Officers Quarters 2-3 and 4
Brackettville, Kinney County, Texas
Marker Inscription
These two buildings date from 1854-55, soon after the U.S. Army established Fort Clark. The antebellum fort then included officers quarters and barracks for enlisted men, as well as a two-story quartermaster storehouse, powder magazine, hospital, guardhouse and post headquarters around a parade ground. During this period, such notable army officers as John Bell Hood, J.E.B. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee and James Longstreet served here and likely lived in these quarters. Horizontal logs and vertical posts were notched and interlocked to create these buildings. Limestone chimneys are also historic. The army closed the fort in 1944, by which time the buildings were clad in lath and plaster and wood siding. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2007
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
These interlocking-log quarters went up in 1854-55, just after the U.S. Army planted Fort Clark on the edge of the Texas frontier to guard the road west. Around the parade ground stood barracks, a storehouse, magazine, and hospital, and the officers who cycled through included future Civil War commanders like John Bell Hood, J.E.B. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee, and James Longstreet. Notched horizontal logs, vertical posts, and limestone chimneys survived beneath later siding until the fort's 1944 closure.
Why it matters
Antebellum frontier forts trained a generation of officers who would soon lead armies on both sides of the Civil War, making these plain log quarters an unexpected crossroads of American military history.
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Related people
- · John Bell Hood
- · J.E.B. Stuart
- · Fitzhugh Lee
- · James Longstreet
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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