Following the war, Davidson was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and assigned to the Western frontier. He served as the regimental quartermaster and adjutant. He led 2 companies of the 1st Dragoon Regiment against the Jicarilla Apaches in the Battle of Cieneguilla on March 30, 1854, where he was badly defeated in what was to be the fourth worst defeat suffered by the American military during the Western Indian Wars. In 1855 Davidson, who had still earned praise for commanding at Cieneguilla, was promoted captain and was in command of Fort Tejon, California when the American Civil War erupted.