DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Fort Inge. Uvalde County.
And friend, there's more packed into that stretch of riverbank than you might expect. On March 13, 1849, Captain Sidney Burbank of the First U.S. Infantry planted a flag on the east bank of the Leona River and called it a fort.
Whether the Leona River was impressed is not recorded. But the post had a name before the first nail was driven — and that name carried weight. It was called Fort Inge, after Lieutenant Zebulon M.
P. Inge, who had been killed in the Battle of Resaca de La Palma on May 9, 1846, during the Mexican War. A man's name outlasting the man himself — that's the kind of thing that makes you go quiet for a moment out here on the road.
The fort's purpose was serious business: protecting the southern Overland Mail route from Indian raids. That mail route was a lifeline, and somebody had to stand between it and trouble. Fort Inge was that somebody.
Now, in 1856, a certain Robert E. Lee paid a visit. At that time — and the marker is particular about this — the fort consisted of a dozen primitive but neatly kept buildings.
Primitive, but neatly kept. There's a whole personality in those four words. Then the country split apart.
Confederate soldiers occupied the fort during the Civil War. When that war ended, Federal troops came back in 1866 and reoccupied it. And then, on March 28, 1869, they walked away for good — or rather, the fort was abandoned, which is a quieter kind of ending than a battle, but no less final.
A captain built it. A lieutenant's name graced it. A future general visited it.
And the Leona River just kept runnin'.
What the marker says
Established by Captain Sidney Burbank, First U. S. Infantry, March 13, 1849, on east bank of Leona River in Uvalde County. Named for Lieutenant Zebulon M. P. Inge, killed in Battle of Resaca de La Palma, May 9, 1846, in the Mexican War. Protected the southern Overland Mail route from Indian raids. Visited by Robert E. Lee, 1856. At that time fort consisted of a dozen primitive but neatly kept buildings. Occupied by Confederate soldiers in Civil War. Reoccupied 1866 by Federal troops until abandoned March 28, 1869.