NM History: Frontier Fort Craig

By Jaymi Firestone | October 1, 2019

Established in 1854, as one of the largest and most important forts in the West, Fort Craig helped shape the history of New Mexico. It is now one of the many Historical Sites that are spread across the Land of Enchantment. Visitors are almost transported back in time as their shoes crunch against the gravel underfoot and the American flag flaps in the wind. Its almost impossible to not picture the fully occupied U.S. Army fort that once called the land home.

Located in the rugged country of Socorro County, New Mexico on what is now White Sands Missile Range, this fort used to be home to nearly 4,000 troops. The complex was made of sprawling stone and adobe wall that protected those that lived, worked and socialized there. The troops used the nearby Rio Grande River as their water source, and was built in 1854 to replace Fort Conrad that sat 9 miles north.

Fort Craig was built as a fully self-contained community and military fortress. It had everything the dwellers needed, such as storehouses, horse stables, a hospital, blacksmith’s shop and carpentry shop. Officers’ children even attended school there and some military wives worked as launderers, cleaning the clothing of the working soldiers. Fort Craig housed many who were serving in the U.S. Army, but most notably may be the African-American soldiers, the Buffalo Soldiers. “The fort became famous early on as soldiers undertook vigorous campaigns against the Apaches, Navajos and Comanches, trapping and capturing them in the depths of the Jornada del Muerto, and rescuing Indian hostages and stolen livestock,” (nps.gov).

With the Fort strategically having been established so close the El Camino Real, at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Fort Craig was right in the path of battle. It is in history books as one of the first and largest Civil War conflicts in the West. Household names such as Kit Carson and Captain Jack Crawford once even called Fort Craig home.

“With the Confederate capture of Fort Fillmore and other southern New Mexico military stations, General Henry Hopkins Sibley led 2,600 Texas Confederate troops up El Camino Real toward Fort Craig. Union Colonel Edward R.S. Canby called hundreds of volunteer militia troops to Fort Craig for assistance, including the mostly Hispanic 1st New Mexico Volunteers commanded by Colonel Kit Carson..Now 3,800 strong, the troops fortified the garrison with earthen ramparts, a perimeter moat and bombproof subterranean supply houses, and positioned both real and fake cannons to intimidate the advancing rebels. Realizing that chances of a successful direct assault were slim, Sibley and his men attempted to bypass Fort Craig, changing course off El Camino Real, going around Black Mesa to the east, and heading north through the lush Rio Grande tablelands. Canby and Company caught up with them at Valverde, a riverside paraje (rest stop) on El Camino Real, and on February 21, 1862, the troops clashed. After a bloody daylong battle, Sibley triumphed with fewer losses and forced a Union retreat back to Fort Craig.” (nps.gov)

Battles for Indian Country resumed after the Civil War, and Fort Craig became yet again on the front lines. The next decade brought battles with the Apache Indians. Some as famous as Geronimo, who surrendered in 1885 to the American soldiers. This is when the Apache homelands had been destroyed, and the Apache people were forced to reservations. The same year, the railroad had began traveling through the area, and Fort Craig no longer served a vital purpose to the area. It was then closed permanently and abandoned (blm.gov) leaving only the remnants of battlefield where many lived and many died.