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To: capitan_refugio; nolu chan
The capture of Fort (Jefferson) Davis in August 1862 had great symbolic value, however, even though it was just a few, mostly ramshackle adobe buildings.

Here's what the Handbook of Texas says about Fort Davis (which was NOT named for Davis as president of the CSA, but rather because it was established by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis in 1854):

With the beginning of the Civil War, United States troops evacuated Fort Davis under orders from Brig. Gen. David E. Twiggs, commander of the Eighth United States Military District, and were quickly replaced by Col. John R. Baylor's Confederate cavalry forces in April 1861. Confederate troops occupied the post for almost a year, then retreated to San Antonio after failing to take New Mexico. For the next five years Fort Davis lay abandoned, and Indians used the wood from its buildings for fuel.

It did not see military use again until 1867 and, as the National Park Service's records indicate, no military officer on either side so much as set foot there between 1862 when confederate Lt. W.P. White returned to San Antonio and July of 1867 when the federal calvalry showed up to fight the indians. Another site tells us the following:

A Federal cavalry detachment visited Fort Davis in August, 1862, found most of the buildings in disrepair, and left the next day. The remains of the post lay empty for the next five years. (http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/davis/camp.html)

Ah, the "capture" of Fort Davis in 1862. That must've been some symbolism, I tell you what! I mean, imagine the shock on those non-existant confederate defender's faces when they learned that a couple of yankees on horseback stumbled upon the Apache bonfire yard that used to be Fort Davis! And to think - they even spent a night amidst the rubble...absolutely crushing to CSA morale, no doubt! Of course this all leaves us with another question: where exactly did you get your information the Battle of Fort Davis, aka the weenie roast at the Apache wood pile, in August of 1862? Oh, that's right. You got it where you get all your information, especially for court cases and other "official" records: you pulled it out of your @$$.

Your story about the confederates abandoning the Rio Grande forts "for lack of any need" not jibe with leaving their sick and wounded behind.

Garbage. They left the wounded behind because El Paso was the only town of any size in the area, and even it had a population of only 200 civilians in the 1860's. Marching wounded soldiers across 500 miles of Texas desert in the middle of August would've been a death sentence, so instead you leave them in town till they heal and till the whether is a little less harsh.

1,748 posted on 09/24/2004 12:01:51 AM PDT by GOPcapitalist
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To: 4ConservativeJustices; stand watie; Gianni; lentulusgracchus; rustbucket
Check out 1748. Bahgdad Bob had taken to making up fake battles so that he can claim a yankee victory in Texas!

His previous post was a blustery harangue about how yankee forces have "captured" Fort Davis, Texas in August of 1862 and how this was a crushing symbolic blow for the confederates since Fort Davis was named after Jefferson Davis. To anybody who has driven the I-10 route from San Antonio to El Paso, Fort Davis is located smack dab in the middle of that vast empty 500 mile desert you cross, and a good ways south of the interstate at that.

Well, the desert mirages must've been getting to those yankee calvalry folks back in 1862 because their secret account of a "battle" there, which only capitan knows about and which he appears to have obtained via a fax sent from a west Texas kinkos, never happened! Fort Davis was never captured by anybody and it's unlikely that the confederates even knew that capitan's tiny yankee calvalry group had even visited the place.

Looking back at the REAL history, we learn that Fort Davis, being of no use since it was in the absolute middle of nowhere, was abandoned by its tiny confederate garrison sometime in early 1862. It turned into rubble shortly thereafter when the Apaches discovered it was a source of free bonfire wood. Then one day in August a stray yankee cavalry patrol stumbled into the area, found the abandoned and wrecked Fort Davis, set up their campfire there for the night, said "gee, what a dump" and left the next morning! And so went the "Battle of Fort Davis" - doubtless a vital union "victory" in their efforts to conquer Texas, even though nobody set another foot in the place from the morning they left until 1867. Then again, when your side gets whupped as badly as the yankees did at Sabine Pass, I suppose it's natural to start making up "victories" for yourself out of thin air.

1,750 posted on 09/24/2004 12:15:22 AM PDT by GOPcapitalist
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