Fort Bliss Monitor

Guardians of the Pass – the story of the U.S. Army in El Paso

The most famous and feared of many great Apache leaders, Geronimo, (third from right, front row), surrendered for the last time in 1886. All are enroute to government imposed exile in Florida. They would later be relocated to Fort Sill, Okla., where Geronimo spent his last days, dying in 1909.

Editor’s note: The birthday of Fort Bliss is approaching and The Monitor will feature a multipart series taken from “Guardians of the Pass, The story of the U.S. Army in El Paso.” We hope the series informs our readers to the longstanding history and friendship Fort Bliss and the El Paso community has shared over the years.

Chapter 6 - Army owned and operated

The Army requested $160,000 to buy land and pay the construction costs for the new post at El Paso. Congress appropriated $40,000. Land was purchased from the family of the late Simeon Hart along a 1000 yard stretch of the Rio Grande adjoining the old mill. The 135 acre tract was the first site for the United States Army in El Paso that was not leased. Because additional money for construction was not available, the troops had to build the new post themselves. Campaigns against reservation weary Apaches from San Carlos and Mescalero under Victorio and others caused delays in its completion, but in December 1880 the garrison was moved from downtown.

The Soldiers did an excellent job. The officer’s quarters were built on- line, facing the parade field with their backdoors opening towards the river. They were two story with gabled roofs and porches. A far cry from the dirt floored adobe buildings of earlier posts. The barracks and headquarters buildings were on the north side of the parade field. When the railroad finally reached El Paso in 1881, Fort Bliss’ location at the narrows astride the Pass, caused the rails to be laid through the cantonment area. The Santa Fe line laid its tracks across the parade field and the Southern Pacific laid theirs behind the billets.

After Victorio was killed by the Mexican Army in 1880, the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest drew nearer. But, with other Apaches still raiding on and off the reservations led by Geronimo, Nana, Loco, and Chato, the Army still had several tough, dusty, hot, and perilous years of Indian fighting ahead. Although garrisoned by infantry, Fort Bliss became a rest and refitting station for the cavalry. Brevet Maj. Gen. Benjamin H. Grierson stopped at Fort Bliss with the entire 10th Cavalry enroute to join Gen. Crook in Arizona for the final pursuit of Geronimo in 1885. Al Sieber, famed Army scout, with 16 Apache scouts under Lt. Britton Davis also visited the post in September of the same year. Relentlessly pursued, north and south of the border, Geronimo surrendered in 1886 and with the remnants of his band rolled through Fort Bliss by train on his way to prison in Florida.

Fort Bliss at Hart’s Mill kept up the almost dizzying pace of troop and command changeover. In 1881 it was commanded by Capt. Henry R. Brinkerhoff and garrisoned by two companies of the 15th Infantry and Troop L of the 9th Cavalry. In 1882, Capt. Otis W. Pollock and two companies of the 23rd Infantry took over. They in turn were relieved by Brevet Lt. Col. Joshua S. Fletcher, Jr. and two more companies of the 23rd. Maj. Hamilton S. Hawkins commanded Fort Bliss during 1884 and 1885, along with two 10th Infantry companies. Three companies of the 10th Infantry arrived under Brevet Col. Gregory Barrett in 1886. In 1887, Col. Matthew M. Blunt commanded Fort Bliss with two companies of the 16th Infantry. The 5th Infantry returned to the Pass of the North in 1888, when two companies under Brevet Maj. Ezra P. Ewers were assigned. Col. Nathan W. Osborne, promoted and reassigned to the 5th Infantry, returned for his second tour as commander from 1889 to 1890. The last commander at the Hart’s Mill site was Maj. James Henton, from 1891 to 1893, with two companies of the 23rd Infantry.

Disease was still a problem as it had been at Camp Concordia. Dysentery and malaria were probably the result of increased usage of the Rio Grande and its presence as an excellent breeding ground for mosquitoes. But, the post’s biggest drawback was not disease, or the railroad, it was its size and location.

When the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. William T. Sherman, sent Gen. Philip Sheridan to New Mexico and Texas in 1881 with the purpose of selecting a post to enlarge while closing other frontier forts. This post located on the Rio Grande north of Las Cruces had unlimited potential for growth. He thought Fort Bliss was strategically located but because it was on the border with Mexico and also bounded by the Franklin Mountains it could not be expanded. Sherman agreed with his assessment until he visited the area himself in 1882. Recognizing Fort Bliss’ potential, Sherman changed his recommendation and advocated expansion of the post to regimental size.

Serious discussion to expand or move Fort Bliss did not occur until 1887, when another visit from the Army staff got the citizens of El Paso interested and actively involved. Prominent members of the community formed the El Paso Progressive Association, lobbied Congress, printed pamphlets, and raised funds to buy land. Samuel W.T. Lanham, congressman from El Paso, and member of the House Committee for Military Affairs, introduced a bill to sell Fort Bliss and purchase land at a new site to be within 10 miles of downtown. The resolution passed and President Benjamin Harrison signed it into law in 1890.

Simeon Hart, El Paso pioneer, Mexican American War veteran, mill owner and Confederate Commissioner, shown here with his children, cir. 1873.

Chapter 7 - Home on the mesa

Construction did not begin immediately with the authorization by Congress to build a new Fort Bliss. First the Secretary of War would have to select and acquire a new site of at least 1000 acres at no expense to the government ($150,000 was appropriated for construction costs, but not for buying land). Earlier efforts by Rep. Lanham to get government money for the purchase failed. The El Paso city council realizing how much the city would benefit from a larger military presence formed a committee to acquire the land.

Site selection was conducted by a board of distinguished officers headed by Brig. Gen. David S. Stanley, Dept. of Texas Commanding General; medical officer, Lt. Col. Joseph C. Bailley, and quartermaster officer, Lt. Col. George H. Weeks. The site selected was on La Noria Mesa five miles from downtown (well within the 10 mile limit) and owned by Judge Bennett H. Davis, Charles R. Morehead, and Capt. Thomas J. Beall. The asking price was $8,250 which was easily raised by donations from area residents, to include the land owners.
In charge of raising a modern garrison from the desolate terrain was German born Capt. George Ruhlen, U. S. Military Academy graduate, class of 1872. A 19-year veteran with 14 years of service in the Dakota Territory with the 17th Infantry, he was a highly regarded construction engineer. His assistants were Edward H. Offley, chief clerk, and F.A. Gartner, architect and civil engineer. They arrived in El Paso in March of 1891 and immediately began receiving bids for materials. It would take a year for Ruhlen to lay out the post, submit the plans, and gain approval before construction was authorized to begin and another three months before it actually did.

The original structures authorized by the Quartermaster Department were a double barracks (Bldg.13) and outhouse (Bldg. 19), a mess hall, a guardhouse, four sets of captain’s quarters (Bldgs. 221-224), six sets of lieutenant’s quarters (Bldgs. 227,229-233), three double sets of noncommissioned staff officer’s quarters (torn down in 1966), a subsistence storehouse (Bldg. 2021), a hospital (Bldg. 8), and a stable (Bldg. 2011). In addition to the buildings, a complete water and sewage system was approved consisting of wells with steam pumps and a storage tank. An additional $150,000 for construction was allocated by Congress, as well. The first building completed was 128 (the pump house), in July 1892. The majority of the buildings were constructed by George H. Evans and Company of Topeka, Kansas, with a completion date of June 30, 1893, contracted.

One of the most serious concerns for sustaining forces in the desert was answered early during the building process. A well at the site had started producing water of an excellent quality and taste in April of 1892. The city of El Paso wasted no time in getting water transported into town from it because their water supply was of poor quality, and often of insufficient quantity.

The initial construction of Fort Bliss on La Noria Mesa was completed in June 1893, but the post was not occupied until the advance party of the 18th Infantry Regiment arrived 19 October. The post commander at Hart’s Mill, Maj. Henton, thought his troops from the 23rd Infantry would be stationed there, but it was not to be. Oct. 27, the main body of the 18th arrived with eight officers and 202 enlisted men, Capt. William H. McLaughlin in command. Two senior officers, regimental commander Col. Henry M. Lazelle and Maj. Thomas E. Rose, were on extended leave, thereby missing the historic opportunity.

Lazelle arrived on post in November, but was still on sick leave and didn’t take command until early in 1894. No stranger to the area, graduating from West Point in 1855, he was stationed at the original Fort Bliss at Magoffinsville and was wounded in the Dog Canyon fight with the Apaches in the Sacramento Mountains in 1859. When Fort Bliss was surrendered to the Confederacy in 1861, Lazelle stayed loyal to the Union, marching across Texas only to be captured at San Lucas Springs and held prisoner until exchanged in 1862. After distinguished Civil War service, he served as Commandant of Cadets at the Military Academy, and served as the 18th Regimental Commander until being medically retired Nov. 26 1894.

McLaughlin now returned to command of the post and regiment until Col. Daingerfield Parker arrived in 1895 and assumed command. Relations with El Paso, which had been extremely cordial, soured when not a single resident attended a benefit concert by the regimental band, who until that time had regularly performed free as many as four and five concerts a week. Parker vowed the band would not play again for the townspeople while he was in command - and they didn’t.

A violent windstorm in April 1895 severely damaged one of the billets, blew the roof off the headquarters building, and damaged several other structures on post. As a result, Companies A and C were transferred to Fort Sam Houston. Many in the community thought Fort Bliss was doomed because of the troop reassignment, storm damage, and a particularly scathing inspector general report. This was not the case as Troop A, 5th Cavalry was assigned later in the year, arriving in January 1896. This was the post’s first permanently assigned cavalry and stables were contracted and built later the same year.

The 10th and the 25th were both units with black enlisted troops and white officers. This had not been a problem in the past, as both units, and others like them (the 9th Cavalry and 24th Infantry) had served in the area many times in the past. This time however, racial tensions flared when a trooper was arrested and several others interfered with his arrest; then tried to break him out of jail the next morning on 17 February 1900. A policeman and a soldier were killed. Fort Bliss turned over three soldiers from the 25th for trial and one, Sergeant John Kipper, was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was pardoned after having served 10 years by Texas Governor O.B. Colquitt. The 25th Infantry was sent to the Philippines in September 1900, leaving a seven soldier caretaking detachment for the post. I Troop was also reassigned.

D Troop, 12th Cavalry arrived May 6,1901, and relieved the detachment from the 25th. Also, that year in November the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment returned to post. The next year D Troop departed as did the 1st Battalion, with the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry arriving. In 1904, the 3rd Battalion departed and was replaced by the 1st Bn. of the 29th Infantry. C Co. of the 26th Inf.also pulled some temporary duty at Fort Bliss from February until May. In 1906, the 2nd Bn. of the 25th Inf. arrived for duty replacing the 29th. Race relations had not improved and black soldiers were often arrested for minor offenses in town. The 25th rotated out again in 1907, replaced by the 1st Battalion of the 19th Infantry.

Discussions to close border posts in the Southwest once again became a topic for the Army in Washington. Fort Bliss, Fort Huachuca, Fort Clark, and Fort Brown were singled out for health, supply, and strategic reasons. It is fortunate these talks did not make it to the action stage because events in Mexico would soon demand the strongest United States military presence on its border in history.

“Guardians of the Pass – The story of the U.S. Army in El Paso” will continue in next week’s edition of The Monitor.



www.bliss.army.mil	Published for the Fort Bliss/El Paso, Texas Community	November 11 , 2004

	Guardians of the Pass – the story of the U.S. Army in El Paso The most famous and feared of many great Apache leaders, Geronimo, (third from right, front row), surrendered for the last time in 1886. All are enroute to government imposed exile in Florida. They would later be relocated to Fort Sill, Okla., where Geronimo spent his last days, dying in 1909. Editor’s note: The birthday of Fort Bliss is approaching and The Monitor will feature a multipart series taken from “Guardians of the Pass, The story of the U.S. Army in El Paso.” We hope the series informs our readers to the longstanding history and friendship Fort Bliss and the El Paso community has shared over the years. Chapter 6 - Army owned and operated The Army requested $160,000 to buy land and pay the construction costs for the new post at El Paso. Congress appropriated $40,000. Land was purchased from the family of the late Simeon Hart along a 1000 yard stretch of the Rio Grande adjoining the old mill. The 135 acre tract was the first site for the United States Army in El Paso that was not leased. Because additional money for construction was not available, the troops had to build the new post themselves. Campaigns against reservation weary Apaches from San Carlos and Mescalero under Victorio and others caused delays in its completion, but in December 1880 the garrison was moved from downtown. The Soldiers did an excellent job. The officer’s quarters were built on- line, facing the parade field with their backdoors opening towards the river. They were two story with gabled roofs and porches. A far cry from the dirt floored adobe buildings of earlier posts. The barracks and headquarters buildings were on the north side of the parade field. When the railroad finally reached El Paso in 1881, Fort Bliss’ location at the narrows astride the Pass, caused the rails to be laid through the cantonment area. The Santa Fe line laid its tracks across the parade field and the Southern Pacific laid theirs behind the billets. After Victorio was killed by the Mexican Army in 1880, the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest drew nearer. But, with other Apaches still raiding on and off the reservations led by Geronimo, Nana, Loco, and Chato, the Army still had several tough, dusty, hot, and perilous years of Indian fighting ahead. Although garrisoned by infantry, Fort Bliss became a rest and refitting station for the cavalry. Brevet Maj. Gen. Benjamin H. Grierson stopped at Fort Bliss with the entire 10th Cavalry enroute to join Gen. Crook in Arizona for the final pursuit of Geronimo in 1885. Al Sieber, famed Army scout, with 16 Apache scouts under Lt. Britton Davis also visited the post in September of the same year. Relentlessly pursued, north and south of the border, Geronimo surrendered in 1886 and with the remnants of his band rolled through Fort Bliss by train on his way to prison in Florida. Fort Bliss at Hart’s Mill kept up the almost dizzying pace of troop and command changeover. In 1881 it was commanded by Capt. Henry R. Brinkerhoff and garrisoned by two companies of the 15th Infantry and Troop L of the 9th Cavalry. In 1882, Capt. Otis W. Pollock and two companies of the 23rd Infantry took over. They in turn were relieved by Brevet Lt. Col. Joshua S. Fletcher, Jr. and two more companies of the 23rd. Maj. Hamilton S. Hawkins commanded Fort Bliss during 1884 and 1885, along with two 10th Infantry companies. Three companies of the 10th Infantry arrived under Brevet Col. Gregory Barrett in 1886. In 1887, Col. Matthew M. Blunt commanded Fort Bliss with two companies of the 16th Infantry. The 5th Infantry returned to the Pass of the North in 1888, when two companies under Brevet Maj. Ezra P. Ewers were assigned. Col. Nathan W. Osborne, promoted and reassigned to the 5th Infantry, returned for his second tour as commander from 1889 to 1890. The last commander at the Hart’s Mill site was Maj. James Henton, from 1891 to 1893, with two companies of the 23rd Infantry. Disease was still a problem as it had been at Camp Concordia. Dysentery and malaria were probably the result of increased usage of the Rio Grande and its presence as an excellent breeding ground for mosquitoes. But, the post’s biggest drawback was not disease, or the railroad, it was its size and location. When the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. William T. Sherman, sent Gen. Philip Sheridan to New Mexico and Texas in 1881 with the purpose of selecting a post to enlarge while closing other frontier forts. This post located on the Rio Grande north of Las Cruces had unlimited potential for growth. He thought Fort Bliss was strategically located but because it was on the border with Mexico and also bounded by the Franklin Mountains it could not be expanded. Sherman agreed with his assessment until he visited the area himself in 1882. Recognizing Fort Bliss’ potential, Sherman changed his recommendation and advocated expansion of the post to regimental size. Serious discussion to expand or move Fort Bliss did not occur until 1887, when another visit from the Army staff got the citizens of El Paso interested and actively involved. Prominent members of the community formed the El Paso Progressive Association, lobbied Congress, printed pamphlets, and raised funds to buy land. Samuel W.T. Lanham, congressman from El Paso, and member of the House Committee for Military Affairs, introduced a bill to sell Fort Bliss and purchase land at a new site to be within 10 miles of downtown. The resolution passed and President Benjamin Harrison signed it into law in 1890. Simeon Hart, El Paso pioneer, Mexican American War veteran, mill owner and Confederate Commissioner, shown here with his children, cir. 1873. Chapter 7 - Home on the mesa Construction did not begin immediately with the authorization by Congress to build a new Fort Bliss. First the Secretary of War would have to select and acquire a new site of at least 1000 acres at no expense to the government ($150,000 was appropriated for construction costs, but not for buying land). Earlier efforts by Rep. Lanham to get government money for the purchase failed. The El Paso city council realizing how much the city would benefit from a larger military presence formed a committee to acquire the land. Site selection was conducted by a board of distinguished officers headed by Brig. Gen. David S. Stanley, Dept. of Texas Commanding General; medical officer, Lt. Col. Joseph C. Bailley, and quartermaster officer, Lt. Col. George H. Weeks. The site selected was on La Noria Mesa five miles from downtown (well within the 10 mile limit) and owned by Judge Bennett H. Davis, Charles R. Morehead, and Capt. Thomas J. Beall. The asking price was $8,250 which was easily raised by donations from area residents, to include the land owners. In charge of raising a modern garrison from the desolate terrain was German born Capt. George Ruhlen, U. S. Military Academy graduate, class of 1872. A 19-year veteran with 14 years of service in the Dakota Territory with the 17th Infantry, he was a highly regarded construction engineer. His assistants were Edward H. Offley, chief clerk, and F.A. Gartner, architect and civil engineer. They arrived in El Paso in March of 1891 and immediately began receiving bids for materials. It would take a year for Ruhlen to lay out the post, submit the plans, and gain approval before construction was authorized to begin and another three months before it actually did. The original structures authorized by the Quartermaster Department were a double barracks (Bldg.13) and outhouse (Bldg. 19), a mess hall, a guardhouse, four sets of captain’s quarters (Bldgs. 221-224), six sets of lieutenant’s quarters (Bldgs. 227,229-233), three double sets of noncommissioned staff officer’s quarters (torn down in 1966), a subsistence storehouse (Bldg. 2021), a hospital (Bldg. 8), and a stable (Bldg. 2011). In addition to the buildings, a complete water and sewage system was approved consisting of wells with steam pumps and a storage tank. An additional $150,000 for construction was allocated by Congress, as well. The first building completed was 128 (the pump house), in July 1892. The majority of the buildings were constructed by George H. Evans and Company of Topeka, Kansas, with a completion date of June 30, 1893, contracted. One of the most serious concerns for sustaining forces in the desert was answered early during the building process. A well at the site had started producing water of an excellent quality and taste in April of 1892. The city of El Paso wasted no time in getting water transported into town from it because their water supply was of poor quality, and often of insufficient quantity. The initial construction of Fort Bliss on La Noria Mesa was completed in June 1893, but the post was not occupied until the advance party of the 18th Infantry Regiment arrived 19 October. The post commander at Hart’s Mill, Maj. Henton, thought his troops from the 23rd Infantry would be stationed there, but it was not to be. Oct. 27, the main body of the 18th arrived with eight officers and 202 enlisted men, Capt. William H. McLaughlin in command. Two senior officers, regimental commander Col. Henry M. Lazelle and Maj. Thomas E. Rose, were on extended leave, thereby missing the historic opportunity. Lazelle arrived on post in November, but was still on sick leave and didn’t take command until early in 1894. No stranger to the area, graduating from West Point in 1855, he was stationed at the original Fort Bliss at Magoffinsville and was wounded in the Dog Canyon fight with the Apaches in the Sacramento Mountains in 1859. When Fort Bliss was surrendered to the Confederacy in 1861, Lazelle stayed loyal to the Union, marching across Texas only to be captured at San Lucas Springs and held prisoner until exchanged in 1862. After distinguished Civil War service, he served as Commandant of Cadets at the Military Academy, and served as the 18th Regimental Commander until being medically retired Nov. 26 1894. McLaughlin now returned to command of the post and regiment until Col. Daingerfield Parker arrived in 1895 and assumed command. Relations with El Paso, which had been extremely cordial, soured when not a single resident attended a benefit concert by the regimental band, who until that time had regularly performed free as many as four and five concerts a week. Parker vowed the band would not play again for the townspeople while he was in command - and they didn’t. A violent windstorm in April 1895 severely damaged one of the billets, blew the roof off the headquarters building, and damaged several other structures on post. As a result, Companies A and C were transferred to Fort Sam Houston. Many in the community thought Fort Bliss was doomed because of the troop reassignment, storm damage, and a particularly scathing inspector general report. This was not the case as Troop A, 5th Cavalry was assigned later in the year, arriving in January 1896. This was the post’s first permanently assigned cavalry and stables were contracted and built later the same year. The 10th and the 25th were both units with black enlisted troops and white officers. This had not been a problem in the past, as both units, and others like them (the 9th Cavalry and 24th Infantry) had served in the area many times in the past. This time however, racial tensions flared when a trooper was arrested and several others interfered with his arrest; then tried to break him out of jail the next morning on 17 February 1900. A policeman and a soldier were killed. Fort Bliss turned over three soldiers from the 25th for trial and one, Sergeant John Kipper, was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was pardoned after having served 10 years by Texas Governor O.B. Colquitt. The 25th Infantry was sent to the Philippines in September 1900, leaving a seven soldier caretaking detachment for the post. I Troop was also reassigned. D Troop, 12th Cavalry arrived May 6,1901, and relieved the detachment from the 25th. Also, that year in November the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment returned to post. The next year D Troop departed as did the 1st Battalion, with the 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry arriving. In 1904, the 3rd Battalion departed and was replaced by the 1st Bn. of the 29th Infantry. C Co. of the 26th Inf.also pulled some temporary duty at Fort Bliss from February until May. In 1906, the 2nd Bn. of the 25th Inf. arrived for duty replacing the 29th. Race relations had not improved and black soldiers were often arrested for minor offenses in town. The 25th rotated out again in 1907, replaced by the 1st Battalion of the 19th Infantry. Discussions to close border posts in the Southwest once again became a topic for the Army in Washington. Fort Bliss, Fort Huachuca, Fort Clark, and Fort Brown were singled out for health, supply, and strategic reasons. It is fortunate these talks did not make it to the action stage because events in Mexico would soon demand the strongest United States military presence on its border in history. “Guardians of the Pass – The story of the U.S. Army in El Paso” will continue in next week’s edition of The Monitor.