Fort Brown
Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest permanent fort in Texas; Called Fort Taylor in March, 1846; Later renamed in honor of Major Jacob Brown killed here in May, 1846; Permanent post established, 1849; Evacuated by Federal troops in 1861, by Confederates, 1863; Reoccupied by United States troops from 1865 to 1906; Again reoccupied by United States troops in 1913
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established as Fort Taylor in March 1846 on the disputed Rio Grande, this post was soon renamed to honor Major Jacob Brown, killed defending it that May—among the opening actions of the Mexican-American War. Made permanent in 1849, Fort Brown was abandoned and reoccupied through the Civil War, held at different times by Federal and Confederate troops, and garrisoned by the U.S. Army into the twentieth century. It stands as the oldest permanent fort in Texas.
Why it matters
Fort Brown witnessed the very start of the Mexican-American War and the long militarization of the Texas-Mexico border, a fault line in American expansion.
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Related people
- · Jacob Brown
Related events
- · Mexican-American War
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Brown Reservation
Brownsville, TX
General Zachary Taylor named this post during the Mexican-American War for Major Jacob Brown, who died defending its earthworks in 1846, and a permanent reservation was laid out in 1848. Its roster of young officers reads like a preview of the Civil War—Grant, Meade, and Thomas among the future Union generals, Longstreet, Bragg, and Kirby Smith among the Confederate ones, with Robert E. Lee serving here in the late 1850s. The fort changed hands repeatedly during the Civil War, was burned in 1863, and a new permanent post rose in 1867–69.
Cameron County
Brownsville, TX
Carved from Nueces County in 1848, Cameron County was named for Ewen Cameron, a captain of the ill-fated Mier Expedition executed at Querétaro. Its ground along the lower Rio Grande witnessed the opening clashes of the Mexican War and, remarkably, the last land battle of the Civil War at Palmito Ranch in 1865. Few American counties can claim to bracket two wars so precisely.
These Palmetto Pilings
Brownsville, TX
These weathered pilings mark two separate military supply roads a generation apart. The cypress piles are remnants of a floating bridge Gen. Zachary Taylor threw across Boca Chica Inlet in 1846 during the Mexican-American War; the palmetto pilings are what remains of a railroad crossing begun by Gen. Francis Herron in 1864 and finished by Gen. Philip Sheridan in 1865 to move Union supplies at the close of the Civil War.
Bagdad-Matamoros, C.S.A.
Brownsville, TX
During the Civil War, Brownsville and the twin towns of Bagdad and Matamoros across the Rio Grande became a vital loophole in the Union blockade. Because Mexico was neutral, Confederate cotton hauled overland from as far as Arkansas could be ferried across the river and shipped to Europe, returning as guns, medicine, cloth, and shoes. This border trade was, as the marker says, the South's lifeblood when its own ports were sealed.