Fort Davis, named for the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, is a good example of a frontier military post that existed in the American southwest during the Indian Wars from 1854 to 1891.

Strategically located, Fort Davis was built to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons on the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio to El Paso Road and on the Chihuahua Trail.

The post was located in a box canyon near Limpia Creek on the eastern side of the Davis Mountains, where there was abundant grass, water, and wood.

From the start of the fort in 1854 until 1861, troops of the Eighth Infantry spent much of their time in the field pursuing Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches.

With the outbreak of the Civil War and when Texas seceded from the Union, the federal government evacuated Fort Davis. In the Spring of 1861, the Confederate troops occupied the fort but in the summer of 1862, Union forces again took possession. However, the Union forces abandoned the post and it was deserted for five year.

In June 1867, the Ninth US Calvary reoccupied Fort Davis and begin to build a new post a short distance east of the original site. With the close of 1869, a number of officers quarters, two barracks for enlisted men, a guardhouse, temporary hospital, and storehouses had been erected. The construction of the post continued through the 1880s. By then, Fort Davis had become a major installation with more than 100 structures, and quarters for more than 400 soldiers.

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