I’m enthralled by the old forts along the Texas frontier. We’ve already toured Fort Stockton and Fort Lancaster. This trip we ventured far off the interstate to Fort Davis. This sprawling fort protected travelers and freight on the San Antonio to El Paso road which ran right through the fort.
If you’ve watched TV and movie westerns you expect the fort to be surrounded by a stockade. That was definitely unusual; most forts were wide open, relying on the troops to protect the fort, not a wall. Fort Davis, however, was never attacked. It’s beautiful canyon setting was not the first choice for a location. Some felt the high cliffs would allow Indians to fire down on the fort. But it was on the creek and they built there anyway.
A town grew up to support the fort and it’s still there too.
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- Overview of the fort.
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- Officers’ Quarters. First quarters were dirt-roofed cabins.
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- Officers’ Quarters. They were well preserved because when the army abandoned the fort in 1891, people moved in.
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- Enlisted men’s barracks. Most of the men were Irish, followed by Germans, then a smattering of others.
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- Enlisted men’s barracks.
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- 3-inch rifled field gun. “The apex of development in muzzle loading artillery.”
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- .45 caliber Gatling Gun. It had a precision mechanism but fired faulty government ammunition. So it jammed frequently. It could fire 350 rounds per minute, but ammo was too expensive to allow much practice.
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- No tokens needed for this pinball machine in the commander’s quarters.
