Who was Fort Buhlow named after?

The two forts took their names from the two men who built them. Christopher Meyer Randolph was the construction engineer, and Lieutenant Buhlow assisted him. Work began in June 1864 on the east bank of the Red River, and the forts stood about 500 yards apart on either side of what is now U.S. 71, together commanding the river's rapids. Both were later torn down for their lumber and brick. The site is now a state historic site, with a visitor center and the Fort Randolph site behind it.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Forts Randolph and Buhlow State Historic Site — 0.2 mi
  Two Confederate earthen forts on the Red River at Pineville, built with enslaved labor and never attacked, beside the remains of Bailey's Dam.
• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 1.3 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
• Kent Plantation House — 2.5 mi
  Rapides Parish's oldest known standing building, a Creole house with a February tour and a 2023 memorial that put the enslaved first.
• Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum — 4.0 mi
  A National Guard museum in a replica WWII barracks at Camp Beauregard, built around the huge 1940-41 war games in Central Louisiana. Free.

More markers nearby

• Deserting soldiers and the end of the war — steps away
• Why was Fort Randolph Built? — 0.2 mi
• The Red River Campaign — 0.4 mi
• Bailey's Dam — 0.4 mi