Fort Travis

Fort Travis In early 1836, soon after Texas declared independence from Mexico, Republic of Texas president David Burnet dispatch Colonel Ed Harcourt to Galveston Island to erect a fort. Using army recruits and slave labor, Harcourt built an octagonal earth and timber fortification armed with six and twelve-pound gun mounts appropriated from the Texas Navy Vessel Cayuga. Name for Travis in honor of William B. Travis, famous defender of The Alamo, it was located at the east end of the island. After high winds damaged the fort in 1837 the site was converted into a gun battery called Fort Point, its present name. In 1898–1899, with the beginning of federal development of the port of Galveston, a second Fort Travis was establish across Galveston Bay at Bolivar Point near the former site of a Civil War Confederate fortification called Fort Green. Two batteries, named Davis and Ernst, were completed in 1899 and a third, named Kimble, was completed in 1922. Coastal defense facilities were added to the fort during World Wars I and II. Fort Travis was decommissioned and sold as war surplus in 1949. Besides its obvious military uses, Fort Travis also served as a refuge from hurricanes and as a civil defense shelter for area residence. (1993) Marker is property of the State of Texas Submitted by: Eric Goodill