Camp Kingsville, U.S.A.

The raids this camp was built against grew out of the Plan of San Diego, a manifesto dated at San Diego, Texas, in January 1915 but drafted in a Monterrey jail, which called on Mexican Americans, African Americans and Japanese to take Texas and four other states from the United States. Some thirty raids between July 1915 and July 1916 killed twenty-one Americans. The reprisals were deadlier: federal reports put the number of Mexicans and Mexican Americans summarily executed in South Texas in those years at more than 300.

What the plaque says

Camp Kingsville, U.S.A. (1915 - 1917) Established in September 1915 by Lt. Joseph Dorst Patch, acting under orders of the United States Army during the troubles on the Mexican border. This camp served as the operational base for companies K, L and M of the 26th Infantry, U.S. Army. These units were detailed to defend the Armstrong, Kenedy and King ranches and the rail line from San Antonio to Norias against raids by Mexican insurgents striking north of the Rio Grande. Early in 1917, this camp was visited by the U.S. border commander, Gen. John J. Pershing, who later that year chose men of the 26th Infantry to become a vanguard regiment of the now famous First Division, American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. With departure of the chosen troops, bound for France, Camp Kingsville was closed. Joseph Dorst Patch, born December 8, 1885, at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., enlisted in 1909 and was commissioned in 1911. He married Minerva King of Agua Dulce. He served in two world wars, and was awarded the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre with Bronze Star, and the Order of the Bath (British). Retired in 1945 as a major general, he turned to writing as a vocation. His home was in Corpus Christi, where he died November 21, 1966. (1971) Plaque dedicated to Memory of Joseph Dorst Patch, Major general, U.S. Army,... soldier, humanitarian, patriot.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• King Ranch Visitor Center — steps away
  The bus-tour gate to a working ranch of about 825,000 acres, founded on Santa Gertrudis Creek in 1853 and worked from the start by the Kineños, families from Cruillas in Tamaulipas.
• Kenedy Ranch Museum of South Texas — 22 mi
  A museum in the Kenedy Pasture Company's 1927 office in Sarita, telling how Mifflin Kenedy and three generations of his family shaped the Wild Horse Desert, with murals and an audio guide.
• Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine — 23 mi
  The grave and shrine of the folk healer of Los Olmos, a place of prayer where South Texans still leave candles and letters for the curandero who took no fee.
• Heritage Museum at Falfurrias — 25 mi
  A free town museum of ranch gear, a Texas Ranger room and 99,000 photo negatives, in the town Edward Lasater built around his railroad and his Jersey cows.

More markers nearby

• Kleberg County — steps away
• Mexican Activities at Santa Gertrudis in the 1830's — steps away
• The King Ranch — steps away
• Texas A&M University-Kingsville — 1.0 mi