Fort McKavett and Hill Country Frontier

One could almost call them historical bookends, the Spanish presidio and the United States Army fort separated by 20 miles and 100 years. Located off U.S. Highway 190 on opposite banks of the San Saba River west of modern Menard, these two outposts of European-based culture are mute reminders of the conflict on the Edwards Plateau in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Through most of the 1600s, the High Plains of what today are eastern New Mexico and the Texas panhandle had been the range of native groups known to the Spanish as "Apache." In the early 1700s, Comanche horsemen began to push onto the Plains and the Edwards Plateau. As they reached the broken Hill Country, they encountered resistance from the Apache people called "Lipan."

Spain had established a productive mission complex among the Pueblo Indians near Santa Fe and along the valley of the upper Rio Grande. But by the mid-1700s the Spanish had only a tenuous hold on the land mass that is modern Texas. The eastern settlement most comparable to Santa Fe was at San Antonio, but it was a shadow of its New Mexico counterpart.

The Lipan occasionally raided the San Antonio missions, but in 1749 four of their chiefs made a peace agreement with the Spanish and appeared willing to accept missionaries in return for protection from the Comanche. After a mission on the Rio Grande proved unsuccessful, the Spanish tried again in what they believed to be Apache homeland near the heart of the Edwards Plateau. The chosen location was in a region contested by the Comanche.

The mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá was established on the south bank of the San Saba River in 1757. The protective fort, Presidio San Luís de las Amarillas, was located approximately four miles upstream, on the north bank. Lipan drifted into the mission slowly, but even then refused to stay. The puzzled Spanish had located the mission in a war zone, and in doing so had inadvertently made themselves targets of the Comanche.

Less than a year after construction, the mission and presidio were attacked by a large force of Comanche, Wichita, Tonkawa, and other Indians. Eight inhabitants of the mission were killed, and it was looted and burned. The survivors joined the soldiers inside the presidio, where they took refuge until the attackers withdrew.

Mission San Sabá was soon abandoned, and other missions were established for the Lipan on the Nueces River. These had some modest success, but a smallpox epidemic and Comanche raids finally drove the Lipan away. They would return to raid the Spanish settlements around San Antonio.

The Comanche meanwhile strengthened their hold on the Edwards Plateau. The presidio of San Sabá survived until 1772 when it, too, was abandoned. San Antonio and the surrounding area began to experience Comanche raids in the early 1770s. Travel to the north or west became dangerous, and most commerce and communication from San Antonio to Santa Fe flowed southwest, across the Rio Grande to Monclova, then west across northern Mexico to Chihuahua, and finally north through modern El Paso to Santa Fe. The Comanche range—Comanchería—extended from the Rocky Mountains east of Santa Fe to the Hill Country above San Antonio.

At the beginning of the 1800s, the Spanish were desperate for a way to protect their Texas frontier from Indian attack. The empresario arrangement with Moses Austin for the settlement of Anglo colonists from the United States was considered to be Spain's last hope to establish a buffer for its beleaguered Mexican settlements below the Rio Grande. After the Mexican revolt against Spain finally succeeded in 1821, the Texas settlements were virtually bereft of military protection. Only 59 soldiers were left in the province to guard about 4,000 people. The new Mexican government was unable to defend its own northern settlements or those of the new colonists in eastern Texas.

The Edwards Plateau became part of the home range of the Penateka band of Comanche, The Penateka name translated roughly as "Honey Eaters," possibly an allusion to the richness of the plant and wildlife resources found near their camps along the streams of the Hill Country. They had other names as well, one of which translated as "Wasps," or "Quick Stingers." Settlers victimized by their raids could attest to the appropriateness of those references.

Prior to their own revolt against Mexico, the Anglo-Texans had little contact with the Penateka. San Antonio was still primarily a Spanish-Mexican town. But the flood of immigration that accompanied nationhood pushed white settlement to the Balcones Escarpment, which formed the eastern and southern rim of the Edwards Plateau. In 1839, President Mirabeau B. Lamar succeeded in having the capital of the Republic of Texas relocated to the north bank of the Colorado River some 30 miles upstream from the town of Bastrop. The site selected, a tiny hamlet originally called Waterloo, lay on the fringe of the Penateka range.

The act at first was largely symbolic, a westward shift of the seat of government—soon to be named "Austin"—that matched Lamar's vision of a great Texas empire. But it also forced the Texas Congress to accept Lamar's plans for frontier defense, including the financing of a regular army and the construction of military posts along the edges of white settlement. Three initially were built: Fort Houston on what was then the northern frontier, Fort Colorado (also known as the Walnut Creek Fort) near Austin, and Fort Little River (also known as the Three Forks Fort) more or less midway between the other two.

But settlers were not content to merely defend the territory they already occupied. Early in 1839, veteran Indian fighter John Henry Moore led a force against a Comanche camp above the San Saba River. Although the expedition's success was debatable, it did signal to the Penateka that the Anglo-Texans would not be passive victims of Indian raiding. A cholera epidemic swept through the Comanche camps in the winter of 1839-1840, and spring brought the disaster of the Council House fight in San Antonio. Successive hammer blows struck the Penateka in battles at Plum Creek and their own camp on the Concho River later in the year.

The Penateka could not stand such a succession of losses, and they withdrew from much of their home range. For the next 15 years, they alternately raided the fringes of white settlement, bartered with official traders appointed by the Republic of Texas, and negotiated with Indian agents of the United States. Although they never again were able to hold the Edwards Plateau against invaders, they continued to use it as their range and as a route for raids into Mexico.

By the mid-1840s, white settlement pierced the Balcones Escarpment and began to creep up the Plateau's river valleys. The first of these extensions was the colony of French banker-diplomat Henri Castro, who settled his Alsatian immigrants in the Medina River valley west of San Antonio. German immigrants were drawn to the huge Fisher-Miller tract between the Llano and Colorado Rivers, but settled first on the Guadalupe River north of San Antonio and the Pedernales River to the northwest. These communities—New Braunfels and Fredericksburg, respectively—combined with Castroville to constitute what was considered at the time to be the "Western Frontier" of white settlement in Texas.
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At the end of the United States' war with Mexico in 1848, protection of Austin and the German and Alsatian settlements became the responsibility of the U.S. Army. The southern anchors of a "frontier line" of forts were placed near the edge of the Edwards Plateau. Fort Martin Scott was established in 1848 at Fredericksburg, the settlement most exposed to Plains Indian raids. Then followed Fort Croghan, located near the Colorado River above Austin; Fort Lincoln, on Seco Creek north of the Alsatian hamlet of D'Hanis; and Fort Inge, on the Leona River west of Castroville.

Although Fredericksburg may have appeared to be the most vulnerable settlement, defense of the Castro Colony occupied more of the Army's attention in the early 1850s. The settlements at the base of the Balcones Escarpment frequently were victimized by Indian raiders, and companies of the 2nd Dragoons from Fort Inge and Fort Lincoln occasionally were able to conduct a fruitful pursuit.

It was quickly evident, however, that most of the forts were located too far east—on or behind the frontier of settlement—to give even mounted troops a chance to do anything about the raiders except chase them after they had struck. The army's answer to this problem was to abandon most of the original "frontier line" of forts and to construct a second series of posts farther west.

A garrison was retained at Fort Inge, the westernmost of the original posts. Forts Croghan, Martin Scott, and Lincoln were vacated. Fort Mason was established about 40 miles northwest of Fredericksburg as a replacement for both Croghan and Martin Scott. Fort McKavett was located near the headwaters of the San Saba River, about 40 miles west of Fort Mason, and Fort Terrett was placed about 40 miles south of McKavett on the north fork of the Llano River.

Forts McKavett and Terrett were situated near one of the Comanche travel routes from the Plains into Mexico. This was a matter of some consequence. The United States, as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that concluded the Mexican War, had agreed to try to stop Indian raids into Mexico. Fort Inge, about 125 miles almost due south of McKavett and just off the Edwards Plateau, gave the army a third post near the Comanche trail.

This scheme, though logical, was at first ineffective. Fort Terrett was abandoned in 1854, only two years after it was established. Fort McKavett lasted seven years, but there are no reports of Indian fights involving troops from the post during that time. Companies of the 2nd Dragoons and the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen garrisoned at Fort Inge directed most of their attention to the Nueces Strip—the plain between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—because of the frequency of raids on ranchos near Laredo.

The situation changed in 1856, with the arrival and deployment of the 2nd Cavalry. This regiment was to become one of the most celebrated units in the history of the United States Army, and included 16 future Civil War generals among its officer corps. Its commander, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, established headquarters at Fort Mason.

Johnston and the regiment's lieutenant colonel, Robert E. Lee, put the unit to the task of scouring the country from the Brazos River to the Nueces—the entire Edwards Plateau and then some—in search of Indians. The regiment recorded more hostile actions against Indians than any other U.S. Army unit in Texas prior to the Civil War. Nearly two-thirds of the engagements occurred on the Edwards Plateau.

With the coming of secession and Civil War, Texas frontier folk fell back on the same types of defenses they had used during the Republic period: Texas-funded regular troops (the "Frontier Regiment"), militia, and a Frontier Organization that patrolled similarly to the rangers of the Republic but functioned no more efficiently than militia. By 1864, the frontier was under assault by northern Comanche and their Kiowa allies.

Reports received from some officials of frontier counties indicate 163 settlers killed, 24 wounded, and 43 carried away by Indian raiders during the period from the summer of 1865 to the summer of 1867. Many of these were no doubt from the counties north of the Edwards Plateau, above the Brazos River, where settlements were particularly vulnerable. But anecdotal reports from the Hill Country reflect a serious enough condition there. From Llano to Lampasas, the stories were the same: it had been 20 years since the Indians had been so numerous, so well-armed, and so bold; farmers were regularly being shot down in their fields, or their livestock driven away as they watched helplessly; the frontier was "breaking up," would have to be abandoned.

After the war, the state was prohibited from fielding its own defense forces. The U.S. Army was quick to get troops to the Rio Grande, but moved much more slowly to the western frontier. This reflected the army's concern, and that of the national government, for the international boundary and the post-war Reconstruction mission. One company of the 4th Cavalry was posted to Fort Martin Scott early in 1866 and another to Fort Inge. In November and December of that year, two companies were sent to Fort Mason and three to Camp Verde, south of Fredericksburg in modern Kerr County.

A new post on the Concho River—Fort Concho—was established two years later and Fort McKavett was reoccupied. But the cavalry companies were removed from Fort Inge, Fort Mason, and Camp Verde, and Fort Martin Scott was again abandoned. In 1869, Fort Inge, Fort Mason, and Camp Verde went the way of Martin Scott.

Forts McKavett and Concho were garrisoned initially by companies of the 4th Cavalry and 9th Cavalry, with infantry companies in support. The 4th would win renown as one of the hardest fighting outfits in the army during the Indian Wars. Its total of 36 engagements while stationed on the Texas frontier equaled that of the pre-war 2nd Cavalry. But it was the 9th that carried the heavy load of patrol and pursuit during the early post-Civil War years.

The 9th was manned by black enlisted personnel and white officers. From 1867 to 1875, the 9th had patrol and escort responsibilities for most of southwest Texas. In addition to its postings at Fort Concho and Fort McKavett, its companies were strung out among Forts Davis, Quitman and Stockton in the Trans-Pecos region; Fort Clark on the southern rim of the Edwards Plateau, and Fort Duncan, Fort McIntosh, and Ringgold Barracks on the lower Rio Grande.

Between them, the 4th and 9th Cavalry fought only a dozen engagements with Indians on the Edwards Plateau proper. But the location of Forts Concho and McKavett, and the heavy regimen of mounted patrols emanating from those posts, helped deflect Comanche and Kiowa raiders away from the Hill Country settlements as the Indians traveled to and from Mexico.

The frontier forts both provided protection for civilians already in the area and served as a magnet for further immigration. The army's need for goods and services created a cash market for local farmers, stockmen, and tradesmen. Products that could not be provided by local suppliers were freighted in from San Antonio, by either army wagons or civilian contractors. The "military road" that connected San Antonio to Fort Martin Scott, then to Fort Mason and Fort McKavett and, ultimately, to Fort Concho, served both the army and the civilian communities through which it passed.

This route was the first leg of what was known as the "upper road" from San Antonio to El Paso after the Civil War. The army's pre-war route—known as the "lower road"—ran directly west from San Antonio, through Fort Inge and Fort Clark, before turning northwest and crossing the Devil's River and the Pecos River. Shortly after Ben Ficklin took control of passenger and mail transportation on the El Paso Road in 1867, operations were shifted from the "lower" to the "upper" route. After passing near Fort Concho, the road turned southwest to the Pecos, running roughly along the same line as the old Butterfield mail route and the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail.

Ficklin established relay stations along the route at and between forts and settlements. The station on the Concho River became the junction of the San Antonio and El Paso road and the one from Fort Smith, Arkansas, that came by way of Fort Belknap, Fort Richardson, and Fort Griffin. The latter was essentially the north Texas stretch of the former Butterfield trail, and the intersection of these two routes turned the Concho station into a frontier crossroads. Two settlements—one called "Benficklin" and the other, closer to Fort Concho, known as "Santa Angela"—were soon competing for commercial supremacy in the area. Benficklin succumbed to a flood on the Concho River. Santa Angela, sometimes referred to by soldiers merely as "over the river," survived to become the county seat of Tom Green County.

By the end of the 1870s, the Comanche and Kiowa raiding had ceased. With the northern frontier secure, the army vacated Fort Richardson in 1878 and Fort Griffin in 1881. Fort McKavett followed in 1883, its buildings quickly occupied by the stockmen and merchants who had been drawn to the area within the protection of the army's cavalry patrols. Fort Concho hung on until 1889. After the fort was abandoned, its buildings slowly were incorporated into the renamed community of San Angelo.

Much of Fort Concho and Fort McKavett has been preserved or restored. The Fort Concho National Historic Landmark is today operated by the city of San Angelo. Fort McKavett State Historic Site is maintained by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The Gillespie County Historical Society is continuing an ambitious reconstruction program for Fort Martin Scott at Fredericksburg. There is little remaining or reconstructed at Forts Inge, Croghan, and Mason; the sites are maintained by the cities of Uvalde, Fredericksburg, Burnet, and Mason, respectively. Camp Verde and the site of Fort Lincoln are both on private land.

Ruins of the presidio of mission San Sabá were used in a reconstruction of the Spanish fort in 1936 as a project of the Texas Centennial observance, but the presidio is again in a state of collapse. Current excavation and restoration efforts are an enduring legacy of Spain's fragile, yet stubborn, presence on the Edwards Plateau.

Further reading is available on Texas Beyond History about Presidio San Sabá and the Mission.