Forts Randolph & Buhlow State Historic Site

Two earthwork forts stand in Pineville, built between 1864 and 1865 by enslaved labor for the Confederate defense of the Red River. Fort Randolph took the name of Captain Christopher Randolph. Fort Buhlow honors Lieutenant Alphonse Buhlow. Both made the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. The forts sit adjacent to what remains of Bailey's Dam, the wartime engineering feat that let Admiral David Porter's Union fleet escape downriver below the rapids during the retreat after the Battle of Mansfield. The dam's remnants are still visible from the site. An elevated boardwalk runs through the surviving earthworks. A visitor center is open year-round. There's a field for Civil War re-enactments. Come for the boardwalk — it puts you inside the geometry of what enslaved people were forced to build, with the river and the dam site in view.