The U.S. Army Air Defense Center
              Fort Bliss, Texas

    This is the story of Fort Bliss, the Army post that has
maintained its pioneering role -first with the infantry, then
with the cavalry, later with antiaircraft artillery, and now with
guided missiles.

    The first American military use of the area that was to
become Fort Bliss was in 1846 when Colonel Alexander Doniphan
led a group of Missouri volunteers through El Paso del Norte
en route to military successes at Chihuahua and the Sacramento
Pass. Two years after Colonel Doniphan`s campaign, on 7
November 1848, the War Department ordered the establishment
of a post in El Paso. On 8. September 1849 the garrison party,
commanded by Jefferson Van Horne, arrived in this area.
On the noth side of the Rio Grande they found only four small
and scattered settlements.

    When it was first established at the site of Smith`s Ranch,
which is now downtown El Paso, Fort Bliss was one of the
Southwestern outposts protecting a recently won frontier against
harassing Apaches and Comanches. The troops did not remain
at El Paso long, however, since Indian raids were constant and
shifting, and garrisons had to be moved frequently to meet the
chainging threats. In 1851 the two companies of troops stationed
in El Paso were moved 40 miles north to Fort Fillmore. For
more than two years there was no garrison at The Pass.
 

    In 1854 the post was officially named Fort Bliss in
honor of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William Wallace Smith
Bliss, General Zachary Taylor`s adjutant general during the
Mexican War and later his Secretary when General Taylor
became President of the United States. Colonel Bliss is
buried in the Fort Bliss National Cementary, and his monument
stands in Howze Stadium on this reservation.

    When the post was reoccupied in 1854, the original site
at Smith`s Ranch was abandoned and a new post was established
at  Magoffinville. There it remaind for the next 14 years,
serving as a base for troops guarding the area against Apache
attacks. Until 1861 most of these troops were units of the
8th Infantry.

    At the outbreak of the War between the States, the gar-
rison received orders from San Antonio to surrender the post
to Confederate commissioners. Confederate forces held the
post in 1861 but abandoned it without a fight the next year
when a Federal column advanced from California.

    The Californians maintained an irregular garrison at Fort
Bliss until 1865 when 5th Infantry units arrived to reestablish
th post. Protecting settlers and travelers against Indians was
the primary duty of the garrison until the surrender of Geronimo
in 1886.

    Early in 1868, flood waters from the Rio Grande seriously
damaged the Magoffinville post, and in March of that year Fort
Bliss was moved to higher ground and was rebuild on a site
called Concordia. It continued as Camp Concordia until 1869
when the old name, Fort Bliss, was resumed.

    Water, heating, and sanitation facilities were at a minimum
in the adobe builings of the fort. Records reveal that troops
suffered severely from dysentery and malaria. Supplies arrived
irregulary over the Santa Fe Trail by wagon train.

    The Concordia post was abandoned in December 1876. When
troops left in January, El Paso was without a garrison for more
than a year. At that time the town and its environs on the north
side of the river had swelled to a population of almost 800.

In 1879 Fort Bliss was set up as a permanent post. Up to
this time the government had a policy of simply leasing property
for its military installations. However, a tract of 135 acres was
purchased at Hart`s Mill on the river`s edge in the Pass. On the
basis of $40,000 appropriation, a building program was begun.

    The first railroad arrived in 1881, and tracks were
laid across the military reservation, thereby solving the
supply problems for the fort and rapidly growing town
of El Paso. By 1890 Hart`s Mill had outlived its usefulness,
and Congress appropriated $1,500,000 for the purchase of
land and for construction of a military installation on the
mesa approximately 5 miles east of El Paso. This area,
the present site of Fort Bliss, was first occupied by units
of the 18th Infantry in October of 1893.

    Brick structures raised in that day are still in use today.
Fort Bliss has grown from the original area of 1,265 acres to
more than 3,000,000 acres, which comprise the Fort Bliss,
White Sands Missile Range, and Alamogordo complex.

    Fort Bliss assumed new prominence during the Mexican
revolution. In 1914 General John J. Pershing took command
of Fort Bliss and 2 years later led a punitive expedition
from here into Mexico in an attempt to capture Pancho Villa.

    Fort Bliss was predominantly a cavalry post from 1912
until 1942 when it became a center for antiaircraft artillery
training. On 1 July 1957, the U.S. Army Air Defense Center
was established at Fort Bliss. Located at this Center, in
addition to Center Headquaters, are the U.S. Army Air Defense
School; Air Defense; the 6th Artillery Group (Air Defense); the
61st Ordnance Group; and other supporting elements.

Army, Fort Bliss, Texas CEN 52457