Brackettville: Black Seminole Scout Community

Megaphone on a pole in front of large one-storey stone building

Old Guardhouse Museum at Fort Clark

Large poster of Private John Wilson, 9th Cavalry, 2nd Cavalry division, Fort Clark, Texas 1943. Standing behind poster are two men looking at items in a glass case.

Exhibits inside the museum.

Cemetery with sign saying Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Since 1872

Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery

African American soldier with a woman, four children, and a dog in front of a thatched hut

Black Seminole Scout 1st Sgt. Ben July and family at Fort Clark

Group of African American soldiers standing at attention

Highlighted among Black Seminole Indian scouts are Medal of Honor awardees Isaac Payne and John Ward (right).

Group of men standing in front of a building

Scouts left to right: Plenty Payne, Billy July, Ben July, Dembo Factor (civilian clothes), Ben Wilson (back row), John July, William Shields; John Jefferson, Informant, January 1889. (New York Public Library)

Group of soldiers on horseback with title The Last of the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts

Black Seminole scouts on horseback. (New York Public Library)

The descendants of escaped slaves and Florida’s Seminole Indians, the Black Seminole Indian Scouts were known as unparalleled trackers and fearless combatants. The U.S. Army organized the scout unit in 1870, and the scouts were stationed at Fort Clark in 1872, when the cemetery was first established. The Black Seminole Indian Community is represented at the Old Guardhouse Museum at Fort Clark, which highlights the Buffalo Soldiers and Texas military history, as well as the Black Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery, the final resting place of the legendary trackers, including four Medal of Honor winners.

Old Guardhouse Museum at Fort Clark

Black Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery
  • Hwy 3348, 3.1 miles south of Brackettville
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