Category:Fort Concho: Difference between revisions

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Fort Concho (1867-1889) - The site was selected in November 1867 for a new post to replace Fort Chadbourne, which lacked an adequate water supply. Company H of the 4th Cavalry arrived there in Dec 1867. The post's first commanding officer, Capt. George Gibson Huntt, named the post Camp Hatch after the commander of his regiment, Maj. John Porter Hatch. Later it was called Camp Kelly for the late Maj. Michael J. Kelly, and in March 1868 the post became Fort Concho, named after the Middle and North Concho rivers, which converge in San Angelo to form the Concho.

In 1868 Fort Concho's commissary storehouse (today the oldest building in San Angelo) and its twin, the quartermaster storehouse, were constructed. Building materials were not available locally and had to be hauled from the Gulf Coast by ox cart. In 1876 an official report stated that "a flat, treeless, dreary prairie" surrounded the fort, but Capt. Robert G. Carter recalled Fort Concho in the 1870s as "one of the most beautiful and best ordered posts on the Texas border. Its arrangement was artistic and every feature bespoke comfort and convenience. On the south side of the ample parade grounds stood the officers' quarters, tasty, elegant, imposing; on the north, the commodious and handsome barracks; on the east side the commissary and quartermaster's buildings, while the west side of the grounds was closed with an ornamental fence with a large gateway in the center." The government leased the land from private owners.

The fort was not stockaded, but stone walls surrounded the hospital and the backyards of the officers' quarters. By 1879 Fort Concho was an eight-company post with some forty permanent structures built of locally quarried limestone around a parade ground that measured about 500 by 1,000 feet. Besides the buildings mentioned by Carter, the fort's stone buildings included stables, blacksmith and carpenter shops, a forage house, an ordnance storehouse, a guardhouse, a powder magazine, a pump house, a bakery, a hospital, an administration building, and a schoolhouse that was used also as a chapel. A number of temporary frame buildings-married soldiers' quarters, telegraph office, and post trader's store-were built adjacent to the fort. A belvedere on the post hospital afforded a distant view in every direction.

Commanders of Fort Concho included such famous officers as William R. Shafter, Ranald S. Mackenzie, Benjamin H. Grierson, John P. Hatch, and Wesley Merritt.

Fort Concho Units:

• (1875-1882) 10th Cavalry headquarters, known as the Buffalo Soldiers
• (1868-1873) 4th Cavalry headquarters for several brief periods
• (1870-1870) 11th Infantry headquarters
• (1882-1887) 16th Infantry
• Units of the 3rd Cavalry, 8th Cavalry, and 9th Cavalry regiments
• Units of the 10th Infantry, 11th Infantry, 19th Infantry, 24th Infantry, and 25th Infantry regiments
• Signal corps personnel, who managed telegraph and weather service

Units from Fort Concho scouted and mapped large portions of West Texas; built roads and telegraph lines; escorted stagecoaches, cattle drives, and railroad survey parties; and served generally as a police force. At times Fort Concho troops were stationed at semipermanent subposts at Grierson's Spring, Camp Charlotte, and the head of the North Concho. Among the numerous temporary field camps were several former Butterfield Overland Mail stops such as Johnson's Station, Grape Creek Station, and old Fort Chadbourne.

In the early years of the fort's existence, its soldiers skirmished with numerous small parties of Indians. Fort Concho also furnished personnel and supplies for three major Indian campaigns: Mackenzie's 1872 campaign, the 1874 Red River War, and the Victorio campaign of 1879-80. In 1872-73 more than 100 Indian women and children captured by Mackenzie were imprisoned in a stone corral at Fort Concho for six months. Other important Fort Concho events include the 1875 exploration of the Llano Estacado by Colonel Shafter and Capt. Nicholas Nolan's expedition of 1877 (see NOLAN EXPEDITION).

In 1870 a town, which later became San Angelo, began to form across the river from the fort. As civilian law enforcement improved, Fort Concho ceased to be of any value as a military post; from 1882 to 1889 the fort was mainly a holding point for soldiers awaiting reassignment. The army abandoned the fort on June 20, 1889.

The landmark today is comprised of most of the original fort, and contains 23 main structures, mostly original or restored, but some reconstructions. These structures include a Headquarters, Officers' Quarters, Soldiers' Barracks, and the Post Hospital. The fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Location: San Angelo, Texas

Links:

• Texas Handbook
• Fort Concho Ghosts

Publications:

• Robert G. Carter, On the Border with Mackenzie, or Winning West Texas from the Comanches, Washington: Eynon Printing, 1935 Fort Concho Report.
• J. Evetts Haley, Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier, San Angelo Standard-Times, 1952
• Frank M. Temple, Colonel B. H. Grierson's Administration of the District of the Pecos, West Texas Historical Association Year Book 38, 1962