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Established March 3, 1849, by troops of the 1st U.S. infantry from ringgold barracks under command of Lt. E. L. Viele. The star-shaped earthen fortress built on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande (1/2 mile northwest), was first called Camp Crawford, in honor of Secretary of War George W. Crawford. On January 7, 1850, the name was changed to Fort McIntosh for Lt. Col. James S. McIntosh, who died Sept. 26, 1847, of wounds received two weeks earlier in the Mexican War Battle of Molino Del Rey. During the 1850s, Fort McIntosh served as a vital link in the defense system along the Rio Grande frontier. The post was abandoned in March 1859, reoccupied in January 1860, and abandoned again in April 1861, when the U.S. Army left Texas after secession. Soon after the Civil War, Fort McIntosh was reoccupied and moved to this location in 1869. Until the mid-1880s, soldiers were involved in escort duty and scouting for raiding Indians and bandits on both sides of the Rio Grande. After the turn of the century, the Fort McIntosh garrison was deployed along the border to prevent incursions by Mexican revolutionaries, and the post served as a training camp for soldiers who fought in both world wars. Fort McIntosh was discontinued as an army post on June 9, 1947, after 98 years of service. (1974) |
