Restoration

Despite seventy years of neglect, the site of the fort joined the National Park Service, established in 1961, to protect one of the best remaining examples of a United States Army fort in the southwestern United States.

Today there are six furnished buildings, twenty others unfurnished, and one hundred ruins. An audio Retreat Program plays three times per day. Fort Davis National Historic Site is located in a remote area, which likely results in its low attendance, considering its historic tales. Only 35,580 visit per year.

Accomodation can be booked in the city of Fort Davis. Camping is available at Davis Mountains State Park.

Photo above: Buildings at Fort Davis, 1936, Marvin Eickenroht, Historic American Buildings Survey. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Buy Second Edition
America's Best History Timeline

Great book to keep middle school to college students up to date on their American history.

Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Davis

The African American regiments that would become known as the Buffalo Soldiers was part of the post Civil War expansion of the Army dated June 28, 1866. There would be two colored cavalry regiments and four infantry regiments. These would be black regiments with white officers. The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments were organized, along with the Thirty- eighth, Thirty- ninth, Fortieth, and Forty- first United States Infantry Regiments. On July 1, 1867, the Ninth Regiment reoccupied Fort Davis, which had been abandoned since 1862. Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Merritt was the senior officer.

Their task was to construct a new post, and protect the mail along the San Antonio to El Paso road from the Comanche and Apache. They would be stationed at various posts along the way, and, at times, escort the mail and wagon trains through the territory. In subsequent years, other commanders would go on expeditions against the Native forces, three against the Mescalero Apaches into the Guadalupe Mountains, and one into the Southern Staked Plains. By 1875, when the Buffalo Soldiers were transferred to New Mexico, they had spent eight years at Fort Davis.

Image above: Ninth Cavalry of the Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Davis, Date and Photographer unknown. Courtesy National Park Service. Below: Living history reenactor of Private Nijaune in front of barracks, of a Buffalo Soldier at Fort Davis, date unknown. Courtesy National Park Service.

Camel Corps at Fort Davis

Fort Davis was one of the locations that was part of the U.S. Camel Corps, begun in 1855 by Jefferson Davis. For several years, having proven better at transporting goods across a desert landscape due to their expanded load compared to mules and their need for less water, they moved supplies from their home at Camp Verde in Kerr County to Fort Davis, as well as other posts, and the Rio Grande. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, yes, that Jefferson Davis, would order Colonel Edward Fitzgerald Beale, to expand the operation with a route to the Colorado River. However, the camels were testy, and the officers did not like them. Coupled with the Civil War, and that the Confederacy controlled Texas, the experiment was scrapped in 1866. Nothing Davis had employed would be acceptable after their defeat.

What happened to the camels? Some were sold to the circus. Other let free in the deserts. Colonel Beale actually bought a few and used them to cart supplies in California.

Photo above: Living history of the Camel Corps at Fort Davis, 2004. Courtesy National Park Service.

T-Shirts and Souvenirs

America's Best History T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Backpacks, and other Souvenirs from the official gear of americasbesthistory.com.