A personal Account of Fort Conch in 1870, Part Two

Lightly edited by Jim Fish 

The following is a personal account continued from Part 1 of U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon W. M. Natson, written while he was stationed there. 

“The original plan of the post was a parallelogram running due east and west, but this plan has been so modified that it now forms nearly three sides. On the north side of the parade ground, and facing the south, are the men's quarters; facing the west the commissary, quartermaster's buildings, and the hospital; facing the north the officer 's quarters. 

“The general appearance of the country in the vicinity of the post is a flat, treeless, dreary prairie. The edges of the two streams are scantily fringed with the pecan and wild plum; straggling growths of mesquite sprinkles the plain. The open nature of the country greatly affects the climate to the comfort or discomfort of the residents. The glare from the scorched and yellow grass during the summer usually produces inflammation of the eye, while the unchecked sweep of the north wind in winter (the well-known Texas norther) is felt more keenly by the northern sojourner than the severer winters of his home. During but a small proportion of the winter it is necessary to wear more clothing than ordinarily would. be required in November in the latitude of Washington, but the severity of the "norther" is only equaled by the suddenness of its appearance. A fall of more than 30 degrees F. in the thermometer within an hour has happened more than) once during the last year. The irregularity and uncertainty of the season precludes any agricultural calculations, for while the annual rainfall may equal that of the most fertile States, the gathering of all the rain into one or two months of the year either drowns or scorches out the crops. After these rains, the narrow streams swell to impassibility and the luckless gardener who has trusted to his better chances upon some riverside flat has his labor and investment swept away in an hour. For these reasons, no post garden has yet been successful, although an effort is being made about seven miles southwest of the post by a farming company, to cultivate some bottom lands by irrigation. This is to be done by damming one of the tributaries of the Main Concho and bringing the water through a ditch about three-fourths of a mile. The post will undertake to cultivate a garden there, it is understood, this summer. Water tresses are now abundant upon both streams, having been planted by the present medical officer for obvious hygienic reasons. 

“The question of the supply of water, which is wholesome and sufficient for the use of the garrison, is one which in any year may be an urgent sanitary question. Although the rain-fall of 1868 marked about 30 inches and last year, (1869) 20 inches, it is believed by the medical officer and the testimony of men whose occupations have made them familiar with these frontiers, and especially cattle drovers to whom a supply of water is a vital pecuniary question, that the two years recorded have been exceptional, and even with the abundance recorded for the former year, the North Concho, instead of a running stream, has been standing in shallow pools, while the water in the Main Concho was so impregnated with putrefying animal matter as to be offensive to both smell and taste. The waters of both streams are slightly impregnated with lime. In very dry seasons, when the half-famished buffalo arrive at their banks, they crowd into it in such numbers that many are drowned, so many as to affect the purity of the stream in the manner just referred to. These rivers in the vicinity of the post and above vary from fifteen to forty feet in width, have a gravel or rock bottom, and are fordable at almost any point. 

“In anticipation of this deficient supply of water the post surgeon earnestly urged that suitable cisterns might be attached to each of the buildings, and his application so far has met with favorable consideration as to have one, intended then to be one of a series, started. 

“Three or four severe storms, accompanied by thunder and lightning have been experienced during the existence of the post, the flashes being vivid, near and rapid. Considerable anxiety was felt for the safety of the hospital building, standing as it does Ion an elevated plain and being itself higher than any building or tree for many miles. One unusually severe hailstorm occurred in June 1868, arising without warning, and from the weight and accumulation of the masses of ice, breaking in the tents, (the garrison were not in quarters then), the troop horses were stampeded, and most of the poultry about the post killed. In fifteen minutes from the beginning of the storm, the parade ground was covered with hailstones to the depth of more than two inches. Several were measured and found to exceed an inch and a half transversely by three-fourths of an inch in thickness. The belt of the storm cloud was very narrow, not quite a mile in width, and was traveling due southeast. 

“Supply is a vital question to the post. There is no means of transportation from the coast except by wagons. Indianola is 550 miles distant; San Antonio, the commissary and quartermaster depot, about 230 miles. When the rainy season sets in communication almost entirely ceases. Two- or three-days rain upon the light soil' of the prairie so loosens it that an ordinary ladened wagon will sink to the hubs and the mule to its girth. The winters of 1868 and 1869 were specially marked as wet, and no supplies were received. The succeeding winter has been unusually favorable. Rising rivers frequently delay even the mail for several days. 

“The post is entirely dependent, the soil having no natural products of any utility to a resident. For prevention of scurvy, the post surgeon was fortunate enough to find some "lamb's quarter" (Chenopodium) for the use of the troops while awaiting the arrival of supplies last spring. The nearest village is Fredericksburg, a German settlement upon the Pedernales River, 160 miles from the post. The nearest neighbors are the mail station, Ben Ficklin) three miles, and the Bismarck farm, seven miles. Those are both companies and not actual settlers. The nearest actual resident (Frank Tankersley) is eighteen miles and his nearest neighbor eleven miles beyond him. The vicinity of the post is abundantly supplied with game. Buffalo exists in countless herds during the winter and spring, and deer and antelope at all seasons. The large gray wolf and the coyote are abundant, and the fox, the badger, and peccary can easily be found when desired. The prairie for miles in every direction being one vast "dog town," the prairie dog holes interfere somewhat with the pursuit of the chase. Waterfowl of every kind. from the large white swan to the green-winged teal, abound upon the rivers. Wild turkey and quail, both the brown of Virginia and the blue tufted quail of New Mexico, can be found anywhere upon the streams. Immense catfish, weighing as much as seventy-five pounds, with eels of proportionate bass, with smaller fish, reward the angler with little exertion. It may be some drawback that a country supplied so lavishly with game is equally generously furnished with venomous reptiles and insects. A prairie dog town is the well-known habitat of the rattlesnake, as also the rocky borders of the streams; its kindred, the water-moccasin, in this country attains a giant development. Tarantulas and lesser spiders lurk under every cactus shrub, and! the centipede brings forth its interesting brood in every pile of chips or lumber about one's quarters. The post surgeon having been bitten on the hand, while taking hold of a towel in which the insect was coiled, by a centipede, afterwards measured it and found it to be seven and a half inches long, enters so much testimony against the special virulence either of their jaws or claws. The bite was painful for an hour or two, but no other trouble resulted, neither ulceration nor swelling. 

“Indians, believed to be chiefly Comanche and Kiowa, commit frequent depredations in the vicinity. Horses have been repeatedly stolen within the post lines, and as late as the middle of last February a citizen was killed and scalped within a mile of the adjutant's office. 

“The situation of the post is a most healthy one, and it is thought under some precautions, such as guarding against the sudden change of temperature, especially in winter, a desirable one for the treatment of tubercular cases.”