FORT DAVIS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

TEXAS

Sounds of the bugle echo off the mountain! Palisades of vertical volcanic cliffs stand like sentinels guarding the post…and the past. Hear the clatter of horses' hooves, officers shouting orders, soldiers marching in step, and the firing of the evening gun-boom! Hear "The Star Spangled Banner" played like you have never heard before-an old version dating to the 19th century. Suddenly your imagination takes you back to 1875, when the garrison was staffed by Buffalo Soldiers. In the silence, one's spine tingles in an eerie way. You stand amidst the ghostly ruins of this remote frontier army garrison. Except for the spirits of thousands of men, women and children who lived and sometimes died at this remote and lonely fort, only the sapphire sky and the immortal west Texas wind are there to keep you company. Their spirits endure today and give the ruins a voice. If you listen, the ruins tell their story…and without realizing it, you connect to the past.

A key post in the defense system of west Texas, Fort Davis played a major role in the history of the Southwest. From 1854 until 1891, troops stationed at the post protected emigrants, freighters, mail coaches, and travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. Today, Fort Davis, located in the heart of the Davis Mountains, is considered one of the best remaining examples of a post-Civil War frontier military post in the American Southwest because of the extent of the surviving structures and ruins. It is a vivid reminder of the significant role played by the military in the settlement and development of the western frontier.

Named for Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the fort was first garrisoned by Lieutenant Colonel Washington Seawell and six companies of the Eighth U.S. Infantry. The post was located in a box canyon near Limpia Creek on the eastern side of the Davis Mountains - where wood, water, and grass were plentiful. From 1854 to 1861, troops of the Eighth Infantry spent much of their time in the field pursuing Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches who terrorized travelers and attacked mail stations. With the outbreak of the Civil War and Texas's secession from the Union, the federal government evacuated Fort Davis. The fort was occupied by Confederate troops from the spring of 1861 until the summer of 1862, when Union forces again took possession. They quickly abandoned the post and Fort Davis lay deserted for the next five years.

Fort Davis is important in understanding the presence of African Americans in the West and in the frontier military because four all-black regiments established after the Civil War, the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry and the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, were stationed at the post. It was troopers of these two cavalry regiments that earned the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" - a term supposedly given them by the Indians because of the resemblance of their hair to the short, curly hair of the buffalo.

Fort Davis National Historic Site was added to the National Park System in 1961.

DID YOU KNOW

• Fort Davis was in operation before and after the Civil War: First Fort Davis 1854-1862, second Fort Davis 1867-1891
• After Federal abandonment in 1861, Confederate soldiers of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles occupied Fort Davis until 1862.
• African-American soldiers, nicknamed "Buffalo Soldiers," served at the post from 1867 to 1885. Fort Davis provides an excellent opportunity for understanding the important role played by Black soldiers in the West and specifically in the frontier U.S. Regular Army.
• Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, the first African-American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served at Fort Davis, 1880-1881.
• In 1960, Fort Davis was the first site in the state of Texas officially designated as a National Historic Landmark.
• In 2004, the National Park Service conducted an archeological excavation at the post commissary, uncovering several thousand artifacts. The excavation was part of a preservation project to stabilize the commissary building.
• Every year, nearly 300 volunteers donate approximately 10,000 hours of their time to Fort Davis National Historic Site.

DON'T MISS ATTRACTIONS

• October 2004 marks the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the military post and nearby settlement that became the town of Fort Davis. On October 9, the Fort hosted a festive all-day Sesquicentennial Celebration-sponsored in partnership by the National Park Service at Fort Davis National Historic Site, the Friends of Fort Davis National Historic Site, the town of Fort Davis, and Jeff Davis County.
• Visit 24 restored structures, including 5 historic buildings furnished to the time period of the 1880s, while listening to historic bugle calls and an audio 1875 retreat parade ceremony.
• Walk along a two-mile stretch of the historic San Antonio-El Paso Road at and near the fort. Experience how 19th-century pioneers felt as they lumbered along the dirt trail with open vistas, uncertain water supplies, and dangers lurking at every bend, then finally having the comfort of knowing that near Fort Davis they were in the protective reach of a military garrison.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PRIORITIES

• The Friends of Fort Davis, in partnership with the National Park Service at Fort Davis, plan to restore and furnish portions of the post hospital to the time period of 1884. If grant monies and donations are forthcoming in the next few years, Fort Davis will soon boast the National Park Service's only refurnished 19th-century post hospital in a structure that was originally constructed as a hospital.
• The park sustains an ongoing preservation program dedicated to maintaining the integrity of the historic structures and ruins of the fort.
• Current focus is to implement the comprehensive recommendations of the park's new General Management Plan.

Click a photo to view larger version.

LINKS:

Fort Davis National Historic Site»

Partnering & Managing for Excellence Report»

Previously Featured Parks»