Fort Davis – Protecting the Trails of Southwest Texas
Nestled amidst the rugged landscape of Southwest Texas, Fort Davis stands as a remarkable testament to a bygone era. This frontier outpost, remarkably well-preserved, offers a vivid glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the Indian Wars period. From 1854 to 1891, Fort Davis played a crucial strategic role in safeguarding emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons traversing the treacherous Trans-Pecos region along the San Antonio-El Paso Road and the historic Chihuahua Trail.
More than just a collection of stone and adobe structures, the picturesque remains of Fort Davis serve as a poignant reminder of a colorful chapter in Western history. They stand as a tribute to the unwavering courage of the frontier soldiers who served there and their tenacious Native American adversaries. The fort’s enduring presence speaks volumes about the struggles and sacrifices made in the name of westward expansion and the establishment of a nation.
As a vital component of the western Texas defensive network, Fort Davis distinguished itself as one of the most active military installations during the tumultuous Indian Wars. Its significance was particularly pronounced during the intense 1879-80 campaign against the formidable Apache Chief Victorio. Similar to how Fort Bowie in Arizona spearheaded the campaign against the Chiricahua Apache, Fort Davis played a pivotal role in confronting the Warm Springs and Mescalero Apache tribes. Both forts were instrumental in protecting transcontinental emigrants, freight, and vital stage routes.
The surge in westward migration during the 1850s, fueled by the allure of the California Gold Rush and the burgeoning interest in the vast territories acquired from Mexico through the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853), dramatically increased traffic along the transcontinental trails. Seeking to avoid the harsh winter conditions and mountainous terrain of the central routes, countless gold seekers and emigrants flocked to the southern route, hoping to strike it rich in the goldfields or carve out a new life in the newly acquired Southwest. The San Antonio-El Paso Road, established in 1849, emerged as a critical artery, facilitating the movement of goods and people between San Antonio, El Paso, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, Mexico.
This vital thoroughfare, however, presented ample opportunities for plunder by Kiowa, Comanche, and Mescalero Apache raiders. The road intersected with the trails used by marauding Indians who had long preyed on the isolated villages and haciendas of northern Mexico. West of the Davis Mountains, Mescalero Indians from New Mexico frequently crossed the road, while east of the mountains, the Great Comanche War Trail bisected its lower branch at Comanche Springs.
The inevitable attacks on travelers along the San Antonio-El Paso Road prompted the establishment of several military outposts in the Trans-Pecos region. Forts Hudson, Lancaster, Stockton, Davis, Quitman, and Bliss formed a protective ring extending from the outer defensive posts to El Paso, providing much-needed military protection.
Fort Davis stood out among these outposts as the largest and most strategically important. In 1854, Lieutenant Colonel Washington Seawell and troops from the 8th Infantry, dispatched from Fort Ringgold, Texas, established the post near a location known as Painted Comanche Camp. Situated at the eastern edge of the Davis Mountains, north of the Big Bend of the Rio Grande, the new fort occupied a small box canyon bordered by low basaltic ridges just south of Limpia Canyon. Its strategic location near emigrant and Indian trails, along the San Antonio-El Paso Road, provided access to an adequate water supply from nearby Limpia Creek, essential in the arid region. The Davis Mountains offered a readily available source of timber for fuel and construction, and the area boasted a healthful climate. Despite Seawell’s initial vision of constructing a more permanent post to the east at the mouth of the canyon, the fort evolved over time into a diverse collection of tent-like structures and thatch-roofed buildings made of log, picket, frame, and stone, stretching along the canyon’s length.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, the garrison at Fort Davis conducted regular patrols, guarded mail relay stations, escorted mail and freight trains, and engaged in occasional skirmishes with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes.
Despite their efforts, the troops made limited progress in pacifying the region’s Native American population. The stagecoaches, which operated on local and interregional routes from 1854 to 1861, connecting Fort Davis with St. Louis, Santa Fe, and California via the San Antonio-El Paso Road, proved to be tempting targets for the warriors. These stagecoach lines included the George H. Giddings (1854-57) and James Birch (1857-61) lines, as well as Butterfield’s Overland Mail (1859-61).
Amidst the monotonous routine of garrison life, the troops at Fort Davis found occasional diversion in observing the Army’s experimental camel corps. In 1857, Edward F. Beale’s herd of 25 camels passed through the fort en route from Camp Verde to Fort Tejon, California. In 1859 and 1860, Texas military authorities utilized some of the animals from Camp Verde to survey a shorter route from San Antonio and the Pecos River to Fort Davis, comparing their efficiency with mules. While the camels proved superior in terms of endurance and carrying capacity, the camel project was ultimately abandoned due to logistical challenges and the outbreak of the Civil War.
With Texas joining the Confederacy in 1861, the Union forces evacuated their forts in western Texas. Confederate troops occupied Fort Davis in 1861-62 but withdrew after their failed attempt to conquer New Mexico and the advance of General Carleton’s California Volunteers. During this period, the Confederate soldiers were not immune to Apache attacks, suffering the loss of a detachment of 14 men deep in the Big Bend country. Wrecked and abandoned by both sides, Fort Davis remained deserted for five years.
Federal soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Merritt, returned to Fort Davis in the summer of 1867, marking a significant shift in the fort’s history. Between 1867 and 1885, elements of all the Army’s post-Civil War black regiments, primarily composed of ex-slaves and commanded by white officers, were stationed at the fort at various times, alongside various white regiments. These black units, including the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry, served with distinction at Fort Davis and throughout the West during the Indian Wars, earning the moniker "Buffalo Soldiers" for their bravery and unwavering commitment.
Rather than attempting to rebuild the original fort, which was vulnerable to Apache attacks from the nearby ridges, Merritt realized Seawell’s original vision by initiating the construction of a new fort at the mouth of the canyon. Built of more substantial stone and adobe, the new fort was not completed until the 1880s. In the meantime, Fort Davis resumed its role in protecting western Texas. The fort’s black troops, along with those from other Texas forts, played a prominent role in the Victorio campaign (1879-80). At times, as many as 1,000 troops traversed an estimated 135,000 miles in the arduous pursuit of Victorio’s small band of approximately 100 Warm Springs and Mescalero Apache warriors.
In the spring of 1879, Chief Victorio, who had resisted efforts to relocate his band to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona for two years, recruited discontented Mescalero warriors from the Fort Stanton Reservation in New Mexico, who had been raiding in Texas. The newly formed alliance fled into Mexico, evading pursuing troops. For two years, employing shrewd guerrilla tactics, they wreaked havoc on both sides of the Rio Grande, launching repeated attacks in New Mexico, western Texas, and Chihuahua (Mexico). When cornered, they engaged in skirmishes with soldiers, Texas Rangers, and citizens but always managed to escape. In September 1879 and January 1880, Victorio returned to New Mexico. On the latter occasion, New Mexico and Texas troops attempted to disarm the Mescalero warriors at Fort Stanton Reservation before Victorio could recruit them, but 50 managed to escape and join Victorio, who subsequently returned to Mexico.
Anticipating Victorio’s return but preferring to intercept him in Texas rather than sending troops to New Mexico, Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson, in the summer of 1880, established the headquarters of his black 10th Cavalry at Fort Davis. He dispersed troops along the arid terrain from Fort Davis to El Paso, intensified patrol activities, established sub-posts along the Rio Grande at Viejo Pass, Eagle Springs, and Fort Quitman, and closely monitored the waterholes that Victorio would need to cross the barren landscape.
Finally, near present-day Van Horn, Texas, Grierson and his men defeated Victorio in two battles in July and August, forcing him back into Mexico. Two months later, Mexican soldiers killed him. A remnant of his band, led by the aged Warm Springs leader Nana, escaped to the Sierra Madre, where they later joined forces with another cunning Apache leader, Geronimo. Victorio’s death marked the end of the Indian warfare era in Texas.
During the 1880s, large numbers of cattlemen settled in the area surrounding the fort. The routine was punctuated only by occasional escort duties for railroad builders, bandit-chasing expeditions, and border patrol actions. The Texas Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads, which extended through western Texas in the 1880s, bypassed the fort. The last troops departed Fort Davis in 1891.
In 1963, Fort Davis became part of the National Park System. A program was immediately launched to preserve the remaining buildings, restore some of them, and interpret the fort’s rich history to the public. Of the more than 50 adobe and stone buildings that constituted the second Fort Davis at its abandonment, visitors today can explore 16 officers’ residences, two sets of barracks, warehouses, a magazine, the hospital, and other structures.
Stone foundations mark the locations of other buildings. Archaeologists have recently uncovered the foundations of many structures of the first fort (1854-61) in the canyon west of the second. The site of the Butterfield stage station, located half a mile northeast of the first fort, has also been identified. The National Park Service offers a unique sound program that enhances the visitor experience. Visitors can hear the sound of a bugle echoing from the nearby hills, signaling the various orders of the day, and witness a formal retreat ceremony.
Fort Davis is situated in Jeff Davis County, along Texas Highway 17, just north of the town of Fort Davis.