2nd Cavalry Division at Fort Clark
Brackettville, Kinney County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In response to the U.S. experience during World War I, the army organized the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions in 1921. However, the 2nd Cavalry Division was not activated until 1941 at Fort Riley, Kansas. Among the units assigned were the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments, the famed Buffalo Soldier units of the Indian Wars era, and two White cavalry regiments, the 2nd and 14th, thus constituting the army’s first integrated division. The War Department inactivated the division in 1942 to transfer personnel to armored regiments. In November 1942, the War Department directed reactivation of the 2nd Cavalry Division, assigning two new Black regiments, the 27th and the 28th Cavalry. It was also announced the division would be divided between Fort Clark, Texas and Camp Lockett, California. The division activated on February 25, 1943 with headquarters at Fort Clark; command of the division was given to a native Texan, Major General Harry H. Johnson. Here on Fort Clark, over 5,000 horses trained alongside M3 Stuart Light Tanks and both were featured in a June 1943 20th Century Fox Movietone newsreel. Troopers endured hard training and the racial injustices of the times. The War Department determined that there was no need for a second cavalry division and planned to again inactivate it. During January 1944, the 2nd Cavalry Division was dismounted and shipped back east for deployment abroad, arriving at Oran, North Africa, on March 9, 1944; the division was inactivated the next day. Fort Clark was closed after the last soldiers stationed here were deployed, and the approximately 1,500 buildings which housed the 2nd Cavalry Division were later razed. Although the 2nd Cavalry Division’s service was short lived, it remains the only all-Black cavalry division in U.S. Army history and the largest mounted formation ever to serve in Texas. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Activated at Fort Clark in February 1943, the 2nd Cavalry Division brought together the legendary 9th and 10th Buffalo Soldier regiments with newer Black cavalry units, making it the U.S. Army's only all-Black cavalry division. More than 5,000 horses trained here alongside M3 Stuart tanks, even featuring in a wartime newsreel, as troopers endured hard drills and the racial injustices of a segregated army. Deemed unnecessary by the War Department, the division was dismounted, shipped to North Africa, and inactivated in March 1944.
Why it matters
It marks the last chapter of the horse cavalry and the service of Black soldiers who fought for a country that still denied them equality, a story central to World War II and the road to integration.
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Related people
- · Harry H. Johnson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Cavalry Barracks
Brackettville, TX
When Fort Clark's aging 1870s cavalry barracks crumbled, the Army built three modern stone replacements in 1931–1932, and this fourth barracks rose on ground left vacant since the post commissary burned in 1892. Its state-of-the-art bays, mess hall, and offices were showcased to justify keeping Fort Clark as a permanent post. Over the next decade it quartered the 5th U.S. Cavalry, the Texas National Guard, the Buffalo Soldiers of the African-American 9th Cavalry, and, during World War II, 182 African-American women of the Women's Army Corps.
Army Service Club
Brackettville, TX
Standing on the site of Fort Clark's first guardhouse, this 1938 frame building served as the post's Army Service Club — a recreation center for soldiers and, during World War II mobilization, a non-commissioned officers' club — until the Army closed the fort in 1944. Set on a limestone webwall foundation, its banks of casement windows and louvered vents were built to catch the South Texas breeze. In later years it lived on as a country club and community center.
Palisado Kitchen/Mess Room
Brackettville, TX
African American "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 25th Infantry built this vertical-post structure in 1869-70 as a mess room behind their stone barracks, using upright timbers because no trees stood tall enough for traditional log walls. Over the years it also served as storeroom, tailor shop, and amusement hall. A persistent legend wrongly tied it to Robert E. Lee, who never visited Fort Clark during his Texas service.
U.S. Army Signal Corps Building
Brackettville, TX
From 1932 to 1944 this stone-veneered building was Fort Clark's communications nerve center, later expanded to house enlisted barracks. During World War II mobilization the 3rd Signal Troop of the 2nd Cavalry Division and a Signal Detachment ran the post telephone system, film library, and photo lab from here. When Fort Clark closed on August 28, 1944, the Signal Corps soldiers were the very last troops to march out.