Fort Concho: Its Why and Wherefore

by James N. Gregory

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.