Fort Chadbourne C.S.A. / Texas Civil War Frontier Defense

Fort Chadbourne C.S.A., also, Texas Civil War Frontier Defense. . , , Fort Chadbourne C.S.A. , Located 8 mi. north on old Butterfield Stageline. Upon secession, company of First Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles occupied this post to give protection against Indians. Stopover on way west for many Union sympathizers and people wanting to avoid conflict of war. Permanent personnel left the fort in 1862 when the frontier defense line was pulled back more than 50 mi. east. However, scouting parties and patrols of Confederate and state troops used the fort intermittently in aggressive warfare to keep Indians near their camps and away from settlements and to check on the invasion by Union forces. Usually supplying their own mounts, guns and sustenance, these men guarded the frontier until war’s end. , , Texas Civil War Frontier Defense , Texas had 2000 miles of coastline and frontier to defend from Union attack, Indian raids, marauders. Defense lines were set to give maximum protection with the few men left in the state. One line stretched from El Paso to Brownsville. Another had posts set day’s horseback ride apart from Red River to the Rio Grande. Chadbourne and other U.S. outposts used by scouting parties lay in a line between. Behind these lines and to the east organized militia citizens’ posses from nearby settlement backed the Confederate and state troops to curb Indian raids. , , A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy