses, mules, -beef and other supplies that would see them across the final leg -of the journey west. It was a great opportunity for traders who -had the supplies to sell, and the procuring middle man, the one -who contacted both producer and merchant, was a man with great -savvy and ability known as the Comanche Indian.</p> -<p>The Comanche despised walking; it was not adaptable to his -method of making a living. He was a plains Indian, and somewhere -back in the sixteenth or seventeenth century had somehow accumulated -his first mustangs from offsprings of those horses lost by the -Conquistadores from Spain. Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in -America, there were no horses, as we recognize them now, on either -of the American continents. Now the Comanche as a mounted man -probably roamed the great plains from present Wyoming to Durango, -Mexico. It was easy to make a living on such a range. It -abounded in buffalo; and the wise Comanche knew all the water -holes. He drove the wily Apaches to the south until they crossed -the Rio Grande and settled in a quasi-peaceful manner in Mexico, -or later chose Arizona and New Mexico and preyed on the settlers, -immigrants and prospectors.</p> -<p>From the records, the Comanche does not appear to have -been a breeder of horses, cattle or sheep. But as a procurer of such -livestock, he had no peer. Many years before Lewis and Clark were -sent to evaluate the Northwestern part of the Louisiana Purchase -lands that Mr. Jefferson had bought from Napoleon Bonaparte in -1803, the Comanche had learned to find his greatest pleasure and -profit during his daring raids into the settlements of Mexico, raiding -in great force as far south as the cities of Chihuahua and -Durango.</p> -<p>The emotional inspiration for such forays on peaceful people -was regarded as pure cussedness, but a more profound study shows -that the trophies of such raids, excepting the scalps taken, were -horses, cattle, sheep and slaves. Many of the stolen horses were for -the Comanche’s personal use, because it took many animals to -make the great raid during the Mexican Moon. The balance of the -trophies was used for barter.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div> -<div class="img"> -<img src="images/p04.jpg" alt="Indians Capturing Wild Horses" width="600" height="394" /> -</div> -<div class="img" id="fig2"> -<img src="images/p05.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="370" /> -<p class="pcap"><span class="small"><i>G. Catlin</i></span> -<br /><i>Comanches Capturing Wild Horses</i> -<br /><i>From “The North American Indians,” Vol. II, by George Catlin, London, 1841. The place: the Red River; the time: 1834.</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div> -<p>Years before the purchase of 1803, he was trading his stolen -stock, and possibly his slaves, to the French traders from the -Spanish-French border near old Natchitoches (pronounced Nacotish) -on the lower Red River. Or in later times, upon return from -a successful raid, he roared out of Mexico and across the Rio -Grande into Texas south of the Chisos Mountains. If short of war -paint, he replenished his favorite red color from the outcroppings -of cinnebar near Terlingua Creek, then headed through the badlands -and out upon the range country by way of Persimmon Gap. -From the Gap, he went to Comanche Springs (present Fort Stockton), -crossed the Pecos River at Horsehead Crossing, then rode -north to the Sand Dunes to water a famishing flock, after which he -headed east to the Sulphur and the Big Spring. Then he turned -northward around the Cap Rock that marks the eastern extremity -of the terrible Llano Estacado, to proceed on north till he actually -scrambled out upon that plateau. Then he proceeded towards -Santa Fe to meet somewhere, possibly at Casas Amarillas, in that -then desolate region, the Comancheros, or middle men between -himself and the Mexican settlers of the upper Rio Grande Valley -near Santa Fe.<a class="fn" id="fr_1" href="#fn_1">[1]</a> He traded his trophies to the Comancheros for -guns, ammunition or other less practical adjuncts that might suit -his fancy of the moment. His Mexican Moon was then over and he -returned to his portable village which he had left in some watered -canyon that cut down eastward from the Llano Estacado.</p> -<p>The route as followed by these Indians was a well marked trail, -and during the time of our westward migrations, it was well known -and appears on the maps of the times. Another route into Mexico -broke off the Western Trail at the Big Spring and ran down the -valley of the North Concho River, across the Edwards Plateau, -then through the passes of the Balcones Escarpment to cross the -Rio Grande into Mexico near the present city of Eagle Pass. Mr. -Evetts Haley refers to these trails as the Great Comanche War -Trail, and gives a wonderful description of the activity on them in -his recent book, <i>Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier</i>. An old map -from the Army files in the National Archives calls the western -branch the Grand Comanche War Trail. But call the trails what -you may, they were still a stiff pain in the neck to anyone crossing -them, and for the wagon trains and cattle herds going west, crossing -was inevitable.</p> -<p>The greater raids into Mexico appear to have occurred rather -regularly in September when the weather was most favorable, and -the chief objectives could be struck during the light of a full moon. -Thus, to the unhappy but fully expectant Mexicans, the September -full moon was known as the Comanche Moon. At this time Mars, -<span class="pb" id="Page_12">12</span> -the red God of War, hangs low and molten in the late summer -night’s sky and reflects a light that is as red as the sand and clay -soils of the Indian Territory.</p> -<p>Another favorite trick of these versatile middle men was to -raid the settlements down the Rio Grande Valley south from Santa -Fe and drive off the stock to a rendezvous with the Comancheros, -who in turn traded them to unknowing Mexican settlers at other -points on the river. During such raids it was deemed ethical but -unprofitable to kill the settlers, since without them there would be -no stock to drive off in a later raid. Besides, these Mexican settlers -did not seriously molest the buffalo.</p> -<p>Such business sagacity however, did not apply in later times -to the Republic of Texas, where each succeeding year saw new -settlers break ground and homestead farther up the river valleys, -whose streams had their origins in the motherland plains of the -Comanche and Kiowa.</p> -<p>After its establishment in 1836, the infant republic found itself -fighting a hot war on two fronts. The settlers near the Rio Grande, -from Del Rio to the mouth of that river near Brownsville, suffered -from raids out of Mexico by both Mexicans and Indians, while the -northern prongs of the new settlements were exposed to the Comanches -and Kiowas. It was a bitter struggle, fought generally in -small isolated settlements where the determined Anglo-Saxon -fought for his new home against an equally determined Indian -fighting to preserve his ancient homeland and range. A Saxon’s -scalp decorating a Comanche’s war shield might be avenged by an -Indian’s entire skin decorating a rude barn door.</p> -<p>Matters were better controlled after the annexation of Texas -by the United States and after the close of the Mexican War. But -it took manpower and supplies to do it, something the new republic -had been slow in acquiring. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided, -among other things, that the United States would make every -effort to keep the Indians from raiding into Mexico; so in about -1849, the United States Army, mostly cavalry and mounted infantrymen -(Dragoons), moved into Texas. They proceeded to establish -a string of forts and camps from previously established -Brown near the mouth of the Rio Grande to Duncan near Eagle -Pass. For the upper Rio Grande in Texas, they set up what was -later to be Fort Bliss (El Paso). As a northern line of defense for -the settlers, they established, starting with Fort Duncan, the forts -of Lincoln (D’Hanis), Martin Scott (Fredericksburg), Croghan -(Burnet), Gates (Gatesville), Graham (Hillsboro) and Worth -(Fort Worth). Only a few of the forts were ever protected by -stockades. The war was one of movement. The places were supposed -to be strategically located and manned by several companies -of cavalry and some infantry; places from where punitive expeditions -<span class="pb" id="Page_13">13</span> -could set out, establish supply bases, then try to run down the -Indian raiders.</p> -<p>The standing army of the United States during the 1850’s was -numbered at about fifteen thousand men and the personnel of the -Texas forts accounted for about from one-fifth to one-third of that -number. Many of the officers and men were veterans of the Mexican -War, the forts usually being named in honor of American -soldiers who lost their lives in that war. Many Civil War leaders, -both Confederate and Union, received much field training from -1849 to the outbreak of that war in 1861, building and manning -the forts, chasing, but seldom catching, the Indians, guarding the -wagon trains and mail bags and exploring the wilderness for better -trails and water holes.</p> -<p>There is a record, one of many left by the famous Captain Jack -Hays of the Texas Rangers. It tells how he was hired by certain -merchants of San Antonio who were anxious to trade with the -merchants of Chihuahua, Mexico. His assignment was to find in -1848, a route from San Antonio to privately owned Fort Leaton -where the Conchos River of Mexico meets the Rio Grande, and -from which point to Chihuahua the going would be reasonably -good. Hays and his mounted company of frontiersmen managed to -make it to Leaton and back to San Antonio, but they found the -going so rough that the journey took them three and one-half -months. (Present Southern Pacific Railway west to Alpine). -There were too many deep canyons along the tributaries of the -Rio Grande.</p> -<p>The decade following 1849 was most active. The army detachments -under capable officers explored to find routes from East -Texas and from San Antonio to El Paso. But the wagon trains did -not wait for their findings; they often made their own way and did -their well-known creditable job. Mr. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of -War, and himself a distinguished veteran of the Mexican War, did -about all in his power to aid the new state of Texas, the Mexican -settlements and the immigrant trains. He made treaties with the -Indians and arranged reservations for them. This latter deal was -not too successful. Friendly East Texas Indians almost starved on -the reservations, and the more warlike plains tribes had no idea -of staying there even when they agreed to move in. The old men’s -tales of conquest and horse stealing were more than the young -bucks could take.</p> -<p>Mr. Davis built new forts and, recognizing the great problems -of communications that existed between such far flung positions, -sought to remedy those by importing in 1856, through the seaport -of Indianola, camels and their Arabian drivers.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div> -<div class="img" id="fig3"> -<img src="images/p06.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="425" /> -<p class="pcap"><span class="small"><i>G. Catlin</i></span> -<br /><i>Comanche Village</i> -<br /><i>From “The North American Indians,” Vol. II. by George Catlin, London 1841. Picture by Catlin, 1834, escorted by General -Henry Leavenworth and regiment of U.S. Dragoons.</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div> -<p>The camels were concentrated at Camp Verde in Southern -Kerr County, and breeding and testing immediately proceeded at -a good pace. Tests for their strength and endurance carried the -caravans across the Continental Divide and back, and the results -were very gratifying. The Civil War put an end to the experiments. -The last camel herd, before final sellouts to the carnivals, was -privately owned near Austin in the early 1880’s.</p> -<p>By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, the War Department -had finally followed the advice of such able soldiers as Joe -Johnston and Chase Whiting. The forts received a new alignment -and were manned mostly by cavalry. Supplies were sent in as -before, from bases like San Antonio. The wagons, pulled by oxen -or mules, were well guarded in most instances by soldiers. The contracts -for furnishing the supplies and their transportation were let -to civilians.</p> -<p>The new alignment caused the abandonment of some interior -forts and camps. The line on the lower Rio Grande was extended -up the river by building Fort Hudson near the Devil’s River, about -thirty miles north of San Felipe. Out in far Western Texas, they -built Fort Quitman, down the river from El Paso.</p> -<p>Several things were done to discourage the Comanche and -Kiowa whose depredations along the Grand War Trail had been -greatly stepped up. The War Department flanked the trail on the -west by the building of a sizeable establishment in a beautiful and -romantic spot in the Davis Mountains and named it Fort Davis in -honor of the secretary. Near this spot, more than three hundred -years before, had passed the shipwrecked, unhorsed and enslaved, -but still valiant Spaniard, Cabeza de Vaca. He would later write, -in his report to his Viceroy describing his journey after leaving the -great arid plains to the north, of a valley through which flowed -“limpid waters.”<a class="fn" id="fr_2" href="#fn_2">[2]</a></p> -<p>After Fort Davis, the Department unveiled Fort Lancaster -(western Crockett County) as a flanker to the east of the trail. It -was cozily situated in the mesas not far from the Pecos River and -beside Live Oak Creek that flows delightful spring water.</p> -<p>Then the War Department built Fort Stockton (Pecos County), -smack in the middle of the Grand Trail and right beside the best -spring of water on its entire route.</p> -<p>Now to further protect immigrants and mail bags on the route -west and to protect settlers of central and northern Texas who -were still moving higher up the river valleys, it set up Fort Chadbourne -as a pivot between the new western line and the new lower -Rio Grande Valley line. From Fort Chadbourne on northeasterly -to the Indian Territory were Forts Phantom Hill (Abilene) and -Belknap (New Castle). But Chadbourne was a near miss, because -it was not well located and its water supply was not adequate. -<span class="pb" id="Page_16">16</span> -However, not until the Civil War was over was it finally abandoned -in 1867 and a new site chosen for its replacement at the confluence -of the North, South and Middle Concho Rivers. This new position -would be called Fort Concho, and here eventually would be built -the city of San Angelo.</p> -<p>As the decade preceding the outbreak of the Civil War was -closing, the great wagon trails from San Antonio and East Texas to -El Paso must have been a sight to behold. Most of them converged -on Castle Gap and the Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River, -from where they had a choice of two routes to El Paso. The California -Overland Mail (Butterfield Overland Mail), 2,795 miles from -St. Louis to San Francisco, entered Texas by way of Fort Smith, -Arkansas, followed the line of forts southwesterly to the middle -Concho River then turned westerly up that valley, then through -Castle Gap to Horsehead Crossing. From here the early route followed -up the Pecos River to Pope’s Crossing near the present Red -Bluff Reservoir, thence westward to El Paso, by way of Delaware -Creek and the Hueco Tanks. A more southerly route from Horsehead -Crossing was probably a better choice. It went from the -Crossing direct to Fort Stockton, Leon Springs, Toyahvale, Fort -Davis, thence to Van Horn’s well and El Paso. It also had the -advantage of servicing the westerly line of forts.</p> -<p>The original run over this new mail trail to California was -made in 1858 and the New York Herald sent a special news correspondent, -one W. L. Ormsby, to be a through passenger on the -mule-drawn coach so that he could report the trip. The poor fellow -was only twenty-three years old, but age being in his favor, he -lived through it all. His description of the trail from between the -upper water holes of the Middle Concho River (near present Stiles) -to Castle Gap and the Horsehead Crossing is most illuminating.</p> -<p>“Strewn along the load, and far as the eye could reach along -the plain—decayed and decaying animals, the bones of cattle -and sometimes of men (the hide drying on the skin in the arid -atmosphere), all told a fearful story of anguish and terrific death -from the pangs of thirst. For miles and miles these bones strew -the plain....”</p> -<p>It appears from this on the spot observation, that the trails -across level plains country were very wide. The wagon trains did -not move in single file. That would expose them too much to Indian -attacks, and besides, the longer the line, the worse the dust. -The old wagon wheel ruts, still noticeable to this day along the -route described above by Ormsby, cover a wide area on the plains -east of Castle Gap, before they converge at that narrow pass. These -can be seen west of the China Ponds where they move westerly -about three miles south of the land grants known as the alphabet -blocks, given later by the State of Texas to the Corpus Christi, San -<span class="pb" id="Page_17">17</span> -Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Rail Road. (Try painting -that one on a narrow gauge box car!)</p> -<p>During 1858 and 1859, Captain Earl Van Dorn, soon to be a -member of the Confederate High Command, vigorously carried the -war to the Indians and pushed them north, back across the Red -River. They didn’t remain there long. Texas seceded from the -Union in 1861 and the Federal soldiers marched out of the forts -and left them to the Confederate forces. Again the proper manpower -was lacking. Some forts were abandoned so as to shorten -the defense line and some of these, as at Lancaster, were burned by -the Indians. The Indians, now spurred on by Union agents, carried -on a still more bloody and aggressive warfare on the Texas frontier. -Confederates, and Ranger Companies, coupled with frontiersmen -reacted promptly and vigorously, but it was a long line of defense -from the Red River to the Rio Grande. Defend it they did, against -the Indians, and against lawless elements such as deserters and -others renegades, hostile Union sympathizers and border ruffians -from without the state.</p> -<p>The Negro slave was emancipated by proclamation in Texas on -June 19, 1865 (June’teenth), about two months after General Lee -surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court -House.<a class="fn" id="fr_3" href="#fn_3">[3]</a> The last land battle of the Civil War was fought on May -13, 1865, in Cameron County, Texas when invading Federal forces -were routed near Brownsville. That engagement is known as the -Battle of Palmito Ranch.</p> -<p>From the end of the war until 1867, the frontier settlements -had no organized military forces to protect them from the Indians, -and it was against the law for Texans to carry guns. Added to this -were the turmoils of Reconstruction which were about as bitter in -the populated parts of the state as they were in other parts of the -South.</p> -<p>The occupying United States Army under General Phil Sheridan -was now mostly recruited from among the Negroes, and the -army was not used against the Indians until 1867, when orders -went out to get busy and put the forts and camps in order.<a class="fn" id="fr_4" href="#fn_4">[4]</a> -General Sheridan’s name was about as popular in Virginia and -Texas as General W. T. Sherman’s was in Georgia and Mississippi.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div> -<div class="img" id="fig4"> -<img src="images/p07.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="339" /> -<p class="pcap"><i>Action West of Horsehead Crossing.</i> -<br />(<i>Castle Gap is at the upper left.</i>)</p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_19">19</div> -<p>But both Sherman and Sheridan came to Texas, and Sherman, -after narrowly escaping the loss of his scalp on the Texas frontier, -finally realized the necessity of a last organized military effort to -either rid the country of the Indians or give it back to them. That -was in 1871. However, in 1869, a new alignment of the forts had -been seen as necessary. Never again reoccupied were certain of the -interior ones such as Worth, Graham, Gates, Croghan, Martin Scott, -Lincoln, Chadbourne and Ewell (La Salle County). Fort Belknap, -on the Salt Fork of the Brazos River in Young County, had been -the largest military post in North Texas prior to the Civil War. In -1867, the 6th Cavalry was ordered to prepare it for reoccupation. -They worked for five months, but then this fort was ordered -evacuated and its place was taken by a new one, Fort Griffin, some -thirty-seven miles up the Clear Fork of the Brazos from Belknap.</p> -<p>Now to extend the northeasterly trending line of forts closer to -the Indian Territory, the Army built Fort Richardson near the -present town of Jacksboro.</p> -<p>The site chosen as the replacement for Fort Chadbourne, to be -called Fort Concho, was at the confluence of the North Concho -River with the combined waters of the Middle Concho, Spring -Creek, Dove Creek and the South Concho, the last three named -streams being fed by bountiful springs. This abundance of water -and the geographically central location marked the spot as the -natural convergence of trails from East, Northeast and South Texas -before they headed westward for Horsehead Crossing and El Paso. -Nature had been kind to this oasis in an otherwise desolate region. -The fishing was extremely good and the clear waters of the streams -supported mussels, the variety that produces gem pearls, hence the -Spanish name of Concho. Herds of buffalo grazed within sight of -the new fort. Quail and turkey were plentiful.</p> -<p>These three new positions, Concho, Griffin and Richardson, -located on a line 220 miles long, as yet unconnected by either telegraph -or rail, would soon be the centers of men, supplies and animals -for the campaigns that finally broke the concerted powers of the -Indians. These campaigns carried the soldiers from the Indian -Territory and the New Mexico Territory on the North, to the actual -interior of Old Mexico on the South.</p> -<p>From the times in 1866 and 1867 when Richardson and Concho -were ordered built until 1871, the troops undertook no organized -campaigns against the Indians. The settlers suffered constantly and -the Indians learned new tricks. Many more learned how to live off -government bounty on the reservations in Indian Territory, then -hit the war path along with their wild brethren from the Texas -Panhandle. They were amply protected on their return to the -reservations by the Indian agents in charge, who believed their -wards could do no wrong. Why, they would ask, would an Indian -steal cattle when he had all the buffalo meat he wanted?</p> -<p>A cavalry expedition out of Fort Concho working the edges of -the Llano Estacado in 1872, captured a Comanchero who told how -<span class="pb" id="Page_20">20</span> -he and his companions traded the Indian arms, ammunition and -supplies for cattle, horses and sheep that they had stolen during -their raids. He even showed the soldiers the well worn trails across -the Llano Estacado towards Santa Fe and the valley of the Rio -Grande. Thus the secret was finally revealed to the Army. It seems -unbelievable at this time that such ignorance could prevail over the -cries and protests of the Texas ranchmen who were losing cattle by -the tens of thousands.<a class="fn" id="fr_5" href="#fn_5">[5]</a> But such was the case, and in 1867, the -Comanches even stole horses from the post herd at Fort Concho. -We must remember that in that same year the mild policies of -President Andrew Johnson in Washington were overruled by the -radicals in the United States Congress, and the bitter years of reconstruction -followed for the Southern States. All former Confederate -soldiers were deprived of the vote, and radicals, carpetbaggers, -scalawags from the South and freed Negroes ruled the -State. The Army was used, not to fight Indians, but to guard the -new social system.</p> -<p>The prospect appeared brighter for the settlers when in the -Fall of 1869, one hundred soldiers from Fort Concho managed to -engage an Indian force on the Salt Fork of the Brazos River. It was -a drawn fight, but immediately thereafter a larger force from the -same fort engaged and defeated the Indians in the same area. -Texans were cheered by the news of this new tone of aggressiveness -shown by the Army. It was the only way. The war had to be carried -to the Indians the same way Earl Van Dorn had carried the -fight to them on the eve of the Civil War.</p> -<p>But the time for real action had not arrived even as late as -1869. On February 18, 1870, a citizen was killed and scalped within -one-quarter of a mile of the post limits at Fort Concho. In -January of the same year, eighteen mules were stolen from the -Q.M. corral at that same post. The same year, 1870, while Colonel -Grierson was building Fort Sill in the Indian Territory, Chief -Kicking Bird, a Kiowa, defeated the Command of Captain C. B. -McClellan near the present town of Seymour. As late as March of -1872, a wagon train was waylaid near Grierson Springs in Reagan -<span class="pb" id="Page_21">21</span> -County and the teamsters killed by the Indians. Two companies of -the 9th Cavalry came upon the scene by accident, engaged the Indians -but withdrew before a decision was reached.<a class="fn" id="fr_6" href="#fn_6">[6]</a></p> -<div class="img"> -<img src="images/p08.jpg" alt="Cavalry and wagon" width="600" height="276" /> -</div> -<p>The lamentations of the border people were finally heard in -Washington and in April, 1871, General W. T. Sherman came to -San Antonio. The next month, accompanied by General Randolph -B. Marcy and an escort of seventeen men, he left for an -inspection of the frontier. General Marcy was the same officer -(then, Captain Marcy) who, in 1849 and later, had played such -an important part in exploring and reporting to Congress on trails -through Texas. The great explorer was still an outdoor man of -action.</p> -<p>The little expedition proceeded by way of Boerne, Fredericksburg, -the old Spanish Fort on the San Saba which had withstood -a great Comanche Indian siege in 1758, Fort McKavett, Kickapoo -Springs and Fort Concho. From Fort Concho it followed the military -trail on northeasterly by the remains of Fort Chadbourne and -Phantom Hill and on towards Belknap.</p> -<p>General Marcy’s journal is of great interest. He relates:</p> -<p>“We crossed immense herds of cattle today, which are allowed -to run wild upon the prairies, and they multiply very rapidly. The -only attention the owners give them is to brand the calves and -occasionally go out to see where they range. The remains of several -ranches were observed, the occupants of which have either been -<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span> -killed or driven off to the more dense settlements, by the Indians. -Indeed, this rich and beautiful section does not contain, today -(May 17, 1871), as many white people as it did when I visited it -eighteen years ago, and if the Indian marauders are not punished, -the whole country seems to be in a fair way of being totally depopulated.” -He continues:</p> -<p>“May 18th, 1871—This morning five teamsters, who, with seven -others, had been with a mule wagon train en route to Fort Griffin -(Captain Henry Warren’s) with corn for the post, were attacked on -the open prairie, about ten miles east of Salt Creek, by 100 Indians, -and seven of the teamsters were killed and one wounded. General -Sherman immediately ordered Colonel Mackenzie to take a force of -150 cavalry, with thirty days’ rations on pack mules, and pursue -and chastise the marauders.”</p> -<p>An interesting angle to this affair was that Sherman’s party -had been observed by the same Indians who murdered the teamsters, -but were unmolested by them because they were waiting for -the wagon train which they considered nearer top priority. Sherman -realized later that he had nearly lost his scalp.<a class="fn" id="fr_7" href="#fn_7">[7]</a></p> -<p>This Colonel Mackenzie had reported in at Fort Concho as -commanding officer on September 6, 1869. Born in New York, -July 27, 1840, and christened RANALD SLIDELL, he had graduated -first in his class at West Point in 1862. He served in the -Union Army during the Civil War, received several wounds in -action, and was a brigadier general when that war closed. The -remainder of his professional life was devoted to active high command -in the Indian wars. At various times he served at Forts -Brown, Clark, McKavett, Concho and Richardson, engaging in his -last Indian fight at Willow Creek, Wyoming in 1876. He was retired -from the Army for disability in 1884 and died a bachelor at New -Brighton, New York in 1889.</p> -<p>Along with Mackenzie, Colonel William Rufus Shafter who -arrived to command at Fort Concho in January, 1870, the War -Department had its two best young officers serving in the West -Texas theatre.</p> -<p>Shafter had no West Point training. Born in Michigan on October -16, 1835, he entered the Union Army in the Civil War as a -first lieutenant and by the end of that war had been breveted brigadier -general of volunteers. He was later awarded The Congressional -Medal of Honor for service during that war. He was commissioned -lieutenant colonel of regulars in 1869 and first saw service in West -Texas with the 24th Infantry at Fort McKavett. Later in life he -was to command the American armies in Cuba during the Spanish -American War.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_23">23</div> -<p>During the summer of 1871, while commanding forces at Fort -Davis, he set out with cavalry from both Forts Davis and Stockton -and pursued a large raiding party of Indians from the Fort Davis -area northeasterly until the trail moved into the great sand dune -country near where the city of Monahans now stands. He spent -fourteen days in this pursuit but as was usual in such matters, -could never force an engagement. However, he learned that the -heretofore dreaded sand dunes contained fresh water a few feet -below the surface in several places, and that the area was a great -refuge for Indians and was one of those rendezvous where horse-and-cattle -stealing Indians met the Comanchero traders from -New Mexico.</p> -<p>The command at Fort Concho, as at the other forts, rotated -in a perpetual manner. After service elsewhere, Mackenzie returned -to Concho to organize five companies of the 4th Cavalry -and a headquarters company for service at Fort Richardson, nearer -the Indian Territory. His column moved out March 27, 1871, -cavalry, pack mules and wagons. The bachelor commander even -allowed wives of the men to accompany the expedition as far as -the new headquarters at Fort Richardson.</p> -<p>The weather was crisp and cold as they forded the North -Concho and soon passed Mt. Margaret, named after “the most -accomplished, loving and devoted wife of one of our favorite -captains, E. B. Beaumont”—(Beaumont-Beautiful Mountain), so -wrote Captain Robert G. Carter, historian and winner of The Congressional -Medal of Honor in the Indian Wars, who was a member -of the expedition. (Mt. Margaret is the outstanding hill at Tennison.) -They pitched camp the first night at old Fort Chadbourne, -from where they followed the military trail passing en route huge -herds of buffalo, as they went on by old Forts Phantom Hill, Belknap -and on into Richardson.</p> -<p>Two months later, in May, Colonel Mackenzie roused his 4th -Cavalry at Fort Richardson and set out to obey General Sherman’s -orders issued after the killing of the teamsters at Salt Creek. But -it began to rain. After a futile chase Colonel Mackenzie headed for -Fort Sill, commanded by Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson. There he -learned that Sherman had left but not before the Chiefs Satank -(Sitting Bear), Big Tree and Satanta (White Bear) had returned -to the reservation at Sill and boasted of murdering the teamsters. -Mackenzie arrested and escorted the three Indians to Jacksboro for -trial in the Texas court. Satank purposely got himself killed by a -guard on the march, but Satanta and Big Tree were later sentenced -to prison in the state penitentiary at Huntsville. The duplicity of -these reservation Indians should now have been apparent to even -Grierson and the Indian lovers in Washington and Austin, but -it was not.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_24">24</div> -<p>A good insight into the Indian problem of the times, and of -which we have a written record, appeared at the trial of the two -Indian chiefs during July of 1871 in the little log courthouse on the -public square of Jacksboro. Charles Soward was the presiding -judge. Samuel W. T. Lanham, later to be a two term Governor -of Texas, was the district attorney. The court appointed Thomas -Fall and Joe Woolfork of the Weatherford Bar to represent the defendants.</p> -<p>Thomas Williams, the foreman of the Jury, was a frontier citizen -and a brother of the Governor of Indiana.</p> -<p>The principal witnesses against the defendants were Colonel -Mackenzie, Lawrie (or Lowerie) Tatum, the Indian Agent who -had heard their statements at Fort Sill and Thomas Brazeal, the -teamster who had escaped from the Salt Creek massacre.</p> -<p>Our Captain Carter wrote:</p> -<p>“Under a strong guard accompanied by his counsel and an -interpreter, the Chief, clanking his chain, walked to the little log -courthouse on the public square. The jury had been impaneled and -the District Attorney bustled and flourished around. The whole -country armed to the teeth crowded the courthouse and stood outside -listening through the open windows. The Chief’s attorneys -made a plea for him, and referred to the wrongs the red man had -suffered. How he had been cheated and dispoiled of his lands and -driven westward until it seemed there was no limit to the greed of -the white man. They excused his crime as just retaliation for centuries -of wrong. The jurors sat on long benches, each in his shirt -sleeves and with shooting irons strapped to his hip.”</p> -<p>Satanta got up to defend himself before his accusers. Over six -feet tall, the perfect figure of an athlete and well known as the -orator of the plains who could sway councils of both whites and -Indians, he could well have influenced the jury by mute silence, -but instead he lied and dissembled to save his life. He never mentioned -the wrongs done his people by the whites. Instead, speaking -through the interpreter, he proceeded as follows:</p> -<p>... “I have never been so near the Tehannas (Texans) before. -I look around me and see your braves, squaws and papooses, and -I have said in my heart, if I ever get back to my people, I will never -make war upon you. I have always been the friend of the white -man, ever since I was so high (indicating by sign the height of a -boy). My tribe have taunted me and called me a squaw because I -have been the friend of the Tehannas. I am suffering now for the -crimes of bad Indians—of Satank and Lone Wolf and Kicking Bird -and Big Bow and Fast Bear and Eagle Heart, and if you will let me -go, I will kill the three latter with my own hand....”</p> -<p>The evidence against the two Chiefs was debated by the jury -<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span> -and both were sentenced to death. This sentence was later commuted -to life imprisonment.</p> -<p>Now, a few statements from the court record as to what the -District Attorney had to say point to some of the misunderstandings -of the times when it came to the Indian problems on the western -frontiers.</p> -<p>The following excerpts from his plea before the court show -clearly, not only the feelings of the frontiersmen towards the uncontrolled -Indians, but also the contempt in which they, both frontiersmen -and Indians, held the people who by appeasement, -crookedness and ignorance tried to manage the Indian affairs of the -nation from a far away city:</p> -<p>“Satanta, the veteran council chief of the Kiowas—the orator—the -diplomat—the counselor of his tribe—the pulse of his race; -Big Tree, the young war chief, who leads in the thickest of the -fight, and follows no one in the chase—the mighty warrior, with -the speed of the deer and the eye of the eagle, are before this bar -in the charge of the law! So they would be described by Indian -admirers, who live in more secured and favored lands, remote from -the frontier—where ‘distance lends enchantment’ to the imagination—where -the story of Pocohantas and the speech of Logan, the -Mingo, are read, and the dread sound of the warwhoop is not heard. -We who see them today, disrobed of all their fancied graces exposed -in the light of reality, behold them through far different -lenses. We recognize in Satanta the arch fiend of treachery and -blood, the cunning Cataline—the promoter of strife—the breaker -of treaties signed by his own hand—the inciter of his fellows to -rapine and murder, as well as the most canting and double-tongued -hypocrite where detected and overcome! In Big Tree, we perceive -the tiger-demon who tasted blood and loved it as his own food—who -stops at no crime how black soever—who is swift at every -species of ferocity and pities not at any sight of agony or death—he -can scalp, burn, torture, mangle and deface his victims, with -all the superlatives of cruelty, and have no feeling of sympathy or -remorse. We look in vain to see, in them, anything to be admired -or even endured. Powerful legislative influences have been brought -to bear to procure for them annuities, reservations and supplies. -Federal munificence has fostered and nourished them, fed and -clothed them; from their strongholds of protection they have come -down upon us ‘like wolves on the fold’; treaties have been solemnly -made with them, wherein they have been considered with all the -formalities of quasi nationalities; immense financial ‘rings’ have -had their origin in, and draw their vitality from, the ‘Indian -question’; unblushing corruption has stalked abroad, created and -kept alive through</p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0">“‘—the poor Indian, whose untutored mind,</p> -<p class="t0">Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.’</p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_26">26</div> -<p>“... For many years, predatory and numerous bands of these ‘pets -of the government’ have waged the most relentless and heart-rending -warfare upon our frontier, stealing our property and killing -our citizens. We have cried aloud for help.... It is a fact, well -known in Texas, that stolen property has been traced to the very -doors of the reservation and there identified by our people, to no -purpose....”</p> -<p>Mackenzie realized those things and knew he could receive -no cooperation from Grierson at Fort Sill, so in September, acting -on orders, concentrated a force of eight companies of the 4th -Cavalry, two companies of the 11th Infantry and thirty Tonkawa -Indian scouts at old Camp Cooper near Fort Griffin. The infantry -would be used to guard the supply bases as he moved northwesterly -in the hope of engaging the wild brethren under Chief -Quanah. He bivouaced in the mouth of Blanco Canyon and lost -sixty odd horses to an Indian raid that night. The next day the -command moved up the canyon and later came out on the flat -prairie of the Llano Estacado. A large retreating body of Indians -was sighted but a Norther blew up, and Mackenzie was forced -back down the canyon by the cold weather. He withdrew to Fort -Richardson where the command arrived in late November. He accomplished -nothing and as for himself, he received an arrow wound -during a small skirmish in the canyon.</p> -<p>With the coming of spring, things picked up. Mackenzie received -orders in May to establish a camp of cavalry and infantry -on the Fresh Fork of the Brazos, from which his cavalry should -operate in pursuit of hostile Indians. He moved out of Fort -Richardson in June while Shafter at Fort Concho organized wagon -trains and supplies, these coming from as far away as Fort Brown. -He was to meet Mackenzie near the mouth of Blanco Canyon, where -the base was to be established. By September, 1872, Mackenzie and -his cavalry had moved from Blanco Canyon to Fort Sumner (New -Mexico), thence north to Fort Bascom (New Mexico), then southeasterly -to Palo Duro Canyon and south to his base camp in Blanco -Canyon. He had found no Indians or Comancheros, but he had -followed well marked Comanchero trails across the Llano Estacado -and had no trouble in finding water holes. The Staked Plains were -not nearly so tough as the high army echelons had been led to -believe.</p> -<p>Puzzled by the lack of Indians he set out for the headwaters of -the Red River and on September 29, discovered a large camp on a -tributary of the Red, northeast of Palo Duro. He immediately attacked -with five companies of cavalry, routed the braves, burned -262 Indian lodges, and captured 127 women and children, and an -estimated 3,000 head of horses. His own losses were light if we -except the fact that the Indian braves returned that night and recovered -<span class="pb" id="Page_27">27</span> -all of their horses by stampeding them. Mackenzie never -forgot that midnight raid.</p> -<p>This drubbing had a salutary effect on the Indians. The captives -were sent to Fort Concho for prisoner exchange, and many -warriors sought safety on the reservations. Their Chief Satank was -dead and Chiefs Satanta and Big Tree were in the penitentiary at -Huntsville. The next spring the remaining one hundred captive -women and children at Fort Concho were delivered back to the -reservation at Fort Sill amid great rejoicing by the braves. They -began to feel that the pale face was not such a bad hombre after -all. Evetts Haley says that some of the braves so seriously considered -settling down that they even sent their women into the -fields to see what work was like.</p> -<p>Things now looked better and the Indian lovers persuaded -Governor Edmund J. Davis to issue pardons to Satanta and Big -Tree. This infuriated General Sherman. That was in April of 1873. -Trouble immediately started again.</p> -<p>But meanwhile Mackenzie had returned to Fort Concho, where -he arrived in January of that year, and set up the headquarters of -the 4th Cavalry Regiment. Then in March, the 4th itself left Fort -Richardson for Concho, and the 7th Cavalry took over at Richardson.<a class="fn" id="fr_8" href="#fn_8">[8]</a> -The 4th headed for Fort Concho, the same column, soldiers, -wagons, wives and their household plunder that had moved north -to Richardson two years before. General Sherman had decided to -do something about that other Texas frontier, the Rio Grande, and -he wanted Mackenzie with his 4th Cavalry to handle the job.</p> -<p>Things were not, and never had been, peaceful along the Rio -Grande. It was another frontier with two parts. From Ringgold -Barracks, opposite the Mexican city of Camargo, on down to the -mouth of the Rio Grande, a man by the name of Juan Cortina, -once a general in the Mexican Army that had opposed General -Zachary Taylor’s invasion of Mexico, sought to make a living in -the grand style. He was very successful as a bandit and became the -“Robin Hood” of his side of the border. During the Civil War his -banditry ceased. He became a trader and did well because the Rio -Grande became the only outlet of the Southern Confederacy. But -with the close of the war, he resumed his favorite role as a bandit -and declared that the Nueces River and not the Rio Grande, was -the border between his country and the United States.</p> -<p>The result was that he and other lesser bandits overran the entire -<span class="pb" id="Page_28">28</span> -country from the Rio Grande to the Nueces, killed for the -pleasure of killing and drove into Mexico tens of thousands of -Texas cattle. In 1875, one of his raids came within seven miles of -Corpus Christi. Truly, his activities were as fearsome and as costly -as were those of the Indians on the other frontiers of the state. -But the United States Army did little about it, being unable to -catch raiders in Texas, and unwilling to attack them in Mexico. The -Texas Rangers, recreated in 1874, began to effectually take care of -the matter. Thirty-one of these men, under their able commander -Captain Leander H. McNelly, began to take a bite out of these -raiders in 1875, killing them not only in Texas but pursuing and -attacking them in Mexico itself.</p> -<div class="img"> -<img src="images/p09.jpg" alt="Indians with horses and travois" width="600" height="280" /> -</div> -<p>General Porfirio Diaz came to power in Mexico about this -time and ended the Cortina troubles by arresting and confining -that gentleman to the environs of Mexico City. The Rangers took -care of the rest of the gangs.</p> -<p>Along the upper Rio Grande, the raids into Texas were made -by Indians: the Kickapoos, Lipans and Apaches. These tribes had -settled in that great arid and sparsely inhabited area that extends -south of the Rio Grande from Laredo to El Paso. That part of -Mexico was a no-man’s land. The small Mexican and Indian villages -were a law unto themselves. The Mexicans often joined the Indians -on their raids, and the cattle and horses brought back found -a ready market in the Mexican villages.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_29">29</div> -<div class="img" id="fig5"> -<img src="images/p10.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="810" /> -<p class="pcap"><span class="small"><i>G. Catlin</i></span> -<br />U. STATES’ INDIAN FRONTIER IN 1840. -<br /><i>Shewing the positions of the Tribes that have been removed west of the Mississippi. -By George Catlin.</i></p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_30">30</div> -<p>The Lipans, like the Apaches, were natives of the Great Plains -country. The Kickapoos were easterners, and had been termed -“friendly Indians,” upon their arrival west of the Mississippi River. -The term “friendly Indian” often used in writings and reports of -the times referred in the larger sense to those tribes such as the -Kickapoos, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Delawares -and others that had once been powerful tribes in the eastern -United States, but because of the encroachment of the white settlers, -they had, by treaty, coercion or force during the early 1800’s, -been continually moved by the United States Government from -their ancestral or reservation lands in the East. They finally ended -up at various times on reservations assigned them in what is now -Kansas and Oklahoma (Indian Territory). Here they usually encountered -hostility from the native tribes of the Great Plains whose -superior numbers threatened their entire existence. They were considered -intruders and were obliged to turn to the United States -troops, where possible, for protection. Their natural ability as -“trackers” made them a necessary unit in any force of troops that -sought to engage hostile Indians.</p> -<p>The Seminoles from Florida were pretty well mixed with -Negro blood upon their arrival in East Texas, and later in the -Indian Territory. The reason for this was that prior to the Civil -War many run-away Negro slaves had sought and found sanctuary -among these Indians, living at that time in the fastnesses of the -Everglades.</p> -<p>During the latter days of the Civil War, December of 1864, a -company of frontier scouts out of Fort Belknap discovered a -freshly abandoned Indian camp west of the ruins of old Fort -Phantom Hill. The scouts estimated that perhaps 5,000 Indians -had camped there.</p> -<p>During the preceding fall, Comanche and Kiowa Indians in -large numbers had broken up the settlements on the northern frontier -in Young County. Therefore, it was assumed, and assumed too -hastily as it turned out, that these Indians had occupied the camp -and were on the march to find a permanent spring and summer -location from where they could further raid the settlements.</p> -<p>Actually these Indians were friendly Kickapoos from the Indian -Territory, and as it turned out, they were probably peacefully -moving themselves and their entire tribe to join a tiny remnant of -the tribe that had, years before, settled in Old Mexico, some forty -miles west of Laredo.</p> -<p>The hasty assumption that these Indians were hostile led to the -Battle of Dove Creek fought on Sunday, the 8th of January, 1865. -The scene of the battle was the Indian encampment on the south -bank of Dove Creek about three miles above its confluence with -Spring Creek, and fifteen miles southwest of the present Tom Green -County court house.</p> -<p>After the discovery of the abandoned camp near Phantom -Hill, the Indians were trailed by scouts. Confederate regulars had -been concentrated at Camp Colorado, and militia had been moved -from Erath, Brown, Comanche and Parker Counties.</p> -<p>These two columns of troops, numbering some 400 men, concentrated -above the Indian encampment before daybreak. They -attacked at daylight. It was an impetuous charge and was met by -<span class="pb" id="Page_31">31</span> -deadly fire from the Enfield rifles of 600 braves, well protected by -the underbrush of the creek bottom. The militia, respectfully referred -to by the regulars as the “flop eared militia,” suffered -heavily in their charge. They broke and fled and were of no more -value in the field.</p> -<p>The regulars, now badly outnumbered and outflanked, were -slowly forced back and withdrew towards Spring Creek, fighting -from the shelters of the oak groves as they retired. This action continued -all day, and they encamped that night with all their wounded -and the reformed militia on Spring Creek, about eight miles from -the original battle ground. They left twenty-two dead on the field -and carried away about forty wounded.</p> -<p>The long retreat to the mouth of the Concho River started the -next morning in a blinding snow storm that made pursuit by the -Indians impossible. They resorted to captured Indian ponies as -food supply.</p> -<p>It had been a most unfortunate affair. The Kickapoos crossed -the Mexican border in the Eagle Pass area and settled down about -forty miles inland. Always irked by memories of the unprovoked -Dove Creek fight, they thereafter heartily joined future raids into -Texas. They were no longer “friendly Indians.”</p> -<p>It was this matter of raids into Texas in the upper Rio Grande -country that attracted General Sherman’s attention in March of -1873, when he ordered Colonel Mackenzie and his 4th Cavalry to -Fort Concho. From Concho they moved to Fort Clark, only about -thirty miles from the Mexican border. At Fort Clark a conference -of high ranking officials was held, including apparently the Secretary -of War, General Phil Sheridan, Mackenzie and others. No -orders were issued but after the conference was over, the “brass” -reviewed the 4th Cavalry. The “ten-year” men in the regiment -knew that something big was brewing.</p> -<p>Dark and early, on the morning of May 17, 1873, Colonel Mackenzie -led 400 men of his 4th Cavalry and twenty or thirty Seminole -scouts under Lt. John L. Bullis, on a drive across the Rio Grande -into Mexico.</p> -<p>After four days and night of continuous riding and fighting, the -small expeditionary force, carrying their supplies in their pockets -and with no time taken out for sleeping, recrossed the river and -were back on friendly Texas soil. They had covered some 160 miles -and had burned three Kickapoo and Lipan villages, killed a considerable -number of braves, captured forty women and children, -plus the chief of the Lipans, and had driven the remainder of -the tribes into the Santa Rosa Mountains.</p> -<p>Washington and Mexico City both hit the ceiling over this -invasion of a friendly nation. Mackenzie could show no written -orders for the action. Had he failed, he would have been court-martialed, -<span class="pb" id="Page_32">32</span> -and he knew that beforehand. But President Grant stood -by his officer, and the incident soon blew over. In fact a year or -two later most of the remaining Kickapoos were persuaded to -accept Uncle Sam’s hospitality. They went from Mexico to Fort -Sill, by way of Fort Concho, and were given a cozy place on a -reservation in the Indian Territory.<a class="fn" id="fr_9" href="#fn_9">[9]</a></p> -<p>By this time it is apparent that our Colonel Mackenzie was -the fair-haired boy of President Grant and Generals Sherman and -Sheridan. During the Civil War, Grant had regarded him as his -ablest young officer. Now if things got out of line, you would -simply “dress on Bobs.”</p> -<p>Truly, things were about to get out of line again. Some foolish -policy of appeasement was still rampant in Washington, so Satanta -and Big Tree were released from the penitentiary. This combined -with other factors, such as the restlessness of the Indians on -the reservations, and the slaughter of the buffalo, united the efforts -of the Comanche tribe. Along with the Kiowas, now aided by the -Cheyennes, they started trouble all over again. Once more the -raids, during the spring of 1874, hit the Texas frontier, and as usual -the soldiers while sleeping, had their horses stolen. Buffalo hunters -in their lonely camps on the Panhandle plains were murdered and -scalped.</p> -<p>Just east of the old Adobe Walls ruins, on the north side of the -Canadian River in what is now northeastern Hutchinson County, -twenty-eight men and one woman fortified themselves in three new -adobe buildings that had just been completed as a trading post in -anticipation of the northern migration of the great buffalo herds.</p> -<p>They were awakened before daylight on the morning of June -27, 1874, by a sharp cracking noise. The newly cut cottonwood ridge -pole that supported the roof on one of the three buildings had -settled, and the sod-covered roof threatened to collapse at any -moment. Fifteen men worked until daylight propping up the roof. -That accident saved the lives of all at the Walls, for just as daylight -came, being awake and outside, they saw to the eastward, an estimated -700 mounted Indians riding hard for the settlement. The -attacking force was less than half a mile away when it deployed in -a great converging arc.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div> -<p>Billy Dixon, the buffalo hunter and frontier scout described -the charge in a dramatic manner:</p> -<p>“There was never a more splendidly barbaric sight. In after -years I was glad that I had seen it. Hundreds of warriors, the -flower of the fighting men of the Southwestern Plains tribes, -mounted upon their finest horses, armed with guns and lances, and -carrying heavy shields of thick buffalo hide, were coming like the -wind. Over all was splashed the rich colors of red, vermilion and -ochre, on the bodies of the men, on the bodies of the running -horses. Scalps dangled from bridles, gorgeous war-bonnets fluttered -their plumes, bright feathers dangled from the tails and manes -of the horses, and the bronzed, half-naked bodies of the riders -glittered with ornaments of silver and brass. Behind this head-long -charging host stretched the Plains, on whose horizon the rising sun -was lifting its morning fires. The warriors seemed to emerge from -this glorious background.” (Life of Billy Dixon, by Olive K. Dixon, -The Southwest Press, Dallas, Texas.)</p> -<p>The three buildings were about equally manned by the whites. -Doors were closed and then barricaded, as were the windows and -transoms, by sacks of flour and grain. The first charge was broken -up at the very walls of the buildings by the lead from the big -buffalo guns. Thanks to the thick abode walls and to the dirt covered -roofs, there was no danger of being smoked out by fire.</p> -<p>The fight raged until noon. Two of the whites, unable to -reach the buildings, had been killed in the first onslaught. All of -the horses and oxen were dead or driven away. The Indians had -lost heavily and now withdrew, out of range. They could be seen -moving about in the distance but they did not attack again.</p> -<p>It was on the third day of the siege that Billy Dixon drew a -bead on a mounted Indian, 1,538 yards away on a ridge, and shot -him dead. He was firing a .50 calibre Sharp’s rifle, the largest of -the buffalo guns.</p> -<p>During the next two or three days other buffalo hunters -drifted into the Walls until the garrison numbered about a hundred -men. William Barclay “Bat” Masterson had been present since -the beginning of the fight and had, like most of the other defenders, -distinguished himself by his cool behavior under fire.</p> -<p>By the end of the sixth day, the Indians had broken up into -bands, the Comanches under Quanah, the Kiowas under Lone Wolf, -and the Cheyennes under Stone Calf and White Shield. These -bands then proceeded to work over the other buffalo hunters on -the south and central ranges. They accomplished their objective. -Buffalo hunting by the whites was discontinued for that year.</p> -<p>Down in San Antonio, General Christopher C. Augur, the Department -Commander, fully backed by General Sherman, ordered -full scale war. All Indians off their reservations were declared hostiles -<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span> -and the campaign against them took the form of a real squeeze -play. It was relentlessly carried out by a man-sized army under -able lieutenants.</p> -<p>Colonel Nelson A. Miles was ordered to march westerly out of -Camp Supply in the Indian Territory; Colonel John Wynn Davidson -was to move west out of Fort Sill; Major William R. Price was -to move down the Canadian out of Fort Union, Territory of New -Mexico; Colonel G. P. Buell was to leave Fort Griffin, proceed north -to the Red River then move up that stream, and Colonel Mackenzie’s -command headed northwesterly out of Fort Concho for his -old camping ground at Blanco Canyon. It appears that Colonel -Grierson was left out altogether. The campaign got under way in -the late summer of 1874.</p> -<p>Colonel Mackenzie marched out of Fort Concho with eight -companies of cavalry and three of infantry. He moved northwesterly -up the North Concho River for his first objective—the camp in -Blanco Canyon.<a class="fn" id="fr_10" href="#fn_10">[10]</a></p> -<p>(Mackenzie appears to have been overall commander. However, -the biography of Nelson A. Miles seems to give Miles considerable -credit for subduing the Indians in our West. He was a -volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War and rose to -high rank, higher than that reached by Mackenzie. Biographies -can often be misleading, parts of them being word of mouth stories -from the principal himself. Miles could never have been called a -‘modest’ man. Prior to his death he followed the example of some -of the Pharaohs of Egyptian history, and built his mausoleum on -the bank of a great river, in his case not the Nile, but the Potomac. -It was perfectly legal to do this, the site chosen being in the Arlington -National Cemetery, a place reserved for the remains of United -States servicemen. However, the timing of the construction of the -mausoleum, built even before he died, and the fact that he chose -to plant himself, not only in the most prominent spot to be found, -but right in what had once been General Robert E. Lee’s front -yard, leads one to believe he might have taken a slight advantage -of his biographer.)</p> -<p>The campaign lasted until the latter part of December, 1874, -when through ice and snow, Mackenzie’s 4th Cavalry drifted into -Fort Griffin. By this time the other commanders had accomplished -their objectives and returned to their stations.</p> -<p>The strategy had been simple enough. The commands from -<span class="pb" id="Page_35">35</span> -the north, east and west were to drive the tribes towards the rough -country and the canyons in the headwaters of the Red River, where -Mackenzie, moving in from the south, would destroy them. The -actual carrying out of the plans, was, as is usual, another thing. -Variations in the weather were severe; drinking water was scarce -and when found usually had the same effects on the drinkers as -would castor oil; wood for fires was generally lacking; corn for -horses was an eternal problem; and the long supply lines were -constantly threatened by an alert enemy.</p> -<p>But it all worked out as planned. The four commanders, Miles, -Buell, Davidson and Price drove the tribes before them after -spirited engagements. On October 9th, Buell, moving up the Red -River, destroyed a camp of 400 lodges on the Salt Fork of that -river. The usual plan of operation was for each commander to -use his friendly Indian scouts as guides to locate a fresh Indian -trail. After that it was hard riding and, if possible, surprise attack -on a village. Most of the supplies came from the nearest forts, -such as Sill, Fort Bascom, New Mexico and Camp Supply in the -northwestern part of the Indian Territory, and Fort Griffin on the -Brazos. It was during this campaign that plans were made to locate -Fort Elliott as a new defense in the Panhandle.<a class="fn" id="fr_11" href="#fn_11">[11]</a></p> -<p>Mackenzie’s 4th Cavalry covered many a weary mile. His biggest -Indian fight occurred in the Palo Duro Canyon where he surprised -a large camp in late September and reported the capture -of 1,424 ponies, mules and colts. Remembering his past experience -with captive horses, he had the entire herd shot rather than risk -the possibility of their recapture during the night by the braves.</p> -<p>This campaign broke up any further concerted action by the -Indian tribes. It had been long in materializing, and that, to -many, still seems hard to understand. Satanta was recaptured and -sent back to the penitentiary at Huntsville, but ended it all a short -time thereafter by jumping head first out of a second story window.</p> -<p>The other Kiowa Chief, Big Tree, upon being recaptured and -imprisoned, this time at Fort Sill, became a model prisoner. After -gaining his freedom, he became the Kiowa’s principal chief, caused -a little trouble in 1890 that was squelched without bloodshed by the -soldiers, and he then settled in a cottage near Mountain View, Oklahoma. -<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span> -He died, a deacon in the Baptist Church November 18, 1929.</p> -<p>However much the Comanche tribes might by now be reduced -in number, their spirits remained high and restless on their reservations. -As late as 1878 and 1879, small war parties raided as deep -into Texas as Fort McKavett. But there was no coordinated action.</p> -<p>The extinction of the buffalo in our southern region was completed -about 1878, and then the hunters turned in force against the -remaining herds on the northern parts of the Great Plains. These -herds lasted about four more years.</p> -<p>The men in the forts could be, and were, still busy. Colonel -Grierson took over at Concho in 1875. That same year, Colonel -Shafter, with nine troops of the 10th Cavalry and two companies -of infantry, left after rendezvousing at that post and headed for the -Indian country near Blanco Canyon. His supply train consisted -of sixty-five wagons drawn by six-mule teams, a pack train of -nearly 700 mules and a beef herd. This was in July. Good rains -had fallen and water holes were expected to be full. It took the -expedition seventeen days to cover the 180 miles. (The author -cannot verify the reported strength of the mule train.)</p> -<p>Only a few Indians were met, so Shafter divided his command. -His own division out of Fort Duncan, returned to that post about -December 18, 1875, after having explored the country now known -as the South Plains of Texas and New Mexico. One of his lieutenants, -Geddes, leading a division from Mustang Springs, near present -Midland, on south to cross the Pecos on a southwesterly course -below Independence Creek, reached the Rio Grande. There they -engaged in a small Indian fight, then retraced their steps to avoid -the great canyon country, crossed the Pecos, and in a worn out -condition reached Fort Clark. Geddes then rested up and returned -to Fort Concho.</p> -<p>The entire expedition had explored and mapped what had -been a vast and unknown area, and had encountered only a few -wandering bands of Indians. It appeared that the Indian problems -had at last been solved.</p> -<p>However, the final settlement of that problem came in 1880. -An Apache Chief, one Victorio, long confined to a reservation in -the Territory of New Mexico, hit the warpath with all of his tribe -and their belongings; warriors, squaws, papooses and portable -lodges. Colonel Grierson, now General Grierson, left Fort Concho -and with detachments from Forts Concho, Stockton, Davis and Quitman, -sought to force an engagement in that wild and mountainous -and desert land that lies on both sides of the Rio Grande, from El -Paso on the west to the Davis Mountains on the east. The United -States cavalry was no match for the elusive Victorio, who avoided -any but guerrilla actions, and worked back and forth across the Rio -Grande, until Grierson, disgusted, returned to Fort Concho. His -<span class="pb" id="Page_37">37</span> -forces had not been allowed to cross into Mexico and he thought -that the Mexican forces, also chasing the Apaches, had not fully -cooperated with him.</p> -<p>This may or may not have been so, but the end of the new war -came in the fall, when General Terrazas, then Governor of Chihuahua, -forced an engagement by trapping and surrounding the -old chief. Only a few survivors were able to escape this well -planned but short campaign by the Mexican forces.</p> -<p>The usefulness of the forts, so far as protection against the -Indians was concerned, now ended. The accompanying map shows -their relative locations and the dates on which they were organized -and abandoned. Only one, Fort Bliss at the Paso del Norte, serves -the United States Army at this time.</p> -<p>Fort Concho remained active until 1889, but it was only another -army post. Small parties of Indians roamed the frontier even -in the 80’s, but the Texas Rangers and the frontiersmen took care -of them.</p> -<p>Of all of those that were abandoned during the last century, -Fort Concho is the best preserved. It took time to build it, and -when finally abandoned, its lovely stone buildings and the land on -which they stand, reverted to the original landowners, Adams and -Wickes, the United States Army having been only a rent-paying -tenant.</p> -<p>Just what do some of the others look like at this time? Fort -Worth is covered somewhere under a modern city that bears its -name. The foundations of old Fort Mason can be seen on a hill -within the city limits of Mason, the cut stones of its buildings -having been removed for construction work elsewhere. The same -goes for old Lancaster, where only a few gaunt white limestone -chimneys can be seen rising against the mesas. However, if you -care to walk over to them, you will see the old foundations and a -small graveyard. That is all that is left.</p> -<p>If a Comanche or Kiowa Indian observed Fort Phantom Hill -today for the first time, he would probably name it, “Many chimneys -that do not smoke.” The buildings are gone and he would not -be interested in their foundations.</p> -<p>Some of the limestone houses at Fort McKavett are still being -occupied, and many of the other old fort buildings are outlined by -roofless walls. Several of the original buildings of Fort Stockton still -remain and have been converted into gracious homes. Fort Davis -is a line of stone and adobe shells, the timbers of the overhanging -porches being long gone except where the late Andrew Simmons -restored a few, and built a creditable museum in one building.</p> -<p>Fort Clark, rising by the beautiful Las Moras Springs, is a -combination of the old and the new, having seen service in the last -<span class="pb" id="Page_38">38</span> -World War. It is interesting to observe that in its case, it is unfortunately -the new and not the old that is missing.</p> -<p>The old Spanish Fort (presidio) on the San Saba River? Enough -of the rubble remains to outline the outer wall of the large courtyard. -This was a massive stone fortification and each of its four corners was -protected by a protruding circular stone tower. The State Highway -Department has restored one of these towers and a part of the outer -wall. The old Mission, San Saba de la Cruz, across and down the river -from this presidio, disappeared along with its administering priests during -the great Comanche attack against the Spaniards and their Apache -allies, back in 1758, or thereabout.</p> -<p>The preservation of the existing buildings of Fort Concho, and the -restoration of the destroyed ones, were begun in 1930 by Mrs. Ginevra -Wood Carson, a gracious and far-sighted lady of San Angelo. She had -already started the West Texas Museum in about 1928, and it was located -in the new Tom Green County Court House, where it soon outgrew -its housing facilities She therefore turned her attention towards -the old Fort. The original Administration or G.H.Q. Building of Fort -Concho was privately owned but in excellent condition, and it stood at -the Eastern end of the old Quadrangle. Mr. R. Wilbur Brown, Sr. of San -Angelo recognized the far-sightedness of Mrs. Carson. He bought the -Administration Building from its owners and deeded it toward a museum -of pioneer days and the preservation of old Fort Concho.</p> -<p>Mrs. Carson then moved the museum collection from the Court -House into the Administration Building and changed the name of West -Texas Museum to Fort Concho Museum.</p> -<p>The history of Fort Concho since its abandonment in 1889, when -the garrison lowered the flag for the last time, and marched away, its -band playing “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” had not been spectacular. -It could easily have become a rock quarry, as had Lancaster, Mason -and others. Actually, some of the barracks buildings on the North Side -of the Quadrangle did suffer that inglorious fate. But the houses on -Officer’s Row, the Administration Building, Hospital and Chapel were, -for many years, the finest buildings in the surrounding area. In 1905, -the Concho Realty Company was formed by certain citizens of San -Angelo, and the fort grounds, with all the structures were bought by the -company from the Adams and Wickes Estate for $15,000.00. A real -estate addition was then organized and the various buildings sold to -private individuals.</p> -<p>The most elaborate of these had been the Post Hospital. It occupied -a position outside, and just off the Southeast corner of the Quadrangle. -This building burned in 1910, and some years later its remaining stone -<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span> -walls, partitions and chimneys were cleared away.</p> -<p>The Fort Concho Museum Board, a group of citizens, works to purchase, -preserve and restore the buildings of the Fort, and collect the -display items of interest that pertain to pioneer days in the Southwest.</p> -<p>Up to the present time the accomplishments of the Board have been -considerable. The items relating to pioneers have overflowed the Administration -Building. Further space has been gained for them by the -restoration of two Barracks Buildings and their Mess Halls on the North -side of the Quadrangle. The Powder House, once located on the banks -of the Concho River, has been removed and rebuilt, stone by stone, at -a position just North of the restored Barracks. The Post Chapel, -beautifully preserved, and a part of the Museum, stands at the Eastern -end of Officer’s Row. Six of the original nine Officer’s homes have been -bought by the Board with money contributed by individuals and from -small Museum revenues. The old Parade Ground, occupying the center -of the Quadrangle is marred and hidden from view by recent structures -on its Western end and a large 1907 school house now occupies its -center. A Comanche war-party (assuming one existed today, one bent -on the destruction of Fort Concho) would return baffled to its portable -village for the simple reason that the Indians, like any other visitors, -could not find Fort Concho, even though years back having been designated -a National Historic Landmark.</p> -<p>There are other fort buildings standing nearby that are owned -and used today as warehouses by different San Angelo firms. Their -beautiful stone is usually covered by applications of various colored -stucco, but you can still identify them by their alignments and shapes.</p> -<p>Some years back the Santa Fe Railroad presented the City with -one of its steam locomotives. This “Iron Horse” of bygone days is now -resting on its rails near one of the restored Barracks. It is a part of the -Museum, and is a valuable item; therefore, it is hoped that its longevity -against the ravages of rust will be secured by the erection of a suitable -structure over and around it.</p> -<p>Now take your time and browse through the Fort Concho Museum. -Drive through the City over streets that bear the names of Beauregard, -Mackenzie, Shafter, Grierson and Chadbourne. It is all worth it, because -without it, there would soon be little to show us of the comparative life -that existed in our Southwest only a few short years ago.</p> -<h2 id="c2"><span class="small">Footnotes</span></h2> -<div class="fnblock"><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_1" href="#fr_1">[1]</a>Comancheros: Renegade Mexicans, half breeds and outlaw Americans who -lived in Mexican settlements in New Mexico, from whence they traveled in -small bands, usually by wagon or oxcart, to the Llano Estacado where they met -the Comanches, Kiowas or other Indians and traded guns, ammunition, whiskey -and other desirable items for the products of the raids. (Robert T. Neill, San -Angelo, Texas.) -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_2" href="#fr_2">[2]</a>Perhaps this was Limpia Creek.—Dr. R. T. Hill. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_3" href="#fr_3">[3]</a>On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger, U.S.A., landed at Galveston -and issued a general order declaring that “in accordance with a proclamation -from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_4" href="#fr_4">[4]</a>The Negro regiments on the Texas frontier during these Indian times were -the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_5" href="#fr_5">[5]</a>During the Civil War the cattle on the open Texas ranges increased many -fold with the loss by the Confederacy of control of the Mississippi River. After -that war they so far exceeded local demand that cattle drives on a much -larger scale than ever before attempted, got under way. The Chisholm and -Western Trails, “from anywhere in Texas,” on north through the western part -of the Indian Territory entrained cattle in Kansas for the Eastern feedlots. The -Goodnight-Loving Trail running west along the Middle Concho River, thence -north along the Pecos and on parallel to the Front Ranges, supplied cattle for -the new ranches being opened from New Mexico to the Canadian Border.</div> -<div class="fncont">Obviously the Comanche and Kiowa did not overlook this opportunity -for cattle rustling. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_6" href="#fr_6">[6]</a>Captain Lewis Johnson, 24th Infantry, related, “That was the year in which -I changed stations twice, marching from Fort Stockton all the way to Fort -Brown. On my way,—in March, 1872, I think, occurred an attack on a freight-train -at Howard’s Well. (Grierson Springs, Reagan County). It was a train -from San Antonio, intended for Fort Stockton.” Testimony before House Committee -on Military Affairs, 45th Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, D.C., Dec. -4, 1877. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_7" href="#fr_7">[7]</a>The Salt Creek Massacre took place near the town of Graham. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_8" href="#fr_8">[8]</a>When, at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in present Montana, June 25, -1876, General George A. Custer and his entire command were massacred by -the Sioux Indians, that command was composed of elements of the 7th United -States Cavalry. The massacre took place about three years after the 7th -marched into Fort Richardson. There is no evidence of Custer having been at -Richardson. At this time, he was probably somewhere on the Missouri River. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_9" href="#fr_9">[9]</a>This action was not a pursuit following a “fresh trail” into Mexico. It was a -carefully planned attack on Indian villages in that country, the locations of -which had been accurately ascertained beforehand.</div> -<div class="fncont">Later on, during 1876 and 1877, Lt. John L. Bullis acting under the command -of Colonel Shafter, conducted six such raids into Mexico, all on the -upper Rio Grande from Laredo to points southwest of the mouth of the Pecos -River. Bullis was a very brave and competent soldier and was awarded a -sword by the Texas Legislature. Camp Bullis, near San Antonio, was named -for him in 1917. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_10" href="#fr_10">[10]</a>A regiment of cavalry on the Texas frontier after the Civil War could, at -maximum strength, muster about 929 men. A company of maximum strength -could muster about 90 men.</div> -<div class="fncont">A regiment of infantry varied in number more than a similar cavalry unit, -and was smaller, mustering generally about 460 men, while a company varied -from 25 or 30 men, on up to 60 or 65 men. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_11" href="#fr_11">[11]</a>“A large trade has sprung up in Western Texas in cattle, which are driven -up into Kansas to the railroad at or near Fort Dodge. They go up by what is -termed the Pan Handle of Texas—. Fort Elliott is established there for the purpose -of aiding cattle merchants who buy cattle in Texas and drive them up to -the railroad; and thence the cattle are taken to Ohio or Illinois and fed until -spring, when they are sent East. The trade amounts to two or three hundred -thousand annually.” Statement of General W. T. Sherman, November 21, 1877, -before the Committee on Military Affairs, in relation to the Texas Border -Troubles, House of Representatives, 45th Congress, 2d Session. -</div> -</div> -<div class="img" id="map1"> -<img src="images/map1_lr.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="888" /> -<p class="pcap">The Federal Forts In Texas During the Indian Era, 1845-1889</p><p class="center"><a class="ab1" href="images/map1_hr.jpg">High-resolution Map</a></p> -</div> -<div class="img" id="map2"> -<img src="images/map_lr.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="847" /> -<p class="pcap">Texas, 1856</p><p class="center"><a class="ab1" href="images/map_hr.jpg">High-resolution Map</a></p> -</div> -<div class="img"> -<img src="images/p20.jpg" alt="Fort Concho" width="500" height="758" /> -</div> -<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2> -<ul> -<li>Silently corrected a few typos.</li> -<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li> -<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li> -</ul> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Concho, by J. 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N. Gregory - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Fort Concho - Its Why and Wherefore - -Author: J. N. Gregory - -Release Date: April 7, 2017 [EBook #54497] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FORT CONCHO *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - _FORT CONCHO MUSEUM - San Angelo, Texas_ - - -_A people who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestry -will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote -descendants._--Macaulay - - -The Department of the Interior on October 7, 1961 designated this Fort -as a National Historic Landmark. - - [Illustration: Fort Concho - 1867-1889] - - - - - [Illustration: Fort Concho: Its Why and Wherefore] - - - - - Fort Concho - ITS WHY AND WHEREFORE - - - J. N. Gregory - - _Cover by A. J. Redd_ - - First Printing 1957 - Second Printing 1962 - Third Printing 1970 - - _NEWSFOTO YEARBOOKS_ - _San Angelo, Texas_ - - - Dedicated - to the pioneer - men and women - of our Southwest. - - - - - FOREWORD - - -Many people who visit the Fort Concho Museum and look over the parade -ground and buildings of old Fort Concho, naturally ask the question, -"Why did the United States Government build a fort in this place, and -what did the fort accomplish?" - -The object of this pamphlet is to answer that question, and to present -the answer to the inquiring visitor at as small a cost as the printer -makes possible. - -Two maps of Texas will be found in the envelope at the back of the -pamphlet. The smaller is a reproduction of one published in 1856, not -too accurate from a geographic standpoint, but as accurate as the -knowledge of the times allowed. The other map, accurate from the -geographic point of view, endeavors to show the locations of some -thirty-four forts and camps that were established and built by our War -Department on the Texas Frontier during the Indian days. - - -The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that brought to a close the war between -the United States and Mexico, February 2, 1848, and the subsequent -Gadsden Purchase of 1853, set the plan for the present boundaries -between the two countries. A vast area of plains, deserts and mountains, -an unmapped and untraveled wilderness was now owned by the Northern -Republic. It was inhabited mostly by Comanche, Apache, Kiowa and other -warlike Indian tribes, and it stretched from the settlements of South -and East Texas, and from the lower Missouri River area to the new -American settlements on the Pacific Coast. - -Great events were in the making when in California in 1848, gold nuggets -were found in the tailrace of Sutter's Mill. The word passed around -quickly, and the first modern international gold rush was on. It put the -first sizeable amounts of precious metals into the coffers of the -nations of the world since the Spanish Conquistadores ransacked the -treasure houses of Peru and Mexico. It brought about modern mining -practices, and before the end of the century, the search for gold was so -international and intense that comparable strikes had been made in South -Africa, Australia, Canada and Alaska, resulting in fresh redistribution -of populations, not only in the United States but also in other portions -of the world. The problems accompanying such redistribution were -plentiful, and they are still plaguing us to this day. - -But the lure that led men to our West was not gold alone. The El Dorado -of man's dreams, be it a gold vein, oil patch, store on Main Street, -cattle ranch, or farm in Peaceful Valley, can very well lie in any new -and unexplored lands. So it was then. Few men could afford for -themselves, families and belongings the cost of passage by sailing ship, -around the Horn or by portage at the Isthmus of Panama, from Boston, New -York, Charleston, New Orleans, Galveston or Indianola, to San Francisco. -Besides that, a fellow who was bent on making a trip liked to look over -the country lying between home and his proposed destination. So, many -found their El Dorado, not on the Pacific Coast but along the trails -between the Great River and the Pacific Ocean. - -The inhabitants of the crowded East and the folks of the South felt -their race-old urge to get on the move towards more freedom and -opportunity. Old windy Horace Greeley was soon to advise, "Go West, -Young Man." So go West they did, young and old, first by small companies -on horseback or in buckboards, then later by trains of covered wagons -which carried their families and all earthly possessions, grouped -together for companionship as well as for protection against the -Indians. - -Population movements in the United States have generally gone from East -to West in parallel lines, once the Atlantic seaboard was settled. And -so this great gold movement from East to West brought settlement of the -intermediate lands between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean -by the natural contrasting types of North-South peoples. - -The great Oregon and Santa Fe Trails serviced the people of the more -northerly parts of our country, but for those in the southern parts a -newer trail had to be found and by simple geography it had to cross -Texas. You could enter the State from the sea at Galveston, Indianola or -Corpus Christi, or by way of the land through Fort Smith in Arkansas, -thence across the Indian Territory to the Red River; or directly from -Louisiana through the fairly well settled and organized counties of East -Texas. But no matter how you entered, there was only one way to get out, -and so all trails converged on the Paso del Norte (present El Paso). To -get out of Texas south of El Paso would land you in Mexico. To get out -north of El Paso would take you across the Llano Estacado which in those -days was considered a vast treeless plain, unbroken by any topographic -changes, and completely devoid of water holes. - -The accompanying map, published in 1856 in Yoakum's History of Texas, -shows clearly the political subdivisions and settlements of Texas in -those times. A substantial part of the State, from the Panhandle to the -upper Rio Grande, appears to be completely uninhabited and, therefore, -politically unorganized. In a vague manner, this vast area might be -assumed to be an unannexed portion of the counties of Bexar, El Paso, -Presidio and Travis. This map does not speak approvingly of the Llano -Estacado. Staked Plains, some called it. - -From 1848 on to the recent past, various trail drivers, army officers -and railroaders laid out trails from the settled parts of Texas to the -Paso del Norte, always taking advantage of springs and water holes and -avoiding the Llano Estacado and the great limestone canyons of the Rio -Grande and its tributaries. That is, all did but the builders of the -Southern Pacific Railroad. They came later, but yet too early to have -the know-how of an Arthur Edward Stilwell. But that is another story. - -A North-South trade route had existed for some two hundred years -connecting Spanish Santa Fe, far north toward the headwaters of the Rio -Grande, south through the Paso del Norte to the settlements in the -mother country of Mexico. The Santa Fe Trail extended to California, -would cross this trade route at Santa Fe, well up in the Rocky -Mountains, while the route through Texas would cross it at El Paso. And -so these two places became the supply dumps where the great wagon trains -took on horses, mules, beef and other supplies that would see them -across the final leg of the journey west. It was a great opportunity for -traders who had the supplies to sell, and the procuring middle man, the -one who contacted both producer and merchant, was a man with great savvy -and ability known as the Comanche Indian. - -The Comanche despised walking; it was not adaptable to his method of -making a living. He was a plains Indian, and somewhere back in the -sixteenth or seventeenth century had somehow accumulated his first -mustangs from offsprings of those horses lost by the Conquistadores from -Spain. Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in America, there were no -horses, as we recognize them now, on either of the American continents. -Now the Comanche as a mounted man probably roamed the great plains from -present Wyoming to Durango, Mexico. It was easy to make a living on such -a range. It abounded in buffalo; and the wise Comanche knew all the -water holes. He drove the wily Apaches to the south until they crossed -the Rio Grande and settled in a quasi-peaceful manner in Mexico, or -later chose Arizona and New Mexico and preyed on the settlers, -immigrants and prospectors. - -From the records, the Comanche does not appear to have been a breeder of -horses, cattle or sheep. But as a procurer of such livestock, he had no -peer. Many years before Lewis and Clark were sent to evaluate the -Northwestern part of the Louisiana Purchase lands that Mr. Jefferson had -bought from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803, the Comanche had learned to find -his greatest pleasure and profit during his daring raids into the -settlements of Mexico, raiding in great force as far south as the cities -of Chihuahua and Durango. - -The emotional inspiration for such forays on peaceful people was -regarded as pure cussedness, but a more profound study shows that the -trophies of such raids, excepting the scalps taken, were horses, cattle, -sheep and slaves. Many of the stolen horses were for the Comanche's -personal use, because it took many animals to make the great raid during -the Mexican Moon. The balance of the trophies was used for barter. - - [Illustration: Indians Capturing Wild Horses] - - [Illustration: _G. Catlin_ - _Comanches Capturing Wild Horses_ - _From "The North American Indians," Vol. II, by George Catlin, - London, 1841. The place: the Red River; the time: 1834._] - -Years before the purchase of 1803, he was trading his stolen stock, and -possibly his slaves, to the French traders from the Spanish-French -border near old Natchitoches (pronounced Nacotish) on the lower Red -River. Or in later times, upon return from a successful raid, he roared -out of Mexico and across the Rio Grande into Texas south of the Chisos -Mountains. If short of war paint, he replenished his favorite red color -from the outcroppings of cinnebar near Terlingua Creek, then headed -through the badlands and out upon the range country by way of Persimmon -Gap. From the Gap, he went to Comanche Springs (present Fort Stockton), -crossed the Pecos River at Horsehead Crossing, then rode north to the -Sand Dunes to water a famishing flock, after which he headed east to the -Sulphur and the Big Spring. Then he turned northward around the Cap Rock -that marks the eastern extremity of the terrible Llano Estacado, to -proceed on north till he actually scrambled out upon that plateau. Then -he proceeded towards Santa Fe to meet somewhere, possibly at Casas -Amarillas, in that then desolate region, the Comancheros, or middle men -between himself and the Mexican settlers of the upper Rio Grande Valley -near Santa Fe.[1] He traded his trophies to the Comancheros for guns, -ammunition or other less practical adjuncts that might suit his fancy of -the moment. His Mexican Moon was then over and he returned to his -portable village which he had left in some watered canyon that cut down -eastward from the Llano Estacado. - -The route as followed by these Indians was a well marked trail, and -during the time of our westward migrations, it was well known and -appears on the maps of the times. Another route into Mexico broke off -the Western Trail at the Big Spring and ran down the valley of the North -Concho River, across the Edwards Plateau, then through the passes of the -Balcones Escarpment to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico near the present -city of Eagle Pass. Mr. Evetts Haley refers to these trails as the Great -Comanche War Trail, and gives a wonderful description of the activity on -them in his recent book, _Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier_. An old -map from the Army files in the National Archives calls the western -branch the Grand Comanche War Trail. But call the trails what you may, -they were still a stiff pain in the neck to anyone crossing them, and -for the wagon trains and cattle herds going west, crossing was -inevitable. - -The greater raids into Mexico appear to have occurred rather regularly -in September when the weather was most favorable, and the chief -objectives could be struck during the light of a full moon. Thus, to the -unhappy but fully expectant Mexicans, the September full moon was known -as the Comanche Moon. At this time Mars, the red God of War, hangs low -and molten in the late summer night's sky and reflects a light that is -as red as the sand and clay soils of the Indian Territory. - -Another favorite trick of these versatile middle men was to raid the -settlements down the Rio Grande Valley south from Santa Fe and drive off -the stock to a rendezvous with the Comancheros, who in turn traded them -to unknowing Mexican settlers at other points on the river. During such -raids it was deemed ethical but unprofitable to kill the settlers, since -without them there would be no stock to drive off in a later raid. -Besides, these Mexican settlers did not seriously molest the buffalo. - -Such business sagacity however, did not apply in later times to the -Republic of Texas, where each succeeding year saw new settlers break -ground and homestead farther up the river valleys, whose streams had -their origins in the motherland plains of the Comanche and Kiowa. - -After its establishment in 1836, the infant republic found itself -fighting a hot war on two fronts. The settlers near the Rio Grande, from -Del Rio to the mouth of that river near Brownsville, suffered from raids -out of Mexico by both Mexicans and Indians, while the northern prongs of -the new settlements were exposed to the Comanches and Kiowas. It was a -bitter struggle, fought generally in small isolated settlements where -the determined Anglo-Saxon fought for his new home against an equally -determined Indian fighting to preserve his ancient homeland and range. A -Saxon's scalp decorating a Comanche's war shield might be avenged by an -Indian's entire skin decorating a rude barn door. - -Matters were better controlled after the annexation of Texas by the -United States and after the close of the Mexican War. But it took -manpower and supplies to do it, something the new republic had been slow -in acquiring. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided, among other -things, that the United States would make every effort to keep the -Indians from raiding into Mexico; so in about 1849, the United States -Army, mostly cavalry and mounted infantrymen (Dragoons), moved into -Texas. They proceeded to establish a string of forts and camps from -previously established Brown near the mouth of the Rio Grande to Duncan -near Eagle Pass. For the upper Rio Grande in Texas, they set up what was -later to be Fort Bliss (El Paso). As a northern line of defense for the -settlers, they established, starting with Fort Duncan, the forts of -Lincoln (D'Hanis), Martin Scott (Fredericksburg), Croghan (Burnet), -Gates (Gatesville), Graham (Hillsboro) and Worth (Fort Worth). Only a -few of the forts were ever protected by stockades. The war was one of -movement. The places were supposed to be strategically located and -manned by several companies of cavalry and some infantry; places from -where punitive expeditions could set out, establish supply bases, then -try to run down the Indian raiders. - -The standing army of the United States during the 1850's was numbered at -about fifteen thousand men and the personnel of the Texas forts -accounted for about from one-fifth to one-third of that number. Many of -the officers and men were veterans of the Mexican War, the forts usually -being named in honor of American soldiers who lost their lives in that -war. Many Civil War leaders, both Confederate and Union, received much -field training from 1849 to the outbreak of that war in 1861, building -and manning the forts, chasing, but seldom catching, the Indians, -guarding the wagon trains and mail bags and exploring the wilderness for -better trails and water holes. - -There is a record, one of many left by the famous Captain Jack Hays of -the Texas Rangers. It tells how he was hired by certain merchants of San -Antonio who were anxious to trade with the merchants of Chihuahua, -Mexico. His assignment was to find in 1848, a route from San Antonio to -privately owned Fort Leaton where the Conchos River of Mexico meets the -Rio Grande, and from which point to Chihuahua the going would be -reasonably good. Hays and his mounted company of frontiersmen managed to -make it to Leaton and back to San Antonio, but they found the going so -rough that the journey took them three and one-half months. (Present -Southern Pacific Railway west to Alpine). There were too many deep -canyons along the tributaries of the Rio Grande. - -The decade following 1849 was most active. The army detachments under -capable officers explored to find routes from East Texas and from San -Antonio to El Paso. But the wagon trains did not wait for their -findings; they often made their own way and did their well-known -creditable job. Mr. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, and himself a -distinguished veteran of the Mexican War, did about all in his power to -aid the new state of Texas, the Mexican settlements and the immigrant -trains. He made treaties with the Indians and arranged reservations for -them. This latter deal was not too successful. Friendly East Texas -Indians almost starved on the reservations, and the more warlike plains -tribes had no idea of staying there even when they agreed to move in. -The old men's tales of conquest and horse stealing were more than the -young bucks could take. - -Mr. Davis built new forts and, recognizing the great problems of -communications that existed between such far flung positions, sought to -remedy those by importing in 1856, through the seaport of Indianola, -camels and their Arabian drivers. - - [Illustration: _G. Catlin_ - _Comanche Village_ - _From "The North American Indians," Vol. II. by George Catlin, - London 1841. Picture by Catlin, 1834, escorted by General Henry - Leavenworth and regiment of U.S. Dragoons._] - -The camels were concentrated at Camp Verde in Southern Kerr County, and -breeding and testing immediately proceeded at a good pace. Tests for -their strength and endurance carried the caravans across the Continental -Divide and back, and the results were very gratifying. The Civil War put -an end to the experiments. The last camel herd, before final sellouts to -the carnivals, was privately owned near Austin in the early 1880's. - -By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, the War Department had -finally followed the advice of such able soldiers as Joe Johnston and -Chase Whiting. The forts received a new alignment and were manned mostly -by cavalry. Supplies were sent in as before, from bases like San -Antonio. The wagons, pulled by oxen or mules, were well guarded in most -instances by soldiers. The contracts for furnishing the supplies and -their transportation were let to civilians. - -The new alignment caused the abandonment of some interior forts and -camps. The line on the lower Rio Grande was extended up the river by -building Fort Hudson near the Devil's River, about thirty miles north of -San Felipe. Out in far Western Texas, they built Fort Quitman, down the -river from El Paso. - -Several things were done to discourage the Comanche and Kiowa whose -depredations along the Grand War Trail had been greatly stepped up. The -War Department flanked the trail on the west by the building of a -sizeable establishment in a beautiful and romantic spot in the Davis -Mountains and named it Fort Davis in honor of the secretary. Near this -spot, more than three hundred years before, had passed the shipwrecked, -unhorsed and enslaved, but still valiant Spaniard, Cabeza de Vaca. He -would later write, in his report to his Viceroy describing his journey -after leaving the great arid plains to the north, of a valley through -which flowed "limpid waters."[2] - -After Fort Davis, the Department unveiled Fort Lancaster (western -Crockett County) as a flanker to the east of the trail. It was cozily -situated in the mesas not far from the Pecos River and beside Live Oak -Creek that flows delightful spring water. - -Then the War Department built Fort Stockton (Pecos County), smack in the -middle of the Grand Trail and right beside the best spring of water on -its entire route. - -Now to further protect immigrants and mail bags on the route west and to -protect settlers of central and northern Texas who were still moving -higher up the river valleys, it set up Fort Chadbourne as a pivot -between the new western line and the new lower Rio Grande Valley line. -From Fort Chadbourne on northeasterly to the Indian Territory were Forts -Phantom Hill (Abilene) and Belknap (New Castle). But Chadbourne was a -near miss, because it was not well located and its water supply was not -adequate. However, not until the Civil War was over was it finally -abandoned in 1867 and a new site chosen for its replacement at the -confluence of the North, South and Middle Concho Rivers. This new -position would be called Fort Concho, and here eventually would be built -the city of San Angelo. - -As the decade preceding the outbreak of the Civil War was closing, the -great wagon trails from San Antonio and East Texas to El Paso must have -been a sight to behold. Most of them converged on Castle Gap and the -Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River, from where they had a choice of -two routes to El Paso. The California Overland Mail (Butterfield -Overland Mail), 2,795 miles from St. Louis to San Francisco, entered -Texas by way of Fort Smith, Arkansas, followed the line of forts -southwesterly to the middle Concho River then turned westerly up that -valley, then through Castle Gap to Horsehead Crossing. From here the -early route followed up the Pecos River to Pope's Crossing near the -present Red Bluff Reservoir, thence westward to El Paso, by way of -Delaware Creek and the Hueco Tanks. A more southerly route from -Horsehead Crossing was probably a better choice. It went from the -Crossing direct to Fort Stockton, Leon Springs, Toyahvale, Fort Davis, -thence to Van Horn's well and El Paso. It also had the advantage of -servicing the westerly line of forts. - -The original run over this new mail trail to California was made in 1858 -and the New York Herald sent a special news correspondent, one W. L. -Ormsby, to be a through passenger on the mule-drawn coach so that he -could report the trip. The poor fellow was only twenty-three years old, -but age being in his favor, he lived through it all. His description of -the trail from between the upper water holes of the Middle Concho River -(near present Stiles) to Castle Gap and the Horsehead Crossing is most -illuminating. - -"Strewn along the load, and far as the eye could reach along the -plain--decayed and decaying animals, the bones of cattle and sometimes -of men (the hide drying on the skin in the arid atmosphere), all told a -fearful story of anguish and terrific death from the pangs of thirst. -For miles and miles these bones strew the plain...." - -It appears from this on the spot observation, that the trails across -level plains country were very wide. The wagon trains did not move in -single file. That would expose them too much to Indian attacks, and -besides, the longer the line, the worse the dust. The old wagon wheel -ruts, still noticeable to this day along the route described above by -Ormsby, cover a wide area on the plains east of Castle Gap, before they -converge at that narrow pass. These can be seen west of the China Ponds -where they move westerly about three miles south of the land grants -known as the alphabet blocks, given later by the State of Texas to the -Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Rail Road. (Try -painting that one on a narrow gauge box car!) - -During 1858 and 1859, Captain Earl Van Dorn, soon to be a member of the -Confederate High Command, vigorously carried the war to the Indians and -pushed them north, back across the Red River. They didn't remain there -long. Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 and the Federal soldiers -marched out of the forts and left them to the Confederate forces. Again -the proper manpower was lacking. Some forts were abandoned so as to -shorten the defense line and some of these, as at Lancaster, were burned -by the Indians. The Indians, now spurred on by Union agents, carried on -a still more bloody and aggressive warfare on the Texas frontier. -Confederates, and Ranger Companies, coupled with frontiersmen reacted -promptly and vigorously, but it was a long line of defense from the Red -River to the Rio Grande. Defend it they did, against the Indians, and -against lawless elements such as deserters and others renegades, hostile -Union sympathizers and border ruffians from without the state. - -The Negro slave was emancipated by proclamation in Texas on June 19, -1865 (June'teenth), about two months after General Lee surrendered the -Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.[3] The last land -battle of the Civil War was fought on May 13, 1865, in Cameron County, -Texas when invading Federal forces were routed near Brownsville. That -engagement is known as the Battle of Palmito Ranch. - -From the end of the war until 1867, the frontier settlements had no -organized military forces to protect them from the Indians, and it was -against the law for Texans to carry guns. Added to this were the -turmoils of Reconstruction which were about as bitter in the populated -parts of the state as they were in other parts of the South. - -The occupying United States Army under General Phil Sheridan was now -mostly recruited from among the Negroes, and the army was not used -against the Indians until 1867, when orders went out to get busy and put -the forts and camps in order.[4] General Sheridan's name was about as -popular in Virginia and Texas as General W. T. Sherman's was in Georgia -and Mississippi. - - [Illustration: _Action West of Horsehead Crossing._ - (_Castle Gap is at the upper left._)] - -But both Sherman and Sheridan came to Texas, and Sherman, after narrowly -escaping the loss of his scalp on the Texas frontier, finally realized -the necessity of a last organized military effort to either rid the -country of the Indians or give it back to them. That was in 1871. -However, in 1869, a new alignment of the forts had been seen as -necessary. Never again reoccupied were certain of the interior ones such -as Worth, Graham, Gates, Croghan, Martin Scott, Lincoln, Chadbourne and -Ewell (La Salle County). Fort Belknap, on the Salt Fork of the Brazos -River in Young County, had been the largest military post in North Texas -prior to the Civil War. In 1867, the 6th Cavalry was ordered to prepare -it for reoccupation. They worked for five months, but then this fort was -ordered evacuated and its place was taken by a new one, Fort Griffin, -some thirty-seven miles up the Clear Fork of the Brazos from Belknap. - -Now to extend the northeasterly trending line of forts closer to the -Indian Territory, the Army built Fort Richardson near the present town -of Jacksboro. - -The site chosen as the replacement for Fort Chadbourne, to be called -Fort Concho, was at the confluence of the North Concho River with the -combined waters of the Middle Concho, Spring Creek, Dove Creek and the -South Concho, the last three named streams being fed by bountiful -springs. This abundance of water and the geographically central location -marked the spot as the natural convergence of trails from East, -Northeast and South Texas before they headed westward for Horsehead -Crossing and El Paso. Nature had been kind to this oasis in an otherwise -desolate region. The fishing was extremely good and the clear waters of -the streams supported mussels, the variety that produces gem pearls, -hence the Spanish name of Concho. Herds of buffalo grazed within sight -of the new fort. Quail and turkey were plentiful. - -These three new positions, Concho, Griffin and Richardson, located on a -line 220 miles long, as yet unconnected by either telegraph or rail, -would soon be the centers of men, supplies and animals for the campaigns -that finally broke the concerted powers of the Indians. These campaigns -carried the soldiers from the Indian Territory and the New Mexico -Territory on the North, to the actual interior of Old Mexico on the -South. - -From the times in 1866 and 1867 when Richardson and Concho were ordered -built until 1871, the troops undertook no organized campaigns against -the Indians. The settlers suffered constantly and the Indians learned -new tricks. Many more learned how to live off government bounty on the -reservations in Indian Territory, then hit the war path along with their -wild brethren from the Texas Panhandle. They were amply protected on -their return to the reservations by the Indian agents in charge, who -believed their wards could do no wrong. Why, they would ask, would an -Indian steal cattle when he had all the buffalo meat he wanted? - -A cavalry expedition out of Fort Concho working the edges of the Llano -Estacado in 1872, captured a Comanchero who told how he and his -companions traded the Indian arms, ammunition and supplies for cattle, -horses and sheep that they had stolen during their raids. He even showed -the soldiers the well worn trails across the Llano Estacado towards -Santa Fe and the valley of the Rio Grande. Thus the secret was finally -revealed to the Army. It seems unbelievable at this time that such -ignorance could prevail over the cries and protests of the Texas -ranchmen who were losing cattle by the tens of thousands.[5] But such -was the case, and in 1867, the Comanches even stole horses from the post -herd at Fort Concho. We must remember that in that same year the mild -policies of President Andrew Johnson in Washington were overruled by the -radicals in the United States Congress, and the bitter years of -reconstruction followed for the Southern States. All former Confederate -soldiers were deprived of the vote, and radicals, carpetbaggers, -scalawags from the South and freed Negroes ruled the State. The Army was -used, not to fight Indians, but to guard the new social system. - -The prospect appeared brighter for the settlers when in the Fall of -1869, one hundred soldiers from Fort Concho managed to engage an Indian -force on the Salt Fork of the Brazos River. It was a drawn fight, but -immediately thereafter a larger force from the same fort engaged and -defeated the Indians in the same area. Texans were cheered by the news -of this new tone of aggressiveness shown by the Army. It was the only -way. The war had to be carried to the Indians the same way Earl Van Dorn -had carried the fight to them on the eve of the Civil War. - -But the time for real action had not arrived even as late as 1869. On -February 18, 1870, a citizen was killed and scalped within one-quarter -of a mile of the post limits at Fort Concho. In January of the same -year, eighteen mules were stolen from the Q.M. corral at that same post. -The same year, 1870, while Colonel Grierson was building Fort Sill in -the Indian Territory, Chief Kicking Bird, a Kiowa, defeated the Command -of Captain C. B. McClellan near the present town of Seymour. As late as -March of 1872, a wagon train was waylaid near Grierson Springs in Reagan -County and the teamsters killed by the Indians. Two companies of the 9th -Cavalry came upon the scene by accident, engaged the Indians but -withdrew before a decision was reached.[6] - - [Illustration: Cavalry and wagon] - -The lamentations of the border people were finally heard in Washington -and in April, 1871, General W. T. Sherman came to San Antonio. The next -month, accompanied by General Randolph B. Marcy and an escort of -seventeen men, he left for an inspection of the frontier. General Marcy -was the same officer (then, Captain Marcy) who, in 1849 and later, had -played such an important part in exploring and reporting to Congress on -trails through Texas. The great explorer was still an outdoor man of -action. - -The little expedition proceeded by way of Boerne, Fredericksburg, the -old Spanish Fort on the San Saba which had withstood a great Comanche -Indian siege in 1758, Fort McKavett, Kickapoo Springs and Fort Concho. -From Fort Concho it followed the military trail on northeasterly by the -remains of Fort Chadbourne and Phantom Hill and on towards Belknap. - -General Marcy's journal is of great interest. He relates: - -"We crossed immense herds of cattle today, which are allowed to run wild -upon the prairies, and they multiply very rapidly. The only attention -the owners give them is to brand the calves and occasionally go out to -see where they range. The remains of several ranches were observed, the -occupants of which have either been killed or driven off to the more -dense settlements, by the Indians. Indeed, this rich and beautiful -section does not contain, today (May 17, 1871), as many white people as -it did when I visited it eighteen years ago, and if the Indian marauders -are not punished, the whole country seems to be in a fair way of being -totally depopulated." He continues: - -"May 18th, 1871--This morning five teamsters, who, with seven others, -had been with a mule wagon train en route to Fort Griffin (Captain Henry -Warren's) with corn for the post, were attacked on the open prairie, -about ten miles east of Salt Creek, by 100 Indians, and seven of the -teamsters were killed and one wounded. General Sherman immediately -ordered Colonel Mackenzie to take a force of 150 cavalry, with thirty -days' rations on pack mules, and pursue and chastise the marauders." - -An interesting angle to this affair was that Sherman's party had been -observed by the same Indians who murdered the teamsters, but were -unmolested by them because they were waiting for the wagon train which -they considered nearer top priority. Sherman realized later that he had -nearly lost his scalp.[7] - -This Colonel Mackenzie had reported in at Fort Concho as commanding -officer on September 6, 1869. Born in New York, July 27, 1840, and -christened RANALD SLIDELL, he had graduated first in his class at West -Point in 1862. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War, -received several wounds in action, and was a brigadier general when that -war closed. The remainder of his professional life was devoted to active -high command in the Indian wars. At various times he served at Forts -Brown, Clark, McKavett, Concho and Richardson, engaging in his last -Indian fight at Willow Creek, Wyoming in 1876. He was retired from the -Army for disability in 1884 and died a bachelor at New Brighton, New -York in 1889. - -Along with Mackenzie, Colonel William Rufus Shafter who arrived to -command at Fort Concho in January, 1870, the War Department had its two -best young officers serving in the West Texas theatre. - -Shafter had no West Point training. Born in Michigan on October 16, -1835, he entered the Union Army in the Civil War as a first lieutenant -and by the end of that war had been breveted brigadier general of -volunteers. He was later awarded The Congressional Medal of Honor for -service during that war. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel of -regulars in 1869 and first saw service in West Texas with the 24th -Infantry at Fort McKavett. Later in life he was to command the American -armies in Cuba during the Spanish American War. - -During the summer of 1871, while commanding forces at Fort Davis, he set -out with cavalry from both Forts Davis and Stockton and pursued a large -raiding party of Indians from the Fort Davis area northeasterly until -the trail moved into the great sand dune country near where the city of -Monahans now stands. He spent fourteen days in this pursuit but as was -usual in such matters, could never force an engagement. However, he -learned that the heretofore dreaded sand dunes contained fresh water a -few feet below the surface in several places, and that the area was a -great refuge for Indians and was one of those rendezvous where -horse-and-cattle stealing Indians met the Comanchero traders from New -Mexico. - -The command at Fort Concho, as at the other forts, rotated in a -perpetual manner. After service elsewhere, Mackenzie returned to Concho -to organize five companies of the 4th Cavalry and a headquarters company -for service at Fort Richardson, nearer the Indian Territory. His column -moved out March 27, 1871, cavalry, pack mules and wagons. The bachelor -commander even allowed wives of the men to accompany the expedition as -far as the new headquarters at Fort Richardson. - -The weather was crisp and cold as they forded the North Concho and soon -passed Mt. Margaret, named after "the most accomplished, loving and -devoted wife of one of our favorite captains, E. B. -Beaumont"--(Beaumont-Beautiful Mountain), so wrote Captain Robert G. -Carter, historian and winner of The Congressional Medal of Honor in the -Indian Wars, who was a member of the expedition. (Mt. Margaret is the -outstanding hill at Tennison.) They pitched camp the first night at old -Fort Chadbourne, from where they followed the military trail passing en -route huge herds of buffalo, as they went on by old Forts Phantom Hill, -Belknap and on into Richardson. - -Two months later, in May, Colonel Mackenzie roused his 4th Cavalry at -Fort Richardson and set out to obey General Sherman's orders issued -after the killing of the teamsters at Salt Creek. But it began to rain. -After a futile chase Colonel Mackenzie headed for Fort Sill, commanded -by Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson. There he learned that Sherman had left -but not before the Chiefs Satank (Sitting Bear), Big Tree and Satanta -(White Bear) had returned to the reservation at Sill and boasted of -murdering the teamsters. Mackenzie arrested and escorted the three -Indians to Jacksboro for trial in the Texas court. Satank purposely got -himself killed by a guard on the march, but Satanta and Big Tree were -later sentenced to prison in the state penitentiary at Huntsville. The -duplicity of these reservation Indians should now have been apparent to -even Grierson and the Indian lovers in Washington and Austin, but it was -not. - -A good insight into the Indian problem of the times, and of which we -have a written record, appeared at the trial of the two Indian chiefs -during July of 1871 in the little log courthouse on the public square of -Jacksboro. Charles Soward was the presiding judge. Samuel W. T. Lanham, -later to be a two term Governor of Texas, was the district attorney. The -court appointed Thomas Fall and Joe Woolfork of the Weatherford Bar to -represent the defendants. - -Thomas Williams, the foreman of the Jury, was a frontier citizen and a -brother of the Governor of Indiana. - -The principal witnesses against the defendants were Colonel Mackenzie, -Lawrie (or Lowerie) Tatum, the Indian Agent who had heard their -statements at Fort Sill and Thomas Brazeal, the teamster who had escaped -from the Salt Creek massacre. - -Our Captain Carter wrote: - -"Under a strong guard accompanied by his counsel and an interpreter, the -Chief, clanking his chain, walked to the little log courthouse on the -public square. The jury had been impaneled and the District Attorney -bustled and flourished around. The whole country armed to the teeth -crowded the courthouse and stood outside listening through the open -windows. The Chief's attorneys made a plea for him, and referred to the -wrongs the red man had suffered. How he had been cheated and dispoiled -of his lands and driven westward until it seemed there was no limit to -the greed of the white man. They excused his crime as just retaliation -for centuries of wrong. The jurors sat on long benches, each in his -shirt sleeves and with shooting irons strapped to his hip." - -Satanta got up to defend himself before his accusers. Over six feet -tall, the perfect figure of an athlete and well known as the orator of -the plains who could sway councils of both whites and Indians, he could -well have influenced the jury by mute silence, but instead he lied and -dissembled to save his life. He never mentioned the wrongs done his -people by the whites. Instead, speaking through the interpreter, he -proceeded as follows: - -... "I have never been so near the Tehannas (Texans) before. I look -around me and see your braves, squaws and papooses, and I have said in -my heart, if I ever get back to my people, I will never make war upon -you. I have always been the friend of the white man, ever since I was so -high (indicating by sign the height of a boy). My tribe have taunted me -and called me a squaw because I have been the friend of the Tehannas. I -am suffering now for the crimes of bad Indians--of Satank and Lone Wolf -and Kicking Bird and Big Bow and Fast Bear and Eagle Heart, and if you -will let me go, I will kill the three latter with my own hand...." - -The evidence against the two Chiefs was debated by the jury and both -were sentenced to death. This sentence was later commuted to life -imprisonment. - -Now, a few statements from the court record as to what the District -Attorney had to say point to some of the misunderstandings of the times -when it came to the Indian problems on the western frontiers. - -The following excerpts from his plea before the court show clearly, not -only the feelings of the frontiersmen towards the uncontrolled Indians, -but also the contempt in which they, both frontiersmen and Indians, held -the people who by appeasement, crookedness and ignorance tried to manage -the Indian affairs of the nation from a far away city: - -"Satanta, the veteran council chief of the Kiowas--the orator--the -diplomat--the counselor of his tribe--the pulse of his race; Big Tree, -the young war chief, who leads in the thickest of the fight, and follows -no one in the chase--the mighty warrior, with the speed of the deer and -the eye of the eagle, are before this bar in the charge of the law! So -they would be described by Indian admirers, who live in more secured and -favored lands, remote from the frontier--where 'distance lends -enchantment' to the imagination--where the story of Pocohantas and the -speech of Logan, the Mingo, are read, and the dread sound of the -warwhoop is not heard. We who see them today, disrobed of all their -fancied graces exposed in the light of reality, behold them through far -different lenses. We recognize in Satanta the arch fiend of treachery -and blood, the cunning Cataline--the promoter of strife--the breaker of -treaties signed by his own hand--the inciter of his fellows to rapine -and murder, as well as the most canting and double-tongued hypocrite -where detected and overcome! In Big Tree, we perceive the tiger-demon -who tasted blood and loved it as his own food--who stops at no crime how -black soever--who is swift at every species of ferocity and pities not -at any sight of agony or death--he can scalp, burn, torture, mangle and -deface his victims, with all the superlatives of cruelty, and have no -feeling of sympathy or remorse. We look in vain to see, in them, -anything to be admired or even endured. Powerful legislative influences -have been brought to bear to procure for them annuities, reservations -and supplies. Federal munificence has fostered and nourished them, fed -and clothed them; from their strongholds of protection they have come -down upon us 'like wolves on the fold'; treaties have been solemnly made -with them, wherein they have been considered with all the formalities of -quasi nationalities; immense financial 'rings' have had their origin in, -and draw their vitality from, the 'Indian question'; unblushing -corruption has stalked abroad, created and kept alive through - - "'--the poor Indian, whose untutored mind, - Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.' - -"... For many years, predatory and numerous bands of these 'pets of the -government' have waged the most relentless and heart-rending warfare -upon our frontier, stealing our property and killing our citizens. We -have cried aloud for help.... It is a fact, well known in Texas, that -stolen property has been traced to the very doors of the reservation and -there identified by our people, to no purpose...." - -Mackenzie realized those things and knew he could receive no cooperation -from Grierson at Fort Sill, so in September, acting on orders, -concentrated a force of eight companies of the 4th Cavalry, two -companies of the 11th Infantry and thirty Tonkawa Indian scouts at old -Camp Cooper near Fort Griffin. The infantry would be used to guard the -supply bases as he moved northwesterly in the hope of engaging the wild -brethren under Chief Quanah. He bivouaced in the mouth of Blanco Canyon -and lost sixty odd horses to an Indian raid that night. The next day the -command moved up the canyon and later came out on the flat prairie of -the Llano Estacado. A large retreating body of Indians was sighted but a -Norther blew up, and Mackenzie was forced back down the canyon by the -cold weather. He withdrew to Fort Richardson where the command arrived -in late November. He accomplished nothing and as for himself, he -received an arrow wound during a small skirmish in the canyon. - -With the coming of spring, things picked up. Mackenzie received orders -in May to establish a camp of cavalry and infantry on the Fresh Fork of -the Brazos, from which his cavalry should operate in pursuit of hostile -Indians. He moved out of Fort Richardson in June while Shafter at Fort -Concho organized wagon trains and supplies, these coming from as far -away as Fort Brown. He was to meet Mackenzie near the mouth of Blanco -Canyon, where the base was to be established. By September, 1872, -Mackenzie and his cavalry had moved from Blanco Canyon to Fort Sumner -(New Mexico), thence north to Fort Bascom (New Mexico), then -southeasterly to Palo Duro Canyon and south to his base camp in Blanco -Canyon. He had found no Indians or Comancheros, but he had followed well -marked Comanchero trails across the Llano Estacado and had no trouble in -finding water holes. The Staked Plains were not nearly so tough as the -high army echelons had been led to believe. - -Puzzled by the lack of Indians he set out for the headwaters of the Red -River and on September 29, discovered a large camp on a tributary of the -Red, northeast of Palo Duro. He immediately attacked with five companies -of cavalry, routed the braves, burned 262 Indian lodges, and captured -127 women and children, and an estimated 3,000 head of horses. His own -losses were light if we except the fact that the Indian braves returned -that night and recovered all of their horses by stampeding them. -Mackenzie never forgot that midnight raid. - -This drubbing had a salutary effect on the Indians. The captives were -sent to Fort Concho for prisoner exchange, and many warriors sought -safety on the reservations. Their Chief Satank was dead and Chiefs -Satanta and Big Tree were in the penitentiary at Huntsville. The next -spring the remaining one hundred captive women and children at Fort -Concho were delivered back to the reservation at Fort Sill amid great -rejoicing by the braves. They began to feel that the pale face was not -such a bad hombre after all. Evetts Haley says that some of the braves -so seriously considered settling down that they even sent their women -into the fields to see what work was like. - -Things now looked better and the Indian lovers persuaded Governor Edmund -J. Davis to issue pardons to Satanta and Big Tree. This infuriated -General Sherman. That was in April of 1873. Trouble immediately started -again. - -But meanwhile Mackenzie had returned to Fort Concho, where he arrived in -January of that year, and set up the headquarters of the 4th Cavalry -Regiment. Then in March, the 4th itself left Fort Richardson for Concho, -and the 7th Cavalry took over at Richardson.[8] The 4th headed for Fort -Concho, the same column, soldiers, wagons, wives and their household -plunder that had moved north to Richardson two years before. General -Sherman had decided to do something about that other Texas frontier, the -Rio Grande, and he wanted Mackenzie with his 4th Cavalry to handle the -job. - -Things were not, and never had been, peaceful along the Rio Grande. It -was another frontier with two parts. From Ringgold Barracks, opposite -the Mexican city of Camargo, on down to the mouth of the Rio Grande, a -man by the name of Juan Cortina, once a general in the Mexican Army that -had opposed General Zachary Taylor's invasion of Mexico, sought to make -a living in the grand style. He was very successful as a bandit and -became the "Robin Hood" of his side of the border. During the Civil War -his banditry ceased. He became a trader and did well because the Rio -Grande became the only outlet of the Southern Confederacy. But with the -close of the war, he resumed his favorite role as a bandit and declared -that the Nueces River and not the Rio Grande, was the border between his -country and the United States. - -The result was that he and other lesser bandits overran the entire -country from the Rio Grande to the Nueces, killed for the pleasure of -killing and drove into Mexico tens of thousands of Texas cattle. In -1875, one of his raids came within seven miles of Corpus Christi. Truly, -his activities were as fearsome and as costly as were those of the -Indians on the other frontiers of the state. But the United States Army -did little about it, being unable to catch raiders in Texas, and -unwilling to attack them in Mexico. The Texas Rangers, recreated in -1874, began to effectually take care of the matter. Thirty-one of these -men, under their able commander Captain Leander H. McNelly, began to -take a bite out of these raiders in 1875, killing them not only in Texas -but pursuing and attacking them in Mexico itself. - - [Illustration: Indians with horses and travois] - -General Porfirio Diaz came to power in Mexico about this time and ended -the Cortina troubles by arresting and confining that gentleman to the -environs of Mexico City. The Rangers took care of the rest of the gangs. - -Along the upper Rio Grande, the raids into Texas were made by Indians: -the Kickapoos, Lipans and Apaches. These tribes had settled in that -great arid and sparsely inhabited area that extends south of the Rio -Grande from Laredo to El Paso. That part of Mexico was a no-man's land. -The small Mexican and Indian villages were a law unto themselves. The -Mexicans often joined the Indians on their raids, and the cattle and -horses brought back found a ready market in the Mexican villages. - - [Illustration: _G. Catlin_ - U. STATES' INDIAN FRONTIER IN 1840. - _Shewing the positions of the Tribes that have been removed west of - the Mississippi. By George Catlin._] - -The Lipans, like the Apaches, were natives of the Great Plains country. -The Kickapoos were easterners, and had been termed "friendly Indians," -upon their arrival west of the Mississippi River. The term "friendly -Indian" often used in writings and reports of the times referred in the -larger sense to those tribes such as the Kickapoos, Cherokees, Choctaws, -Chickasaws, Seminoles, Delawares and others that had once been powerful -tribes in the eastern United States, but because of the encroachment of -the white settlers, they had, by treaty, coercion or force during the -early 1800's, been continually moved by the United States Government -from their ancestral or reservation lands in the East. They finally -ended up at various times on reservations assigned them in what is now -Kansas and Oklahoma (Indian Territory). Here they usually encountered -hostility from the native tribes of the Great Plains whose superior -numbers threatened their entire existence. They were considered -intruders and were obliged to turn to the United States troops, where -possible, for protection. Their natural ability as "trackers" made them -a necessary unit in any force of troops that sought to engage hostile -Indians. - -The Seminoles from Florida were pretty well mixed with Negro blood upon -their arrival in East Texas, and later in the Indian Territory. The -reason for this was that prior to the Civil War many run-away Negro -slaves had sought and found sanctuary among these Indians, living at -that time in the fastnesses of the Everglades. - -During the latter days of the Civil War, December of 1864, a company of -frontier scouts out of Fort Belknap discovered a freshly abandoned -Indian camp west of the ruins of old Fort Phantom Hill. The scouts -estimated that perhaps 5,000 Indians had camped there. - -During the preceding fall, Comanche and Kiowa Indians in large numbers -had broken up the settlements on the northern frontier in Young County. -Therefore, it was assumed, and assumed too hastily as it turned out, -that these Indians had occupied the camp and were on the march to find a -permanent spring and summer location from where they could further raid -the settlements. - -Actually these Indians were friendly Kickapoos from the Indian -Territory, and as it turned out, they were probably peacefully moving -themselves and their entire tribe to join a tiny remnant of the tribe -that had, years before, settled in Old Mexico, some forty miles west of -Laredo. - -The hasty assumption that these Indians were hostile led to the Battle -of Dove Creek fought on Sunday, the 8th of January, 1865. The scene of -the battle was the Indian encampment on the south bank of Dove Creek -about three miles above its confluence with Spring Creek, and fifteen -miles southwest of the present Tom Green County court house. - -After the discovery of the abandoned camp near Phantom Hill, the Indians -were trailed by scouts. Confederate regulars had been concentrated at -Camp Colorado, and militia had been moved from Erath, Brown, Comanche -and Parker Counties. - -These two columns of troops, numbering some 400 men, concentrated above -the Indian encampment before daybreak. They attacked at daylight. It was -an impetuous charge and was met by deadly fire from the Enfield rifles -of 600 braves, well protected by the underbrush of the creek bottom. The -militia, respectfully referred to by the regulars as the "flop eared -militia," suffered heavily in their charge. They broke and fled and were -of no more value in the field. - -The regulars, now badly outnumbered and outflanked, were slowly forced -back and withdrew towards Spring Creek, fighting from the shelters of -the oak groves as they retired. This action continued all day, and they -encamped that night with all their wounded and the reformed militia on -Spring Creek, about eight miles from the original battle ground. They -left twenty-two dead on the field and carried away about forty wounded. - -The long retreat to the mouth of the Concho River started the next -morning in a blinding snow storm that made pursuit by the Indians -impossible. They resorted to captured Indian ponies as food supply. - -It had been a most unfortunate affair. The Kickapoos crossed the Mexican -border in the Eagle Pass area and settled down about forty miles inland. -Always irked by memories of the unprovoked Dove Creek fight, they -thereafter heartily joined future raids into Texas. They were no longer -"friendly Indians." - -It was this matter of raids into Texas in the upper Rio Grande country -that attracted General Sherman's attention in March of 1873, when he -ordered Colonel Mackenzie and his 4th Cavalry to Fort Concho. From -Concho they moved to Fort Clark, only about thirty miles from the -Mexican border. At Fort Clark a conference of high ranking officials was -held, including apparently the Secretary of War, General Phil Sheridan, -Mackenzie and others. No orders were issued but after the conference was -over, the "brass" reviewed the 4th Cavalry. The "ten-year" men in the -regiment knew that something big was brewing. - -Dark and early, on the morning of May 17, 1873, Colonel Mackenzie led -400 men of his 4th Cavalry and twenty or thirty Seminole scouts under -Lt. John L. Bullis, on a drive across the Rio Grande into Mexico. - -After four days and night of continuous riding and fighting, the small -expeditionary force, carrying their supplies in their pockets and with -no time taken out for sleeping, recrossed the river and were back on -friendly Texas soil. They had covered some 160 miles and had burned -three Kickapoo and Lipan villages, killed a considerable number of -braves, captured forty women and children, plus the chief of the Lipans, -and had driven the remainder of the tribes into the Santa Rosa -Mountains. - -Washington and Mexico City both hit the ceiling over this invasion of a -friendly nation. Mackenzie could show no written orders for the action. -Had he failed, he would have been court-martialed, and he knew that -beforehand. But President Grant stood by his officer, and the incident -soon blew over. In fact a year or two later most of the remaining -Kickapoos were persuaded to accept Uncle Sam's hospitality. They went -from Mexico to Fort Sill, by way of Fort Concho, and were given a cozy -place on a reservation in the Indian Territory.[9] - -By this time it is apparent that our Colonel Mackenzie was the -fair-haired boy of President Grant and Generals Sherman and Sheridan. -During the Civil War, Grant had regarded him as his ablest young -officer. Now if things got out of line, you would simply "dress on -Bobs." - -Truly, things were about to get out of line again. Some foolish policy -of appeasement was still rampant in Washington, so Satanta and Big Tree -were released from the penitentiary. This combined with other factors, -such as the restlessness of the Indians on the reservations, and the -slaughter of the buffalo, united the efforts of the Comanche tribe. -Along with the Kiowas, now aided by the Cheyennes, they started trouble -all over again. Once more the raids, during the spring of 1874, hit the -Texas frontier, and as usual the soldiers while sleeping, had their -horses stolen. Buffalo hunters in their lonely camps on the Panhandle -plains were murdered and scalped. - -Just east of the old Adobe Walls ruins, on the north side of the -Canadian River in what is now northeastern Hutchinson County, -twenty-eight men and one woman fortified themselves in three new adobe -buildings that had just been completed as a trading post in anticipation -of the northern migration of the great buffalo herds. - -They were awakened before daylight on the morning of June 27, 1874, by a -sharp cracking noise. The newly cut cottonwood ridge pole that supported -the roof on one of the three buildings had settled, and the sod-covered -roof threatened to collapse at any moment. Fifteen men worked until -daylight propping up the roof. That accident saved the lives of all at -the Walls, for just as daylight came, being awake and outside, they saw -to the eastward, an estimated 700 mounted Indians riding hard for the -settlement. The attacking force was less than half a mile away when it -deployed in a great converging arc. - -Billy Dixon, the buffalo hunter and frontier scout described the charge -in a dramatic manner: - -"There was never a more splendidly barbaric sight. In after years I was -glad that I had seen it. Hundreds of warriors, the flower of the -fighting men of the Southwestern Plains tribes, mounted upon their -finest horses, armed with guns and lances, and carrying heavy shields of -thick buffalo hide, were coming like the wind. Over all was splashed the -rich colors of red, vermilion and ochre, on the bodies of the men, on -the bodies of the running horses. Scalps dangled from bridles, gorgeous -war-bonnets fluttered their plumes, bright feathers dangled from the -tails and manes of the horses, and the bronzed, half-naked bodies of the -riders glittered with ornaments of silver and brass. Behind this -head-long charging host stretched the Plains, on whose horizon the -rising sun was lifting its morning fires. The warriors seemed to emerge -from this glorious background." (Life of Billy Dixon, by Olive K. Dixon, -The Southwest Press, Dallas, Texas.) - -The three buildings were about equally manned by the whites. Doors were -closed and then barricaded, as were the windows and transoms, by sacks -of flour and grain. The first charge was broken up at the very walls of -the buildings by the lead from the big buffalo guns. Thanks to the thick -abode walls and to the dirt covered roofs, there was no danger of being -smoked out by fire. - -The fight raged until noon. Two of the whites, unable to reach the -buildings, had been killed in the first onslaught. All of the horses and -oxen were dead or driven away. The Indians had lost heavily and now -withdrew, out of range. They could be seen moving about in the distance -but they did not attack again. - -It was on the third day of the siege that Billy Dixon drew a bead on a -mounted Indian, 1,538 yards away on a ridge, and shot him dead. He was -firing a .50 calibre Sharp's rifle, the largest of the buffalo guns. - -During the next two or three days other buffalo hunters drifted into the -Walls until the garrison numbered about a hundred men. William Barclay -"Bat" Masterson had been present since the beginning of the fight and -had, like most of the other defenders, distinguished himself by his cool -behavior under fire. - -By the end of the sixth day, the Indians had broken up into bands, the -Comanches under Quanah, the Kiowas under Lone Wolf, and the Cheyennes -under Stone Calf and White Shield. These bands then proceeded to work -over the other buffalo hunters on the south and central ranges. They -accomplished their objective. Buffalo hunting by the whites was -discontinued for that year. - -Down in San Antonio, General Christopher C. Augur, the Department -Commander, fully backed by General Sherman, ordered full scale war. All -Indians off their reservations were declared hostiles and the campaign -against them took the form of a real squeeze play. It was relentlessly -carried out by a man-sized army under able lieutenants. - -Colonel Nelson A. Miles was ordered to march westerly out of Camp Supply -in the Indian Territory; Colonel John Wynn Davidson was to move west out -of Fort Sill; Major William R. Price was to move down the Canadian out -of Fort Union, Territory of New Mexico; Colonel G. P. Buell was to leave -Fort Griffin, proceed north to the Red River then move up that stream, -and Colonel Mackenzie's command headed northwesterly out of Fort Concho -for his old camping ground at Blanco Canyon. It appears that Colonel -Grierson was left out altogether. The campaign got under way in the late -summer of 1874. - -Colonel Mackenzie marched out of Fort Concho with eight companies of -cavalry and three of infantry. He moved northwesterly up the North -Concho River for his first objective--the camp in Blanco Canyon.[10] - -(Mackenzie appears to have been overall commander. However, the -biography of Nelson A. Miles seems to give Miles considerable credit for -subduing the Indians in our West. He was a volunteer in the Union Army -during the Civil War and rose to high rank, higher than that reached by -Mackenzie. Biographies can often be misleading, parts of them being word -of mouth stories from the principal himself. Miles could never have been -called a 'modest' man. Prior to his death he followed the example of -some of the Pharaohs of Egyptian history, and built his mausoleum on the -bank of a great river, in his case not the Nile, but the Potomac. It was -perfectly legal to do this, the site chosen being in the Arlington -National Cemetery, a place reserved for the remains of United States -servicemen. However, the timing of the construction of the mausoleum, -built even before he died, and the fact that he chose to plant himself, -not only in the most prominent spot to be found, but right in what had -once been General Robert E. Lee's front yard, leads one to believe he -might have taken a slight advantage of his biographer.) - -The campaign lasted until the latter part of December, 1874, when -through ice and snow, Mackenzie's 4th Cavalry drifted into Fort Griffin. -By this time the other commanders had accomplished their objectives and -returned to their stations. - -The strategy had been simple enough. The commands from the north, east -and west were to drive the tribes towards the rough country and the -canyons in the headwaters of the Red River, where Mackenzie, moving in -from the south, would destroy them. The actual carrying out of the -plans, was, as is usual, another thing. Variations in the weather were -severe; drinking water was scarce and when found usually had the same -effects on the drinkers as would castor oil; wood for fires was -generally lacking; corn for horses was an eternal problem; and the long -supply lines were constantly threatened by an alert enemy. - -But it all worked out as planned. The four commanders, Miles, Buell, -Davidson and Price drove the tribes before them after spirited -engagements. On October 9th, Buell, moving up the Red River, destroyed a -camp of 400 lodges on the Salt Fork of that river. The usual plan of -operation was for each commander to use his friendly Indian scouts as -guides to locate a fresh Indian trail. After that it was hard riding -and, if possible, surprise attack on a village. Most of the supplies -came from the nearest forts, such as Sill, Fort Bascom, New Mexico and -Camp Supply in the northwestern part of the Indian Territory, and Fort -Griffin on the Brazos. It was during this campaign that plans were made -to locate Fort Elliott as a new defense in the Panhandle.[11] - -Mackenzie's 4th Cavalry covered many a weary mile. His biggest Indian -fight occurred in the Palo Duro Canyon where he surprised a large camp -in late September and reported the capture of 1,424 ponies, mules and -colts. Remembering his past experience with captive horses, he had the -entire herd shot rather than risk the possibility of their recapture -during the night by the braves. - -This campaign broke up any further concerted action by the Indian -tribes. It had been long in materializing, and that, to many, still -seems hard to understand. Satanta was recaptured and sent back to the -penitentiary at Huntsville, but ended it all a short time thereafter by -jumping head first out of a second story window. - -The other Kiowa Chief, Big Tree, upon being recaptured and imprisoned, -this time at Fort Sill, became a model prisoner. After gaining his -freedom, he became the Kiowa's principal chief, caused a little trouble -in 1890 that was squelched without bloodshed by the soldiers, and he -then settled in a cottage near Mountain View, Oklahoma. He died, a -deacon in the Baptist Church November 18, 1929. - -However much the Comanche tribes might by now be reduced in number, -their spirits remained high and restless on their reservations. As late -as 1878 and 1879, small war parties raided as deep into Texas as Fort -McKavett. But there was no coordinated action. - -The extinction of the buffalo in our southern region was completed about -1878, and then the hunters turned in force against the remaining herds -on the northern parts of the Great Plains. These herds lasted about four -more years. - -The men in the forts could be, and were, still busy. Colonel Grierson -took over at Concho in 1875. That same year, Colonel Shafter, with nine -troops of the 10th Cavalry and two companies of infantry, left after -rendezvousing at that post and headed for the Indian country near Blanco -Canyon. His supply train consisted of sixty-five wagons drawn by -six-mule teams, a pack train of nearly 700 mules and a beef herd. This -was in July. Good rains had fallen and water holes were expected to be -full. It took the expedition seventeen days to cover the 180 miles. (The -author cannot verify the reported strength of the mule train.) - -Only a few Indians were met, so Shafter divided his command. His own -division out of Fort Duncan, returned to that post about December 18, -1875, after having explored the country now known as the South Plains of -Texas and New Mexico. One of his lieutenants, Geddes, leading a division -from Mustang Springs, near present Midland, on south to cross the Pecos -on a southwesterly course below Independence Creek, reached the Rio -Grande. There they engaged in a small Indian fight, then retraced their -steps to avoid the great canyon country, crossed the Pecos, and in a -worn out condition reached Fort Clark. Geddes then rested up and -returned to Fort Concho. - -The entire expedition had explored and mapped what had been a vast and -unknown area, and had encountered only a few wandering bands of Indians. -It appeared that the Indian problems had at last been solved. - -However, the final settlement of that problem came in 1880. An Apache -Chief, one Victorio, long confined to a reservation in the Territory of -New Mexico, hit the warpath with all of his tribe and their belongings; -warriors, squaws, papooses and portable lodges. Colonel Grierson, now -General Grierson, left Fort Concho and with detachments from Forts -Concho, Stockton, Davis and Quitman, sought to force an engagement in -that wild and mountainous and desert land that lies on both sides of the -Rio Grande, from El Paso on the west to the Davis Mountains on the east. -The United States cavalry was no match for the elusive Victorio, who -avoided any but guerrilla actions, and worked back and forth across the -Rio Grande, until Grierson, disgusted, returned to Fort Concho. His -forces had not been allowed to cross into Mexico and he thought that the -Mexican forces, also chasing the Apaches, had not fully cooperated with -him. - -This may or may not have been so, but the end of the new war came in the -fall, when General Terrazas, then Governor of Chihuahua, forced an -engagement by trapping and surrounding the old chief. Only a few -survivors were able to escape this well planned but short campaign by -the Mexican forces. - -The usefulness of the forts, so far as protection against the Indians -was concerned, now ended. The accompanying map shows their relative -locations and the dates on which they were organized and abandoned. Only -one, Fort Bliss at the Paso del Norte, serves the United States Army at -this time. - -Fort Concho remained active until 1889, but it was only another army -post. Small parties of Indians roamed the frontier even in the 80's, but -the Texas Rangers and the frontiersmen took care of them. - -Of all of those that were abandoned during the last century, Fort Concho -is the best preserved. It took time to build it, and when finally -abandoned, its lovely stone buildings and the land on which they stand, -reverted to the original landowners, Adams and Wickes, the United States -Army having been only a rent-paying tenant. - -Just what do some of the others look like at this time? Fort Worth is -covered somewhere under a modern city that bears its name. The -foundations of old Fort Mason can be seen on a hill within the city -limits of Mason, the cut stones of its buildings having been removed for -construction work elsewhere. The same goes for old Lancaster, where only -a few gaunt white limestone chimneys can be seen rising against the -mesas. However, if you care to walk over to them, you will see the old -foundations and a small graveyard. That is all that is left. - -If a Comanche or Kiowa Indian observed Fort Phantom Hill today for the -first time, he would probably name it, "Many chimneys that do not -smoke." The buildings are gone and he would not be interested in their -foundations. - -Some of the limestone houses at Fort McKavett are still being occupied, -and many of the other old fort buildings are outlined by roofless walls. -Several of the original buildings of Fort Stockton still remain and have -been converted into gracious homes. Fort Davis is a line of stone and -adobe shells, the timbers of the overhanging porches being long gone -except where the late Andrew Simmons restored a few, and built a -creditable museum in one building. - -Fort Clark, rising by the beautiful Las Moras Springs, is a combination -of the old and the new, having seen service in the last World War. It is -interesting to observe that in its case, it is unfortunately the new and -not the old that is missing. - -The old Spanish Fort (presidio) on the San Saba River? Enough of the -rubble remains to outline the outer wall of the large courtyard. This -was a massive stone fortification and each of its four corners was -protected by a protruding circular stone tower. The State Highway -Department has restored one of these towers and a part of the outer -wall. The old Mission, San Saba de la Cruz, across and down the river -from this presidio, disappeared along with its administering priests -during the great Comanche attack against the Spaniards and their Apache -allies, back in 1758, or thereabout. - -The preservation of the existing buildings of Fort Concho, and the -restoration of the destroyed ones, were begun in 1930 by Mrs. Ginevra -Wood Carson, a gracious and far-sighted lady of San Angelo. She had -already started the West Texas Museum in about 1928, and it was located -in the new Tom Green County Court House, where it soon outgrew its -housing facilities She therefore turned her attention towards the old -Fort. The original Administration or G.H.Q. Building of Fort Concho was -privately owned but in excellent condition, and it stood at the Eastern -end of the old Quadrangle. Mr. R. Wilbur Brown, Sr. of San Angelo -recognized the far-sightedness of Mrs. Carson. He bought the -Administration Building from its owners and deeded it toward a museum of -pioneer days and the preservation of old Fort Concho. - -Mrs. Carson then moved the museum collection from the Court House into -the Administration Building and changed the name of West Texas Museum to -Fort Concho Museum. - -The history of Fort Concho since its abandonment in 1889, when the -garrison lowered the flag for the last time, and marched away, its band -playing "The Girl I Left Behind Me," had not been spectacular. It could -easily have become a rock quarry, as had Lancaster, Mason and others. -Actually, some of the barracks buildings on the North Side of the -Quadrangle did suffer that inglorious fate. But the houses on Officer's -Row, the Administration Building, Hospital and Chapel were, for many -years, the finest buildings in the surrounding area. In 1905, the Concho -Realty Company was formed by certain citizens of San Angelo, and the -fort grounds, with all the structures were bought by the company from -the Adams and Wickes Estate for $15,000.00. A real estate addition was -then organized and the various buildings sold to private individuals. - -The most elaborate of these had been the Post Hospital. It occupied a -position outside, and just off the Southeast corner of the Quadrangle. -This building burned in 1910, and some years later its remaining stone -walls, partitions and chimneys were cleared away. - -The Fort Concho Museum Board, a group of citizens, works to purchase, -preserve and restore the buildings of the Fort, and collect the display -items of interest that pertain to pioneer days in the Southwest. - -Up to the present time the accomplishments of the Board have been -considerable. The items relating to pioneers have overflowed the -Administration Building. Further space has been gained for them by the -restoration of two Barracks Buildings and their Mess Halls on the North -side of the Quadrangle. The Powder House, once located on the banks of -the Concho River, has been removed and rebuilt, stone by stone, at a -position just North of the restored Barracks. The Post Chapel, -beautifully preserved, and a part of the Museum, stands at the Eastern -end of Officer's Row. Six of the original nine Officer's homes have been -bought by the Board with money contributed by individuals and from small -Museum revenues. The old Parade Ground, occupying the center of the -Quadrangle is marred and hidden from view by recent structures on its -Western end and a large 1907 school house now occupies its center. A -Comanche war-party (assuming one existed today, one bent on the -destruction of Fort Concho) would return baffled to its portable village -for the simple reason that the Indians, like any other visitors, could -not find Fort Concho, even though years back having been designated a -National Historic Landmark. - -There are other fort buildings standing nearby that are owned and used -today as warehouses by different San Angelo firms. Their beautiful stone -is usually covered by applications of various colored stucco, but you -can still identify them by their alignments and shapes. - -Some years back the Santa Fe Railroad presented the City with one of its -steam locomotives. This "Iron Horse" of bygone days is now resting on -its rails near one of the restored Barracks. It is a part of the Museum, -and is a valuable item; therefore, it is hoped that its longevity -against the ravages of rust will be secured by the erection of a -suitable structure over and around it. - -Now take your time and browse through the Fort Concho Museum. Drive -through the City over streets that bear the names of Beauregard, -Mackenzie, Shafter, Grierson and Chadbourne. It is all worth it, because -without it, there would soon be little to show us of the comparative -life that existed in our Southwest only a few short years ago. - - - - - Footnotes - - -[1]Comancheros: Renegade Mexicans, half breeds and outlaw Americans who - lived in Mexican settlements in New Mexico, from whence they - traveled in small bands, usually by wagon or oxcart, to the Llano - Estacado where they met the Comanches, Kiowas or other Indians and - traded guns, ammunition, whiskey and other desirable items for the - products of the raids. (Robert T. Neill, San Angelo, Texas.) - -[2]Perhaps this was Limpia Creek.--Dr. R. T. Hill. - -[3]On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger, U.S.A., landed at - Galveston and issued a general order declaring that "in accordance - with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all - slaves are free." - -[4]The Negro regiments on the Texas frontier during these Indian times - were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry. - -[5]During the Civil War the cattle on the open Texas ranges increased - many fold with the loss by the Confederacy of control of the - Mississippi River. After that war they so far exceeded local demand - that cattle drives on a much larger scale than ever before - attempted, got under way. The Chisholm and Western Trails, "from - anywhere in Texas," on north through the western part of the Indian - Territory entrained cattle in Kansas for the Eastern feedlots. The - Goodnight-Loving Trail running west along the Middle Concho River, - thence north along the Pecos and on parallel to the Front Ranges, - supplied cattle for the new ranches being opened from New Mexico to - the Canadian Border. - - Obviously the Comanche and Kiowa did not overlook this opportunity - for cattle rustling. - -[6]Captain Lewis Johnson, 24th Infantry, related, "That was the year in - which I changed stations twice, marching from Fort Stockton all the - way to Fort Brown. On my way,--in March, 1872, I think, occurred an - attack on a freight-train at Howard's Well. (Grierson Springs, - Reagan County). It was a train from San Antonio, intended for Fort - Stockton." Testimony before House Committee on Military Affairs, - 45th Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, D.C., Dec. 4, 1877. - -[7]The Salt Creek Massacre took place near the town of Graham. - -[8]When, at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in present Montana, June - 25, 1876, General George A. Custer and his entire command were - massacred by the Sioux Indians, that command was composed of - elements of the 7th United States Cavalry. The massacre took place - about three years after the 7th marched into Fort Richardson. There - is no evidence of Custer having been at Richardson. At this time, he - was probably somewhere on the Missouri River. - -[9]This action was not a pursuit following a "fresh trail" into Mexico. - It was a carefully planned attack on Indian villages in that - country, the locations of which had been accurately ascertained - beforehand. - - Later on, during 1876 and 1877, Lt. John L. Bullis acting under the - command of Colonel Shafter, conducted six such raids into Mexico, - all on the upper Rio Grande from Laredo to points southwest of the - mouth of the Pecos River. Bullis was a very brave and competent - soldier and was awarded a sword by the Texas Legislature. Camp - Bullis, near San Antonio, was named for him in 1917. - -[10]A regiment of cavalry on the Texas frontier after the Civil War - could, at maximum strength, muster about 929 men. A company of - maximum strength could muster about 90 men. - - A regiment of infantry varied in number more than a similar cavalry - unit, and was smaller, mustering generally about 460 men, while a - company varied from 25 or 30 men, on up to 60 or 65 men. - -[11]"A large trade has sprung up in Western Texas in cattle, which are - driven up into Kansas to the railroad at or near Fort Dodge. They go - up by what is termed the Pan Handle of Texas--. Fort Elliott is - established there for the purpose of aiding cattle merchants who buy - cattle in Texas and drive them up to the railroad; and thence the - cattle are taken to Ohio or Illinois and fed until spring, when they - are sent East. The trade amounts to two or three hundred thousand - annually." Statement of General W. T. Sherman, November 21, 1877, - before the Committee on Military Affairs, in relation to the Texas - Border Troubles, House of Representatives, 45th Congress, 2d - Session. - - - [Illustration: The Federal Forts In Texas During the Indian Era, - 1845-1889] - - [Illustration: Texas, 1856] - - [Illustration: Fort Concho] - - - - - Transcriber's Notes - - ---Silently corrected a few typos. - ---Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - ---In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fort Concho, by J. N. 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