Fort Worth (Tarrant County, Texas)
Tarrant County · Texas · Indian Wars
History & Significance
Fort Worth was the northernmost of a defensive line of posts constructed starting in late 1848 to separate Indians from White settlers. The posts were manned initially by members of the U.S. Second Dragoons regiment.
A line of seven army posts was established in 1848–1849 after the Mexican War to protect the settlers of Texas along the western American Frontier and included Fort Worth, Fort Graham, Fort Gates, Fort Croghan, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Lincoln, and Fort Duncan. In May 1849 Brig Gen. William S. Harney, temporarily commanding the Eighth Military Department following the cholera death of Maj. Gen. William Jenkins Worth, ordered Bvt. Maj. Ripley Arnold to take troops north from Fort Graham on the Brazos River and find a suitable site for an outpost on the upper Trinity.
Worth died of cholera before he learned of this honor. Log buildings with earthen floors surrounding a parade ground were built for stables, housing, a hospital, commissary, kitchens, laundries, and sutler's store.
Despite myths to the contrary, there were no major battles with native Americans at the fort. The Indians did not pose a serious threat, so fatigue duty and drills occupied the garrison's time.
With few settlers nearby and the only town (Dallas) thirty miles away, the men did not have many pleasures. The fort's abandonment in 1853 allowed settlers to occupy and repurpose its structures, establishing the nucleus of what would become Fort Worth.
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Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth,_Texas
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/fort-worth
- https://www.fwhistorical.com/about-fort-worth
- https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=121955
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Fort_Worth,_Texas
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Fort-Worth
- https://www.tarrantcountytx.gov/en/county/about-tarrant/history.html