From the Handbook of Texas...
FORT PHANTOM HILL. Fort Phantom
Hill was one of the second line of forts laid out in the early
1850s to protect the westward-moving frontier of Texas settlement.
In 1849 the federal government sent Capt. Randolph B. Marcyqv to
explore and mark the best route through the Comanchería, the vast
region to the north and west of Austin inhabited by the warlike
Comanche Indians. This was meant to give safer passage to
immigrants headed for the California gold fields. The advanced
cordon of forts, including Fort Phantom Hill, was established as a
result of Marcy's recommendations.
Acting on orders from Gen. Persifor F. Smith,qv Lt. Col. John J.
Abercrombie arrived at the Clear Fork of the Brazos in the area of
present Jones County with five companies of the Fifth Infantry on
November 14, 1851. Smith had recently taken command of the newly
organized Texas (Eighth Military) Department from the ailing Gen.
William G. Belknap,qv who had been supervising construction of the
fort on the upper Brazos that was named for him. Originally,
Belknap's orders had been to build a second fort on Pecan Bayou, at
a site now in Coleman County. Smith, who was unfamiliar with this
area, changed the locale to the Clear Fork near its junction with
Elm Creek.
This unreasoned alteration affected the post's future, for the
lack of an adequate water supply and the scarcity of building
timbers added greatly to the hardships of the garrison. Though Lt.
Clinton W. Lear, writing to his wife at Fort Washita, deemed the
Clear Fork valley beautiful and abundant with game, he felt that it
was never intended "for white man to occupy such a barren waste."
Nevertheless, the troops dutifully began work on the new fort. A
suitable stone quarry was located on Elm Creek about two miles
south. Blackjack oak logs for the officers' quarters and hospital
had to be brought in by ox wagon from as far away as forty miles.
The company quarters and other buildings were of jacal
construction. All of the buildings had stone chimneys, but only the
magazine, guardhouse, and commissary storehouse were built entirely
of stone.
Oddly enough, Fort Phantom Hill was never officially named;
military records usually refer to it as the "Post on the Clear Fork
of the Brazos." Although there are several legends about the origin
of the unofficial designation Phantom Hill, the name probably
derives from the fact that from a distance the hill on which it was
built rises sharply from the plains but seems to level out as it is
approached, vanishing like a phantom.
Life at the fort was difficult. Elm Creek was often dry, and the
waters of the Clear Fork were brackish. At one time an
eighty-foot-deep, walk-in well was dug near the guardhouse, but
even it was not always reliable. More often than not, it was
necessary to haul barrels of water in wagons from a spring about
four miles upriver from the post.
Although the isolated fort was vulnerable to attacks, its
garrison had only peaceful encounters with the Indians. Certainly,
it would have been a tactical blunder to match infantry against the
Comanche horsemen of the plains. A band of Penateka Comanches led
by Buffalo Humpqv occasionally came calling, as did groups of
Lipans, Wichitas, Kiowas, and Kickapoos. Mrs. Emma Johnson Elkins,
who as a child lived with her parents at the fort, recalled a
ritual held by a group of friendly Delawares in preparation for a
hunt. Jim Shawqv and Black Beaver were among the noted Delaware
scouts employed by the garrison as interpreters and guides.
Colonel Abercrombie turned command of the post over to Lt. Col.
Carlos A. Waiteqv on April 27, 1852. In turn, Waite was succeeded
by Maj. Henry H. Sibleyqv on September 24, 1853. By this time four
of the five companies had been withdrawn, and the remaining company
was reinforced by Company I of the Second Dragoons. Lt. Newton C.
Givensqv assumed command of the post on March 26, 1854, and was
commander at the time it was first abandoned twelve days later, on
April 6.
The decline in rank of its commanders shows the fort's decline
in importance. Its initial occupation had been relatively
uneventful. At the time of its evacuation, the purpose of curbing
the Indian menace had momentarily been attained by the
establishment of the reservations on the upper Brazos and the Clear
Fork to the northeast near Fort Belknap. Shortly after the soldiers
left Phantom Hill, the fort buildings mysteriously burned to the
ground, an event variously attributed to everyone from an irate
officer's wife to Indians and later to Union sympathizers. The
scanty evidence points inconclusively to members of the departing
garrison as the arsonists.
In 1858 the remaining structures of the fort were repaired and
utilized as Way Station Number 54 by the Southern Overland
(Butterfieldqv) Mail. The station was managed by a man named
Burlington, whose wife prepared meals for the stage passengers.
Most travelers agreed with New York Herald correspondent Waterman
L. Ormsby that Phantom Hill was "the cheapest and best new station
on the route." During the Civil War,qv when the frontier was
patrolled by Ranger companies and subsequently by the Frontier
Battalion,qv Col. James B. (Buck) Barryqv or some of the units
under his command used Fort Phantom Hill as a base of field
operations. Beginning in 1871, the post served as a subpost of Fort
Griffin, near the site of present Albany. Gen. William T. Shermanqv
made an overnight stop here during his inspection tour of the
Department of Texas. Capt. Theodore Schwan led one column of Col.
Ranald S. Mackenzie'sqv raiders from the post in the first series
of Indian campaigns into West Texas between January and March
1872.
After the Indian wars subsided, a town grew up around the fort
ruins. In 1876-77, it was a buying and shipping point for buffaloqv
hides taken during the slaughter of the Southern Plains herds. By
1880 the community had a population of 546; it was made Jones
county seat in May 1881 but lost that distinction to Anson on
November 14, 1881, thirty years after the establishment of the
post. The Texas and Pacific Railway routed its tracks through
Abilene, fourteen miles to the south. A letter written to the San
Antonio Express in 1892 commented that Fort Phantom contained
nothing but "one hotel, one saloon, one general store, one
blacksmith shop, and 10,000 prairie dogs."
Fort Phantom Hill is on private land. The owners have improved
the fort and made it available to the public. At the site, three
stone buildings and more than a dozen chimneys and foundations
remain. Only two miles south of the fort is a manmade reservoir,
Fort Phantom Hill Reservoir,qv which supplies the water for about
100,000 people in Taylor and Jones counties. The remains of Fort
Phantom Hill have been celebrated in verse by the cowboy poet
William L. Chittenden and in the prose of other western
writers.
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