PRESENT MILITARY POSTS AND PROPOSED CHANGES. 
23 
In view of the insufficiency of the military forces in Texas, I have suggested the throwing 
forward of Fort Chadhourne to the northwest; hut there is little question hut that another post 
could he advantageously established between this new position and Fort Belknap, on some 
tributary of the Double Mountain fork of the Brazos. Good roads should at once he made, 
connecting these posts with each other, and with the heads of navigation of the Brazos and the 
Colorado, by the valleys of these streams. I would also suggest, in this connexion, the removal 
of Fort Arbuckle, which seems of little practical use in its present position, to a point in the 
valley of the Red river, and considerably farther to the west, and of connecting it by good 
roads with these two posts, and with Fort Smith or Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas. It would 
he thus placed on the southern frontier of the “ Great Plains,” and in the region occupied by 
the Camanches and Kiowas of the northern prairies during the winter months. 
By these arrangements a very fertile and extensive region along the northern frontier of 
Texas would he thrown open to settlements, which would soon supersede the necessity of the 
posts. The interval of three hundred miles between the new position of Fort Chadhourne and 
the valley of the Rio Grande could he occupied by a post to he established at or near the head 
of Delaware creek, one hundred and seventy-six miles west of Fort Chadhourne, and one 
hundred and forty-five miles east of El Paso. 
At this point water is furnished in abundance from pure, and mineral springs, which form the 
sources of this stream; grass is good and very abundant over the entire country, and the build¬ 
ing-material, of stone or adobe, is furnished in the immediate vicinity. Sufficient wood for fuel 
is found in the mezquite and dwarf cedar, which cover the ridges in the neighborhood, and 
lumber to he used on the quarters could he procured from the forests of pine which line the 
eastern face of the Guadalupe mountains, at a distance of twenty miles. I would suggest that 
Fort Fillmore, on the Rio Grande, which can he advantageously broken up, as will he imme¬ 
diately exhibited, he removed to this point. 
By these arrangements we have a continuous line of posts, at convenient intervals, from the 
frontiers of Arkansas to the Rio Grande at El Paso, or Dona Ana, separating the Indians of 
the prairies from those of Texas, confining the Apaches of New Mexico to the mountain ranges 
on the north, and without increase of the military force. By procuring water on the “ Staked 
Plain,” we have a route across the plains to the valley of the Rio Grande, more than half of 
which traverses a well-watered, well-timbered and fertile country, and one which a very few 
years will find settled to within three hundred miles of El Paso. 
A brief examination of the approaches to this route from the east, and a comparison with the 
present military road through Texas to El Paso, will readily exhibit its immense advantages. 
The great route of emigration to Texas, from Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee, and the southern route to California, cross the Red river at the little village of 
Preston, and at the town of Clarksville, one hundred miles lower down. 
A broad and well-beaten road also leads from Preston down the valley of the Red river, con¬ 
necting the towns and settlements. The Red river, as I before stated, is navigable many miles 
above the town of Preston, and steamboats yearly carry down the cotton and other products 
of the valley. The point of departure from the Red river is easily accessible, both by land and 
water, and the distance thence to the Rio Grande, at El Paso, over the route I have described, 
is six hundred and thirty-nine miles. 
The present depot of military supplies of Texas and the Rio Grande, as high up as the town 
of Dona Ana, has been established at La Yaca bay, and from thence, by the present military 
route.to El Paso, is a distance of seven hundred and fifty miles. Nearly five hundred miles of 
this distance is through a country destitute of timber, and badly watered, and, although the 
depot is more easily reached from the east than the proposed point of departure on Red river, 
yet it is not only much farther from the frontier posts of Texas, but communicates with them by 
a route far inferior in all respects. 
For the defence of the Rio Grande settlements, from the northern terminus of the “ Jornada 
