Fort Davis National Historic Site

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After visiting the Museum of the Big Bend, I picked up some lunch at the Porter's grocery store, and then headed straight to Fort Davis National Historic Site. The historic site is located in Fort Davis, Texas, and is managed by the National Park Service. It was established in 1961. 

Fort Davis is one of the best surviving examples of an Indian Wars' frontier military post in the Southwest. From 1854 to 1891, Fort Davis was strategically located to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons on the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio-El Paso Road and on the Chihuahua Trail.

The first Fort Davis was occupied from 1854 to 1861. The Fort was named for Jefferson Davis who was then Secretary of War under President Pierce. (During the Civil War, Jefferson Davis became the president of the Confederacy.) During the Civil War, the Confederate Army occupied the Fort from 1861 until 1862, when Union forces took possession. The Union forces then abandoned the site and it lay dormant for five years. 

After the Civil War, the Fort was re-established in 1867, and housed regiments of Buffalo Soldiers. Why the name of Fort Davis was kept in honor of a traitor to the country - Jefferson Davis, the disgraced president of the Confederacy - remains a mystery to me! And it is bit ironic that black soldiers manned a Fort named in honor of a defender of slavery! (To add even more disgrace to the area, the county in Texas where Fort Davis is located was named Jeff Davis County in 1887 when the county was created from a part of Presidio County.)

Anyway, it was an interesting stop and I spent almost two hours there.

Commanding Officer's quarters
The hospital

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