Site of Camp Sabinal

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Camp Sabinal, straight from the record. Now, the frontier of 1856 was not a gentle place. The San Antonio to El Paso Road stretched out through some of the loneliest, most contested country in Texas, and the settlers pushing into that territory needed somebody standing between them and whatever the land had in store.

On July 12th of that year, Captain Albert G. Brackett of the Second U.S. Cavalry rode out and established a post right here.

They called it Camp Sabinal. Brackett set it up with a clear purpose: protection. Protection for the road, protection for the frontier settlers clinging to their claims in this wild stretch of country.

Federal troops occupied the camp through that summer and into the fall, and then, come November of 1856, they were gone. Just like that. But the story of this ground didn't end with the army pulling out.

The camp lived on in a different capacity, later serving as a Ranger camp. Different men, same hard country. That's the thing about a place like this.

The names and the uniforms change, but the work, guardin' the road, holdin' the line on the frontier, just kept on.

What the marker says

Established July 12, 1856 by Capt. Albert G. Brackett, Second U. S. Cavalry as a protection to the San Antonio - El Paso Road and frontier settlers. Occupied by Federal troops until November 1856, later served as a Ranger camp.