Old Fort Mason

Lee's Texas years began in 1856 at Camp Cooper, on the Comanche reservation in present Shackelford County, a lonely post he called "my Texas home." That June he led four squadrons from Camp Cooper and forts Mason and Chadbourne on a forty-day, 1,600-mile expedition to the foothills of the Llano Estacado. He went east in 1857 to settle his father-in-law's estate and in 1859 led the marines who captured John Brown. Back in Texas in February 1860, he rode to the Rio Grande that March in pursuit of Juan N. Cortina.

What the plaque says

Old Fort Mason Situated near a spring long used by Indians; built of stone quarried from post hill. Fort helped protect Texas frontier from Indians. Colonel Robert E. Lee, stationed in Texas 2 years, commanded Fort Mason from February 1860 to February 1861. Here he made his decision as to his part in the Civil War, saying: "If the Union is dissolved,...I shall return to my native state and...save in defense...draw my sword on none". He left Fort Mason February 13, 1861. In wartime he remembered "the enemy never sees the backs of Texans". (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Mason — 1.5 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 15 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area — 31 mi
  A dome of pink granite north of Fredericksburg that rises some 385 feet above Sandy Creek, creaks as it cools at night, and has drawn people for thousands of years.

More markers nearby

• Crosby Cemetery — 0.6 mi
• Koocksville — 0.6 mi
• Two Sheriffs of Mason County — 0.8 mi
• St. Joseph's Catholic Church — 1.1 mi