Fort Lancaster

Fort Lancaster was on the left bank of Live Oak Creek above its confluence with the Pecos River. It is now a state historic site off old U.S. Highway 290 ten miles east of Sheffield in Crockett County. The post was established as Camp Lancaster on August 20, 1855, by Capt. Stephen D. Carpenter and manned by companies H and K of the First United States Infantry. Camp Lancaster became Fort Lancaster on August 21, 1856. Carpenter was succeeded in command by Capt. R. S. Granger, who served from February 1856 to March 31, 1858. Carpenter resumed command after March 31 and was succeeded again by Granger in January 1859. Granger commanded until the removal of federal troops in March 1861 after the secession of Texas from the Union. During the Civil War the post was occupied from December 1861 to April 1862 by Walter P. Lane 's rangers, who became a part of Company F, Second Regiment, of the Texas Mounted Rifles. After the war the fort was reoccupied in 1871 as a subpost by a company of infantry and a detachment of cavalry. Personnel changed monthly. The post was apparently abandoned in 1873 or 1874 and much of its masonry was used for buildings in Sheffield.