[Historic Marker Application: Fort Stockton Guard House] Page: 24 of 35
This text is part of the collection entitled: Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Files and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas Historical Commission.
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* WW I&
kitchen and a storeroom attached. The bakery building had
a good oven, baker, and a supply of good flour.
As to the smithy and carpenter shop, Mansfield had little
to say except there was one smith and one carpenter.
The corral with storage buildings for hay and feed con-
tained 21 mules, 16 extra horses for the mounted command,
one herder and three teamsters. In addition, there were five
extra teams, wagons, and drivers (civilians) sent to trans-
port Captain Carpenter's company to Camp Cooper.
In looking at Mansfield's map of the first Fort Stockton,
it appears that the quarters were located as follows: com-
missary and teamsters' establishment, near the present Catho-
lic priest's residence; the carpenter and blacksmith shop,
where the old Catholic Church is; sutler's mail station,
where the present jail stands; on the plaza, north of the lat-
ter, the matron's, laundresses' and one officer's quarters;
west of the latter and on the west side of the cantonment
were C surgeon's, B officers, A commanding officer's, and
R sutler's. The last building mentioned is likely what we
know as the oldest building in Fort Stockton, representing
the only remains of the pre-Civil War post of 1859-1861.
The road into this post from the east went up the Co-
manche Creek to cross it above the marsh that once existed
south of the hill upon which is now the priest's house. It
then turned northwest, passing west of the old spring, and
went by the sutler's mail station. From there it headed west
toward Fort Davis.
Melons, squash, corn, pumpkins and other vegetables
were grown in a small irrigated garden near the creek.
Mansfield reported that five oxcarts and teams had arrived
with commissary supplies, after 40 days in traveling the 383
miles from San Antonio.
A cattle corral was constructed by ditching across a bend
in the creek, where the cattle would graze and wade out into
the creek's edge to eat the roots of the cattail rushes. The
cattle were delivered to the post on the hoof at $4.20 per 100
pounds, averaging about 619 pounds per head. The num-
224.,
s/<ber of such beeves on hand required the employment of
four civilian herders.
Wood cost $13 per cord. Corn was high and fluctuated
in price. Forty tons of hay was on hand and cost $17.25 pert
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m iIII
ton.
tnMilitary equipment on hand included: 69 serviceable
and 9 unserviceable rifled muskets; one Sharps rifle, 5 Colt
pistols; 6,900 rifle musket ball cartridges, 440 Sharps' ball
car tridges, 3,800 Colt pistol cartridges, 500 Harper's Ferry
rifle ball cartridges, 2,700 blank cartridges, and one useless
mountain howitzer.
The command consisted of three officers and 71 enlisted
men and an assistant surgeon who, under an inspection
parade, were accounted for as follows:
Four sergeants, three corporals, two musicians, 44
privates, and the Assistant aSurgeon. Those not in atherd
parade were one corporal and seven men on guard
duty, five in jail, one in the hospital, one hospital
cook, two cooks at quarters, and one hospital steward.
In full uniform and with knapsacks, canteens, haver-
sacks, arms and other accoutrements in good order, the
command executed in a good manner the manual of arms,
the whole bayonet exercise, and light infantry and skirmish
formation drills. At target practice, it made 62 1/2% at 100
yards, 40% at 200 yards, and 14 1/2% at 300 yards. Mansfield
stated it was a rare condition that a company had so few
deserters.
Concerning the duty of a mounted detachment that
was imposed upon the infantry soldiers of those days,
Mansfield wrote:
It often happens that an Infantry escort has to ac-
company a train . . . to the next post .... The escort
with its supplies are put into a six mule wagon, and
its duty is simply to protect the train and party, and
not to scout in search of Indians. Nor is an Infantr
soldier armed appropriately for scouting on horseback.9
225
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Texas Historical Commission. [Historic Marker Application: Fort Stockton Guard House], text, 1979; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth410973/m1/24/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas Historical Commission.