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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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FORT JESUP
Louisiana
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Location: Sabine Parish, on La. 6, about 7 miles
northeast of Many.
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From its founding in 1822, when it was the most
southwesterly outpost of the United States, until its inactivation in
1846, this fort was the southern anchor of the "Permanent Indian
Frontier." Because of a dispute over the Texas-United States boundary,
in 1806 Spain and the United States had designated as a neutral strip an
area 30 to 40 miles wide extending eastward from the Sabine River and
embracing most of the present western tier of parishes in Louisiana.
Under the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, the United States acquired the
strip, which had become a haven for outlaws and marauders who molested
settlers emigrating to Texas, and moved swiftly to occupy and police it.
Pending ratification of the treaty, which occurred in 1821, the U.S.
Government in 1820 built Fort Selden, La., on the Bayou Pierre near its
junction with the Red River just outside the strip on its eastern edge.
The following year it made plans to set up another post nearer the
Sabine.
The Army abandoned Fort Selden in 1822. Lt. Col.
Zachary Taylor occupied the watershed between the Sabine and the Red
Rivers and moved to a point 25 miles south-southwest of Fort Selden,
where his troops built a group of log cabins that became Fort Jesup.
Within a few months, it had the largest garrison in Louisiana,
consisting of a battalion of the 7th Infantry under Lt. Col. James B.
Many. In 1827-28 the troops helped construct a military road 262 miles
northwest to Fort Towson, Okla. Gen. Henry Leavenworth commanded Fort
Jesup in the years 1831-33. The next year Colonel Many reassumed command
and garrisoned it with six companies of the 3d Infantry. In 1833 the
Government, recognizing the enlargement and expansion of the post,
created the 16,000-acre Fort Jesup Military Reservation. The following
June troops from Fort Jesup participated in the ceremonies involved in
the signing of the Caddo Indian Treaty at the Caddo Indian Agency
headquarters, on the bluff overlooking Bayou Pierre, some 9 miles south
of present Shreveport. This was the only treaty the U.S. Government ever
executed with the Indians in Louisiana.
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Reconstructed officers' quarters
and modern visitor center, Fort Jesup State Monument. (Louisiana
State Parks and Recreation Commission) |
After the Texas Revolution began in 1835,
reinforcements arrived at Fort Jesup. Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines
assembled 13 infantry companies at the fort and early in 1836 marched to
the Sabine, where he founded the temporary post of Camp Sabine. From
there he occupied Nacogdoches and remained until the independence of
Texas was assured. In 1846, the year after President James K. Polk
ordered Gen. Zachary Taylor, the Fort Jesup commander, to move a force
into Texas in anticipation of a war with Mexico, the Army inactivated
the fort.
Fort Jesup State Monument commemorates the fort. The
only original building is one of the log kitchens, which has been
repaired, reroofed, and refurnished with period reproductions of
authentic kitchenware. An officers' quarters, reconstructed for use as a
visitor center and park administrative office, contains historical
exhibits.
NHL Designation: 07/04/61
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/siteb11.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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