Fort Davis preserves one of the Southwest’s best surviving frontier army forts, established in October 1854 in the Davis Mountains of West Texas along Limpia Creek and named for Jefferson Davis. From 1854 to 1891 it occupied a strategic position on major trans-Pecos routes, where soldiers escorted emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons while attempting to control movement along Comanche and Mescalero Apache war trails. Abandoned in 1861, briefly held by Confederates, and reoccupied by the U.S. Army in 1867, it later became closely linked with buffalo soldiers. Its history illuminates both the frontier army and African American soldiers in the West.

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Fort Davis, Texas · USA