Category:Fort Belknap

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Fort Belknap (1851-1859)(1864-1875) - founded on 24 Jun 1851, at the site of present Newcastle by Bvt. Brig. Gen. William G. Belknap. Commanding officer, Capt. C. L. Stephenson, 5th Infantry, found no water on the original site and he relocated the fort two miles south, where adequate water was found in springs by the Brazos River.

Fort Belknap was the northern anchor of a chain of forts founded to protect the Texas frontier from the Red River to the Rio Grande. It was a post without defensive works. From it troops pursued raiding bands of Indians, and on occasion mounted expeditions from the fort carried the war to the enemy on the plains as far north as Kansas. Fort Belknap became the hub of a network of roads stretching in every direction; the most notable of these was the Butterfield Overland Mail route from St. Louis to San Francisco.

Fort Belknap was a four-company post. Among the companies stationed there during its existence were some from the Fifth United States Infantry, the Second United States Dragoons, the Seventh United States Infantry, the Second United States Cavalry,qv and the Sixth United States Cavalry. Among the commanding officers were Col. Gustavus Loomis, Maj. Enoch Steen, Captain Paul, Maj. George H. Thomas,qv Maj. Samuel Henry Starr, Lt. Col. Samuel Davis Sturgis, and Capt. Richard W. Johnson.

In early 1861, believing that war was imminent, Gen. David E. Twiggs ordered Col. William H. Emory to gather all federal troops and move them north to Fort Leavenworth. On 9 Feb 1861, General Twiggs, in San Antonio, surrendered all United States forts and military equipment in Texas. Although it was abandoned before the Civil War, the fort was occupied from time to time by state troops of the Frontier Regiment under Col. James M. Norris. Major Starr, with troops of the Sixth United States Cavalry, reoccupied Fort Belknap on April 28, 1867. When Fort Griffin was founded in Shackelford County, Fort Belknap was abandoned in September of 1867.

Some of the buildings have been restored and rebuilt.

Location: Three miles south of Newcastle, Young County, Texas Latitude: 33.15083 Longitude: -98.74056

Links:

• Texas Handbook

Books:

• Roger N. Conger, et al., Frontier Forts of Texas, Waco: Texian Press, 1966
• Carrie J. Crouch, Fort Belknap, Graham, Texas: Graham Leader, n.d
• Barbara Neal Ledbetter, Fort Belknap Frontier Saga: Indians, Negroes and Anglo-Americans on the Texas Frontier, Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1982
• Kenneth F. Neighbours, Robert Simpson Neighbors and the Texas Frontier, 1836-1859, Waco: Texian Press, 1975
• Robert B. Roberts, Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States, New York: Macmillan, 1988
• Bill Winsor, Texas in the Confederacy, Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press, 1978