Camp Hudson

Camp Hudson, also called Fort Hudson, was located on San Pedro Creek, a tributary of the Devils River, twenty-one miles north of Comstock in central Val Verde County. It was established on June 7, 1857, in what was then Kinney County and named for Lt. Walter W. Hudson, who died in April 1850 of injuries he received in an Indian fight. The camp was one of several posts built between San Antonio and El Paso to protect travelers on the so-called Chihuahua Trail. A local post office was opened in 1857. The post was built along an elevated but isolated section of the creek, and few travelers or settlers came by in the early years. Zenas R. Bliss, who was stationed at Camp Hudson for two years, reported seeing only four or five people during that time who were not related to the army. The walls of the buildings at Camp Hudson were constructed of a mixture of gravel and lime. The process was slow, but it made the buildings cool in summer and warm in winter. In 1859 one of the experimental camel caravans of camels from Camp Verde passed through Camp Hudson. The troops left on March 17, 1861, for service in the Civil War. In 1866 the post office closed. In late October 1867 a stage from Camp Hudson to Fort Stockton was ambushed by Indians, and two military escorts were killed. In November, immediately after the stage attack, companies D and G of the Ninth Cavalry were ordered to Camp Hudson. By April 1868 other troops had returned to the area.

In April 1871 Camp Hudson was reorganized with three commissioned officers and sixty enlisted men. In March 1876 Lt. Col. George Pearson Buell came to Camp Hudson from Fort Concho with two companies of cavalry. Under his leadership, the post was to be used as a summer camp to protect newly arrived settlers. The troops at Camp Hudson fought with Indians on several occasions and sometimes followed them into Mexico. In April 1876 Lt. Louis Henry Orleman was sent to Camp Hudson to take command of Company B of the Tenth Cavalry. In January 1877, however, Camp Hudson was permanently closed because the threat of Indian attacks no longer existed. In 1936 The Texas Historical Commission placed a centennial marker at the site of Camp Hudson. By the 1980s no buildings stood on the private property where the camp was once situated.