Fort Concho: A History and a Guide (review)

James T. Matthews's Fort Concho provides a brief history of the critical frontier outpost located on the plateau at the junction of the North and Middle Concho rivers. Built in 1868, the fort on the Concho housed troops that helped secure the Texas frontier by helping map parts of west Texas, scouting for Indians, and serving as escorts for supply trains, mail runs, and cattle drives. Yet for more than twenty years, until it was abandoned by the U.S. Army in 1889, the post served as the launching point for several campaigns against the various hostile Indian tribes of the South Plains. Matthews traces the role of the Fort Concho garrison in Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's 1872 campaign against the Comanche and Kiowa tribes, the 1874 Red River War, and Col. Benjamin Grierson's campaign against Victorio, an Apache war chief who led various raids in west Texas in the late 1870s. Fort Concho's importance on the remote Texas frontier was demonstrated by the numerous civilians and auxiliaries who overcame their own assorted challenges of a harsh environment to carve out the burgeoning community of San Angelo.

Matthews devotes six chapters to tell the story of one of the key posts that helped bring law and order to the post–Civil War Texas frontier. The author traces the history of the garrison from the construction of the first permanent building to the restoration of the old fort in the late twentieth century as a National Historic Landmark, a "memorial to all the peoples who struggled to survive on the plateau where the rivers join" (p. 61). In between, Matthews examines the assortedcampaigns against hostile Indians and outlaws who lived freely at the expense of law-abiding citizens. Despite the challenges of the frontier, the troops at Fort Concho generally found garrison life demanding and monotonous. Too often, the author notes, the soldiers fell victim to the various vices found on the isolated outpost or deserted in significant numbers despite the harsh punishment. After two decades, however, the path of civilization made the army post obsolete and Fort Concho was abandoned for Fort Bliss near El Paso.

Fort Concho is part of the Texas State Historical Association's "Fred Rider Cotten Popular History Series," which publishes brief works on important historical sites or events in Texas history. Accordingly, Matthews discusses the construction of the fort, the challenges of waging war against the Indians, and the monotony of life for the soldiers and their families in less than eighty pages. The author's analysis of army life on the frontier complements standard works on the subject and offers new perspectives on the often volatile relationship between army soldiers and the civilian population, many of whom chafed at any semblance of law and order. The book is well researched and complemented by informative sketches of key buildings and abundant photographs from the Fort Concho Library and Archives. While the professional historian might find it of limited use, Matthews provides a valuable service for the general reader or student of Texas forts who is interested about life on the frontier and the role of the U.S. Army in helping forge the path of settlement.