Fort Chadbourne, C.S.A.
Bronte, Coke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located 8 miles north on old Butterfield stageline. Upon secession, company of First Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles occupied this post to give protection against Indians. Stopover on way west for many Union sympathizers and people wanting to avoid conflict of war. Permanent personnel left the fort in 1862 when the frontier defense line was pulled back more than 50 miles east. However scouting parties and patrols of Confederate and state troops used the fort intermittently in aggressive warfare to keep Indians near their camps and away from settlements and to check on the invasion by union forces. Usually supplying their own mounts, guns and sustenance, these men guarded the frontier until war's end. (1963)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Texas seceded, a company of the First Regiment of Texas Mounted Rifles occupied Fort Chadbourne — a stop on the old Butterfield stageline — to guard settlers against Indian raids and to watch for Union sympathizers heading west. Permanent troops withdrew in 1862 as the state pulled its frontier defense line more than fifty miles eastward, but Confederate and state scouting parties used the post intermittently until the war's end. Often supplying their own horses, guns, and provisions, these men held a thinly defended edge of the Confederacy.
Why it matters
It reveals the Confederacy's neglected western flank, where the Civil War overlapped with ongoing frontier conflict far from the main battle lines.
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Related events
- · Butterfield Overland Mail
Themes & tags
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