A Spanish fort was built here in 1728 near a Lipan Apache village bearing the Aztec name Lipantitlan. The post was later abandoned, and the village was deserted after many Indians died with the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition at the Battle of Medina on Aug. 18, 1813. About 1831 Mexican troops garrisoned the site again to deter further Anglo-American colonization, but Fort Lipantitlan was only a simple earthen embankment around unfinished barracks. In 1835 the soldiers borrowed a cannon from settlers in nearby San Patricio, foreshadowing the similar incident at Gonzales that led to the skirmish of Oct. 2, 1835, and helped spark the Texas Revolution. Late in Oct. 1835, Capt. Philip Dimitt, commanding Texas forces at Goliad, sent a company under Ira Westover to seize the fort. Westover captured it on Nov. 3 and on the following day repelled a Mexican counterattack led by Capt. Nicolas Rodriguez. Though not decisive, the fight raised Texan morale. On June 7, 1842, an army of volunteers under Gen. James Davis successfully defended the fort against an attack by Gen. Antonio Canales and his Republic of the Rio Grande forces. After that battle, the post was abandoned and soon fell into ruin.