Fort Worth: A Frontier Triumph

13. A Fort and a General

CHAPTER 13 A Fort and a General WITHTHE Mexican War over, the Federal government turned its attention to Texas, the new state annexed on the eve of the war. The treaty of annexation stated that the United States would assume control of Indian defense in Texas. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which had concluded the Mexican War, the United States had agreed to prevent American Indians from marauding into Mexico. To comply with these agreements Uncle Sam ordered, in 1849, a cordon of eight forts to be erected in Texas beyond the line of settlement, and to be garrisoned by regular troops of the United States Army. The projected line of defense was to enter Texas to the north and east of the 98th parallel and proceed in a southwesterly direction to the Colorado and Guadalupe rivers and thence west to the Rio Grande. Assigned to the duty of locating these forts was General William Jenkins Worth, stationed in San Antonio in command of the Eighth and Ninth departments of the army, which included the vast areas of Texas and New Mexico. In February, 1849, General Worth had commissioned Major Ripley A. Arnold to use companies F and I of the Second United States Dragoons to found two of the forts in the chain. The eastern end of the cordon of forts was to begin, in the words of official instructions, "some- CHAPTER 13 where near the confluence of the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River," and extend southwestward to the Rio Grande. By April 17, 1849, Major Arnold had established one of the fortsFort Graham, one mile east of the Brazos in Hill County. Now he was ready for the next post, which must have a strong, strategic, and healthful site. So with a detachment of dragoons, he proceeded to Mary Ie Bone Springs with a letter addressed to Colonel Johnson from General Worth. The general wanted assistance, and Johnson was the man he knew could best advise Major Arnold for the new site. Johnson in a masterful and lengthy letter to the supreme military authority in Washington , D.C., had voiced the discontent of settlers because of lack of defense and the gravity of the situation on the frontier. Projects are outlined and men act. From Mary Ie Bone Springs on an early May morning of 1849, men of good will rode together to find a site for a fort "somewhere near the confluence of the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River." The party was comprised of Major Arnold's escort of blue uniformed dragoons and Colonel Johnson in command of Rangers: Henry Clay Daggett, W. B. Echols, Simon B. Farrar, and Charles Turner. A controversy has disturbed historians. Was Major Arnold in that party which selected the location of the post? Peak stated that "Colonel Johnson and four of his rangers accompanied the Major to the camp site," and Simon Farrar, who accompanied Colonel Johnson wrote in 1893, "We started in company with Major Arnold's command up the Trinity River in search of a place to locate the regular troops." Who could better describe the epoch-making event than Farrar since he was there and the only one who has left a written record? ... It is out of my power to describe the grandeur of the wild and beautiful scenery of the place where the grand city now stands.... Mter staying about a week at Johnson's Station, we started in company with Major Arnold's command up the Trinity River.... We passed through and across timbers, crossing the different creeks as best we could, through a wild, beautiful country inhabited only by Indians, wild mustang horses, innumerable deer, wolves and wild turkey. About three o'clock in the evening we halted in the valley east of where Fort Worth now stands and killed a deer for supper. We could have killed many more but did not wish to be encumbered with them. We passed our first night near Terry Springs east of Fort Worth later to be known as Cold Springs where we enjoyed ourselves with jokes, etc., indifferent to Indians, wolves, and all the wild enemies of white men. Next morning Col. Johnson, Major Arnold ... started to locate the barracks . We went west until we reached the point where the Court House now BOOK II stands, there halted and reviewed the scenery from all points and I...