sits just across the Rio Grande from its sister city, Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The two cities are in one of the most interesting and intriguing regions in Texas, dating back to Spanish Colonial days, and covering periods of exploration, wars, revolutions, banditry, and âyou name it . . . it was there.â
General Zachary Taylor established Fort Brown in 1846 to maintain the United Statesâ claim to the Rio Grande as the international boundary, the line won some ten years earlier by Texans in their battle for independence from Mexican domination. The old fort housed troops during the Mexican war, defended the border, and later exchanged hands during the Civil War. By a strange quirk of fate, the last engagement of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, was fought near Brownsville in May of 1865. Confederate soldiers under the command of Colonel John S. Ford, not having heard of Leeâs surrender a month earlier, completely routed and captured a Federal force in a fierce running two-day encounter. Only after the battle did the victorious Rebels learn of Leeâs surrender. The victors then became the formal captives of their former prisoners! That battle was the final one of the Civil War.
Fort Brownâs hospital was where the famous Dr. William Crawford Gorgas did much of his yellow fever research. During the Spanish American War, he was appointed chief sanitary officer in Havana and did much to clear that city of yellow fever. Then he was sent to Panama, where in five years he succeeded in greatly reducing the death rate from yellow fever during the time the canal was being built. Later, Gorgas became Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and was promoted to the rank of Major General.
Today the hospital has been converted to an administration building for the University of Texas at Brownsville (formerly called Texas Southmost College) and is called Gorgas Hall. Other campus buildings from the original fort days, which ended in 1920, are the Medical Laboratory, the Military Police Headquarters, the Post Guardhouse, the Morgue, and the Post Headquarters.
The former fort has its ghosts, too.
Yolanda Gonzalez, librarian at the Arnulfo L. Oliveira Memorial Library on the University of Texas campus, was kind enough to share some interesting happenings with me. âThere are supposed to be ghosts everywhere,â she says, as she related personal sightings and experiences she has had. She believes the collegeâs ghosts are friendly, and she doesnât fear them. On several occasions, she has seen books in glass-fronted cabinets move slowly, as if someone were searching the shelves for a certain book.
One night while working late putting up a display to go on view the next day, she saw a door to the Hunter Room open, then close. She thought the janitors might have opened the door, and ignored it until she saw both janitors come in together from having dinner. The three then investigated and found the door was still locked. Gonzalez said they told her it was âjust the ghosts of the college.â
According to an article which appeared in the October 31, 1993
Brownsville Herald
, one of the most widely told stories concerning the old fort was related by a janitor, who early one morning walked out of the building and heard the âthundering of horse hooves and the stomping of marching soldiers.â When he looked out, he saw an entire regiment of soldiers on parade, saluting the American flag!
Ms. Gonzalez talked at length to the janitor who had viewed the strange dawn ceremony. She said he described in great detail how the soldiers and horses looked, and said a bugler was standing near the flag. He said the sound of the horsesâ hooves was so loud he got scared and tried to run away.
Later that same morning, the janitor found a button from a uniform, and a buckle. He kept the button but gave Gonzalez the buckle, which she took to the Historic
General Zachary Taylor established Fort Brown in 1846 to maintain the United Statesâ claim to the Rio Grande as the international boundary, the line won some ten years earlier by Texans in their battle for independence from Mexican domination. The old fort housed troops during the Mexican war, defended the border, and later exchanged hands during the Civil War. By a strange quirk of fate, the last engagement of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, was fought near Brownsville in May of 1865. Confederate soldiers under the command of Colonel John S. Ford, not having heard of Leeâs surrender a month earlier, completely routed and captured a Federal force in a fierce running two-day encounter. Only after the battle did the victorious Rebels learn of Leeâs surrender. The victors then became the formal captives of their former prisoners! That battle was the final one of the Civil War.
Fort Brownâs hospital was where the famous Dr. William Crawford Gorgas did much of his yellow fever research. During the Spanish American War, he was appointed chief sanitary officer in Havana and did much to clear that city of yellow fever. Then he was sent to Panama, where in five years he succeeded in greatly reducing the death rate from yellow fever during the time the canal was being built. Later, Gorgas became Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and was promoted to the rank of Major General.
Today the hospital has been converted to an administration building for the University of Texas at Brownsville (formerly called Texas Southmost College) and is called Gorgas Hall. Other campus buildings from the original fort days, which ended in 1920, are the Medical Laboratory, the Military Police Headquarters, the Post Guardhouse, the Morgue, and the Post Headquarters.
The former fort has its ghosts, too.
Yolanda Gonzalez, librarian at the Arnulfo L. Oliveira Memorial Library on the University of Texas campus, was kind enough to share some interesting happenings with me. âThere are supposed to be ghosts everywhere,â she says, as she related personal sightings and experiences she has had. She believes the collegeâs ghosts are friendly, and she doesnât fear them. On several occasions, she has seen books in glass-fronted cabinets move slowly, as if someone were searching the shelves for a certain book.
One night while working late putting up a display to go on view the next day, she saw a door to the Hunter Room open, then close. She thought the janitors might have opened the door, and ignored it until she saw both janitors come in together from having dinner. The three then investigated and found the door was still locked. Gonzalez said they told her it was âjust the ghosts of the college.â
According to an article which appeared in the October 31, 1993
Brownsville Herald
, one of the most widely told stories concerning the old fort was related by a janitor, who early one morning walked out of the building and heard the âthundering of horse hooves and the stomping of marching soldiers.â When he looked out, he saw an entire regiment of soldiers on parade, saluting the American flag!
Ms. Gonzalez talked at length to the janitor who had viewed the strange dawn ceremony. She said he described in great detail how the soldiers and horses looked, and said a bugler was standing near the flag. He said the sound of the horsesâ hooves was so loud he got scared and tried to run away.
Later that same morning, the janitor found a button from a uniform, and a buckle. He kept the button but gave Gonzalez the buckle, which she took to the Historic
Similar Books
