Fort Lancaster, C.S.A.

The Handbook of Texas says the Confederates who held Fort Lancaster from December 1861 to April 1862 were Walter P. Lane's rangers, who became Company F of the Second Regiment, Texas Mounted Rifles. Lane, born in County Cork in 1817, had been wounded the day before San Jacinto and promoted for gallantry in the battle, and later fought at Monterrey. The first Confederate company raised in Harrison County was named for him, though Lane himself joined the Third Texas Cavalry as lieutenant colonel in July 1861. His promotion to brigadier general was confirmed in March 1865.

What the plaque says

Site 33 miles west on US 90. Upon US surrender Texas Forts start of Civil War, made part Confederate far western frontier line. Occupied by 2nd Texas cavalry. On supply line to and from Arizona-New Mexico Campaign 1861-62, intended to make Confederacy an ocean to ocean nation. When regular patrols to guard supply trains and check Indian activities grew dull, life spiced by camp newspaper and nightly sport of shooting pesky coyotes. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy Erected by the State of Texas 1963

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Crockett County Museum — steps away
  Three floors of ranch-country history in Ozona, the only town in Crockett County, housed in a burned-out 1926 church rebuilt as a hospital and courthouse annex.
• Caverns of Sonora — 26 mi
  A show cave on a Sutton County ranch, opened in 1960 by cavers who wanted to stop the damage, and dense with helictites that grow sideways in every direction.

More markers nearby

• Crockett County — steps away
• Ozona Stockman, The — steps away
• Ozona's First Water Well — steps away
• Ozona's Water System — 0.3 mi