G.A.S.P.

Later, a flock of sparrows seemed to be playing a game of “chicken” with me.  They would fly a couple of hundred yards in front of me, then all land in the road.  As I approached, I could see that they all had their heads cocked toward me, then as if on cue, they all took off at once.  They repeated this little game about eight times.  I just hope they weren’t using me to teach the young ones how to judge the speed of traffic on the highway.

I arrived in the town of Fort Davis about noon, then headed for the actual fort, about a mile north of town.  It turned out to be a lot more than I expected, and I really enjoyed my visit there.  For the record, it’s a National Historic Site, one of several designations used by the National Park Service for natural and historic lands and sites under its jurisdiction. 

The founding of Fort Davis was prompted by two events in the middle of the 19^th century.  First, the war with Mexico (1846 –1848) had given the United States a vast new territory to administer.  Texas had joined the Union just prior to the hostilities, and Mexico at the end of the war ceded the land comprising the present states of New Mexico, Arizona and California.  Second, gold was discovered in California in 1849, and a multitude of fortune hunters began to make its way across the southwest – right through Apache and Comanche lands.  By 1854, Indian raids on these travelers had reached such proportion that military authorities in San Antonio decided it was essential to build a new fort in West Texas.  A site was chosen near Limpia Creek, at the base of a small mountain range (now called the Davis Mountains) where plenty of food, water and grass would be available.  It was to be named Fort Davis, in honor of Jefferson Davis, who was Secretary of War at the time.

The original fort was a collection of more than 60 pine-slab structures scattered irregularly up the canyon.  These were not built to last, as the first commander, Lt. Colonel Washington Seawell, envisioned building a new stone fort someday on the open plain at the mouth of the canyon.  They didn’t last, and all that remains today of this first fort are some foundations and identified “sites” of buildings. 

In 1867, Federal troops returned and began constructing a new permanent post.  This time the structures were made of adobe or stone and were built to last.  Over time it became a major installation, housing some 12 companies of cavalry and infantry by 1880.  It was also one of the first posts in the west where soldiers of African descent served.  Their units, the 9^th and 10^th Cavalry and the 24^th and 25^th Infantry, participated in the Indian Wars of the late 19^th century.  They compiled a notable record of military accomplishment against the Apaches and Comanches, who called them “Buffalo Soldiers” out of respect.

Subsistence.  All went well for Flipper until the summer of 1881 when he discovered commissary funds were missing from his trunk, and attempted to conceal the loss from his ill-tempered commanding officer until the money was found. His effort of concealment led to his court-martial where he was charged with “embezzlement” and “conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman.”  His trial, shrouded in prejudice, took place in the post chapel at Fort Davis.  Although he was found not guilty of embezzlement, he was found guilty of being dishonest.  His sentence was “to be dismissed from the service of the United States.”  Henry O. Flipper went on to have a very successful professional and business career as a surveyor, translator, mining engineer and special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior.  He also continued a fight to clear his name, but died in 1940 at the age of 84 without having done so.  It wasn’t until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s that attention again focused on the case of Lt. Flipper’s discharge.  Finally in 1976, the Army reviewed his case.  At that time the Army agreed with the original finding that Flipper falsified reports and lied to his commanding officer, but ruled that the sentence handed down was too severe for the crime.  The Army then posthumously awarded Flipper an honorable discharge dated June 30, 1882.  The story was closed on February 19, 1999 when President Bill Clinton posthumously pardoned Second Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper for his “crime” of dishonesty.

The Apache wars came to an end with the death (by Mexican troops) of Victorio in 1885 and the surrender of Geronimo in 1886.  (For more information about Victorio, see also http://www.meyna.com/lozen.html.) These events also signaled the end of an era for the many forts strung out across the southwest.  Fort Davis became one of the casualties, abandoned by the U.S. Army in 1891.

It lay abandoned for 70 years until the National Park Service took over the property in 1961 and began the work of preservation and restoration.  Today, the Fort Davis National Historic Site has remnants that are more extensive and better preserved than those of any other southwestern frontier military post.  The walking tour takes visitors by (and sometimes into) 20-some restored buildings including officer’s quarters, enlisted men’s barracks and the hospital all from the post-Civil War period.  There are also a number of ruins, foundations and sites of buildings from the pre-Civil War period.

Not only did I really enjoy Fort Davis, but the ride back to the town of Alpine was beautiful too.  I passed through a 10-mile stretch of chocolate brown rocky ridges whose tops were vertically cracked and broken.  The mountainsides were strewn with boulders that had broken off and tumbled down.