The Commanding Officer was the highest ranking officer on this frontier post. As such, his life was a mixture of meager privileges and grave responsibility. The commanding officer was entrusted with the security and defense of the post and, by extension, the nearby town of Fredericksburg.
In December, 1848, Captain Seth Eastman led his infantry company to Camp Houston (later renamed Fort Martin Scott). Eastman and his men spent cold winter nights in drab canvas tents before quarters and barracks were constructed. Commanding officers that succeeded Eastman enjoyed the relative luxury of a comfortable log residence comprised of four rooms and a kitchen. Front his front porch he could see the flagpole and guardhouse across the parade ground.
The post commander and his family stayed in the commanding officer's residence.
During the five years the Army occupied Fort Martin Scott, there were eleven different commanding officers. In its first year of existence, Fort Martin Scott had a new commanding officer almost every month. One of the fort's last commanders, and perhaps the most famous, was Captain James Longstreet, who went on to be one of General Robert E. Lee's lieutenants at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
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