Fort Richardson was a United States Army installation in present-day Jacksboro, Texas. It was named in honor of Union General Israel B. Richardson, who died in the Battle of Antietam, Maryland, during the Civil War.

Fort Richardson, the northernmost of the chain of Texas forts, replaced Fort Belknap, which was abandoned after the Civil War due to a lack of water. Like Belknap, Fort Richardson was a protective fortification for the North Texas frontier during Indian conflicts.

Soldiers arrived in Jacksboro in 1866 to establish a fort at Buffalo Springs in Clay County, 20 miles north of Jacksboro. However, due to a lack of timber, inadequate water resources, and Indian raids, they soon abandoned the site and returned to Jacksboro.

The northern-most point on a line of forts along the Texas frontier, its objective was to protect against marauding bands of Comanche and Kiowa Indians on the North Texas frontier. Located 70 miles from the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and 120 miles from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Fort Richardson was the northernmost army outpost in Texas and the anchor of a defensive line of fortifications that included Forts Griffin and Concho.

Life was hard for a soldier at Fort Richardson. Routine duties included long, arduous patrols along the frontier from Clay and Jack Counties west to Palo Duro Canyon near present-day Amarillo, Texas. They also made long, difficult patrols along the frontier, sometimes going as far as modern-day New Mexico and Colorado. They also guarded the military road connecting them with forts to the southwest, pursued criminals and deserters, escorted wagon trains, oversaw elections, protected cattle herds, helped local law officers keep the peace in Jacksboro, and, most importantly, patrolled for Indians. During the prime raiding months of April through September, scouting parties were constantly in the field.

The most strategically critical post in Texas, it had the largest garrison (666 officers and men) in 1872, making it the largest U.S. Army installation in the United States. Units that occupied the fort included the 6th Cavalry Regiment, the 4th Cavalry Regiment, and the U.S. 11th Infantry Regiment, along with parts of the 10th Cavalry Regiment and the 24th Infantry Regiment, both Buffalo Soldier regiments.

In the summer of 1872, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie explored the unmapped Llano Estacado, and late that year, on the North Fork of the Red River, he located and attacked the encampment of the Comanche Chief Mow-way, killing 50 warriors and capturing 130 women and children.

During World War II, the Texas National Guard established a facility at Fort Richardson for Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment, 36th Division on November 25, 1940. The unit departed from San Francisco, California, towards Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, but was at sea during the infamous attack. The Lost Battalion defended Java until being captured in March 1942, and performed forced labor for over three years. Most of the 63 deaths occurred while building the Burma-Siam Railway.

The Texas National Guard remained at Fort Richardson until 1954.

Thanks to a group of Jacksboro residents, the fort was declared a state historic site and National Historic Landmark in 1963 for its role in securing the state’s northern frontier in the post-Civil War era. It then came under the management of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The site became a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

Texas Parks & Wildlife acquired the fort in 1968, and extensive renovations began. At that time, the post hospital was in bad repair. Though structurally sound, it had undergone considerable alterations since the army had abandoned the fort some 90 years earlier. Other alterations had been made by the National Guard and the Jack County Historical Society in their efforts to preserve the structure while using it as the county museum.

These alterations included the addition of partitions, the covering of original plank floors, and various modernization modifications. The Parks and Wildlife Division has replaced the fort-period porch, restored exterior and interior wood trim, and repointed the original rubble stonework. The handsome structure features 18-inch-thick sandstone walls and a wood-frame veranda that completely encircles the first floor. The hospital contains a kitchen, dining rooms, washrooms, a dispensary, a surgeon’s office, and two large wards for patients. Although designed to patch up soldiers wounded in battle, records show that hospital staff treated more illnesses and saw more deaths caused by bad water, spoiled food, alcoholism, and venereal diseases than battle wounds. Today, visitors can enjoy a tour of the hospital and grounds, including the morgue, complete with a wooden coffin. At present, the hospital is used as a museum, with interpretive booths that relate the history of the fort and this part of the state.

Officers’ Quarters, built in 1867, were restored in 1972. The U-shaped, one-and-a-half-story frame building, with a porch extending across the north elevation facing the parade ground, rests on a sandstone foundation.

Prior to the erection of officers’ quarters on Fort Richardson, officers and enlisted men lived in tents and hastily constructed temporary structures on the north side of the creek. The original first five officers’ quarters were frame structures. By 1872, five other structures had been constructed. Built of lumber cut from cottonwoods growing in nearby river bottoms. Only one of the five original officers’ quarters remains, as the structures had deteriorated by 1875.

The remaining building outlasted the fort’s barracks and stables, which were built of small vertical pickets. The City of Jacksboro preserved the remaining building. The interior walls on the ground floor are plastered, while the attic rooms have canvas walls and ceilings. Each of the six first-floor rooms has a fireplace, except the stair hall. There are no fireplaces on the second floor.

In 1973, the site reopened as Fort Richardson State Historic Park.