Fort McKavett, C.S.A.

The Handbook of Texas traces the post to 1849, when Col. Joseph E. Johnston's topographical engineers surveyed West Texas and Lt. William H. C. Whiting recommended a post at the old San Sabá presidio. Gen. Persifor F. Smith ordered posts on the San Saba and the Concho on December 16, 1851. Five companies of the Eighth Infantry under Lt. Col. Thomas Staniford garrisoned the camp, which covered about 2,373 acres, and soldiers got extra pay and rations for building it of local stone and lumber. It was Fort McKavett by February 1853.

What the plaque says

Located 21 miles west. Upon secession, Confederate cavalry occupied this post to give protection against Indians. Early in 1862 this fort confined group of Union troops from surrendered U.S. forts who were seeking to leave the state at start of Civil War. Permanent personnel left the post in April 1862 when the frontier defense line was pulled back more than 60 miles east. However scouting parties and patrols of confederate and state troops used the fort intermittently in aggressive warfare to keep Indians near their camps and away from settlements and to check on invasion by Union forces. Usually supplying their own mounts, guns and sustenance, these men guarded the frontier until war's end. Texas had 2000 miles of coastline and frontier to defend from Union attack, Indian raids, marauders. Defense lines were set to give maximum protection with the few men left in the state. One line stretched from El Paso to Brownsville. Another had posts set a day's horseback ride apart from Red River to the Rio Grande. Fort McKavett and other U.S. forts used by scouting parties lay in a line between. Behind these lines and to the east organized militia, citizens' posses from nearby settlements backed the Confederate and state troops to curb Indian raids. A memorial to Texans who served the confederacy Erected by the State of Texas 1963

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Presidio de San Saba — 1.2 mi
  The ruins of the largest Spanish presidio in Texas, built in 1757 to guard a mission to the Lipan Apache, where the Comanche and their allies first turned back Spain's frontier.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 20 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• The Ditch — steps away
• Pioneer Rest Cemetery — 0.3 mi
• Paso de la Santa Cruz — 0.6 mi
• Puerto de Baluartes (Haven of the Strong Points) — 0.9 mi