Under the command of Lt. Colonel Washington Seawell, the 8th U.S. Infantry built Fort Davis in a box canyon in the Davis Mountains, using stone foundations, logs cut into slabs for the walls, and thatched roofing. With packed earth as floors, they labored to construct barracks, officers' quarters, a post hospital, commissary, stables, sawmill, sutler's store and billiard room. The U.S. Army abandoned the post at the outbreak of Civil War in 1861, and Confederate troops occupied it for the next 14 months.
