Fort Stockton, C.S.A.

The regiment that held the post was raised in May 1861 as the Second Texas Mounted Rifles, about 1,200 men from seventeen counties under Col. John S. Ford, with John R. Baylor among its field officers. It fought at Mesilla and Fort Bliss, joined Sibley's New Mexico campaign at Valverde and Glorieta, then served in Louisiana and on the Texas coast. A mutiny in mid-1862 cost the men their horses early in 1863. By July 1864 the regiment was down to 167 men, and it surrendered at Galveston on June 2, 1865.

What the plaque says

Fort Stockton, C.S.A. After federal evacuation at start of Civil War, occupied by 2nd Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles. On far western frontier defense line. Supply post for troops going to and from Arizona-New Mexico campaign 1861-1862, designed to make confederacy an ocean to ocean nation. At times this area was the center of Comanche and Apache activities. California union troops dominated area 1862-65. Stopover on way west for many union sympathizers and people wanting to avoid conflict of war. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Annie Riggs Memorial Museum — steps away
  An 1899 adobe hotel on Main Street that a twice-married frontier woman bought with her gunfighter husband's estate and ran as a boarding house until she died in 1931.
• Comanche Springs — steps away
  Once the sixth largest spring in Texas and a campground on the Comanche Trail to Mexico, pumped dry by 1961 under the rule of capture and now flowing again some winters.
• Historic Fort Stockton — 0.5 mi
  The Ninth Cavalry's post at Comanche Springs from 1867 to 1886, with its 1868 stone guardhouse, three adobe officers' quarters and barracks rebuilt from the original plans.

More markers nearby

• Site of Fort Stockton — steps away
• O. W. Williams — 0.3 mi
• First Telephone Exchange — 0.3 mi
• Site of Comanche Springs — 0.3 mi