Fort Bayard is located just off of U.S. Highway 180 in Southwestern New Mexico a few miles southeast of Silver City. The fort was named in honor of General George D. Bayard, who died of wounds received in the Battle of Fredricksburg, Virginia, in 1862. Fort Bayard was an important military post in the nineteenth century during the so-called "Indian Wars." After the Civil War, African-American soldiers, referred to by Native Americans as "Buffalo Soldiers," served at Fort Bayard until the turn of the century. Several of these soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for valor during campaigns against the Apache. The statue depicted below is of one of these men - Corporal Clinton Greaves of Company C, 9th U.S. Cavalry. "On June 26, 1877, while on patrol in the Florida Mountains near Deming, New Mexico, Corporal Greaves performed an act of heroism saving six soldiers and three Navajo Scounts from attack by forty to fifty Chiricahua Apache. Corporal Greaves . . . fought like a cornered lion and managed to shoot and bash a gap through the swarming Apaches, permitting his companions to break free." Corporal Greaves was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on June 26, 1879. A military hospital and a National Cemetary are located at Fort Bayard and a few of the nineteenth century buildings remain.
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