Fort Brown Fort Brown was a military post of the United States Army in Texas during the later half of 19th century and the early part of the 20th century . Early years . In 1845 , the U . S . Army began construction of a new fort ( then known as " Fort Texas " ) on the northern side of the Rio Grande . The next year , the fort played a role during the opening of the Mexican - American War . During the Siege of Fort Texas , two Americans were killed , including Major Jacob Brown . In honor of the fallen major , General Zachary Taylor renamed the post Fort Brown . In 1849 , the city of Brownsville , Texas , was established not far from the fort ' s grounds . Civil War . In 1861 Confederate Col . John " Rip " Ford occupied the fort until 1863 when they were finally driven out by Union forces under General Nathaniel P . Banks , who then camped in tents erected at the fort site . This ended in 1864 when Confederate forces under General J . S . Slaughter and Colonel Ford reoccupied the area . They would hold the post until the end of the war . Postbellum . From 1867 – 1869 , a permanent fort was constructed under the supervision of Capt . William A . Wainwright . William C . Gorgas . In 1882 , Dr . William Crawford Gorgas was assigned to the hospital at Fort Brown during the height of the yellow fever outbreak . Using Fort Brown as his base of operations , Gorgas studied the disease for several years until he was sent to Cuba during the Spanish - American war . Brownsville raid . On August 13 and 14 , 1906 , unknown persons " raided " Brownsville , indiscriminately shooting bystanders , wounded one man and killing a townsperson named Frank Natus . The townspeople of Brownsville quickly blamed the black soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Brown and , as such , the Army investigated the matter and concluded that the black soldiers were indeed guilty . William H . Taft , then President Theodore Roosevelt ' s Secretary of War and soon to be President himself , discharged all 168 black soldiers " without honor " . Sixty years later , another investigation was held and the black soldiers had their honor restored . However , by then , only 2 of the original 168 men were still alive . Recent theories have come out regarding who shot up Brownsville . The History Channel ' s program " " History ' s Mysteries " " attributed it to Brownsvillians shooting up the town with rifles using the same caliber ammunition as the soldiers and then framing the soldiers . ( Three books have since been written devoted wholly to or partially to the Brownsville Raid , " The Brownsville Raid " and " The Senator and the Sharecropper ' s Son " by John D . Weaver and " Racial Borders : Black Soldiers along the Rio Grande " by James Leiker . ) First airplane to be attacked by hostile fire . On April 20 , 1915 , U . S . Signal Corps Officers Byron Q . Jones and Thomas Millings flew a Martin T . O . Curtiss over the fort to spot movements of Mexican Revolutionary leader Francisco " Pancho " Villa . The plane reached an altitude of 2 , 600 ft . and was up for 20 minutes . It did not cross the border into Mexico , although it was fired upon by machine guns and small arms . These frequent patrols lasted for a period of 6 weeks and were used more effectively in 1916 . 124th Cavalry . The troopers stationed at Fort Brown from 1929 - 45 were from the 124th Cavalry Regiment , Texas National Guard , which became one of the last mounted cavalry regiments in the United States Army . On November 18 , 1940 , they went into active military training . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the division served with distinction , dismounted , in the China Burma India Theater , where a member of the unit from Fort Brown earned the theater ' s only Medal of Honor ( awarded to Jack L . Knight , commanding F Troop ) . United States Army Air Force use . Fort Brown was transferred to the USAAF Training Command on 7 July 1943 . The USAAF Gulf Coast Training Center ( later Central Flying Training Command ) used the fort for flexible gunnery training until the fort was inactivated on 1 February 1946 . Decommission . On 1 Feb 1946 Fort Brown was decommissioned . Turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers on 25 April 1946 . It was acquired by the City of Brownsville and Texas Southmost College in 1948 .