Site of the First Fort Bliss
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established September 14, 1849 by Brevet Major Jefferson Van Horne with 4 companies of the Third United States Infantry and known as Post El Paso * Vacated in 1851 * Re-garrisoned in 1854 and named Fort Bliss in honor of Brevet Major William Wallace Smith Bliss * Abandoned in 1868 due to encroachment of the Rio Grande. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On September 14, 1849, Brevet Major Jefferson Van Horne established this post with four companies of the Third U.S. Infantry, first calling it Post El Paso. Re-garrisoned in 1854, it was renamed Fort Bliss to honor Brevet Major William Wallace Smith Bliss. The original post was finally abandoned in 1868 as the shifting Rio Grande encroached on its grounds.
Why it matters
It marks the beginning of a storied frontier military presence on the far western border, planted in the years just after the U.S.–Mexico boundary was drawn.
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Related people
- · Jefferson Van Horne
- · William Wallace Smith Bliss
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Camp Concordia and Fort Bliss
El Paso, TX
After the Civil War, the U.S. Army found its old El Paso post at Magoffinsville unsuitable and in 1868 moved the garrison to the Concordia Ranch, establishing Camp Concordia. Built of adobe barracks and outbuildings, the post was renamed Fort Bliss in 1869 and, despite hard living conditions, guarded the frontier until troops withdrew in 1876—only to return within a year. It was the third of six sites the Army's El Paso post would occupy over the decades.
Fort Bliss at Lanoria Mesa
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In 1849, troops under Maj. Jefferson Van Horne planted a post at El Paso to hold territory won in the U.S.-Mexico War, and after several moves the fort settled at Lanoria Mesa in 1893 on land donated by citizens. Renamed for Lt. Col. William W.S. Bliss in 1854, it became the headquarters for Gen. John J. Pershing's Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa in 1916 and the nation's largest cavalry post by 1941. Vastly enlarged for World War II anti-aircraft training, it later hosted the German-led birth of the U.S. Army's missile program.
San Elizario
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Founded in 1789 as the Spanish Presidio de San Elceario, this outpost was relocated northward to shield settlers from raids, guarding the El Paso district through the twilight of Spanish rule and the Mexican War for Independence. After the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo drew the border at the Rio Grande, the town became El Paso County's first seat and, in 1877, the flashpoint of the violent Salt War over access to communal salt beds.
The Killing of General J. J. Byrne
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In August 1880, the Apache leader Victorio's raiders ambushed a Fort Davis–bound stagecoach in a steep West Texas canyon, killing its lone passenger, retired general and surveyor J. J. Byrne, almost instantly while the driver wheeled the mules around and raced back to Fort Quitman. It was among the last acts of a two-year campaign in which Victorio's guerrilla tactics baffled and impressed the U.S. Army across Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. Later that year, thousands of American and Mexican soldiers hunted Victorio down and killed him in Mexico.