Fort McRae was a Union Army post, established in 1863, then a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

post from 1866 and closed in 1876, in what is now

Sierra County, New Mexico Sierra County () is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 11,576. Its county seat is Truth or Consequences. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , ...

. The post was named for Alexander McRae (1829–1862) a slain hero of the 1862

Battle of Valverde The Battle of Valverde, also known as the Battle of Valverde Ford, was fought from February 20 to 21, 1862, near the town of Val Verde at a Ford (crossing), ford of the Rio Grande in Union (American Civil War), Union-held New Mexico Territory, ...

. The site of Fort McRae is located on the east bank of the

Elephant Butte Reservoir Elephant Butte Reservoir is a reservoir on the southern part of the Rio Grande in the U.S. state of New Mexico, north of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Truth or Consequences. The reservoir is the 84th largest man-made lake in the United Sta ...

in the general area of Elephant Butte, New Mexico within McRae Canyon. A area at the site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2005. In National Park Service sources its precise location was .

History

Union Army

Fort McRae was first established by California Volunteers of the Union Army during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

on April 3, 1863. It was located east of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

on the south side of Canyon del Muerto, (now known as McRae Canyon), at an elevation of in the southern Fra Cristobal Range, 3 miles northeast of Elephant Butte, in

. It was located nearby to the west of the Ojo del Muerto, a spring in the Canyon del Muerto, one of the few reliable water sources along the route of the

Jornada del Muerto Jornada del Muerto was the name given by the Spanish conquistadors to the Jornada del Muerto desert Endorheic basin, basin, and the almost waterless trail across the Jornada beginning north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Las Cruces and ending sout ...

.Wilson, John P., Between the River and the Mountains: A History of Early Settlement in Sierra County, New Mexico, Report #40, John P. Wilson, Las Cruces, New Mexico, August 1985
/ref> Fort McRae was established to protect the area of new settlements and road on the west bank of the

Rio Grande Valley Lower Rio Grande Valley (), often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of South Texas, is a region located in the southernmost part of Texas, along the northern bank of the Rio Grande. It is also known locally as the Valley or the 956 (the ...

and in the road across the

from Navaho and

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

raiders. It also blocked the Apache and Navajo from using the Canyon del Muerto gap through the Fra Cristobal Range and also from using the Ojo del Muerto spring. The post was originally founded by California Volunteers of the Union Army in 1863 to the protect settlements of Alamosa and Canada Alamosa, and the travelers on the Fort Craig - Fort Thorn Wagon Road and

from

raids. Later settlements of Alamocita, Plaza del Rio Palomas, in 1867 and Cuchillo Negro in 1871, were added to the Fort's protection duties. The Volunteers during their time at Ft. McRae built a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

with names of soldiers in the post cemetery, that was enclosed within a stone wall.Rio Grande Republican, Dec. 22, 1880, p.1 The Volunteers manned it until they were relieved by soldiers of the regular U.S. Army during the aftermath of the

in 1866.

U. S. Army

Fort McRae was the only outpost within a radius of , except for the other U.S. Army forts; Fort Craig which was away to the north and

Fort Selden Fort Selden was a United States Army post, occupying the area in what is now Radium Springs, New Mexico. The site was long a campground along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. It was the site of a Confederate Army camp in 1861. The U.S. ...

which was 60 miles away to the south. In 1867, Alamocita, a small New Mexican town was established on the east bank about six miles up the Rio Grande from the fort, some from Alamosa, three miles away on the west bank that had been destroyed by the flooding earlier that same year. That year too, the Plaza del Rio Palomas, later more commonly called Las Palomas, was founded twenty miles down river from the fort on the west bank, at the confluence of Palomas Creek with the Rio Grande. The population thought it easier to defend from Apache attacks, and easier to reinforce from Fort McRae, than their former home in Alamosa. Between 1868 and 1871, Cuchillo Negro was settled by pioneering New Mexican farmers from Alamosita. After a peace was made Fort McRae provided the garrison at the Apache reservation at Ojo Caliente on the upper Cañada Alamosa. In October 1876, the fort was decommissioned and abandoned, the garrison withdrawn and their responsibilities taken over by Fort Craig.

The Site Today

The site today, partially submerged at times of high water in the reservoir, in recent years has been exposed by the lower water. It has some foundations and other traces of the fort on the south side of McRae Canyon.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places American Civil War forts Forts in New Mexico Military installations established in 1863 1863 establishments in New Mexico Territory Military installations closed in 1876 Former installations of the United States Army History of Sierra County, New Mexico New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties Ruins on the National Register of Historic Places 1876 disestablishments in the United States 1870s disestablishments in New Mexico Territory National Register of Historic Places in Sierra County, New Mexico