Fort McKavett, C.S.A.

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Fort McKavett. Twenty-one miles west of where you're sitting right now.

And friend, this place carried a heavier load during the Civil War than most folks ever stop to think about. When Texas seceded, Confederate cavalry rode in and occupied the post. Their job wasn't just about the war to the east; it was the frontier itself.

Indians. Settlements. The whole ragged edge of a state trying to hold together while everything else was falling apart.

Now here's a detail that'll stop you cold. Early in 1862, this fort held a group of Union troops, men from surrendered U.S. forts who were trying to leave the state at the very start of the Civil War. Confined right here, twenty-one miles west of this marker, while the world outside them was choosing sides and drawing lines in the dirt.

Then April of 1862 came, and the Confederate defense line was pulled back. Pulled back more than sixty miles east. The permanent personnel left the post.

Just gone. You might think that was the end of Fort McKavett's story for the war years. But it wasn't.

Not by a long shot. Scouting parties came back. Confederate troops.

State troops. They used this fort intermittently; riding out in aggressive warfare, keeping Indians near their camps and away from settlements, watching for any Union push inland. And here's what gets me about these men: usually they supplied their own mounts, their own guns, their own sustenance.

Their own everything. They weren't drawing on some grand supply chain. They were just doing it, out of their own pockets and saddlebags, until the war finally ended.

Now think about the scale of what Texas was trying to defend. Two thousand miles. Two thousand miles of coastline and frontier, all of it exposed to Union attack, Indian raids, marauders.

The defense planners had to make hard choices: maximum protection with the few men left in the state. One line stretched from El Paso all the way down to Brownsville. Another had posts set exactly a day's horseback ride apart, running from the Red River to the Rio Grande.

And Fort McKavett sat out there in a third line between them, one of the old U.S. forts kept alive by those scouting parties. Behind all those lines, to the east, organized militia and citizens' posses from nearby settlements backed the Confederate and state troops. Layer upon layer of men trying to hold a frontier together with not enough of anything (except, apparently, will).

This marker was erected by the State of Texas in 1963 as a memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy. Whatever you make of that cause, the men who rode out of Fort McKavett on their own horses, with their own guns and their own food, guarding two thousand miles of the loneliest frontier in America, they were out here. And this ground remembers.

What the marker 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