General Zachary Taylor
In 1846 General Zachary Taylor ordered the construction of a fort on the north bank of the Rio Grande River, directly across the river from Matamoros, Mexico. The star-shaped fort was composed of earthen walls 9 feet-tall and fifteen-feet wide and was surrounded by a ditch that was twenty-feet wide and fifteen-feet deep. Fort Texas, as it was originally called, became the first United States military installation in Texas.
From May 3-9, 1846 the fort was besieged by a much larger Mexican army. One of the two American soldiers killed during the bombardment was Major Brown, who was struck by a cannonball on May 6 and died three days later. On May 9 Taylor’s army defeated the Mexicans at the Battle of Resaca de la Palma and lifted the siege.
Brown’s death and the successful defense of the fort made him one of the first American war heroes of the Mexican-American War. In his honor, Fort Texas was renamed Fort Brown, and the city founded near the fort two years later was named Brownsville.
Over the next hundred years the fort was used for defense against Indian raids and Mexican incursions. It changed hands four times during the Civil War, and it was at Fort Brown that William Gorgas contracted yellow fever in 1882 and began his groundbreaking research. The controversial Brownsville Raid of 1906 involved soldiers stationed at the fort (allegedly), and in from 1929-1945 the fort was the home of the 124th U.S. cavalry, one of the last horse cavalry regiments in the United States military—all of which are potential topics for future Doses.
Fort Brown was formally decommissioned in 1946. Today the site is owned by the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. An upturned cannon now marks the spot where Major Brown received his fatal wound.
The images are a contemporary drawing depicting the mortal wounding of Major Jacob Brown and a photograph of the memorial at the site.
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