Fort Phantom Hill C.S.A. / Texas Civil War Frontier Defense

Fort Phantom Hill C.S.A., also, Texas Civil War Frontier Defense. . , , Fort Phantom Hill C.S.A. , Located 10 mi. east, 9 mi. south on old Butterfield stageline. Upon secession company of First Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles used it as an outpost to give protection against Indians. Stopover on way west for some Union sympathizers and people wanting to avoid conflict of war. In 1862 the frontier defense line was pulled back more than 30 mi. east. However scouting parties and patrols of Confederate and state troops intermittently visited the post in aggressive warfare to keep Indians near the camps and away from settlements and to check on 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 a day’s horseback ride apart from Red River to the Rio Grande. Phantom Hill and other U.S. forts used by scouting parties lay in a line between. Behind these lines and to the east organized militia citizens’ posses from nearby settlements backed the Confederate and state troops to curb Indian raids. , , A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy