Fort Lincoln Military Cemetery

Fort Lincoln, on the west bank of the Seco Creek a mile (sic.) north of DHanis in west central Medina County, was named for George Lincoln, who was killed in the battle of Buena Vista. Established on July 7, 1849, the fort occupied the site used the year before by Charles de Montel as headquarters for a company of Texas Rangers. The fort furnished protection for frontier settlements and was a post of escort and refuge for travel on the road from San Antonio to Fort Duncan. In 1851 the installation had buildings for two companies, a commissary store, a storehouse for company property, a storehouse for the quartermaster's depot, and a hospital. The temporary buildings were of logs or poles, with roofs of shingles, thatch, or tarpaulin. The fort was abandoned on July 20, 1852, after the frontier line had advanced westward. The buildings remained intact for some time, and Texas Rangers made headquarters at the site. The barracks were torn down and transformed into residences east of Seco Creek at D'Hanis when the property passed into private hands. On May 26, 1936, a dedication ceremony was held for the unveiling of a marker placed by the Texas Centennial Commission at the site.¹

LOCATION: Fort Lincoln was located on the west side of FM 1796, 2 1/2 miles north of DHanis. This is now private property.

On December 12, 1874, the eight soldiers who had been buried at Fort Lincoln were reinterred in four shared graves in Section C at San Antonio National Cemetery, 517 Paso Hondo Street, San Antonio, TX.

NOTE: The following tombstone inscriptions were copied word for word, line for line. Tombstones identifying more than one grave are identified by a hyphen (1-2). Underlined information is relative to all graves or burials sharing a common tombstone. FS signifies footstone. A slash (/) indicates the end of a line. Information in italics (italics ) represents comments or observations made by the transcriber or are from other sources as noted.

Compiled by the Medina County Tombstone Inscription Project, Jim Menke, Coordinator, in cooperation with the Castro Colonies Heritage Association, Historical Research Committee. (2001)

No.	Name	Inscription/Remarks
273	CHRISMOND, R	R. H. CHRISMOND / Sgt. Maj. / U.S.A.
274	HENNESY, T	COMMARD / THOS. HENNESY / U.S.A. Thomas Hennesy, Pvt., Co. G, 8th U.S. Dragoons. Drowned in Seco Creek February 1850.
	HALILEY, G	GEO. HAILILEY / SGT. / U.S.A. George Haliley, 1st Sgt., Co. G, 8th U.S. Dragoons. Committed suicide by cutting throat Nov. 1849.
275	UNKNOWN	ONE UNKNOWN / U.S.A.
	TALBOT, W	W. R. TALBOT / U.S.A. W. R. Talbot, Pvt., Co. G, 2nd U. S. Dragoons.
	MURRAY, F	FRANCIS MURRAY / U.S.A. Francis Murray, Pvt., Co. G, 2nd U. S. Dragoons
276	SHIELD, P	PAT'K SHIELDS / U.S.A. Patrick Shields, Pvt., Co. G, 2nd U. S. Dragoons
	WALKER, E	E. D. WALKER / U.S.A. E. D. Walker, Pvt., Co. G, 2nd U.S. Dragoons
UNMARKED GRAVE
	McCANN, J	On the evening of Nov. 21, 1849, the blacksmith (ferrier) was shot and killed by Indians.² There is no record of him being reinterred at San Antonio National Cemetery unless he could be the "unknown" buried in Grave No. 275.

¹ Arrie Barrett, Federal Military Outposts in Texas, 1846-1861 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1927): Monuments Erected . . . To Commemorate the Centenary of Texas Independence (1939).

TXGenWeb, Medina County - Fort Lincoln Military Cemetery (MCTIP) updated on 11/10/2013