Ft. McIntosh Cemetery -- Laredo TX
N 27° 30.610 W 099° 31.263
14R E 448538 N 3043051
The old Fort McIntosh Cemetery, rededicated in honor of all those who served there in the nearly 100 years it was an active military post
Waymark Code: WMPFX3
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/25/2015
Views: 4
Fort McIntosh grew out of an old Spanish presidio at this location. The first American troops to serve here arrived in 1846, when former Republic of Texas President Capt. Mirabeau B. Lamar brought a garrison of Texas volunteer soldiers to garrison the fort. After the Mexican War and the final settlement of the US-Mexico boundary as the Rio Grande, the US Army sent regular Army troops from Ft. Ringgold at Rio Grande City to serve at Ft McIntosh.
Not long afterwards, this cemetery was laid out so that soldiers who died here could be buried.
The US Army garrisoned the fort until 1861, when Texas seceded from the Union,and Texas Confederate forces occupied the fort. The fort withstood a few Union assaults, but the Confederates were never dislodged. After the end of the Civil War, the US Army returned and began an ambitious building program to support a larger presence to deter Indian attacks and border raids.
Ft. McIntosh also expanded during WWI and WWII, but after the war, and with almost no need for the historic border military forts, Ft. McIntosh was declared surplus and closed in 1946. The Internarional Boundary Commission and Laredo Community College District divided up the fort's buildings and land holdings.
Soldiers buried in the old Ft McIntosh cemetery were disinterred and reburied in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio. From the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery website: (
visit link)
"Remains from one-time frontier posts in Texas such as Fort Ringgold, Fort Clark, and Fort McIntosh were reinterred in Fort Sam Houston when those facilities closed in 1947."
A map of the cemetery location within the historic boundaries of Ft. Macintosh can be found on the Webb County Cemeteries page of her Texas Historica Commission's Atlas. see: (
visit link)
Today the old Ft. McIntosh cemetery has had new walls and a new arch erected. The grounds are preserved and have been rededicated as a memorial to all soldiers who served here from 1846-1946.