Fort Davis (Jeff Davis County, Texas)
Jeff Davis County · Texas · Indian Wars
History & Significance
Located at the eastern base of the Davis Mountains on Limpia Creek, Fort Davis was established in 1854 under order of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. General Persifor F. Smith selected the site for its "pure water and salubrious climate".
The fort guarded the Trans-Pecos segment of the southern route to California and served as the key member of a defensive line reaching from San Antonio to El Paso. Apache and Comanche raiders used Indian trails intersecting the El Paso road to prey on travelers.
When the Civil War began, United States troops evacuated Fort Davis and were replaced by Colonel John R. Baylor's Confederate cavalry forces in April 1861. Confederate troops occupied the post for almost a year before retreating after failing to take New Mexico, and Fort Davis lay abandoned for five years while Indians used its buildings for fuel.
Federal troops under Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Merritt reoccupied the fort in June 1867. From 1867 to 1885, the post was garrisoned primarily by White officers and Black enlisted men of the Ninth and Tenth United States Cavalry regiments and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth United States Infantry regiments.
In September 1879, Apache chief Victorio and Mescalero Apache warriors began attacks west of Fort Davis; Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson led troops from the fort and other posts against the raiders, after which Victorio retreated to Mexico where he was killed in October 1880. By the mid-1880s, Fort Davis was a major installation with quarters for more than 600 men and over sixty adobe and stone structures.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- 24 restored limestone and adobe military buildings from the 1880s–90s
- Officer quarters, barracks, hospital, and commissary showing frontier garrison life
- Archaeological ruins of earlier fort structures in Davis Canyon
- Exhibits on buffalo soldiers and Apache/Comanche conflicts
- Desert mountain setting in West Texas high country
Sources
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/fort-davis-qbf15
- https://www.nps.gov/foda/index.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Davis_National_Historic_Site
- https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/fort-davis-national-historic-site
- https://www.texasalmanac.com/articles/the-frontier-forts-of-texas