Supporting the Army

Supporting the Army. Fort Davis National Historic Site. Where you are standing was once a crossroads of activity for Fort Davis. Guarding the mail, building roads and telegraph lines, scouting for water, and searching for elusive Apaches or Comanches were not the only duties of soldiers. Many critical support activities took place in the structures located in this now-silent area of the fort., Just like today's army, administrative and logistical support was vital to a frontier garrison. Reports and muster rolls were written by hand, and mountains of supplies - from food to ammunition - had to be ordered and accounted for. A one-way supply trip from San Antonio to this remote outpost took up to six weeks, so failure by the army to properly manage provision orders could prove disruptive - if not disastrous., 1. Commissary , Officers and civilian employees purchased food here and enlisted men received rations. It functioned much like a grocery store today., 2. Bakery , Bakers here could produce more than 500 18-ounce loaves of bread per day. But bread quality often reflected the skills of enlisted men assigned as bakers., 3. Barracks , The largest of the fort's infantry barracks, it could house two infantry companies., 4. Guardhouse , With four rooms and 8 cells, the guardhouse also served as fire station and guard staging area. One private escaped by digging through the adobe walls, another by ripping up the cell floor., 5. Post Headquarters , The post's administrative center, it housed offices for officers. Sergeants came for orders, officers held courts-martial, and clerks processed volumes of paper., 6. Post Chapel , The fort's social center, it hosted church services, dances, and theatricals, and housed the post library and a school for children and enlisted men., 7. Shared Officers' Quarters , Intended for junior officers, these four structures later also housed non-commissioned and visiting officers., 8. Married Enlisted Men's Quarters , Normally the army made no provision for housing married enlisted men, but a few small structures were built here for that purpose., 9. Ordnance Sergeant's Quarters and Signal/Telegraph Office , Here telegrams were sent and received, and here, too, the post installed its first telephones, leased from the American Bell Company.