Fort Milam

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FORT MILAM. A second Fort Milam, later known as Fort Burleson, was constructed in January and February of 1839 on the east bank of the Brazos near the home of John Marlin, a few miles east of the old Fort Milam and two miles south of the site of present Marlin in Falls County.

The new fort was a response to a devastating Indian attack that winter. It was built and temporarily garrisoned by Capt. Joseph Daniels's Milam Guards company from Houston, "150 feet square, built of Cedar pickets double banked, eleven feet high with bastions at each angle."

Daniels's men departed in mid-February, and Lt. William G. Evans marched thirty-four Houston volunteers-the Travis Spies-into the fort on April 3; in the Austin colony Capt. John Bird raised an additional company that arrived at Fort Milam on May 6. These two companies remained through the spring and summer.

At their discharge the government planned to garrison the fort with regulars from the First Infantry. On August 26, 1839, Lt. Col. William S. Fisher ordered the name of the post changed to Fort Burleson, in honor of Edward Burleson, commander of the Army of the Republic of Texas, and from that time until late in the spring of 1840 the fort was manned by Company D of the regulars, commanded first by Capt. George T. Howard and later by Capt. John Holliday.

The company was moved to Camp Chambers that spring, however. The fort passed into private hands and was maintained by local citizens until danger of Indian attack had passed.