Fort Martin Scott: Guardian of the Treaty

By Joseph Luther

Fort Martin Scott still stands guard in the heart of Texas 150 years after its construction, which was prompted by a peace treaty between Germans and the Penateka Comanches. The first frontier fort in Texas, the original complex of twenty-one buildings allowed soldiers to patrol the Upper Immigrant Trail through Comanche and Apache territory. The old fort was a hub for military patrols during the Texas Indian Wars. Famous army units, including the First and Eighth Infantries, as well as the Second Dragoons and Fourth Cavalry, were all stationed at this post at one time or another. Fort Martin Scott was the locality of much partisan conflict during the Civil War. Author and historian Joseph Luther tells the full story of this historic Texas icon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Apr 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781625840295

Joseph Luther

Joseph Neal Luther is a sixth-generation Texan who lives in Kerrville, Texas. He earned his doctorate at Texas A&M University and is a professor emeritus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he taught for twenty-three years, serving as associate dean of the College of Architecture. An enthusiastic historical archaeologist, Dr. Luther is a member of the national Society for Historical Archaeology and the Society for American Archeology and has given papers at their national conferences. Locally, he is an active member of the Texas State Historical Association, Texas Archeological Society, South Texas Archaeological Association, Wild West History Association and the West Texas Historical Association. Dr. Luther has written two books of historical archaeology: Camp Verde: Texas Frontier Defense (2012) and Fort Martin Scott: Guardian of the Treaty (2013). This is his third book on nineteenth-century Texas history in his Hill Country series.

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Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright © 2013 by Joseph Luther

All rights reserved

Cover image: Reveille at Fort Martin Scott, Lee Casbeer, artist, by permission of Gillespie County Historical Society.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.029.5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Luther, Joseph Neal, 1943-

Fort Martin Scott : guardian of the treaty / Joseph Luther.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-961-7

1. Fort Martin Scott (Fredericksburg, Tex.)--History. 2. Fortification--Texas--Fredericksburg--History. 3. Historic sites--Texas--Fredericksburg. 4. Frontier and pioneer life--Texas--Fredericksburg. 5. German Americans--Texas--Fredericksburg--History. 6. Indians of North America--Wars--Texas. 7. Indians of North America--Texas--Treaties 8. Fredericksburg (Tex.)--History, Military. 9. Fredericksburg (Tex.)--Antiquities. I. Title.

F394.F9L88 2013 55.7009764'65--dc23

2013010497

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Norman and Marjorie Luther,

my adventurous parents.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. Pinta Trail

Chapter 2. Comancheria

Chapter 3. Penateka Comanches

Chapter 4. Lipan Apaches

Chapter 5. Texas Rangers

Chapter 6. German Adelsverein

Chapter 7. Meusebach’s Expedition

Chapter 8. Meusebach-Comanche Treaty of 1847

Chapter 9. Now the United States

Chapter 10. U.S. Army in Texas

Chapter 11. Fort Martin Scott

Chapter 12. Fort Martin Scott Treaty of 1850

Chapter 13. First Infantry

Chapter 14. Second Dragoons

Chapter 15. Eighth Infantry

Chapter 16. Second Cavalry

Chapter 17. Civil War

Chapter 18. Fourth United States Cavalry

Chapter 19. Braeutigam Gardens

Chapter 20. Tomorrow Isn’t What It Was Yesterday

Chapter 21. A Fort of Reason

Appendix. Archaeological Investigations

Notes

Archaeological References for Fort Martin Scott

Select Bibliography

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My sincere appreciation for their kind consideration and cooperation is given to the following individuals and organizations that provided inspiration, information, critique and support for this research: Vicki Braglio Luther, Christen Thompson, Ryan Finn, Robert Claiborne, Evelyn Weinheimer, Bryant Saner, Tom Hester, Douglas Scott, Joe Davis, Jim McCrae, Jimmy Alexander, Leonard Bucsanyi, Lee Casbeer, Susan Dial, Deb Johnson, C.R. Caldwell, Randy Rupley, the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center, the Hill Country Archaeological Association, the Texas Archaeological Association, the Fort Martin Scott Museum Association, the Gillespie County Historical Society, the Former Texas Ranger Foundation, the City of Fredericksburg, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the Institute of Texan Cultures, the Texas State Library and Archives, the Texas State Historical Commission, the Texas Historical Society and Texas Beyond History.

INTRODUCTION

A cloud is a promise—rain is fulfillment.

–old proverb

The story of Fort Martin Scott in Texas can only be appreciated in the context of the convergence of the diverse influences that came into focus on this location in the mid-nineteenth century. Each of these externalities has its own distinct story, but together they created a synergy that is greater than the sum of the whole. This book is the story of how these disparate entities became a whole, each an essential element of the creation and life of Fort Martin Scott up to the present day.

Fort Martin Scott exists today because of the Pinta Trail, which was created by the aboriginal Indians more than ten thousand years ago. Eventually, these indigenous peoples were supplanted by invading Lipan Apache and Penateka Comanche bands who came to call this Hill Country home. Using this trail, the Spanish attempted to establish missions as early as 1684 to subdue the various tribes and bands. The Spanish missionaries and soldiers created the Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas and the nearby Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission. There the Spanish, using Indian folklore, discovered the fabled Los Almagres silver mines, which continue to attract fortune seekers even today. James Bowie traveled this trail in search of the lost mines.

As settlers began to move westward along the Pinta Trail and up the various watersheds, the Republic of Texas went to war against the hostile Indians. The Texas Rangers patrolled this region in the 1830s and 1840s. Battles were fought, and legends were created. When Texas became part of the United States, the U.S. Army was given the responsibility for peacekeeping and humanitarian services for all peoples of the Hill Country. Fort Martin Scott was the result.

The Adelsverein (German immigrants) came to this area full of promise and hope. They signed a lasting treaty with the Penateka Comanches, and the troops at Fort Martin Scott were given the responsibility, but not the authority, to safeguard this treaty.

The Treaty of Peace between John Meusebach and the Penateka band negotiated in March 1847 opened up almost four million acres for settlement. All or part of Concho, Kimble, Llano, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, San Sabá, Schleicher, Sutton and Tom Green Counties were created as a result of the treaty.¹ On May 9, 1847, the Comanche chiefs ceremoniously paraded into Fredericksburg to formally sign the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty at the Marketplatz.² This treaty was one of the most important pioneer works of the Germans in Texas. It allowed Meusebach’s settlers to go unharmed into Penateka Comanche territory and the Penatekas to go to the white settlements; it also promised mutual reports on wrongdoing and provided for survey of lands in the San Sabá area, with a payment of at least $1,000 to the Indians. The treaty opened more than three million acres of land to settlement. It is believed to be the only Texas treaty made with the Indians that was not broken by either side. An annual powwow celebration has been held in Fredericksburg in honor of this unbroken treaty for many years.³

Fort Martin Scott was founded in December 1848 two miles east of Fredericksburg on Barons Creek. This army post was located on the site of Camp Houston, a locale developed in 1845.⁴ The next year, the army named the post Fort Martin Scott in honor of a U.S. army officer killed in the war with Mexico. From 1848 to 1866, this post was staffed by the First U.S. Infantry, the Eighth Infantry, the Second U.S. Dragoons and the Fourth U.S. Cavalry, as well as various Texas Ranger companies, Confederate forces and home guard/militia units.

One may wonder why Fort Martin Scott was the first frontier fort in Texas. Was it created in fulfillment of the treaty? Was the fort sited here because of Pinta Trail and the Lost San Sabá mines? Was it built to protect United States interests from the Mainzer Adelsverein plans to create a German empire in Texas? Was it located here because it was on the threshold of Comancheria?

This is the first book devoted to Fort Martin Scott. This fact is remarkable given that this historic military post at Fredericksburg, Texas, is on the National Register of Historic Places⁵ and has a recorded Texas Historic Marker.⁶ The ruins also form a Texas State Archaeological Landmark.⁷

Reveille at Fort Martin Scott. Lee Casbeer, artist, by permission of Gillespie County Historical Society.

Location of Fort Martin Scott. Adapted by permission from Physiographic Map of the United States, drawn by Erwin Raisz, 1957.

CHAPTER 1

PINTA TRAIL

A great country for men and dogs, but hell on women and horses.

–old Texas proverb

Fredericksburg and Fort Martin Scott were established on the Pinta Trail.⁸ This ancient trail appears to be the catalyst for the creation of this military post. Dating to the Paleo-Indian⁹ times, the Pinta Trail was extensively used during the Forty-Niner gold rush and western migrations of the 1840s and later. More than three thousand argonauts¹⁰ left from Texas in 1849. The route became widely known as the Upper Emigrant Trail.¹¹

Historically, the Pinta Trail linked San Antonio de Valero and the Spanish colonial presidio popularly known as San Sabá in present-day Menard County. From the city, early settlers trailed through the pass at Leon Creek (29° 39' 56 N, 98° 37' 37 W), historically known as La Puerta (de las Casas) Viejas (roughly translated as gateway to the old houses, or old pass). The pass and the immediate vicinity of the Pavo Real archaeological site¹² became a documented Comanche trail leading northward from the San Pedro Springs in San Antonio. In the early history of the Béxar settlement, the historical trail also may have been called the Camino de Tehuacanas (an apparent reference to the Tawakonis, a Wichita group commonly associated with north-central Texas throughout the eighteenth century).¹³

The Pinta Trail, which extended about 180 miles northwest from San Antonio to the site of Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas and nearby Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission near Menard,¹⁴ has served as a transportation route through the Hill Country from the time of the prehistoric Indians (12,000 BP) to the present.

Pinta Trail. Karte des Staates Texas aufgenommen in die Union 1846: nach der neuesten Eintheilung, 1849. Courtesy of University of Texas–Arlington Library.

The Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission and its Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas¹⁵ were established in 1757 because of the Spanish mines known as Los Almagres.¹⁶ It is a crucial fact that the fabled silver mines were the ace in the hole for the German Immigration Company. Dr. Ferdinand von Roemer¹⁷ reported that it was our intention from the very beginning to visit this fort, since there was a persistent rumor among the Texas settlers that the Spaniards had worked some silver mines in the vicinity of the fort.¹⁸

Prince Karl (or Carl) Solms-Braunfels¹⁹ mentioned the Spanish mines in his book Texas, 1844–1845: As to the knowledge of the mountains of the Fisher-Miller grant, most of it is obtained from the Mexicans, who in turn received it from the nomadic Indians. They describe the mountains as rich in ore, especially copper and silver.²⁰

In 1849, the road from San Antonio ran through Fredericksburg to California. This route continued into the Comanche country beyond the Llano and into what is now Mason County. From the presidio, the trail divided, with one branch going to Fort McKavett and up to the head of the San Sabá near Sonora, where it turned west to the Pecos River. The other branch went northwest to the Concho River and eventually to Santa Fe.²¹

The Pinta Trail ran as straight as an arrow into the heart of Comancheria.

CHAPTER 2

COMANCHERIA

They swept everyone off the Southern plains. They nearly exterminated the Apaches. They were warlike by nature. And you know, if you look at, say, the Comanches, and then you look back in history at, for example, you know, Goths or Vikings or Mongols or Celts—or old Celts are actually a very good parallel—in a lot of ways I think we’re looking back at earlier versions