 The fort served as a base for United States Army troops assigned to protect the southern overland mail route along the San Antonio-El Paso Road from Indian raids.The camp was renamed Fort Inge in honor of Lieutenant Zebulon M. P. Inge a West Point officer killed in the Mexican–American War.Other forts in the frontier fort system were Forts Griffin, Concho, Belknap, Chadbourne, Fort Stockton, Fort Davis, Fort Bliss, Fort Mason, McKavett, Clark, Fort McIntosh, Richardson and Phantom Hill in Texas, and Fort Sill in Oklahoma.