Fort Brown, Texas

The brick Fort Brown most visitors picture came long after the earthwork. Rebuilding began in 1869 and produced a post hospital, an administration building, a large officers' quarters and a chapel. The Interior Department later ran the grounds as an experimental garden for spineless cactus. The Army returned in 1914, making the post headquarters of the Brownsville Military District under Gen. James Parker, and a wireless station followed about 1916. The Twelfth Cavalry was based here from World War I until 1941, then the 124th Cavalry trained until May 1944.

What the plaque says

Fort Brown, Texas Fort Taylor, renamed Fort Brown, May 17, 1846, in honor of Major Jacob Brown, 7th Infantry, who died here May 9, 1846, in its defense; Garrisoned by the 7th Infantry with Companies "I" 2nd Art. and "E" 3rd Artillery. Original dimensions: Earthwork of 800 yards perimeter, 6 bastion walls 9 1/2 ft. high, parapet 15 ft. wide, ditch 8 1/2 feet deep, 15 to 20 feet wide. Lieut. Thomas Barlow Chapter, D.A.R. 1938 (Marble slab mounted on concrete foundation. Erected by Fort Brown, U.S. Government.) (Said to have been in use somewhat, supplemented by barracks where Zachary Taylor Library is.)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stillman House Museum — 0.8 mi
  The 1850 Greek Revival house of Charles Stillman, who laid out Brownsville in 1848 beside the army's Fort Brown, and for a century the home of the Treviño family.
• Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park — 7.9 mi
  A flat coastal prairie north of Brownsville where Taylor's army and Arista's Army of the North fought the first major battle of the Mexican War on May 8, 1846, now interpreted from both sides.
• Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site — 22 mi
  A 72-foot brick tower finished in 1852 for the Brazos Santiago shipping lane, dark from 1905 until a reproduction lens was lit in 2022, and the only Texas lighthouse open to the public.
• Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge — 25 mi
  A coastal refuge set up in 1946 for wintering redhead ducks, with 417 bird species recorded and, by the Fish and Wildlife Service's account, the largest ocelot population in the United States.

More markers nearby

• Fort Brown Reservation — 0.6 mi
• Bagdad-Matamoros, C.S.A. — 0.6 mi
• Fort Brown — 0.7 mi
• Home of Charles Stillman, 1810-1875 — 0.8 mi