Fort Elliott, established on June 5, 1875 to help keep Native Americans on their Indian Territory reservations, was partially garrisoned by African American soldiers known as Buffalo Soldiers, including various companies of the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry during the fort's 15-year existence. Their typical duties included patrolling the boundary between Texas and Indian Territory, keeping order among settlers, protecting mail coaches, and building roads and telegraph lines. Although the troops' commanding officers were white, the black soldiers were included in every part of daily and social post life. One black officer stationed there was Henry O. Flipper, commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1877. Born to slave parents in 1856, he was the first black graduate of the United States Military Academy and the first black commissioned officer in the United States Army. After his regiment of the 10th Cavalry was ordered to Fort Elliott in the fall of 1879, Lieutenant Flipper served as Post Adjutant and executive officer, with all post business transacted through him, and as an engineer trained at West Point he oversaw construction of the telegraph line across the Canadian River to Fort Supply. The black soldiers' role in clearing the Texas Panhandle of Indians, outlaws, and rustlers was crucial to the goal of settling the West. Fort Elliott was abandoned in 1890 after Indians were no longer considered a threat and law and order was established by civilian courts.