Editing Fort Brown

{{For|the historic site in Plattsburgh, New York|Fort Brown Site}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Fort Brown
| nrhp_type = nhld
| image = Fort Brown Map.jpg
| caption = Period map of Fort Brown in the park exhibit.
| location = South edge of Brownsville off International Boulevard, [[Brownsville, Texas]]
| coordinates = {{coord|25|53|54|N|97|29|32|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin = Texas#USA
| map_label = Fort Brown
| locmap_relief = yes
| area = {{convert|20|acre}}
| built = {{start date|1846}}
| designated_nrhp_type = December 19, 1960<ref name="NHLlist">{{Cite web|author=Staff|date=June 2011|title=National Historic Landmarks Program: Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State, Texas|url=https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/tx/TX.pdf|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=January 10, 2018}}.</ref>
| added = October 15, 1966
| refnum = 66000811<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
}}
'''Fort Brown''' (originally '''Fort Texas''') was a military post of the [[United States Army]] in [[Cameron County, Texas]], during the latter half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. Established in 1846, it was the first US Army military outpost of the recently annexed state. [[Confederate Army]] troops stationed there saw action during the [[American Civil War]]. In the early 20th century, it was garrisoned in relation to military activity over border conflicts with Mexico. Surviving elements of the fort were designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1960.<ref name="nris"/>

==Early years==
In 1846, Captain [[Joseph K. Mansfield]]<ref name=Bauer>Bauer, K.J., 1974, ''The Mexican War, 1846–1848'', New York: Macmillan, {{ISBN|0803261071}}</ref>{{rp|40}} directed the construction of a star-shaped earthwork for 800 men called "Fort Texas" on the northern side of the [[Rio Grande]] "by the order from [[Zachary Taylor|General [Zachary] Taylor]] to command the city of [[Matamoros, Tamaulipas|Matamoros]]" south of the river.<ref name="fb61">Ashcroft, A.C., 1963, "Fort Brown, Texas, in 1861," in ''Texas Military History'', A Quarterly Publication of The National Guard Association of Texas, Vol. 3, Winter, 1963, No. 4, pp. 246–247</ref>

The next year, the fort was besieged during the opening of the [[Mexican–American War]]. During the [[Siege of Fort Texas]], two Americans were killed, including Major [[Jacob Brown (Texas soldier)|Jacob Brown]] and George Oakes Stevens (of Vermont) of the 2nd Dragoons. In honor of the fallen major, General Taylor renamed the post as Fort Brown. In 1849, the city of [[Brownsville, Texas]], was established not far from the fort's grounds, after the United States had acquired Texas following the war.

==Cortina==
While in command at the fort, Major [[Samuel P. Heintzelman]] coordinated with [[John Salmon Ford]] in the [[Cortina Troubles]], culminating in the [[Battle of Rio Grande City]] in 1859.

==Civil War==
In 1861, Confederate [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] [[John Salmon Ford|John "Rip" Ford]] occupied the fort,<ref name=Ford>Ford, J.S., 1963, ''Rip Ford's Texas.'' Austin: University of Texas Press, {{ISBN|0292770340}}</ref>{{rp|321}}<ref name="Reid">{{cite book|last1=Reid|first1=Thomas|title=America's Fortress|year=2006|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville|isbn=9780813030197|pages=42–43}}</ref> with a garrison there until 1863. The Confederate forces were finally driven out by [[Union Army|Union]] forces under General [[Nathaniel P. Banks]], who had his troops camped in tents erected at the fort site. This Union occupation ended in 1864, when Confederate forces under General [[James E. Slaughter]] and Colonel Ford took control of the area.<ref name=Ford/>{{rp|365}} They held the post until the end of the war, when it was occupied again by Union forces under General [[Egbert Brown]].<ref name="fb61"/>

==Postbellum==
From 1867–1869, a permanent US Army fort was constructed under the supervision of Captain William A. Wainwright.
<!-- 
===William C. Gorgas=== -->
In 1882, Dr. [[William Crawford Gorgas]] was assigned to the hospital at Fort Brown during the height of a [[yellow fever]] outbreak. Using Fort Brown as his base of operations, Gorgas studied the disease for several years. He was sent to [[Cuba]] during the [[Spanish–American War]].

==Brownsville raid==
A unit of African-American soldiers, known as [[Buffalo Soldiers]], was<!-- unit is singular --> stationed at Fort Brown. White residents of town resented the presence of the Black soldiers, and tensions rose. On August 13 and 14, 1906, unknown persons "raided" Brownsville, indiscriminately shooting bystanders. They wounded one White man and killed White resident Frank Natus. The townspeople of Brownsville quickly blamed the Black soldiers for the incident. The Army investigated the matter and concluded that the Black soldiers were guilty although their supervising officers supported them and said that they had been at the fort. [[William H. Taft]], then President [[Theodore Roosevelt [[United States] Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] and soon to be elected as president, ordered all 168 Black soldiers to be discharged "without honor."

In 1972, the Army conducted another investigation, led by Lt. Col. William Baker. The government concluded that the Black soldiers had not been responsible. They were given posthumous honorable discharges, but only two of the original 168 men were still alive. The two men received compensation, but the Army did not restore the dead soldiers' pensions to which their descendants would have been entitled.

Since the late 20th century, historians have speculated about the incident. [[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]]'s program ''[[History's Mysteries]]'' attributed the incident to Brownsville residents' shooting up the town with rifles using the same caliber ammunition ([[.45-70]] ?) as the soldiers and then framing the soldiers. (Academic press books about the [[Brownsville Affair|Brownsville Raid]] include ''The Brownsville Raid'' (1970/1992) and ''The Senator and the Sharecropper's Son: Exoneration of the Brownsville Soldiers'' (1997) by John D. Weaver, and ''Racial Borders: Black Soldiers along the Rio Grande'' (2010) by James Leiker.)

==First airplane to be attacked by hostile fire==
On April 20, 1915, [[Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps|U.S. Signal Corps]] Officers Byron Q. Jones and Thomas Millings flew a [[Martin T]] over the fort to spot movements of the [[Mexico|Mexican]] revolutionary leader [[Pancho Villa|Francisco "Pancho" Villa]]. The plane reached an altitude of 2,600&nbsp;ft. and was up for 20 minutes. It did not cross the border into Mexico although it was fired upon by machine guns and small arms. Thesfrequent patrols lasted for six weeks and were used more effectively in 1916.

==124th Cavalry==
The troopers stationed at Fort Brown from 1929 to 1945 were from the [[124th Cavalry Regiment (United States)|124th Cavalry Regiment]], Texas [[United States National Guard|National Guard]], which was one of the last mounted cavalry regiments in the United States Army. On November 18, 1940, they went into active military training. After the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] attack on [[Pearl Harbor]], the division served with distinction, dismounted, in the [[China Burma India Theater of World War II|China Burma India Theater]], where a member of the unit from Fort Brown earned the theater's only [[Medal of Honor]] (awarded to [[Jack L. Knight]], commanding F Troop).

==United States Army Air Forces use==
During World War II, Fort Brown was transferred to the USAAF Training Command on July 7, 1943. The USAAF Gulf Coast Training Center (later the Central Flying Training Command) used the fort for flexible gunnery training until the fort was inactivated on February 1, 1946.<ref>Manning, Thomas A. (2005), ''History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002''. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas {{OCLC|71006954|29991467}}</ref>

==Decommission==
On February 1, 1946, Fort Brown was decommissioned and turned over to the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] on April 25, 1946. It was acquired by the City of Brownsville and [[Texas Southmost College]] in 1948.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=History of Fort Brown: From Military Fortification to Educational Hub |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/fort-brown |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref>

Three areas that were once part of the post were designated a discontiguous [[National Historic Landmark District]] in 1960 in recognition of its historic importance. They include earthworks built in 1846; a cavalry barracks built in 1848; and a collection of buildings erected mainly between 1868 and 1870, including a hospital, morgue, barracks, commissary, colonel's house, and officers' quarters.<ref name=nhl>{{cite web|url={{NHLS url|66000811}}|title=NHL nomination for Fort Brown|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=2018-01-04}}</ref>

The [[Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023]] authorized the addition of Fort Brown (166 acres) to [[Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fort Texas / Fort Brown – Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/paal/learn/historyculture/siegeofforttexas.htm |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=National Park Service |language=en}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Fort Brown earthworks.jpg|Remnants of the Fort Brown earthworks form the boundary of the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course and the driving range.
File:Some of the buildings at Fort Brown in Brownsville, Texas LCCN2014630475.tif|Some of the buildings at Fort Brown
File:Champion Hall, which served as the medical laboratory and isolation ward at Fort Brown in Brownsville, Texas, until World War I LCCN2014630474.tif|Champion Hall, which served as the medical laboratory and isolation ward until World War I
File:Fort Brown monument.jpg|Monument to the fallen Maj. Brown
File:Fort Brown Texas Historical Marker.jpg|Texas historical marker
File:Fort Brown Texas Historical Marker Siege.jpg|Texas historical marker commemorating the siege
File:Fort Brown Historical Marker dimensions.jpg|Texas historical marker explaining the dimensions of the fort
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|Aviation|National Register of Historic Places|Texas}}
* [[List of National Historic Landmarks in Texas]]
* [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Cameron County, Texas]]
* [[List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Cameron-Duval)#Cameron County|Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Cameron County]]

==References==
* [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf07 Fort Brown], ''[[Handbook of Texas]] Online''
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Fort Brown}}

{{NHLbyState}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in Texas}}
{{USAAF Training Bases World War II}}
{{Cameron County, Texas}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Former installations of the United States Army]]
[[Category:National Historic Landmarks in Texas]]
[[Category:Texas in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:American Civil War forts|Brown]]
[[Category:Mexican–American War forts|Brown]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Cameron County, Texas]]
[[Category:1846 establishments in Texas]]
[[Category:Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas|Brown]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Cameron County, Texas]]
[[Category:American Civil War on the National Register of Historic Places]]
[[Category:Military installations established in 1846]]
[[Category:Military installations closed in 1946]]
[[Category:1946 disestablishments in Texas]]