Fort Phantom Hill

Last updated

Fort Phantom Hill
Fort Phantom Hill Entrance.jpg
Fort Phantom Hill entrance
Relief map of Texas.png
Red pog.svg
Fort Phantom Hill
Usa edcp relief location map.png
Red pog.svg
Fort Phantom Hill
Nearest city Abilene, Texas
Coordinates 32°38′38″N99°40′41″W / 32.64389°N 99.67806°W / 32.64389; -99.67806
Area20 acres (8.1 ha)
Built1851 (1851)
NRHP reference No. 72001367
Added to NRHPSeptember 14, 1972

Fort Phantom Hill, also called the Camp on the Clear Fork, [lower-alpha 1] is a former United States Army installation located in Jones County, Texas. The fort was established in 1851 as part of a line of forts in Texas to protect migrants passing through the state on their way to California. The US Army abandoned the fort in 1854 and it was shortly thereafter mostly destroyed by fire. In 1858, it became a station of the Butterfield-Overland Mail route until it moved out of Texas with the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861. During the war, the fort was occupied by Confederate frontier troops until the Confederacy's defeat and surrender. Following the US Army's return to Texas after the Civil War, Fort Phantom Hill was used as a subpost of the larger, newer Fort Griffin until 1875.

Contents

After its final abandonment in 1875, a town was established at Fort Phantom Hill that flourished in the 1870s and ceased to exist by 1900. Following the fort's purchase by John Guitar in 1928, there was renewed public interest in the fort that led to its opening to the public in 1972. In 1997, Fort Phantom Hill was transferred to the Fort Phantom Hill Foundation. The ruins of the fort were added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 1972.

Use as military outpost

Fort Phantom Hill was established during the American colonization of Texas, [1] a process that began in the 1820s with the immigration of Anglo-Americans into Spanish, later Mexican, Texas. [2] After existing as an independent republic for a decade, Texas was annexed by the United States of America in 1845, [3] which led to the start of the Mexican-American War the next year. The United States defeated Mexico, and in the treaty that ended the war in 1848, Mexico ceded what is presently the Southwestern United States in exchange for $15 million (equivalent to $507 million in 2022 [4] ). [5] The United States Army began to construct outposts and roads in Texas during the war to protect Anglo-American settlements in the state. [6] [7] In 1849, an unprecedented number of migrants began crossing Texas to reach California following the discovery of gold there. [8]

Those migrants moved along routes such as the Marcy Trail, [9] charted by Captain Randolph B. Marcy in 1849, [10] through the territory of the indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. To protect those migrants, the US Army established a line of forts running for 800 miles (1,300 km) from Fort Worth, in the northeast, to Fort Duncan, in the southwest, in 1848–49 and then another, 200 miles (320 km) west, from 1850 to 1852. [11] [12] The forts of this line – Belknap, Chadbourne, Clark, Davis, Mason, McKavett, Phantom Hill, Stockton, and Terrett – were established in the early 1850s at places Marcy recommended. [13] [14] One of these locations was the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, which Marcy erroneously noted in 1849 as possessing abundant water and game. [15]

Use as permanent garrison, 1851–1854

In 1851, General William G. Belknap, commander of the Seventh Military District—an area corresponding to the present states of Arkansas and Oklahoma [16] —visited the Brazos River valley with Marcy to find locations for outposts. Belknap began construction of what became Fort Belknap, [17] and identified a nearby tributary, Pecan Bayou, as ideal for a second post on the Brazos. [14] [18] On November 3, General Persifor Frazer Smith, commander of the Department of Texas, [19] ordered that an outpost be created upon the "Phantom Hill" overlooking the Clear Fork, [20] 20 mi (32 km) from Pecan Bayou. [21]

I cannot believe that God ever intended white man to occupy such a barren waste.

Lieutenant Clinton Lear, 5th Infantry, 1852 [20]

On November 14, 1851, five companies of the 5th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Joseph Abercrombie, arrived on Phantom Hill and established the Camp on the Clear Fork of the Brazos, better known as Fort Phantom Hill. [14] [22] [lower-alpha 1] Construction of Fort Phantom Hill began immediately and lasted until June 1852, and it was followed by the creation of a crude road to Fort Chadbourne, to the southwest. [23] Construction and basic life at the fort was complicated by a lack of usable wood, water, game, and fertile soil. The garrison had to rely on food shipments from Austin, 250 miles (400 km) away, that were occasionally seized by indigenous peoples, and the garrison could not abate the water shortage even by digging an 80-foot (24 m) well. [24] Pestilences such as tuberculosis and rheumatism and the poor supply of food and water also plagued the garrison. [24] [25]

Fort Phantom Hill and the other outposts of the US Army in Texas were unfortified cantonments, where troops could recuperate after being on campaign. [26] Before being razed, the fort buildings consisted of jacales with the exception of the officers' quarters, built of timber, and the magazine, guardhouse, and commissary, built of stone. [27] [28] Each building had a stone chimney. Stone was sourced from a quarry at the Elm Fork on the Brazos River while blackjack oak was transported from up to 40 miles (64 km) away. [14] The structures of the fort were arranged around a parade ground. Officers' quarters lined the north and east sides, opposite the enlisted men's barracks, while administrative structures stood on the west side. Additional buildings, such as the magazine and bakery, were located away from the parade ground and its surrounding structures. [29]

On April 27, 1852, Abercrombie was replaced as commander of Fort Phantom Hill by Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Waite. Waite was replaced by Major Henry Hopkins Sibley on September 23, 1853, [30] [31] who oversaw the withdrawal from the post of four of its five companies and their replacement by a company of the 2nd Dragoons. [14] In August 1853, the fort was inspected by Colonel William G. Freeman, who found it and its garrison in poor condition. [32] The fort was ordered abandoned on April 6, 1854, [33] along with Forts Mason and Terrett. [34] Shortly after the garrison's departure, the fort was burned, probably by the departing soldiers. [14] [33] [34]

Subsequent use, 1854–1871

Following Fort Phantom Hill's abandonment, it was still frequently visited by travelers and US Army troops. Among the latter was Robert E. Lee, who as a lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Dragoons passed by the fort on June 16, 1856, while in pursuit of the Comanche leader Sanaco. [35] In February 1861, Texas seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America. [36] Major General David E. Twiggs, commander of the Department of Texas since 1857, [37] surrendered its equipment and installations in Texas to the Confederacy and abandoned the state as the American Civil War began. [38]

On March 4, 1861, LeRoy Pope Walker, the Confederate Secretary of War, ordered career soldier Benjamin McCulloch to raise a volunteer force of ten companies to defend Texas's frontier. McCulloch passed the task to his brother, Colonel Henry Eustace McCulloch, who distributed his forces across the former US Army installations in Texas. [39] One of McCulloch's officers, Major James Buckner Barry, stationed a portion of his command at Fort Phantom Hill. [14] [40] After a campaign against the Comanche in 1861 quieted the frontier, [41] McCulloch's troops were sent to fight in the Trans-Mississippi theater as part of the 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment. [39] They were replaced with the Frontier Regiment, who also encamped at Fort Phantom Hill and were also increasingly pulled away from the frontier as the war continued. [42] [43]

Use as satellite post, 1871–1875

Confederate forces began to surrender to the federal government in 1865, heralding the end of the Civil War. In June, the remaining Confederate forces in Texas formally surrendered to the US Army, who reoccupied the state. [44] After initially ignoring Texans' concerns about indigenous raiding in favor of reoccupying prewar installations along the border with Mexico, the US Army returned to the frontier and began expanding its presence there in 1866–67. [45] [46] From 1869 until the end of the Red River War in 1875, Fort Phantom Hill's ruins were occupied several times by US Army troops as a subpost of Fort Griffin, established in 1867 along the Clear Fork of the Brazos. [47] [48] [49]

Civilian use

White settlement in what became Jones County, Texas, began in November 1851 with Fort Phantom Hill and an Indian agent named Jesse Stem, who operated a farmstead near the fort until he was killed by Tonkawa natives in February 1854. [50] [51] As the fort neared completion, more settlers established themselves in the area but not in sufficient numbers to justify its retention by the US Army in 1854. [52] In 1858, three of the fort's stone buildings were repaired and used for a station of the Butterfield Overland Mail along its route through Texas until it moved out of the state with the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. [50] [53] Jones County was established on February 1, 1858, and during the Civil War it suffered from raids by indigenous peoples that halted white settlement in the county for 15 years. [50]

After the Red River War, a settlement was formed on Fort Phantom Hill's grounds that primarily serviced buffalo hunters roaming the region. The town grew to a population of 546 and briefly was the Jones County seat in 1881, but when the Texas and Pacific Railway bypassed Phantom Hill in favor of Abilene, 14 mi (23 km) to the south, the town began a rapid decline. By 1900, the town had ceased to exist, [14] [54] [55] though the fort continued to be inhabited until at least 1913. [56] From July 1918 to August 1919, test wells were dug near the fort by the Fort Phantom Hill Oil Company following the discovery of oil to the south in 1915. [57] [58]

Preservation

Chimneys at Fort Phantom Hill Fort Phantom Hill DSCN0509.jpg
Chimneys at Fort Phantom Hill

In 1928, the grounds of Fort Phantom Hill were purchased by John Guitar, who then sold the land in 1969 to his grandson, Jim Alexander. Guitar's purchase of the fort attracted the attention of Carl Coke Rister, a historian, professor at Hardin-Simmons University, and secretary of the West Texas Historical Association, who wrote extensively about the fort to promote its preservation. In 1970, the fort was excavated by the Texas state archaeologist, Curtis Tunnell, [59] and on September 14, 1972, it was included on the National Register of Historic Places following its nomination by the Texas Historical Commission on January 31, 1972. [60] The Alexanders opened the fort to the public in the same year and in 1997 they gifted its grounds to the Fort Phantom Foundation. Another, more complete excavation of the fort's grounds was carried out in 1998 by Texas Tech University. [61] The Texas Department of Transportation constructed a rest stop along the southern edge of the fort's grounds in 2012. [54]

As of December 2022, Fort Phantom Hill consists of three stone structures and 12 stone chimneys standing on a 38-acre (15 ha) site. [14] [62]

Four historical markers have been placed on the grounds of Fort Phantom Hill or its vicinity by the state of Texas. The first, placed in 1936, generally commemorated the fort and was replaced with another marker after the original disappeared in 2010. [63] [64] Another marker, commemorating the fort's use by Confederate forces, was placed on the grounds of the Jones County Courthouse in 1963. [65] A marker for the fort's graveyard was placed in the graveyard in 2019. [66]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 According to Wright and the Handbook of Texas , Fort Phantom Hill was referred to in Army correspondence as the "Post on the Clear Fork of the Brazos". [lower-alpha 2] [lower-alpha 3] Frazer states that the post was known officially as either Fort Phantom Hill and the Camp on the Clear Fork. [lower-alpha 4]
  2. Handbook of Texas Online: Fort Phantom Hill.
  3. Wright 2013, pp. 52–53.
  4. Frazer 1965, p. 157.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Young County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 17,867. Its county seat is Graham. The county was created in 1856 and organized in 1874. It is named for William Cocke Young, an early Texas settler and soldier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Throckmorton County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Throckmorton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,440. Its county seat is Throckmorton. The county was created in 1858 and later organized in 1879. It is named for William Throckmorton, an early Collin County settler. Throckmorton County is one of five remaining prohibition, or entirely dry, counties in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Goodnight</span> American rancher in the Texas Panhandle (1836-1929)

Charles Goodnight, also known as Charlie Goodnight, was a rancher in the American West. In 1955, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Concho</span> US Army fort in Texas, used 1867–1889

Fort Concho is a former United States Army installation and National Historic Landmark District located in San Angelo, Texas. It was established in November 1867 at the confluence of the North and South Concho Rivers, on the routes of the Butterfield Overland Mail Route and Goodnight–Loving Trail, and was an active military base for the next 22 years. Fort Concho was the principal base of the 4th Cavalry from 1867 to 1875 and then the "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry from 1875 to 1882. The troops stationed at Fort Concho participated in Ranald S. Mackenzie's 1872 campaign, the Red River War in 1874, and the Victorio Campaign of 1879–1880.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort McIntosh, Texas</span> United States historic place

Fort McIntosh was a U.S. Army base in Laredo, Webb County, Texas, from 1849 to 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Historical Commission</span> Agency of the State of Texas, United States

The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randolph B. Marcy</span>

Randolph Barnes Marcy was an officer in the United States Army, chiefly noted for his frontier guidebook, the Prairie Traveler (1859), based on his own extensive experience of pioneering in the west. This publication became a key handbook for the thousands of Americans wanting to cross the continent. In the Civil War, Marcy became chief of staff to his son-in-law George B. McClellan, and was later appointed Inspector General of the U.S. Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Inge</span> United States historic place

Fort Inge was a frontier fort in Uvalde County, Texas, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Griffin</span> United States historic place

Fort Griffin, now a Texas state historic site as Fort Griffin State Historic Site, was a US Cavalry fort established 31 July 1867 by four companies of the Sixth Cavalry, U.S. Army under the command of Lt. Col. S. D. Sturgis, in the western part of North Texas, specifically northwestern Shackelford County, to give settlers protection from early Comanche and Kiowa raids. Originally called Camp Wilson after Henry Hamilton Wilson, a recently deceased lieutenant and son of Radical Republican senator and later vice president, Henry Wilson, it was later named for Charles Griffin, a former Civil War Union general who had commanded, as de facto military governor, the Department of Texas during the early years of Reconstruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Chadbourne</span> United States historic place

Fort Chadbourne was a fort established by the United States Army on October 28, 1852, in what is now Coke County, Texas, to protect the western frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail route. It was named after Lt. T.L. Chadbourne, who was killed in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma. It was defended by Companies A and K of the 8th U.S. Infantry. During the early days of the American Civil War, the fort surrendered to the Confederates on February 28, 1861, even before the Confederate shelling of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, but was reoccupied by federal troops from 1865 to 1867.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Richardson (Texas)</span> State park and historic site in Texas, United States

Fort Richardson was a United States Army installation located in present-day Jacksboro, Texas. Named in honor of Union General Israel B. Richardson, who died in the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War, it was active from 1867 to 1878. Today, the site, with a few surviving buildings, is called Fort Richardson State Park, Historic Site and Lost Creek Reservoir State Trailway. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 for its role in securing the state's northern frontier in the post-Civil War era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort McKavett State Historic Site</span> United States historic place

The Fort McKavett State Historic Site is a former United States Army installation located in Menard County, Texas. The fort was first established in 1852 as part of a line of forts in Texas intended to protect migrants traveling to California. The fort was deemed unnecessary and abandoned in 1859 and was occupied by settlers. From 1861 to 1863, during the American Civil War, the fort became an outpost of Confederate forces on the Texas frontier until they left for other theaters of the war. When the US Army returned to Texas in the later 1860s, the fort was reoccupied and rebuilt, and became a base for the "Buffalo Soldier", or all-African American, 24th Infantry and 9th Cavalry Regiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Road</span>

According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, there were two trails that may have been known as the California Road at the time of the California Gold Rush. A southerly route, which ran through present-day Oklahoma, along the Canadian River. A northern route was usually called the California Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Neighbors</span> Texas politician and Indian agent (1815-1859)

Robert Simpson Neighbors was an Indian agent and Texas state legislator. Known as a fair and determined protector of Indian interests as guaranteed by treaty, he was murdered by a white man named Cornet, whose brother-in-law had been defamed by Neighobrs, accusing the brother-in-law a common horse theif, responsible for stealing horses from the reservation Indians. When Neighbors refused to recant the acusation in front of the two men, Cornet shot Neighobrs with a Shotgun. Cornet was murdered and Murphy acquitted as he did not pull the trigger. Cornet went on the run and was killed during his arrest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Belknap (Texas)</span> United States historic place

Fort Belknap, located near Newcastle, Texas, was established in November 1851 by brevet Brigadier General William G. Belknap to protect the Texas frontier against raids by the Kiowa and Comanche. It was the northernmost fort in a line from the Rio Grande to the Red River. The fort functioned as a base of operations rather than as a fortified point, and it became the center of a substantial network of roads, including the Butterfield Overland Mail. The fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, in recognition of its key role in securing the Texas frontier in the 1850s and 1860s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Lancaster</span> United States historic place

Fort Lancaster is a former United States Army installation located near Sheffield, Texas. The fort was established in 1855 on the San Antonio–El Paso Road to protect migrants moving toward California through Texas. The US Army occupied Fort Lancaster until Texas seceded from the United States in March 1861 and were replaced at the fort by forces loyal to the Confederate States of America. The Confederate Army held the fort from November 1861 until April 1862, when it was again abandoned and then burned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Mason (Texas)</span> Place in Texas, United States

Fort Mason was established on July 6, 1851, in present-day Mason County, Texas. It was named in honor of George Thomson Mason, a United States Army second lieutenant killed in the Thornton Affair during the Mexican–American War near Brownsville, April 25, 1846. At various times from 1856 to 1861, this was the home fort for Albert Sidney Johnston, George H. Thomas, Earl Van Dorn, and Robert E. Lee. The fort was abandoned by the military in the 1870s, and restored by a group of local citizens in 1975. Visitors can tour the reproduction officers' quarters at the Fort Mason Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butterfield Overland Mail in Texas</span> Route of mail service created in 1857

In Texas, the Butterfield Overland Mail service created by Congress on March 3, 1857, was operated until March 30, 1861.

The Comanche Trail, sometimes called the Comanche War Trail or the Comanche Trace, was a travel route in Texas established by the nomadic Comanche nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazos Santiago Pass (Texas)</span> Natural water inlet in Texas, United States

Brazos Santiago Pass is a natural coastal landform located in the Lower Laguna Madre and Lower Rio Grande Valley on the furthest southern beach terrain of the Texas Gulf Coast. The seacoast passage is interpolated by barrier islands encompassing the southern Brazos Island and the northern South Padre Island.

References

  1. Field 2006, p. 5.
  2. Handbook of Texas Online: Anglo-American Colonization.
  3. Handbook of Texas Online: Annexation.
  4. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  5. Handbook of Texas Online: Mexican War.
  6. Uglow 2001, pp. 8–9.
  7. Wright 2013, pp. 18–19.
  8. Wright 2013, pp. 12, 14.
  9. Wright 2013, pp. 12–14.
  10. Handbook of Texas Online: Marcy, Randolph Barnes.
  11. Field 2006, pp. 4–5.
  12. Robinson 1977, p. 149.
  13. Uglow 2001, pp. 10–11.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Handbook of Texas Online: Fort Phantom Hill.
  15. Wright 2013, p. 27.
  16. Handbook of Texas Online: Belknap, William Goldsmith.
  17. Wright 2013, pp. 32–33.
  18. Wright 2013, p. 33.
  19. Wright 2013, pp. 37–38.
  20. 1 2 Alexander & Utley 2015, p. 71.
  21. Wright 2013, p. 38.
  22. Frazer 1965, pp. 156–57.
  23. Wright 2013, pp. 48–51.
  24. 1 2 Alexander & Utley 2015, p. 74.
  25. Wright 2013, pp. 55–56.
  26. Robinson 1977, pp. 147, 149.
  27. Wright 2013, pp. 45–46.
  28. Graham 1970, p. 173.
  29. Wright 2013, p. 41.
  30. Wright 2013, pp. 59–60.
  31. Alexander & Utley 2015, p. 76.
  32. Wright 2013, p. 49.
  33. 1 2 Alexander & Utley 2015, p. 77.
  34. 1 2 Wright 2013, p. 61.
  35. Wright 2013, pp. 63–64.
  36. Handbook of Texas Online: Secession.
  37. Handbook of Texas Online: Twiggs, David Emanuel.
  38. Wright 2013, p. 84.
  39. 1 2 Handbook of Texas Online: First Regiment, Texas Mounted Riflemen.
  40. Wright 2013, p. 85.
  41. Wright 2013, pp. 85–86.
  42. Wright 2013, pp. 86–87.
  43. Handbook of Texas Online: Frontier Regiment.
  44. Handbook of Texas Online: Civil War.
  45. Uglow 2001, pp. 11–12.
  46. Field 2006, p. 6.
  47. Handbook of Texas Online: Fort Griffin.
  48. Uglow 2001, pp. 106, 115–16.
  49. Wright 2013, pp. 92–94, 97–99.
  50. 1 2 3 Handbook of Texas Online: Jones County.
  51. Wright 2013, p. 48.
  52. Wright 2013, pp. 51, 62.
  53. Wright 2013, pp. 69–70.
  54. 1 2 Alexander & Utley 2015, p. 78.
  55. Wright 2013, pp. 107–108.
  56. "The Story of Fort Phantom Hill". The Houston Post . March 30, 1913. p. 26. Retrieved June 6, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  57. "Syndicate Well Will Drill Deep Test Well at Abilene". Fort Worth Star-Telegram . July 25, 1918. p. 4. Retrieved June 6, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  58. "Fort Phantom Hill Co Drilling at 194 Feet". El Paso Herald . September 15, 1919. p. 7. Retrieved June 6, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  59. Wright 2013, pp. 111–112.
  60. National Park Service 1972, p. 4.
  61. Wright 2013, p. 115.
  62. "About Us". fortphantom.org. Fort Phantom Hill Foundation. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  63. "Historical Marker — 5253002005". Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Texas Historical Commission. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  64. "Historical Marker — 5253002004". Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Texas Historical Commission. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  65. "Historical Marker — 5253002006". Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Texas Historical Commission. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  66. "Historical Marker — 5000022676". Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Texas Historical Commission. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023. Retrieved March 5, 2023.

Sources

Books and articles

Texas State Historical Association