About a two-hour drive west of Las Cruces, Fort Bayard is a completely unexpected gem, where stately mansions sit among hundred-year-old trees. Following the Civil War, General James Henry Carleton requested a new fort be established in Southwestern New Mexico, in the heart of the Apache homeland. Its mission would be to protect miners, ranchers, and the immigrant and business trails. It was named Fort Bayard in honor of General George D. Bayard, a West Point graduate who became a brigadier general and died in the Battle of Fredericksburg. On August 21, 1866, Fort Bayard Military Post was established by the 125th U.S. Colored Troops Company F, also known as the Buffalo Soldiers, under Lt. James Kerr.