its stations. The beginning of the American Civil War in 1861 ended both enterprises. The Butterfield route moved out of Texas, and the federal government ceded its Texas forts to the Confederate States of America. Confederate Texas was unable to secure its territories, so as a consequence, white settlers retreated eastward throughout the war. After the end of the war in 1865, though, immigrants from the war-torn Southern States decamped for Texas. Many of these immigrants became cattle herders and followed routes such as the Goodnight–Loving Trail, established in 1866 on the Butterfield route – which brought large volumes of cattle through the Concho Valley. Major General Philip Sheridan, appointed to command the postwar military district covering Texas and Louisiana on March 19, 1867, at first ignored reports of raiding by indigenous peoples, but later that year, the US Army was ordered to reoccupy its pre-war billets in Texas, and that May, Fort Chadbourne was reoccupied by the 4th Cavalry. Fort Chadbourne was, however, poorly supplied with water. The US Army decided to replace Fort Chadbourne with a new installation. They identified the junction of the Concho Rivers as an ideal site because of its proximity to the routes it was to guard and nearby grazing land, and the abundance of water. In mid-1867, Major John Porter Hatch, commanding the 4th Cavalry, dispatched Lieutenant Peter M. Boehm to establish a camp on the Middle Concho, to the south of Fort Chadbourne. Captain Michael J. Kelly and 50 troopers established this camp, albeit on the North Concho, and remained there over the summer of 1867. On November 28, 1867, the 4th Cavalry's H Company departed from Fort Chadbourne for the Conchos. H Company's commander, Captain George G. Huntt, named the site of the new fort "Camp Hatch", but changed it at Hatch's request to "Camp Kelly" in January 1868 to honor Kelly, who had died on August 13, 1867, of typhoid fever. Construction of a permanent outpost began on a site north of the camp, which was named Fort Concho in March 1868 by Edward M. Stanton, United States Secretary of War. Construction Captain David W. Porter, assistant quartermaster of the Department of Texas, was tasked with constructing Fort Concho on December 10, 1867. Progress was slow, as all building materials had to be shipped in and there was frequent bickering among the fort's officers, Huntt and Porter included. Porter employed