Fort Phantom Hill

Fort Phantom Hill was one of the second line of forts laid out in the early 1850s to protect the westward-moving frontier of Texas settlement. In 1849 the federal government sent Capt. Randolph B. Marcy to explore and mark the best route through the Comanchería, the vast region to the north and west of Austin inhabited by the warlike Comanche Indians. This was meant to give safer passage to immigrants headed for the California gold fields. The advanced cordon of forts, including Fort Phantom Hill, was established as a result of Marcy's recommendations.

Acting on orders from Gen. Persifor F. Smith, Lt. Col. John J. Abercrombie arrived at the Clear Fork of the Brazos in the area of present Jones County with five companies of the Fifth Infantry on November 14, 1851. Smith had recently taken command of the newly organized Texas (Eighth Military) Department from the ailing Gen. William G. Belknap, who had been supervising construction of the fort on the upper Brazos that was named for him. Originally, Belknap's orders had been to build a second fort on Pecan Bayou, at a site now in Coleman County. Smith, who was unfamiliar with this area, changed the locale to the Clear Fork near its junction with Elm Creek.