Fort Concho

Construction of Fort Concho was assigned on 10 December 1867 to Captain David W. Porter, assistant quartermaster of the Department of Texas. He brought in civilian stonemasons and carpenters to construct first temporary storehouses and then a permanent commissary in January 1868. Porter, also responsible for constructing Forts Griffin and Richardson, was replaced in March by Major George C. Cram, who built a temporary guardhouse. Construction was slow, as direction had been poor under Cram and his predecessor, who was rarely at Fort Concho. By spring 1868, the only permanent building on-site was a sutler's store, constructed from pickets and pecan rafters. The soldiers lived in tents heated by fireplaces and sometimes stoves or in timber huts. As at other forts, they also built temporary timber frame or picket buildings lined with canvas insulation. Over 1868, Cram began a dispute with Major Ben Ficklin, the regional mail line superintendent, that resulted in Cram's having Ficklin arrested. The postmaster general soon became involved, and by August, Cram was reassigned out of the Concho Valley. He was replaced with Major George A. Gordon, who handed Fort Concho's construction to Captain Joseph Rendlebrock, the 4th Cavalry's quartermaster.[9]

By the end of 1868, Rendlebrock had completed the commissary, quartermaster's storehouse, and a wing of the hospital. Like Porter, Rendlebrock employed civilian masons and carpenters, mostly German immigrants from Fredericksburg. The first permanent military structures on the fort grounds, five of the officer's residences, and the first regimental barracks were completed by August 1869. As officers began moving into the completed buildings, the non-commissioned officers, baker, drum major, and chief musician continued to live in temporary housing. In October 1869, a timber-frame building was put up for the post adjutant and quartermaster on the parade ground. Over 1870, two more officer's residences and another barracks were built, as well as a permanent guardhouse and stables. Hatch pushed for the completion of the fort through 1870–71, directing the building of a quartermaster's corral, a wagon shed, and a failed attempt at producing adobe bricks that earned him the moniker "Dobe". Construction was again slowed in February 1872 with the discharging of most of the civilian workforce following budget cuts to the US War Department, but by the end of the year, Fort Concho consisted of four barracks, eight officers' residences, the hospital, a magazine, stone guardhouse, bakery, several storehouses, workshops, and stables.[10]

In 1875, the parade ground was cleared and a flagstaff placed in its center. In the process, the adjutant's office was moved to the headquarters building. It was replaced in short order with a stone command structure, the headquarters building, built in 1876. Another officers' residence was built in 1877, as were the foundations for another that went unfinished for lack of funding. This building was completed in February 1879 as the schoolhouse and chapel. It was the final permanent structure completed at Fort Concho.[11] By 1879, the fort was an eight-company installation of entirely limestone-built structures with a parade ground measuring 1,000 ft (300 m) long by 500 ft (150 m) wide.[8] Construction had cost the US Army $1 million by May 1877.[12]

Historical marker detailing the service life of Fort Concho

The first act undertaken by the 4th Cavalry when establishing Fort Concho was to build a wagon road to the San Saba River to secure a supply route from Fort Mason. When not on construction details, the garrison patrolled, scouted, and escorted wagon trains on the Butterfield Overland Trail and San Antonio–El Paso Road, and cattle herds. Encounters with hostile Native Americans were rare.[13]

On 25 February 1871, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie took command of the 4th Cavalry. He moved the regimental headquarters to Fort Richardson a month later,[14] but kept a few companies at Fort Concho.[15] In May 1871, the 4th Cavalry contingent left at Fort Concho participated in a campaign against the Kiowa in retaliation for the Warren Wagon Train raid with troops from Forts Griffin and Sill. Six troops of 4th Cavalry's I Company, commanded by Captain Napoleon B. McLaughlen, joined the rest of the regiment at the Little Wichita River in pursuit of the Kiowa, but turned back for Fort Concho in September after the raiders escaped. Comanche and Kiowa raids increased in number over early 1873, prompting a number of expeditions that rarely saw Native Americans. A notable exception was a patrol carried out by Sergeant William Wilson from 26 to 29 March 1872. On 28 March, his patrol fought a group of Comancheros, half-Native and Hispanic traders, and captured one of their number. The captured man, Apalonio Ortiz, revealed that water was available on the Staked Plains, and the location of a large Comanche settlement and base of trade for the Comancheros was at Mushaway Peak. Hatch,[16] in charge of Fort Concho while Mackenzie was in the field,[17] reported Wilson's findings to Mackenzie and to the Departments of Texas and New Mexico. McLaughlen set out again with two companies of the 4th Cavalry and one of the 11th Infantry to verify Ortiz's information and confirmed it. His expedition, which had also mapped some of the Staked Plains, returned on 13 May.[18]

After Mackenzie and Hatch met with General Christopher C. Augur, commander of the Department of Texas, Mackenzie and McLaughlen, commanding Companies D and I, departed from their respective installations on 17 June. Over the following months, the 4th Cavalry explored the South Plains and fought the Comanche at the Battle of the North Fork of the Red River on 29 September. As a result of the battle, the 4th Cavalry captured 124 women and children and most of the horses of the involved Comanche warriors. The following night, the Comanche stole back some of their horses and escaped, but left their women and children as prisoners. Companies D and I returned to Fort Concho on 21 October with 116 of the noncombatants, who were interned in the quartermaster's corral. They remained in captivity at the fort until the Department of Texas ordered the release of the Comanche hostages on 14 April 1873. They departed Fort Concho on 24 May under escort from the 11th Infantry and arrived safely at Fort Sill on 10 June.[19]

In March 1873, Mackenzie moved the 4th Cavalry's command from Fort Concho to Fort Clark. That year, he embarked on another campaign, this time against the Kickapoo based across the Rio Grande in Mexico. Company I and McLaughlen again joined Mackenzie in the field for his attack into Coahuila, Mexico, on 18 May 1873. On 27 June 1874, more than 200 Comanche warriors attacked a group of buffalo hunters camped at Adobe Walls, beginning the Red River War. In response, Augur ordered Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalry back to Fort Concho in July. When the US Army asked for permission to follow the Comanche and their allies onto reservations, the Secretary of War granted it. By August,[20] General Philip H. Sheridan, commanding the Military Division of the Missouri, ordered five expeditionary forces of more than 3,000 soldiers into the South Plains.[15] The southern force, under Mackenzie, left Fort Concho on 23 August 1874 with eight companies of the 4th Cavalry, four of the 10th Infantry, and one from the 11th Infantry. Over the course of the war, Mackenzie chased the Comanche until he found their base of operations in the Palo Duro Canyon and destroyed it on 28 September. His force continued to patrol the area over the winter, preventing the Comanche from rebuilding their supplies and cementing the American victory in the Red River War. Left no other option, the Comanche returned to their reservation.[21]

Texas State Historical Association placard commemorating the 10th Cavalry

In early 1875, the 4th Cavalry was entirely transferred out of Fort Concho to Fort Sill to watch over the Comanche, and were replaced by Fort Sill's previous garrison, the 10th Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Benjamin Grierson. Grierson and his "Buffalo Soldiers" arrived at Fort Concho on 17 April 1875, and established the regimental headquarters there. The 10th Cavalry took up the duties the 4th Cavalry previously held - patrolling the frontier, escorting wagons and settlers, and mounting expeditions. One of these was Captain Nicholas M. Nolan's disastrous expedition in July 1877.[22] Four men of the 10th Cavalry's Company A died on the trip by the time it returned to Fort Concho on 31 July.[23][24]

Apache raids from the Mescalero and San Carlos reservations in the mid-1870s prompted the creation of the District of the Pecos in January 1878. This was placed under Grierson's command and based at Fort Concho. Over the next two years, Grierson established outposts such as Grierson Spring across West Texas. In October 1879, Grierson received word that a war party of Ojo Caliente and Mescalero Apache under Chief Victorio entered the Trans-Pecos. He left Fort Concho on 23 March 1880 at the head of five companies of the 10th Cavalry and some of the 25th Infantry to disarm the Mescaleros of the Fort Stanton reservation. Grierson's soldiers fought with Apache raiders over early April, then reached Fort Stanton on 12 April. The disarmament was delayed until 16 April because of rains, and resulted in failure when the Mescalero Apache escaped with most of their arms. Grierson returned to Fort Concho on 16 May, but left the 10th Cavalry's M Company at the head of the North Concho in case the Apache appeared in the area.[25]

On 17 June 1880, Nolan and a battalion of the 10th Cavalry at Fort Sill returned to Fort Concho by Grierson's order. Ten days later, Grierson sent Nolan to patrol the Guadalupe Mountains and himself set out from Fort Concho on 10 July.[26] Grierson harried Victorio over the summer until he was defeated at Rattlesnake Springs and driven into Mexico. There, Victorio's band was destroyed on 15 October 1880 by Mexican soldiers under the command of Colonel Joaquín Terrazas.[27] The 10th Cavalry left Fort Concho for the last time in July 1882 for Fort Davis, farther to the west.[28]

On 27 January 1881, the Texas Rangers fought and defeated what was left of Victorio's band in the final battle of the American Indian Wars fought in Texas. The District of the Pecos was disbanded the following month. In August 1882, the 10th Cavalry was replaced at Fort Concho by the 16th Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Alfred L. Hough. Ten days before Hough and the regimental headquarters arrived at the fort, a massive flood of the Concho wiped the town of Ben Ficklin off the map and badly damaged San Angelo. As a result, the 16th Infantry spent its first week on-site rendering humanitarian aid. After recovering, San Angelo began to prosper, while Fort Concho declined from poor maintenance.[29] From 1882 until the fort's final closure, it served primarily as a base for troops awaiting transfer elsewhere in Texas.[8] When Fort McKavett was abandoned by the US Army in June 1883, its garrison moved to Fort Concho.[30]

By the mid-1880s, the ranches that now enclosed the surrounding plains with barbed-wire fencing reduced the soldiers, barred by law from cutting the wire, to patrolling roads. Many of the frontier forts, such as Forts Davis and Griffin, had either been abandoned or were awaiting deactivation. After the 16th Infantry left Fort Concho for Fort Bliss in February 1887, locals believed Fort Concho would also be abandoned. In early 1888, the 8th Cavalry gathered at Fort Concho from around Texas, and then left for Fort Meade, in South Dakota, in June. With their departure, only the 19th Infantry's K Company was garrisoned at Fort Concho. Later that same year, on 17 September, the Santa Fe Railroad reached San Angelo. Interested locals appealed in vain to the federal government to make Fort Concho a permanent installation. On 20 June 1889, the men of K Company lowered the flag over the fort for the final time, and left the next morning.[31]

In the last years of the 19th century, the post buildings became residences for the people of San Angelo.[40] Enlisted Barracks 3 and 4 fell into ruin and were replaced with a series of residences, while the officer's residences were preserved as private homes. Despite a state of general disrepair, though, effort was still made by interested locals to preserve Fort Concho.[41] When C.A. Broome formed the Fort Concho Realty Company in 1905 to sell off his land in San Angelo and at Fort Concho, he implored the city to buy the fort for $15,000 without success. The eastern third of the fort grounds, which had remained preserved, was given to the city by the Santa Fe Railroad Company in 1913. A decade later, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution tried and failed to raise funds to preserve the fort. Instead, a stone and bronze plaque was placed that is still present at the fort.[41][42]

In 1928, Ginevra Wood Carson founded the West Texas Museum in a room of the Tom Green County Courthouse. The next year, she raised funds for and made a purchase of the headquarters for $6000. Over 1930, she moved the museum into the building and renamed it the Fort Concho Museum.[8][42] The city of San Angelo assumed partial administrative responsibility for the museum in 1935, then fully annexed the museum in 1955.[40][41] Fort Concho was named a National Historic Landmark on 4 July 1961 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on 15 October 1966,[43][44] bringing federal resources and trained professionals to Fort Concho.[41] A three-phase plan was presented to the National Park Service in 1967 for the acquisition, preservation, and restoration of the fort site and the funding required.[42] Restorations followed in the 1970s,[41] culminating in a 1980 plan by an Austin-based architectural firm. By the end of the 1980s, the Fort Concho Museum complex consisted of 16 original buildings, six reconstructed buildings, and a stabilized ruin.[42]

On 3 April 2008, following a call from an alleged victim of abuse by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist Mormon sect, Texas authorities raided the YFZ Ranch. The authorities began removing children from the ranch the next day, and relocated them to Fort Concho on 5 April. The State of Texas was granted conservatorship over the children on 7 April, and seven days later moved all women accompanying children older than five years to the Foster Communications Coliseum, also in San Angelo.[45] On 2 June, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the seizure of the children was unlawful, and the children were released from state custody.[46]

Late in 2017, the Fort Concho Museum announced its plans for 2018, funded by the city of San Angelo and private donors. These included the expansion of the visitor's center into the entirety of Barracks 1 and 2, and the reconstruction of Barracks 3 and 4, as well as their mess halls.[47]

Enlisted Men's Barracks 1 and 2, note the boarded-up sally port in the center of Barracks 2

The enlisted men's barracks were some of the first buildings erected at Fort Concho, from 1869 to 1872. Civilian laborers provided skilled labor, such as carpentry, while soldiers performed the construction work. Barracks 1 and 2 were built in 1869 and 1870, respectively, and each contained two cavalry companies. Both structures are unique in having sally ports in the middle of the structures to allow the soldiers to lead their horses through, rather than around, the barracks to reach the stables, located behind the buildings. Barracks 1 is currently the visitor's center, while Barracks 2 is a display space housing wagons and replica artillery pieces such as a Gatling gun.[50]

The other four barracks buildings were built to house infantrymen and had an attached mess hall. Barracks 3 and 4 were completed by the end of 1872, but were demolished some time after the fort was abandoned. Barracks 5 and 6 are living history spaces, and are furnished to appear as they would have during Fort Concho's military career.[51]

At the end of Barracks Row was a guardhouse, built in 1870 to replace an earlier, temporary structure.[52]

Post hospital, from the parade ground, left is north, right is south

The commissary, started in January 1868,[7] is the oldest building at Fort Concho and in the city of San Angelo.[8]

The headquarters building was built in 1876 by order of Colonel Grierson, and served as the command building for the fort until its deactivation in 1889. From 1878 to 1881, the building was the headquarters for the District of the Pecos, which included Forts Davis, Stockton, and Griffin. In addition to the adjutant's office, which it replaced, the headquarters housed the court martial, and the 10th Cavalry's regimental headquarters. Another addition was a library of 292 books established by Chaplain Norman Badger in late 1873. By the end of 1875, the library had grown to 720 books. The headquarters building was used in various capacities in the 20 years after the US Army left Fort Concho.[53] In 1929, Ginevra Wood Carson purchased the building and moved the West Texas Museum into the building.[8][42] Four of the rooms on the ground floor, the court martial, orderly's room, adjutant's office, and regimental headquarters, have been remodeled to appear as they would have during the fort's military career.[54]

The post hospital was one of the earliest buildings at the fort, built from 1868 to 1870 according to the same plan of Fort Richardson's hospital. During Fort Concho's military operation, its hospital served both military and civilian patients but had few supplies and was unsanitary. After the fort's deactivation the hospital was used as a rooming house and for storage until it was destroyed by fire in 1911. The building was rebuilt in the mid-1980s with the aid of architectural and historical records. Presently, the hospital contains a museum about frontier medicine in its north ward, a library in the south ward, and general medical exhibits in the center.[55]

The residence of Oscar Ruffini, San Angelo's first civic architect, was moved to the far east side of the fort grounds on 14 May 1951.[56]

Officer's Quarters 3 from the northwest

The officers' quarters were built in several phases from 1869 to the mid-1870s. These buildings were assigned by rank, regardless of the size of an officer's family. In 1879, Grierson had a water pipe laid behind the Officers' Quarters leading to a pump on the parade ground for horticultural use.[57]

Officer's Quarters 1 was the residence of the fort commander from its completion in 1872, replacing Officer's Quarters 3 in that capacity. Benjamin Grierson was the commanding officer who lived there the longest, from 1875 to 1882. Grierson added the west office, kitchen, and carriage house, and placed locks on every door in the building. Grierson's daughter Edith died of typhoid in the building on 9 September 1878.[58] The Fort Concho Museum purchased the building in 1964, and it served for years as the meeting place of the Tom Green County Historical Society. Officer's Quarters 1 was renovated in 1994 and became the Concho Valley Pioneer Heritage Center.[58]

Until the completion of Officer's Quarters 1 in 1872, Officer's Quarters 3 was the home of Fort Concho's commander. This building may also have been first of the officers' residences to be completed, in 1870. Because Officer's Quarters 3 had the greatest abundance of original interior fabric, it was restored to appear as it would have in the 1870s.[59]

The schoolhouse, also functioning as a chapel, was the last permanent structure to be built at Fort Concho. The structure was begun in November 1872 as another officer's residence, but only the foundation and basement of the kitchen were completed. When funding for construction was slashed, a schoolhouse and chapel were decided to be built, instead, for the education of the garrison's black soldiers and religious ceremonies. Both of these had been held in various places around the fort. Chaplain Badger had requested, fruitlessly, the construction of a permanent chapel, and for want of such a building, built a picket and sod chapel. Badger died at the fort on 3 June 1876, and was succeeded by George W. Ward, who dedicated the chapel upon its completion on 22 February 1879. After the US Army left, the building continued functioning as a schoolhouse, and at one point, a private home. The Fort Concho Museum acquired the schoolhouse in 1946 and restored it. Since 1976, it has housed a living history event to teach local elementary schoolers about life in 1880s Texas.[60]

Interior of Barracks 2, containing wagon coaches and artillery pieces from the 19th century

Texas State Historical Association