The Volunteers during their time at Ft. McRae built a cenotaph with names of soldiers in the post cemetery, that was enclosed within a stone wall.[5]: 74–75, 77 [7] The Volunteers manned it until they were relieved by soldiers of the regular U.S. Army during the aftermath of the American Civil War in 1866.
U. S. Army
Fort McRae was the only outpost within a radius of 30 miles (48 km), except for the other U.S. Army forts; Fort Craig which was 23 miles (37 km) away to the north and Fort Selden which was 60 miles away to the south.[6] In 1867, Alamocita, a small New Mexican town was established on the east bank about six miles up the Rio Grande from the fort, some from Alamosa, three miles away on the west bank that had been destroyed by the flooding earlier that same year. That year too, the Plaza del Rio Palomas, later more commonly called Las Palomas, was founded twenty miles down river from the fort on the west bank, at the confluence of Palomas Creek with the Rio Grande. The population thought it easier to defend from Apache attacks, and easier to reinforce from Fort McRae, than their former home in Alamosa. Between 1868 and 1871, Cuchillo Negro was settled by pioneering New Mexican farmers from Alamosita. After a peace was made Fort McRae provided the garrison at the Apache reservation at Ojo Caliente on the upper Cañada Alamosa. In October 1876, the fort was decommissioned and abandoned, the garrison withdrawn and their responsibilities taken over by Fort Craig.[5]: 42–48, 54–56, 60, 73–76
The Site Today
The site today, partially submerged at times of high water in the reservoir, in recent years has been exposed by the lower water. It has some foundations and other traces of the fort on the south side of McRae Canyon.