Fort Davis

Located within the Davis Mountains of West Texas, Fort Davis was established in 1854 and named after Jefferson Davis who was then the Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. Fort Davis was established to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons on the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio-El Paso Road and the Chihuahua Trail and to control activities on the southern stem of the Great Comanche War Trail and Mescalero Apache war trails. During the Civil War, Confederate States Army troops manned the fort which was attacked on August 9, 1861 by Mescalero Apaches. The native warriors attacked the garrison's livestock herd, killed two guards and made off with about 100 horses and or cattle. Fort Davis is important in understanding the presence of African Americans in the West and in the frontier military because the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry and the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, all-black regiments (known as the Buffalo Soldiers), which were established after the American Civil War, were stationed at the post. Fort Davis was abandoned in 1891.


Today, 24 restored historic buildings and over 100 ruins and foundations are part of Fort Davis National Historic Site. Five of the historic buildings have been refurnished to the 1880s.