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- Feb 23, 2013
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Fort Sam Houston, 1879-Present, Part I
The Quadrangle with its clock tower, dating from 1876 is the best-known landmark at Fort Sam Houston.
Build it to Last - Painting by Bud Breen
The establishment of what was to become Fort Sam Houston brings us full circle back to San Antonio. As previously noted, although no fort had been built here the town remained the center of administrative and supply activity for the entire Department of Texas in the years before the Civil War. It was reoccupied during Reconstruction and resumed its role, although a fire in 1861 had damaged some of the buildings used beforehand. Still, the army resisted building anything more permanent until 1876, though the city fathers encouraged it, fearing they would lose the lucrative army business to the state capital at Austin. Work was begun that year on what would become the landmark clock tower of what was still being called The Post at San Antonio.
The original post was the San Antonio Quartermaster Depot, but in 1879, the post was expanded by the erection of the Infantry Barracks, the first of what would become the sprawling fort of today, one of the largest in the Nation. Soon followed barracks and facilities for cavalry and artillery as well. Above and below are now-unoccupied ca. 1885 Officer's Quarters that stand around one of the original parade grounds.
Above, an unlikely pair who never came into contact with each other but who affected the history of the post: Arizona Apache warrior Geronimo and former General and President of the Texas Republic, United States Senator, and Governor of Texas Sam Houston, in whose honor the post was named on Sept. 10, 1890. A Unionist during the Secession Crisis of 1861, Houston had resigned his office as Governor and lived quietly at his home in Huntsville until his death in 1863.
Geronimo at Fort Sam Houston
Above, Apache leaders Nachie or Natchez sits third from left in the front row; Geronimo is third from right. This was their "special train", as recounted by author W. C. Nunn in Frontier Forts of Texas:
At length, the last and perhaps the most notorious of the Apaches, Geronimo - with Natchez and their band of Apaches - was convinced by the strength of the United States troops to surrender to them. Geronimo and his braves had met defeat in a battle on Little Dry Creek, in what is now the state of New Mexico, on December 19, 1885. In the following September, Natchez, Geronimo and thirty-one other Apaches arrived as captives at the post in San Antonio. The Quadrangle served as a stockade in which the Indians were imprisoned. Geronimo and his braves had been brought on a special train from Fort Bowie, Arizona... Geronimo's band had not been defeated. A Lieutenant Gatewood in whom the Apache chief had confidence, convinced Geronimo of the wisdom of surrendering. Thus ended the last significant Indian campaign. Geronimo and his braves were kept at the San Antonio post for about forty days and then taken to Fort Pickens, Florida.
Unsaid in the account above is why the Apaches were here in the first place: when they arrived in 1886, San Antonio was the first major city their train had reached. It was halted while controversy raged as to their fate as citizens of Arizona wanted them back in order to try them for murders, rapes, and other crimes committed in the course of their depredations, a 'la the trial of Satanta and Big Tree here in Texas. The famous "guests" stayed within the walls of the compound as much for their own protection as to confine them. While here, the notorious Geronimo posed for pictures like that above; in the one below, notice the then-new clock tower in the background. After a good deal of legal wrangling, the prisoners were finally declared prisoners-of-war, therefore immune to prosecution and were allowed to resume their train trip all the way to the Florida Atlantic coast where they were imprisoned in the old Spanish Colonial fortress Castillo de San Marcos. Eventually, they were moved to the more healthful climate at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Geronimo was "rehabilitated" converting to Christianity and riding as a guest of honor in the Inaugural Parade of President Theodore Roosevelt. Still technically a prisoner of war, the old warrior died at Fort Sill in 1909.
Though originally built as an enclosed commissary and supply warehouse area, The Quadrangle serves today as administrative offices for modern Fort Sam Houston.
Next, Part II
The Quadrangle with its clock tower, dating from 1876 is the best-known landmark at Fort Sam Houston.
Build it to Last - Painting by Bud Breen
The establishment of what was to become Fort Sam Houston brings us full circle back to San Antonio. As previously noted, although no fort had been built here the town remained the center of administrative and supply activity for the entire Department of Texas in the years before the Civil War. It was reoccupied during Reconstruction and resumed its role, although a fire in 1861 had damaged some of the buildings used beforehand. Still, the army resisted building anything more permanent until 1876, though the city fathers encouraged it, fearing they would lose the lucrative army business to the state capital at Austin. Work was begun that year on what would become the landmark clock tower of what was still being called The Post at San Antonio.
The original post was the San Antonio Quartermaster Depot, but in 1879, the post was expanded by the erection of the Infantry Barracks, the first of what would become the sprawling fort of today, one of the largest in the Nation. Soon followed barracks and facilities for cavalry and artillery as well. Above and below are now-unoccupied ca. 1885 Officer's Quarters that stand around one of the original parade grounds.
Above, an unlikely pair who never came into contact with each other but who affected the history of the post: Arizona Apache warrior Geronimo and former General and President of the Texas Republic, United States Senator, and Governor of Texas Sam Houston, in whose honor the post was named on Sept. 10, 1890. A Unionist during the Secession Crisis of 1861, Houston had resigned his office as Governor and lived quietly at his home in Huntsville until his death in 1863.
Geronimo at Fort Sam Houston
Above, Apache leaders Nachie or Natchez sits third from left in the front row; Geronimo is third from right. This was their "special train", as recounted by author W. C. Nunn in Frontier Forts of Texas:
At length, the last and perhaps the most notorious of the Apaches, Geronimo - with Natchez and their band of Apaches - was convinced by the strength of the United States troops to surrender to them. Geronimo and his braves had met defeat in a battle on Little Dry Creek, in what is now the state of New Mexico, on December 19, 1885. In the following September, Natchez, Geronimo and thirty-one other Apaches arrived as captives at the post in San Antonio. The Quadrangle served as a stockade in which the Indians were imprisoned. Geronimo and his braves had been brought on a special train from Fort Bowie, Arizona... Geronimo's band had not been defeated. A Lieutenant Gatewood in whom the Apache chief had confidence, convinced Geronimo of the wisdom of surrendering. Thus ended the last significant Indian campaign. Geronimo and his braves were kept at the San Antonio post for about forty days and then taken to Fort Pickens, Florida.
Unsaid in the account above is why the Apaches were here in the first place: when they arrived in 1886, San Antonio was the first major city their train had reached. It was halted while controversy raged as to their fate as citizens of Arizona wanted them back in order to try them for murders, rapes, and other crimes committed in the course of their depredations, a 'la the trial of Satanta and Big Tree here in Texas. The famous "guests" stayed within the walls of the compound as much for their own protection as to confine them. While here, the notorious Geronimo posed for pictures like that above; in the one below, notice the then-new clock tower in the background. After a good deal of legal wrangling, the prisoners were finally declared prisoners-of-war, therefore immune to prosecution and were allowed to resume their train trip all the way to the Florida Atlantic coast where they were imprisoned in the old Spanish Colonial fortress Castillo de San Marcos. Eventually, they were moved to the more healthful climate at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Geronimo was "rehabilitated" converting to Christianity and riding as a guest of honor in the Inaugural Parade of President Theodore Roosevelt. Still technically a prisoner of war, the old warrior died at Fort Sill in 1909.
Though originally built as an enclosed commissary and supply warehouse area, The Quadrangle serves today as administrative offices for modern Fort Sam Houston.
Next, Part II
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