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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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ADOBE WALLS BATTLEFIELD
Texas
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Location: Hutchinson County, on an unimproved
road, about 17 miles northeast of Stinnett. Make local inquiry.
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This site on the Canadian River in the Texas
Panhandle, where William Bent had built an adobe trading post in the
1840's but soon abandoned it because of Indian hostility, was twice a
battleground. The first engagement between Col. Christopher ("Kit")
Carson's command and a force of Kiowas, occurred late in November 1864.
Carson, fresh from victories over the Apaches and Navajos of New Mexico,
was leading an expedition sent out by Brig. Gen. James H. Carleton,
Federal commander at Santa Fe, to punish the Kiowas and Comanches for
raiding the Santa Fe Trail. Carson's 336 California and New Mexico
Volunteers and 75 Ute and Jicarilla Apache auxiliaries discovered Chief
Little Mountain's village of Kiowas at the Adobe Walls site. A conflict
ensued with 1,000 warriors. The attackers became the besieged, however,
when Kiowas and Comanches from other camps joined in the fight. The
battle raged on, but Carson's two mountain howitzers saved the day. At
dusk the troops burned one of the camps and retreated to their base at
Fort Bascom, N. Mex. Three of Carson's men died and 15 received wounds.
Indian casualties totaled 60.
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Nick Eggenhoffer's painting of
the first Battle of Adobe Walls, Tex., hangs at Fort Union National
Monument, N. Mex. (National Park Service) |
The second battle at the site, late in June 1874, was
one of the causes of the Red River War (1874-75). The Kiowas and
Comanches, prodded by some Southern Cheyennes, were attempting to rid
the Texas Panhandle of white buffalo hunters. A large group attacked 28
hunters, camped about a mile from the scene of the Carson fight at a
trading center established earlier the same year by Dodge City
merchants. The hunters took refuge in two stores and a saloon. They
withstood the assault for several days with remarkably accurate fire
until reinforcements arrived from other hunting parties in the area and
helped rout the Indians.
The site is owned by the Panhandle-Plains Historical
Society of Canyon (Tex.), which has erected a marker. The remains of the
buildings, however, have disappeared.
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CAMP COOPER
Texas
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Location: Throckmorton County, on a privately
owned ranch, in the vicinity of Fort Griffin State Park, which is on
U.S. 283. Accessible by foot only. Make local inquiry.
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A collection of tents and makeshift buildings of mud,
stone, and wood, this short-lived camp (1856-61) protected settlers and
controlled the 400 or so Comanches living on the nearby Comanche Indian
Reservation. Robert E. Lee served at the camp as a junior officer in
1856-57. It was the base of numerous expeditions and patrols against the
Indians until the Civil War began and the commander surrendered to Texas
troops. During the post-Civil War period, State militia and Texas
Rangers occasionally used the camp.
A building dating from the early 1850's, probably
constructed with fragments of post structures, stands in the vicinity of
the southern edge of the parade ground. The present ranchhouse, a mile
to the east, contains stones and glass from the camp. Permission to
visit the site, which involves wading across the hip-deep Clear Fork of
the Brazos River, should be obtained from the ranch owners.
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CAMP HUDSON
Texas
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Location: Val Verde County, on Tex. 163, about 20
miles north of Comstock.
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Camp Hudson (1857-68), located in the wild and remote
Devil's River region of western Texas, guarded the lower San Antonio-El
Paso Road. In 1859 its troops participated in the Army's camel
experiment by accompanying a caravan on a 75-day patrol through the
area. The following year another caravan passed by the camp on its way
to Fort Stockton, Tex. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Federal troops
evacuated Camp Hudson, and the Texas Mounted Rifles occupied it until
U.S. soldiers returned after the war.
The site is located in a desolate rock-strewn field.
A State marker and a small gravestone are the only memorials.
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CAMP VERDE
Texas
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Location: Kerr County, on County 689, about 2
miles north of the town of Camp Verde.
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This camp (1856-69) was one of a chain of forts
protecting Texas settlers and did its share of Comanche fighting, but it
won its major distinction as headquarters of the Army's camel
experiment. This project was the brainchild of Edward F. Beale,
Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada, who
persuaded Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to test camels in
transporting personnel and freight in arid country. At his urging,
Congress in 1855 appropriated $30,000 to conduct the experiment. More
than 70 camels, acquired by the War Department in the Mediterranean
area, and a few herders arrived on Navy ships at Indianola, Tex., in
1856-57 and were then herded to Camp Verde. A specially erected
caravansary, or khan, modeled after one in North Africa, accommodated
them. In 1857 Beale took about 25 of them to Fort Tejon, Calif., while
surveying a proposed road across the Southwest.
Those based at Camp Verde were tested under field
conditions in various parts of western Texas. Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee was
in charge of the experiment. The Confederates acquired the camels when
they took over Camp Verde in 1861 and they were still on hand when
Federal troops reoccupied it in 1866. Three years later the Army
relinquished Camp Verde and sold the herd to a private entrepreneur in
San Antonio. Although the camels had demonstrated their superiority over
mules, after the war any project associated with Confederate President
Jefferson Davis was discredited. This and other factors brought about
the end of the program.
The site is marked. Remaining are only two stucco
buildings, much altered and probably dating from the 1850's, used today
by the ranch owners as guesthouses. One of these is a linear barracks
building, a composite of three original structures. The other building,
the officers' quarters, has a rear wing. Mounds of earth reveal the site
of the caravansary. The parade ground is distinguishable.
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FORT BLISS
Texas
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Location: El Paso County, various locations in and
near El Paso. See following account.
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Since its creation in 1848 this post has been located
at five different places, all in the city limits of El Paso except the
present one, and sometimes its garrison was billeted in the city. Over
the years the post has had almost as many variant names as sites: Post
of El Paso and Post at Smith's Ranch, at Smith's Ranch (1849-51); Fort
Bliss, at Magoffinsville (1854-68), including Confederate occupation in
1861-62); Camp Concordia and Fort Bliss, at Concordia Ranch (1868-77);
and Fort Bliss, at Hart's Mill and the current location
(1878-present).
The fort was founded across the Rio Grande from El
Paso del Norte (Ciudad Juarez), Mexico, to establish and maintain U.S.
authority in the area acquired in the War with Mexico (1846-48), to
defend the El Paso area from Indian depredations, and to protect the
Southern Transcontinental Trail to California. The fort logistically
supported and its garrison participated in various Apache campaigns in
Texas and New Mexico, in 1857 and in the 1870's and 1880's. But the
troops spent even more time controlling local lawless elements and
arbitrating border conflicts. Activities at the fort peaked in World
Wars I and II, and it is now the Army Air Defense Center.
Nothing has survived of the first three posts
(Smith's Ranch, Magoffinsville, and Concordia Ranch). At the Hart's Mill
site (1878-93), on the western edge of El Paso at the intersection of
U.S. 80 (Alternate) overpass and Doniphan Street, are several officers'
quarters, now used as apartments, and an adobe barracks. At modern Fort
Bliss (1893-present), on the northeastern edge of the city, is an adobe
replica of the Magoffinsville fort, donated by the El Paso Chamber of
Commerce. It now serves as a chapel and museum. Other buildings of
interest at the modern post include the old brick messhall, remodeled
and serving as the post exchange; 14 sets of officers' quarters, still
in use; and 2 original barracks buildings, on either side of the old
messhall, housing administrative offices.
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FORT CHADBOURNE
Texas
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Location: Coke County, just off U.S. 277, about
2-1/2 miles north of its junction with Tex. 70, some 4 miles northeast
of the town of Fort Chadbourne.
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Fort Chadbourne (1852-67) was one of the outer ring
of posts founded in the early 1850's to protect the Texas frontier from
plundering Kiowas and Comanches. Other forts in the ring were Belknap,
Phantom Hill, McKavett, and Clark. From 1858 until 1861 Fort Chadbourne
was division headquarters for the Butterfield Overland Mail. During the
Civil War, Confederate troops periodically occupied the fort. Union
troops returned in May 1867 but remained only until December, when Fort
Concho was established not far to the south. Fort Chadbourne, however,
continued to serve as a station on the San Antonio-El Paso stageline and
the Army sometimes used it as a subpost.
A State marker indicates the privately owned site,
which is not open to the public. The ruins are part of the headquarters
of a cattle ranch, and the parade ground is a grazing area. The walls of
four limestone buildings, two barracks and two officers' quarters, stand
in their entirety, as well as several partial walls. Piles of stone
rubble outline other structures. One of the barracks has been reroofed
and is used as a cattle barn.
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FORT CLARK
Texas
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Location: Kinney County, southern edge of
Brackettville.
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Unlike many other forts prominent in the Indian wars,
this fort in south-central Texas remained an active post through World
War II. It was founded in 1852 and inactivated in the mid-1940's.
Southern anchor of the Texas defense line in the 1850's, it guarded the
San Antonio-El Paso Road and policed the Mexican border. In 1861 the
Confederates moved in, but Union troops returned 5 years later. The fort
was the headquarters of Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie in 1873 when he created
an international incident by crossing the border and attacking Kickapoo
and Lipan Apache raiders who were using Mexico as a sanctuary. Troops
from the fort played a small role in the Red River War (1874-75). After
the 1880's, the Indians in the region subdued, the fort remained active
as an infantry and cavalry post and was a cavalry training center during
World War II.
Approximately 25 to 30 buildings dating from the 19th
century have survived amid later military construction. At least three
of them, two sets of officers' quarters and one other building, all of
vertical log construction, probably date from the early 1850's. The
remainder, of stone construction, were constructed in the later 1850's
or the 1880's. They include officers' quarters, barracks, commanding
officer's house, quartermaster storehouse, and guard house. Most of the
buildings have been altered, and are used by the privately owned guest
ranch that occupies the site.
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FORT DUNCAN
Texas
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Location: Maverick County, Fort Duncan Park, city
of Eagle Pass.
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Fort Duncan (1849-83), commanding strategic Eagle
Pass, was located on the east bank of the Rio Grande. Like Fort McIntosh
and other posts along the river, it guarded the international boundary,
scrutinized the traders crossing it, and protected settlers and
emigrants. It was evacuated in 1859, reoccupied the following year,
abandoned again in 1861, and occupied by the Confederates in 1862-64. In
1864 Union troops attacked it and Fort McIntosh. (Eagle Pass was a
Confederate center for trade with Europe by way of Mexico.) The fort was
occupied by Federal troops in 1868. Another military post, known as Camp
at Eagle Pass (1886-1927), succeeded Fort Duncan on its site.
The dozen buildings from the old fort remaining in
Fort Duncan Park, a city recreational park, include a stone magazine
(1849), in excellent condition; stone stables; and an adobe officers'
quarters.
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FORT GRIFFIN
Texas
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Location: Shackelford County, on U.S. 283, about
15 miles north of Albany.
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During the years 1867-81 this fort, which helped
assume the mission of the inactivated Fort Belknap, protected settlers
from Comanche and Kiowa hostilities; escorted mail riders, surveyors,
and cattle drovers; served as a communication link on the Fort
Concho-Fort Richardson Military Road; and, as Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's
main supply depot, played a major part in the Red River War (1874-75).
The wild town of Fort Griffin, or The Flat, which grew up at the bottom
of the hill north of the fort, was a supply and shipping center for
buffalo hide hunters and a major stop on the Western Cattle Trail. As
the buffalo hunters completed their slaughter and the troops from the
fort pacified the Plains, the cattlemen pushed their holdings and their
drives north west from the town which declined.
Fort Griffin State Park, on a flat hilltop
overlooking the valley of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, preserves
the stone remains of several buildings. Included are those of the powder
magazine, bakery, administration building, and sutler's store. The sites
of some other buildings are marked. A 40-ton granite shaft, erected by
the State, stands in the center of the parade ground. One false-front
building is located at the privately owned site of The Flat.
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FORT LANCASTER
Texas
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Location: Crockett County, just off U.S. 290,
about 10 miles east of Sheffield.
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For the 6 years (1855-61) Fort Lancaster was active,
its garrison pursued Comanches and Mescalero Apaches and guarded the
Pecos crossing of the San Antonio-El Paso Road. Federal troops abandoned
it in 1861, never to return permanently. The Confederates sporadically
occupied it. After the war it was frequently a subpost and remained a
stopping off place for travelers, attracted by the water supply.
The extensive stone ruins of the fort, visible from
the State marker on U.S. 290, reveal the location of practically every
building. The vegetation-covered ruins, of which those of the barracks
stand out, consist of foundations; partial stone walls, some rising 6 to
8 feet; chimneys and fireplaces; and piles of rubble. In 1965 the owners
donated the 39-acre site to the county for preservation as a historic
site.
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FORT MCINTOSH
Texas
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Location: Webb County, on Fort McIntosh
Reservation, about 15 blocks west of downtown Laredo, via Victoria
Street.
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This was one of the few frontier forts whose history
extended into the modern period, until 1946. Founded on the banks of the
Rio Grande at Laredo in 1849, right after the Mexican War, it policed
the international boundary and defended settlers from hostile Apaches
and Comanches. During the Civil War, Confederates garrisoned the post, a
star fort of earth and stone, and withstood an 1864 Union raid. In 1865
reoccupying U.S. forces relocated the fort a half mile down the river
and erected a more conventional frontier post.
The fort's complex of stone, brick, and frame
buildings, modern and old, is used by Laredo Junior College and various
Government agencies. The newer buildings and the parade ground are near
the entrance. Brick and frame officers' quarters line two sides of the
parade ground, and two-story brick barracks a third. The older buildings
are north of the parade ground. The guard house is now a warehouse, and
the U.S. Border Patrol occupies the headquarters building. All that
remains of the first fort, in the northwestern corner of the Fort
McIntosh Reservation, are mounds of earth.
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FORT MCKAVETT
Texas
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Location: Menard County, town of Fort
McKavett.
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Fort McKavett (1852-83), perched atop a high bluff
overlooking the San Saba River, was part of a system of forts
established in the 1850's to guard the Texas frontier. It was evacuated
in 1859 and not reoccupied until 1868, though the Confederates used it
intermittently during the Civil War. In the intervening years the stone
post had fallen into ruins, and only one building was habitable. In 1869
Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie made it his headquarters and launched a major
repair and expansion program. The garrison participated in the Red River
War (1874-75) and the Victorio campaign (1879-80).
Impressive stone remains stand today in Fort McKavett
State Historic Park. Most of the original structures have survived, and
many of them are residences or business places. Scattered among the
inhabited buildings are stone walls and vacant, crumbling buildings,
overgrown with weeds.
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FORT PHANTOM HILL
Texas
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Location: Jones County, on an unimproved road,
about 14 miles north of Abilene.
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A hardship post frequently harassed by Indians, Fort
Phantom Hill (1851-54) existed for just a few years. Located on the
Clear Fork of the Brazos River, it served as a link in the Texas defense
system and watched over the Fort Smith-Santa Fe emigrant road. Between
1858 and 1861 the site of Fort Phantom Hill was a stage station on the
Butterfield Overland Mail, and after 1867 was sometimes utilized by
patrols operating out of Forts Griffin and Richardson.
The privately owned site is commemorated by a State
marker, but is heavily covered with underbrush. The magazine and guard
house, two of the few stone buildings at the fort, remain intact. A
large number of stone chimneys of the log buildings are extant.
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FORT STOCKTON
Texas
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Location: Pecos County, on Spring Drive between
Second and Fifth Streets, town of Fort Stockton.
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Part of the frontier defenses of western Texas, Fort
Stockton (1858-86) was established at Comanche Springs, a strategic
watering place on the Great Comanche War Trail. Its mission was
protection of local and transcontinental traffic on the San Antonio-El
Paso Road, which passed by the springs. U.S. troops evacuated the fort
at the beginning of the Civil War and did not return until 1867. They
took part in the Victorio campaign (1879-80). The subsequent bypassing
of the fort by the railroad, which ended the requirement to protect the
mail, emigrants, and stages, caused its inactivation.
The site, indicated by a State marker on the
courthouse grounds of the town, borders James Rooney Park, surrounding
Comanche Springs. Four buildings remain: a stone guardhouse, unoccupied;
and three adobe officers' quarters, remodeled and used as residences.
The Chamber of Commerce has marked these buildings, as well as other
historic structures in the town.
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FORT TERRETT
Texas
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Location: Sutton County, on an unimproved road
about 1 mile north of U.S. 290, about 32 miles southeast of
Sonora.
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One of the less important Texas forts and active only
in the years 1852-54, this hardship post was surrounded by numerous
others. Its infantrymen guarded settlements along the old San Antonio
Road from Comanche attacks. Reasons for abandonment, beyond its limited
strategic significance were the sickness rate and low morale.
A privately owned ranch occupies the site, marked by
the State. Remaining are two remodeled stone buildings: a barracks, used
as a garage; and the commanding officer's home, now a residence.
Foundations trace other buildings, and the parade ground is
ascertainable.
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PALO DURO CANYON BATTLEFIELD
Texas
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Location: Armstrong County, about 20 miles
southeast of the town of Canyon. Accessible by foot only. Make local
inquiry.
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Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, noted
Indian fighter, won a resounding victory at the Battle of Palo Duro
Canyon. (photo Matthew B. Brady, National
Archives) |
In this colorful and jagged canyon on the Staked
Plains of the Texas Panhandle, Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's 4th Cavalry,
operating out of Fort Concho, Tex., dealt a severe blow to the Comanches
and hastened the end of the Red River War (1874-75). On September 27,
1874, Mackenzie discovered a sizable camp in the canyon, a favorite
Comanche campsite and refuge. He descended and attacked. The Indians
scattered in the rough terrain and fought so fiercely from shelters
along the canyon slopes that the troops had to retreat. The Indians
suffered few casualties, but Mackenzie captured and destroyed their pony
herd, numbering 1,400 head. This deprived them of sustenance, hampered
their mobility and morale, and contributed significantly to their
ultimate surrender.
Part of Palo Duro Canyon, formed by the Prairie Dog
Town Fork of the Red River, is now a State park. The battle site,
however, is down the canyon from the park. It is inaccessible by wheeled
vehicle but may be viewed from the south rim of the canyon at a point
about 10 miles northwest of the village of Wayside. At this overlook a
trail, the only one on the south rim for miles and the one used by
Mackenzie, leads into the canyon.
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TINAJA DE LAS PALMAS BATTLE SITE
Texas
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Location: Hudspeth County, on an unimproved road,
about 15 miles southeast of the town of Sierra Blanca.
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The defeat inflicted by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson's
black troops on the Warm Springs Apache Victorio and his followers at
this site climaxed the Army's 1879-80 campaign against them and ended
their forays in the Southwest. In the summer of 1880 Grierson,
anticipating another raid by the group across the Rio Grande into Texas
and New Mexico, established his headquarters at Fort Davis and
intensified defensive measures. On July 29, while on an inspection trip
with eight men, he was near the Eagle Mountains when he learned Victorio
had crossed the Rio Grande in the vicinity. Sending for reinforcements
from nearby Eagle Springs and Fort Quitman, Grierson supervised the
erection of two small stone barricades along narrow Devil Ridge, which
overlooked a waterhole west of the Eagle Mountains known as Tinaja de
las Palmas. It was the only source of water in the arid valley that
Victorio had to follow to pass around the mountains.
Engaging Victorio and his party the next morning when
they arrived at the waterhole, Grierson and his handful of men held them
off until reinforcements arrived. Seven of Victorio's men died and many
more suffered wounds. The soldiers counted only one dead and two
wounded. Victorio retreated to Mexico. A few days later, on August 6, to
the northeast of Tinaja de las Palmas near Rattlesnake Springs,
on the east side of the Sierra Diablo, Grierson's command once again
repulsed him. Thwarted in reaching New Mexico, he had to move back
across the Rio Grande, where 2 months later Mexican soldiers killed him
and many of his followers.
No marker is located at the site, on the east side of
the road, but the State has erected one in front of the courthouse at
the nearby town of Van Horn. Permission must be obtained from the
rancher who owns the Tinaja de las Palmas site before it may be visited.
The natural scene is almost completely unimpaired. On the southern end
of Devil Ridge are the remains of the two stone barricades. A linear
indention marking the route of the San Antonio-El Paso Road is visible
across the valley for miles.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitec16.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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