Fort Buhlow was named for Lieutenant Alphonse Buhlow, who entered the Confederate Army on August 18, 1861 as a private in the 11th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, later transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department as a lieutenant overseeing the construction of earthwork fortifications, and was then sent to the Red River forts and placed in charge of the fort that later bore his name. After the forts' location was found, Buhlow directed a workforce of 200 soldiers and 44 slaves. When assistant inspector general Lieutenant Colonel W.C. Shaumburg from Trans-Mississippi Department headquarters visited the two forts on November 21, 1864, he was pleased with the work but believed the force was too small to finish on time. Delays in the expected arrival of additional slaves at Fort Buhlow caused further setbacks, and Shaumburg recommended assistance from Brigadier General Allen Thomas' infantry brigade stationed at Pineville. Fort Buhlow was completed by mid-March 1865.