Fort Brown, Texas
Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Fort Taylor, renamed Fort Brown, May 17, 1846, in honor of Major Jacob Brown, 7th Infantry, who died here May 9, 1846, in its defense; Garrisoned by the 7th Infantry with Companies "I" 2nd Art. and "E" 3rd Artillery. Original dimensions: Earthwork of 800 yards perimeter, 6 bastion walls 9 1/2 ft. high, parapet 15 ft. wide, ditch 8 1/2 feet deep, 15 to 20 feet wide. Lieut. Thomas Barlow Chapter, D.A.R. 1938 (Marble slab mounted on concrete foundation. Erected by Fort Brown, U.S. Government.) (Said to have been in use somewhat, supplemented by barracks where Zachary Taylor Library is.)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the spring of 1846, U.S. troops under Zachary Taylor threw up an earthwork fort on the north bank of the Rio Grande opposite Matamoros, and its bombardment helped ignite the Mexican-American War. First called Fort Taylor, it was renamed for Major Jacob Brown, who died defending it in May 1846. The massive earthen bastions—an 800-yard perimeter ringed by a deep ditch—guarded the contested new border for decades afterward.
Why it matters
The fort marks the opening ground of the Mexican-American War, the conflict that fixed the Rio Grande as the international boundary and opened the American Southwest to U.S. expansion.
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Related people
- · Jacob Brown
- · Zachary Taylor
Related events
- · Mexican-American 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.
Fort Brown
Brownsville, TX
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.
Cameron County
Brownsville, TX
Created in 1848 in the wake of the U.S.-Mexican War, Cameron County sits where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf—ground crossed by explorers, empresarios, soldiers, and cattle kings for four centuries. This 1936 state monument catalogs the sweep of that history, from Cabeza de Vaca and the Escandón colonists to Zachary Taylor, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and border figures like Richard King and Mifflin Kennedy. The roll call reads as a layered map of who shaped the lower Rio Grande valley.
Kowalski-Dennett Home
Brownsville, TX
This French mansard-roofed house was built in 1893 for customhouse broker Louis Kowalski and his wife Amelia by S. W. Brooks, a designer of many public buildings along the border. Kowalski served Cameron County as treasurer and then district clerk for more than four decades; later owners Jesse and Mary Dennett traced their family's arrival to soldiers who came with U.S. forces in the Mexican War era and again in 1866.