The Texas Military Department was established as the War Department of the Republic of Texas on August 5, 1836. It was empowered by Article II of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas and initially comprised the Office of the Adjutant General, Texas militia, Texas Army, Texas Navy, and Texas Rangers. In the years between the Texas Revolution and Mexican War as a sovereign republic, the department remained active in land, sea, and guerilla combat operations and expeditions. Most notably, the Battle of Salado Creek, Naval Battle of Campeche, Texas-Indian Wars, and Texan Santa Fe Expedition.
When Texas joined the United States, the Texas Army and Navy were integrated into the United States Armed Forces. The War Department was re-designated the Department of Texas and consisted of the Office of the Adjutant General, Texas militia, and Texas Rangers.
From the early beginning of our nation and when it became part of the United States on December 29, 1845, to the present day. Texans have and will always stand ready to answer the call.
If you know of a person who has served in the Texas Military Department, please submit their information below to be verified and placed on the
Texas Heroes page.
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The Republic of Texas (Spanish: República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande (another breakaway Republic from Mexico), and the United States of America, although Mexico considered it a rebellious province during its entire existence despite the Treaties of Velasco of May 1836. It was bordered by Mexico to the west and southwest, the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, the two U.S. states of Louisiana and Arkansas to the east and northeast, and United States territories encompassing parts of the current U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico to the north and west. The Republic of Texas ended on December 29, 1845, when Texas became the 28th state of the United States of America.
Forts & Camps
Ft. Wolters: was a United States military installation four miles northeast of Mineral Wells, Texas. Originally named Camp Wolters, it was an Army camp from 1925 to 1946. During World War II, it was for a time the largest infantry replacement training center in the United States, and was commanded by Major General Bruce Magruder.
During World War II, Camp Wolters served as a German POW camp.
After the war, the camp was deactivated for several years. It became an Air Force base in 1951 with the mission of training Air Force engineers.
Camp Wolters was the location where two of the war's most famous enlisted infantrymen underwent basic training - Audie Murphy and Eddie Slovik.
Camp Bowe: Named in honor of the Texas patriot James Bowie, was a military training facility during World War II, and was the third camp in Texas to be so named. From 1940 to 1946 it grew to be one of the largest training centers in Texas.
Camp Maxey: Was a World War II infantry-training camp and associated facilities. It was occupied from July 1942 to early 1946 in Lamar County, Texas. Its main entrance was located nine miles north of Paris, Texas. Planning for the 70,000-acre military post began in 1940, soon after the National Military Draft was ordered; the planning accelerated in 1941 shortly before the United States entered World War II in December 1941.
On 1 May 1941, an engineering contract to design a $22,800,000 military camp in northwest Lamar County was awarded to a Dallas firm. On 20 January 1942, Congressman Patman announced that groundbreaking for the camp was imminent. Construction of the camp started on 27 February 1942, and on 2 April 1942, the Army issued General Orders No. 17, which included the name of the military reservation. The facility near Paris, Texas was named Camp Maxey in honor of Confederate Brigadier General Samuel Bell Maxey. The first US Army personnel to manage the new reservation arrived on 4 July 1942. The post was activated by the US Army on 15 July 1942, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Callie H. Palmer.
Camp Swift: The Army signed a $25 million contract in January 1942 to build a training camp on 56,000 acres north of Bastrop, Texas. The contract stipulated the project was to be completed in 108 working days. 2700 buildings were built during World War II, but none of those remain on the site today. At the end of the war, they were sold or donated and relocated. The gymnasium was relocated to Whitney Texas. It is still in use today by the school district. During World War II, German prisoners of war began arriving and at peak numbered 10,000. At the same time, the camp held 90,000 GIs, making it "one of the largest army training and transshipment camps in Texas".
Camp Bullis: In 1906 United States military bought over 17,000 acres from all or parts of six ranches. This area was designated the Leon Springs Military Reservation and was to be used as maneuvers and training area for troops based at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Leon Springs was praised for its sparse population and varied terrain. Use of the new training area began almost immediately. In July and August 1907, the target ranges in present-day Camp Stanley were used for the Southwestern Rifle and Pistol Competition. The first major maneuvers were held in 1908, involving regular army and National Guard infantry, cavalry, and field artillery units.
Camp Mabry: In 1906 United States military bought over 17,000 acres from all or parts of six ranches. This area was designated the Leon Springs Military Reservation and was to be used as maneuvers and training area for troops based at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Leon Springs was praised for its sparse population and varied terrain. Use of the new training area began almost immediately. In July and August 1907, the target ranges in present-day Camp Stanley were used for the Southwestern Rifle and Pistol Competition. The first major maneuvers were held in 1908, involving regular army and National Guard infantry, cavalry, and field artillery units.
Camp Cooper: Was on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River seven miles north of the site of the present Fort Griffin State Historic Site in south-central Throckmorton County. It was established by the Texas legislature in January 1856 and named for United States Army adjutant general Samuel Cooper. Its mission was to protect the frontier and to monitor the nearby Comanche Indian reservation.
In 1906, J.B. Putnam purchased the property from J.A. Matthews. The property is still in the Putnam family today.
Fort Brown: Located in Brownsville, served as fortification against Mexican soldiers, Native American incursions, the Confederacy, the Union Army, as well as providing a front for the battle against malaria, all in the course of its decades of military activation. Established in 1846, Fort Brown remained in service until it was deactivated by the military in 1945. Named in honor of Major Jacob Brown who fought, died, and was buried on the grounds, the Fort is considered the first United States military post in Texas. An upended cannon on the grounds, placed by General James Parker’s Commission in 1920-21, reportedly marks the spot Major Brown died.
Although many of the later buildings survive today, only ruins remain of the original, pre-Civil War fort. At its beginning, the fort was composed of earthen walls more than nine feet high and surrounded by a ditch fifteen feet deep and twenty feet wide. Within a few decades, however, more permanent structures were built and many are still in use, including the Post Hospital, built-in 1869. The hospital was also the location of significant yellow fever research by then First Lieutenant Wm. C Gorgas, an army physician, who defied orders by his superior officer and performed autopsies on soldiers who had succumbed to the disease. Gorgas succeeded in determining the vector of malarial infection and yellow fever (the mosquito) thanks, in part, to his research at Fort Brown.
Today the Fort’s surviving buildings and grounds are part of the campuses of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.
Fort Clark: The well-preserved Fort Clark served as the post for numerous Buffalo Soldier infantry and cavalry units. In particular, the Black Seminole Indian Scouts were stationed here and served alongside Buffalo Soldiers of the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry. The scouts descended primarily from runaway slaves who found refuge in the swamps of Florida. Black Seminoles endured forced migration from Florida to reservations in Oklahoma after 1838. Deprived of the right to bear arms and faced with the threat of enslavement in the South, the group that eventually became the Black Seminole Indian Scouts left the reservation under the direction of a leader named John Horse and moved to Mexico prior to the Civil War. With the end of the Civil War and slavery, this group of Black Seminoles returned to the U.S., where the U.S. Army recruited them to form the Black Seminole Indian Scouts. The fort’s history and legacy, from the Black Seminole Indian Scouts through the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Division (the only African American cavalry division in World War II), have been painstakingly preserved and researched by the Fort Clark Historical Society. The guardhouse serves as a museum to highlight the fort’s history, including pictures, artifacts, and memorabilia from all periods of its military service and various units. The area, once a family resort in the 1960s, is accommodating to travelers looking to stay overnight, with camping, lodging and RV facilities, walking trails, and the beautiful spring-fed swimming pool.
Fort Crockett: History underpins the San Luis Resort — literally. The hotel has a commanding view of Galveston Beach because it sits atop a high embankment containing artillery emplacements from historic Fort Crockett. Built after the great storm of 1900, two massive concrete revetments (gun emplacements) still nestle into the hillside, clearly visible from Seawall Boulevard. During World War II, the revetments sported 12-foot guns used for artillery training and coastal protection. Fort Crockett briefly housed German prisoners of war. Many fort buildings remain in use by Galveston College, Texas A&M University at Galveston, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Fort Davist: The frontier post of Fort Davis, established in 1854 and serving the Texas frontier until 1891, provided a strategic factor in the defense system of the American Southwest. The Fort’s garrison protected settlers, mail coaches, wagon trains, and travelers enduring the San Antonio-El Paso road, and, until 1861, soldiers stayed busy driving Comanche, Kiowa, and Apaches from the region. The Fort’s location, at the mouth of a box canyon on the eastern side of the Davis Mountains, provided a suitable advantage for fending off attacks, mustering troops, and staging defenses. Abandoned for a period after the Civil War, the Fort’s primitive structures had little to offer the Ninth U.S. Cavalry who arrived in 1867 to reoccupy the post. In two short years, however, permanent quarters, barracks, a guardhouse, and storehouses were raised, and by the end of the 1880s, Fort Davis harbored more than 100 structures and quartered more than 400 soldiers, including the famed Buffalo Soldiers. Today, the Fort and surrounding grounds comprise the Fort Davis National Historic Site, considered one of the country’s best surviving examples of a frontier military post in the Southwest. Twenty-four roofed buildings remain, along with over 100 ruins and foundations. Five of the historic buildings have been restored to their 1880s condition. Self-guided tours, hiking, and special events highlight the Fort’s year-round interpretive program.
The Museum
The 45,000-square foot Texas Military Forces Museum explores the history of the Lone Star State’s militia and volunteer forces from 1823 (date of the first militia muster in Stephen F. Austin’s colony) to 1903 when the Congress created the National Guard. From 1903 to the present the museum tells the story of the Texas Army and Air National Guard, as well as the Texas State Guard, in both peacetime and wartime. The museum displays dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled guns, trucks, jeeps, helicopters, jet fighters, observation aircraft and towed artillery pieces. Permanent exhibits utilize uniforms, weapons, equipment, personal items, film, music, photographs, battle dioramas and realistic full-scale environments to tell the story of the Texas Military Forces in the Texas Revolution, the Texas Navy, the Texas Republic, the Mexican War, the Battles along the Indian Frontier, the War between the States, the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, Peace Keeping Deployments and the Global War on Terror. Living history programs, battle reenactments and other special events take place throughout the year. Admission to the museum is always FREE.
We are pleased to offer virtual tours of the museum galleries. The links below will take you to one of our gallery areas. You can click on the circles to move forward and backward or use the mouse to move around or look up and down. You can enlarge an area or see it from above in a “dollhouse” view.
In some areas, you will see white and blue bullseyes this will either show you an artifact name or take you to a link that will show you the associated label text. A zoom feature is available, which will make the text readable. Sometimes it can appear very large, so you might need to adjust your screen zoom level to make it easier to read.
Great Hall
19th Century Gallery
36th Gallery - WWI and WWII
Cold War to Global War on Terror
How to visit
Located in Building 6 on Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas. The street address of Camp Mabry is 2200 West 35th Street. The mailing address is P.O. Box 5218, Austin, TX 78763. The current entrance is on Maintenance Drive(google map).
Camp Mabry Entry Requirments:
- All visitors 18 years or older required a PHOTO I.D
- For special accommodation for entry, please call 512-782-5659
- Camp Mabry regulations require motorcycle riders to wear long pants, a long sleeve shirt, and a motorcycle helmet.
Inclement Weather Policy To facilitate the safety of museum volunteers and provide timely information to the general public, the Texas Military Forces Museum’s inclement weather policy will be to close the museum at any time the Austin Independent School District closes due to weather, and/or the Texas Adjutant General’s Department directs the closing of the facility.
Reenactments
Nothing brings military history to life like hearing the sound of a machine gun, the boom of cannon, the rattle of musketry, the drone of aircraft engines or feeling the earth shake under you while a tank drives by. All of these experiences are available to visitors courtesy of the Texas Military Forces Museum Living History Detachment which conducts a series of battle reenactments, demonstrations, displays, parades and living history programs throughout the year to make history “come alive” for young and old alike.
The primary focus of the detachment is the 36th Infantry Division in World War II and the famous Texas Brigade during the War Between the States. However, the detachment also participates in World War I and Vietnam War events as well as other time periods.
The museum’s living historians travel around the country to take part in historic events, but the backbone of their schedule are three programs that take place on Camp Mabry each year: the Close Assault 1944 living history program which occurs over Memorial Day weekend and Veterans Day weekend and the annual Texas Military Forces Open House – Muster Day event during April.
To get involved with the museum’s living history program, check out the G Company brochure or The Civil War brochure.