EARLY MILITARY FORTS AND POSTS IN OKLAHOMA

EDITED BY

ODIE B. FAULK

KENNY A. FRANKS

and

PAUL F. LAMBERT

Series Editor Martha L. Mobley

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma Historical Society

1978

THE COVER A Dragoon Trooper by Frederick Remington.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78–70038

Copyright 1978 by the Oklahoma Historical Society. Manufactured in the United States of America. First edition.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editors wish to acknowledge the excellent cooperation of a number of people whose valuable aid and encouragement facilitated the publication of this volume of The Oklahoma Series. Among those are: Mr. W. D. Finney, President of the Oklahoma Historical Society; Mr. Jack Wettengel, Executive Director; and Mrs. Jennifer Burris, Editorial Assistant in the Publications Department of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Finally, we wish to thank especially Ms. Martha Mobley, Associate Editor of The Chronicles of Oklahoma and Series Editor, for the encouragement, criticism and editing of the final manuscript.

CONTRIBUTORS

ODIE B. FAULK is the Director, Memphis State University Press.

PAUL F. LAMBERT is the Executive Director at the Oklahoma Heritage Association, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

WILLIAM P. CORBETT is a doctoral candidate in history at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.

W. EDWIN DERRICK, a doctoral candidate at Oklahoma State University, has taught history at Langston University, Langston, Oklahoma.

MICHAEL EVERMAN is a doctoral candidate at Oklahoma State University in the field of history.

KENNY A. FRANKS is currently Director of Education of the Oklahoma Heritage Association and Editor of the Oklahoma Trackmaker Series and Oklahoma Horizon Series.

MAC R. HARRIS, who holds a master's degree in history, is librarian at the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

JAMES A. HOWARD II for years has taught at a high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma and currently is completing requirements for a doctorate in history at Oklahoma State University.

J. PATRICK HUGHES, who holds the Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University, is a captain in the United States Army and teaches military history at Oklahoma State University.

PATRICK B. McGUIGAN is a doctoral candidate in history at Oklahoma State University.

SUSAN PETERSON, who holds a master's degree in history from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion, South Dakota, is a doctoral candidate at Oklahoma State University.

RICHARD C. ROHRS is an Assistant Professor of History at Oklahoma State University and an authority in the field of military history.

TIMOTHY A. ZWINK, a doctoral candidate at Oklahoma State University, is the author of many articles in the field of military history.

OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

2100 North Lincoln
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

W. D. Finney, President

Jack T. Conn, Second Vice President

Mrs. George L. Bowman, Treasurer

Jack Wettengel, Executive Director

Martha L. Mobley, Associate Editor

Jennifer M. Burris, Editorial Assistant

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Introduction

By Odie B. Faulk

Bulwark of the American Frontier: A History of Fort Towson

By Patrick B. McGuigan

Fort Gibson: Forgotten Glory

By Richard C. Rohrs

Forts and Camps in Oklahoma Before the Civil War

By J. Patrick Hughes

Fort Washita

By James A. Howard II

Confederate Strongholds in Indian Territory: Forts Davis and McCulloch

By William P. Corbett

Fort Supply, Isolated Outpost

By Susan Peterson

Outposts in Post-Civil War Indian Territory

By Michael Everman

Fort Sill: The Formative Years

By Timothy A. Zwink

Fort Reno: Defender of the Southern Plain

By W. Edwin Derrick

Early Military Forts, Posts and Camps in Oklahoma

By Mac R. Harris

Index

INTRODUCTION

By Odie B. Faulk

In our reflections about the proud, colorful history of Oklahoma during the nineteenth century, most of us call to mind the heroic tragedy of the “Trail of Tears,” the brave struggle of the Plains Indians to maintain their way of life, the romance and glamour of the cattlemen and cowboys, and the stoic patience of the homesteaders seeking to wrest a living from the red soil. Perhaps we remember that the lawyer, doctor and merchant also were part of our heritage. However, few of us pause to recall that the soldier equally was a pioneer Oklahoman and that he played as vital a role as sodbuster, cattleman and Indian. Almost from the moment officials in Washington conceived the scheme to remove Indians east of the Mississippi River westward to the land that would become known as the Indian Territory, the soldier and the lonely frontier military post were a part of the land and would remain so until the end of the nineteenth century.

Among the first Native Americans to be removed to the Indian Territory were the Cherokees. However, the land onto which they were to move was not empty. The Osage claimed it as part of their homeland, and when the newcomers began to arrive the Osage reacted by taking to the warpath. Open warfare came in 1817 with both sides conducting raids. The government's response was to establish a cordon of forts along the western edge of white settlement. Most of these were located on rivers because both Indians and whites used these as highways for moving people and goods.

Fort Smith, Arkansas, was erected in 1817 to control western Arkansas and the eastern portion of what soon would become the Indian Territory. Then in 1824 Colonel Matthew Arbuckle opened two new posts: Fort Gibson, named in honor of Revolutionary War hero George Gibson, on the Grand River near its junction with the Arkansas; and Fort Towson, named for Nathan Towson, a hero of the War of 1812, on the Red River near its junction with the Kiamichi.

After passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Army found it needed yet more posts inside the Indian Territory, but many of these proved short-lived. For example, Cantonment Leavenworth, opened on the Red River near the mouth of the Washita in 1831, was soon abandoned. In 1834 Fort Coffee was erected on the banks of the Arkansas River between Forts Smith and Gibson; its purpose was to control the illegal liquor traffic, but whiskey continued to move westward despite the cannon at the fort, and it was abandoned in 1838. Other posts included Forts Washita, Arbuckle and Cobb. These never diminished the importance of Fort Gibson, which remained the major military installation in the Indian Territory until the eve of the Civil War.

During that tragic “Brother's War,” those Union forts remaining in the Indian Territory were abandoned, some of them to be used by Confederates. Following that conflict yet more tribes of Indians were removed to the Indian Territory—at the same time that angry Texans, Kansans and New Mexicans were demanding that the Plains nomads be confined to permanent reservations and forced to end their wanderings. The result was yet another group of forts—Sill, Reno and Supply—and the sending of yet more troops to the region.

These soldiers who came to the Indian Territory found a hard, lonely, thankless life filled with danger and difficulty. Almost always there were too few of them for the tasks demanded. Following the end of the War of 1812 the United States Army totaled only 7,200 men, a figure that remained constant until the outbreak of the Mexican War. When war was declared in 1846, Congress authorized the enlistment of 50,000 and more volunteers, but at the close of the conflict the Army was returned to near its pre-war size. Arguments were advanced in Congress that this number should be increased, for the nation's domain had almost doubled between 1845 and 1848. Therefore in 1850 Congress authorized a legal strength of 14,000; five years later Congress again proved generous, allowing the creation of four new regiments which brought the Army to some 18,000 men. Following the close of the Civil War, during which the Army increased to more than a million men, Congress in 1866 reduced it to 54,302 men, in 1869 to 45,000, in 1870 to 30,000, and in 1874 to 25,000. Such was the size of the Army called upon to man all Army posts in the United States, to enforce reconstruction during the years 1865–1877, and to contend with frontier Indian problems.

Moreover, Congress proved exceedingly stingy in voting funds for weapons and equipment for these troops. For example, Congress in 1866 decreed that the Army had to exhaust war surpluses before ordering new materials, which meant that for ten years almost all weapons and equipment were obsolete.

The men in the Army were volunteers except during the Civil War. From 1817 to 1890 their age averaged twenty-three, many of whom were recent immigrants. Some enlistees were attracted to the life by the steady employment it offered and by the challenge of soldiering. Until 1854 they received $7.00 a month in the infantry and $8.00 a month in the cavalry; this was increased by $4.00 a month in 1854, and after the Civil War to $13.00 a month for cavalry and infantry. In addition, they also received regular rations, free medical care and some other benefits. Other volunteers joined to “see the elephant,” lured by tales of adventure in the West. The military life also attracted criminals and other undesirables who found it expedient to travel.

Once a man was assigned to a regiment, he rarely transferred out of it, no matter how long he remained in the Army. In fact, he usually did not transfer out of the company to which he was sent. Even at small posts consisting of only a company or two, a man had little contact with anyone other than the men of his own outfit. In this company he found himself almost completely at the mercy of his noncommissioned officers. He could not even speak to an officer without the permission of his first sergeant, who actually ran the company. And an ability with fists was one of the first requisites for promotion to noncommissioned officer status. These men, along with the officers, could be brutal and sadistic or humane and gentle, depending more on personal temperament than on regulations. Because of isolation and ignorance, few soldiers knew how to go about complaining of injustices, and few court martials were held to punish officers and noncoms for brutality. Punishments for enlisted men ranged from marching double-time around the parade ground to suspension from thumbs, wrists or arms in the guardhouse for a full day at a time. Harsh and unusual punishments could be given with relative impunity.

The food was not good. A typical daily menu started with a breakfast of salt pork, fried mush and strong black coffee; lunch usually consisted of dry bread and “slumgullion stew,” a concoction of debatable ancestry; and the evening meal normally was more dry bread and more coffee, occasionally with three prunes for dessert. Men at the frontier forts, as in Oklahoma, tried to supplement their diet with buffalo, deer, wild turkey, fish and other game; and they purchased fresh vegetables from the Indian farmers where possible.

The medical service available to these soldiers was primitive, to say the least, and the death rate among these men was appallingly high. Cholera, dysentery, fevers, even scurvy were commonplace according to medical reports forwarded to Washington, while venereal disease was epidemic.

Duty at posts in the Indian Territory therefore was hard and dangerous. The men had to erect their quarters themselves, cutting the logs or quarrying the stone, moving these to the desired location, and erecting them according to plans drawn by their officers. They fought malarial and bilious fevers, ate the government's hardtack and bacon, escorted supply wagons, scouted new territory, and, sometimes, fought Indians or white renegades, all for eight to thirteen dollars a month. Little wonder that the average annual desertion rate of enlisted men between 1848 and 1861 was twenty-eight percent, and from 1867 to 1891 inclusive was thirty-three percent.

Map showing the important Forts and Camps in Oklahoma, 1817–1876 (Morris, Goins and McReynolds, Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 2nd ed., University of Oklahoma Press, 1976, map 24)

Almost three-quarters of the officer corps prior to the Civil War—seventy-three percent—were graduates of West Point, men whose names would fill the command ranks on both sides during the Civil War. Principally they were young, competent, energetic and proud of their records; however, prior to the Civil War, many in the upper ranks were political hacks, martinets, petty tyrants, even downright incompetents.

Soldiering was difficult for the officers, just as it was for the enlisted men. Isolated from polite society, the officer could associate only with his fellow officers, for fraternization with enlisted men was forbidden. He thus had a very limited circle of people from which to draw his friendships. His pay was small, a lieutenant after the Civil War drawing only $40.00 a month; from this he had to pay for his mount, his equipment, and his clothing and support his family if he had one. After the Civil War there were too many high-ranking officers, and promotion became intolerably slow. For the officer promotion came within the regiment, as it did for the enlisted men within the company. Only through the death or retirement of senior officers was promotion open, and then it came from seniority rather than merit; this system crippled the Army with old, even ancient officers whose ambitions were severely limited.

In a report made on November 22, 1875, General John Pope summarized the Army's attitude about the wars against the Native Americans: “It is with painful reluctance that the military forces take the field against Indians who only leave their reservations because they are starved there, and who must hunt food for themselves and their families or see them perish with hunger…. I desire to say with all emphasis, what every Army officer on the frontier will corroborate, that there is no class of men in this country who are so disinclined to war with the Indians as the army stationed among them. The Army has nothing to gain by war with Indians; on the contrary it has everything to lose. In such a war it suffers all the hardship and privation; and, exposed as it is to the charge of assassination if Indians are killed; to the charge of inefficiency if they are not….”

Given the circumstances that prevailed in the Indian Territory, as well as in Congressional appropriations committees, the wonder is not that the soldiers at the forts herein described performed as poorly as they did but rather that they performed as well as they did. The frontier soldier played a vital role in the history of Oklahoma, for which recognition is long past due.

BULWARK OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER: A HISTORY OF FORT TOWSON

By Patrick B. McGuigan

Fort Towson, in modern southeastern Oklahoma, played an important part in the opening of the American Southwest. Although this frontier post had a troubled history in its early years, Fort Towson was important in Indian removal, road construction, frontier security and general advancement of the national boundaries of the United States.

In January, 1824, Major General Winfield Scott recommended the establishment of a fort in the Red River country. The following May, Colonel Matthew Arbuckle led companies D and I of the 7th Infantry to a site on Gates Creek near where the Kiamichi River flows into the Red River. The site, opposite Pine Ridge, was on a bluff 150 feet above the creek. Arbuckle's men cleared the site, and it was named Cantonment Towson for Nathan Towson, the paymaster general of the United States Army. Scott and Arbuckle hoped the cantonment would be an effective safeguard on the Mexican frontier, as well as a center for negotiations with the plains Indians.

Major Alexander Cummings first commanded the post. During the earliest days of the camp's existence, he and his small garrison experienced great difficulties with white settlers in nearby Miller County, Arkansas Territory.¹ Particularly vexing to the settlers was Cummings’ attempts to enforce the “Intercourse Act” of 1802. This legislation limited trade between whites and Indians. In addition, this act and others forbade whites from hunting on Indian lands, such as those around Cantonment Towson. Cummings at first appealed for aid from the United States District Attorney for the Territory of Arkansas, Samuel C. Roane. Roane informed Cummings that the military, not civilians, should enforce the Intercourse Act.²

The white settlers not only hunted on Indian lands, but also illegally produced liquor for sale to the redmen. Throughout the winter of 1824–1825, tension mounted between the military and the settlers. On February 2, 1825, violence nearly erupted when 200 settlers gathered at the home of John Inglish on Clear Creek near the post. William Brice, John Bowman and Jacob Pennington agitated for an attack on the fort. Cummings demanded that the three be prosecuted for “an attempt to levy war against the United States.”³ Again Roane took no action, considering it a military affair. Such incidents were typical of the relations between the post and Miller County residents.⁴

The Treaty of Washington, announced in the summer of 1825, assigned the southern part of Indian Territory to the Choctaws. As a result, some of the whites in the area of Cantonment Towson began to move to the south side of the Red River, still claiming they were in “Miller County.”⁵ Constant friction with the settlers led Cummings to request that the garrison at Towson be strengthened. In June, 1826, he learned that elements of the Arkansas militia were preparing for war. He reported to his superior, “I am of the opinion that, unless some measures are taken to put a stop to the lawless practices of some of the white settlers, we shall ’ere long have an Indian war.”⁶

The commander's glum prophecy nearly came true less than a year later. John Bowman and James Roberts murdered a Cherokee Indian in his own home, and severely beat another Cherokee. Disgusted with similar treatment, groups of Shawnee Indians made preparations for war. In early April, a band of Osage Indians crossed to the south side of the Red River and murdered a white man. Settlers fled to the north of the river in panic. Cummings sent a detachment of infantry to chase the Osage, but pursuit of the mounted Indians was futile.⁷

During the violent spring of 1827, some residents of Arkansas planned a strike west against the Comanches and other tribes.⁸ However, one observer felt “…they are more sinned against than sinning.”⁹

Before the disturbances of the summer of 1827, the Congress of the United States recognized one cause of the weaknesses of the forts on the southwestern frontier. To aid rapid communications between the forts, Congress passed a law on March 3, 1827, which authorized the construction of a series of roads connecting Forts Smith and Towson with one another and with the Louisiana border.¹⁰ The quartermaster general assigned Major Cummings and his command to construct the road between Fort Smith and Cantonment Towson.¹¹ However, the road not only was intended to facilitate communication on the frontier,

…but also a direct Communication from the centre of the Territory to an exposed and important point, by means of which the militia of the Territory might be able to penetrate the Indian Country, and assist in the protection of the frontier inhabitants, if necessary.¹²

The Fort Smith-Towson road could have been completed before Cantonment Towson's first abandonment, but the assistant quartermaster of Fort Gibson, Lieutenant James L. Dawson, took nearly six months to complete his survey of the route. In November, Major Cummings complained that his troops were not sufficient to assure completion of the job.¹³ Further problems delayed work on the road, and finally in October of 1828, work was discontinued because of bad weather and, again, a shortage of manpower.¹⁴ Although work on the road was discontinued, the men at least completed construction of a bridge over Gates Creek near the fort.¹⁵

The road from Towson to Fort Jesup in Natchitoches, Louisiana, proceeded in a more satisfactory manner. The assistant quartermaster of that post, Lieutenant Francis Lee, completed his survey of the route in July of 1827. Although work on the road was completed on March 15, 1828, it was probably in poor condition.¹⁶

Cantonment Towson's effectiveness was questionable at times. However, in one case, the post prevented bloodshed through the stubbornness of its second commander, Captain Russell B. Hyde. In April, 1828, Governor George Izard of the territory of Arkansas authorized Colonel Wharton Rector of the Arkansas militia to remove a group of Shawnee Indians from their encampment at Pecan Point on the Red River. Rector called on Captain Hyde at Towson and demanded that a detachment of the soldiers be added to the militia's command. Hyde refused not only because he felt he had no authority to obey such an order, but also because he realized the Shawnees would leave peaceably. Rector grew livid with anger and said he would bring five settlers to the fort to “…butt it down with their heads.”¹⁷

Artist recreation of Fort Towson

Although the Shawnees did leave Pecan Point without a fight, Rector protested bitterly about Hyde's conduct. Hyde coolly defended himself, saying,

If the Commanding Officer of this frontier is bound to furnish every man with troops who calls on him and who wishes to Immortalize himself by plundering an Indian town and killing a few Women and Children, it will be necessary that the force in this sector of Country should be considerably increased.¹⁸

Captain Hyde's conduct in another controversy in 1828 was more questionable. William King, the sutler at Cantonment Towson, had been involved in a sensational abduction and murder case in the state of New York in 1826. On February 14, 1828, Sheriff Joseph Garlinghouse of Ontario County, New York, and Clark Landers of Arkansas Territory, rode into Towson with warrants for King's arrest. The warrants were endorsed by the governors of New York and Arkansas, as well as by the Secretary of War and Hyde's immediate superior, Colonel Arbuckle.¹⁹ Hyde refused to help Garlinghouse arrest King, but said he would send for Lieutenant William S. Colquhoun to escort Garlinghouse to King's store. Apparently Hyde sent word to King through Colquhoun that Garlinghouse was at the post, and King made his escape into the woods. Later, Garlinghouse found this out and demanded that Hyde be courtmartialed. The matter eventually came to the attention of the president of the United States, John Quincy Adams. Hyde was tried and acquitted. Ironically, Lieutenant Colquhoun was convicted for his part in the affair and removed from duty.²⁰

In September, 1828, a band of Towehash Indians killed and scalped two soldiers near the fort. Only one lieutenant and four soldiers could be spared to pursue the Indians. Fortunately they were aided by twenty settlers and two Delaware Indians. When this group found the Towehash, a brief battle resulted in which three of the Towehash were killed, the rest escaping. Governor Izard, in a letter to the Secretary of War, said, “I beg leave to call your attention to the utter Uselessness of the Military Post at Fort Towson…”²¹

Discouraged with Cantonment Towson's overall record, the Department of War ordered its abandonment early in 1829. Lieutenant Colonel S. Burbank took command of the post and on June 17, led the 110 men south to Fort Jesup. As soon as the post was vacated, a large group of settlers from Miller County rode out to the fort and burned it to the ground.²²

In 1830 the United States government signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with representatives of the Choctaws. This treaty provided for the removal of the Choctaws from the eastern United States to the southern part of the Indian Territory, which had been set aside for them five years earlier. Old Cantonment Towson was ordered reopened in November, 1830. Companies A, C, G, and I of the 3rd Infantry returned to the site under the command of Major Stephen W. Kearny. As of May 1, 1831, the post was known as Cantonment Phoenix, because it was reconstructed on the burned site of the old post. On November 20, it again was named for paymaster Nathan Towson. Then on February 8, 1832, the post for the first time was designated a fort.²³

When Kearny and his men first arrived at the old fort, they dispossessed Greenwood Leflore, who was living in one of the few permanent structures at the site. Leflore, one of the leading citizens of the Choctaw nation, later expressed dissatisfaction with the location of the fort.²⁴

Kearny's men received their first supplies in an unusual manner. The “Great Raft” on the Red River was a major obstacle to navigation on the river above Natchitoches. The steamship Enterprise, weighing thirty to forty tons and towing two keelboats loaded with supplies, reached the mouth of the Kiamichi six miles below the post during the high water of 1831. Captain Henry Miller Shreve owned the Enterprise, and, as a result of reaching Fort Towson, he acquired a contract from the government to clear the “Great Raft.” Between 1833 and 1838 he accomplished this task, enabling steamboat traffic to reach Fort Towson's boat landing during as many as four months of the year.²⁵

Josiah H. Doaks founded the town of Doaksville one mile from the fort in the summer of 1831. In later years it became a flourishing town and was the location of Fort Towson's post office.²⁶

Early in January, 1832, the federal government began to send supplies to Fort Towson for the use of the arriving Choctaws.²⁷ Towson was one of four arrival stations for the thousands of Choctaws who came west between 1831 and 1834. The other stations were at Horse Prairie, Old Miller Court House, and Mountain Fork. The pace of immigation was slow at first. As of January, 1833, only 300 Choctaws had arrived in the vicinity of Fort Towson, with 2,000 others near Fort Smith.²⁸ However, within the next fourteen months more than 12,000 Choctaws covered their own “Trail of Tears,” coming to settle permanently in Indian Territory. The Reverend Cyrus Kingsbury came with the Choctaws. In 1834 he founded the Pine Ridge Mission and school only two miles from Fort Towson.

Before the boundary between Arkansas and the land of the Five Civilized Tribes was corrected, Fort Towson was located in old Miller County, Arkansas (Source: Morris, Goins and McReynolds, Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 2nd ed., Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976, map 21)

Throughout 1833, the fort on Gates Creek was the scene of great activity. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Josiah H. Vose, the men of Towson built what was essentially an entirely new fort. The original cantonment had contained only a few permanent structures. Now Vose and his men built several permanent structures of wood. In addition to luxurious offers’ quarters, the men constructed four barracks, a guardhouse, a quartermaster's storehouse, a laundresses’ quarters, a general storehouse and a powder magazine. Within a short time, numerous gardens were planted about the post, and several private buildings appeared, such as a sutler's store, stables and servants quarters.²⁹

Colonel Vose was enthusiastic about the new appearance of the post, describing it in glowing terms in letters to his superiors. One of these superiors, General Edmund P. Gaines, was not so enthusiastic about the construction of the new fort. He felt it should have been built primarily as a defensive outpost, but instead had been designed “…to embrace more of the comfortable properties of an interior country palace, than of a place of defense.”³⁰

Besides the reconstruction of the post, the men at Fort Towson again were engaged in road construction. The Fort Smith-Fort Towson road, constructed originally in 1827–1828, was found unsatisfactory, so an entirely new road was built. The famous woodsman Robert Bean surveyed the new route.³¹ To construct the road, Captain John Stuart led a detachment of two officers, one medical doctor, and forty enlisted men of the 7th Infantry. They worked their way from Fort Smith to Horse Prairie on the Kiamichi, twenty miles west of Fort Towson. Their expedition lasted from April 8 to June 16, 1832. In addition to the numerous difficulties encountered by Stuart in the actual construction of the road, he was much chagrined to find, when he reached Horse Prairie, that there were no supplies for his starving men. Vose had intended to send supplies to Horse Prairie, but the post itself was running short of provisions because its supply boat was mired one hundred miles below the fort on the Red River. Fortunately Stuart and his men were able to return safely to Fort Smith.³²

At Fort Gibson, Colonel Arbuckle wanted to extend and improve the roads to Fort Towson. He already had recommended the eventual establishment of a fort on the Washita River.³³ Thus in the summer of 1834, companies A and C of the 3rd Infantry, under the command of Captain J. Dear, cut a road from Fort Towson to the mouth of the Washita.³⁴

Earlier in that same year, Arbuckle requested a dramatic increase in the garrison at Towson to help it deal more effectively with the Indians.³⁵ Arbuckle's request was ignored; in fact, the garrison's strength fell substantially while Dear and his men were gone. During the summer of 1834” Vose received Sam Houston, who passed through Fort Towson on business for the Secretary of War.

The road-building work of the early frontier posts never ended. In February, 1835, Congress passed an appropriation of $15,000 for the completion and repair of the Natchitoches-Fort Towson road.³⁶ Almost a year later an officer at Towson reported the beginning of work on the Natchitoches road. A detachment of sixty men from Fort Towson was employed in the work. In early February of 1836 the steamboat Rover negotiated the slowly shrinking “Great Raft” to bring provisions to the fort.³⁷

Arbuckle renewed his request for additional troops at Towson several times, and finally the request was answered in April, 1836. Major General Edmund P. Gaines, noting the threat of war to the south, agreed that Fort Towson needed more men. He ordered six to eight companies of infantry sent to the Red River, as well as “all the dragoons west and south of the Missouri River.”³⁸

Gaines’ order was carried out with deliberate speed. The Army was determined to remain neutral in the conflict to the south, but for defensive purposes it seemed prudent to reinforce the Red River post.³⁹ In the late summer Vose wrote a letter to the governor of Arkansas Territory promising shelter to any militiamen sent to Fort Towson.⁴⁰ The post never saw more furious activity than it did in this first Mexican War scare. Besides the regular garrison of four companies of the 3rd Infantry, there were seven companies of the 7th, three of the 1st Dragoons, and seven of the Arkansas Volunteers Regiments.⁴¹ In September, 1836, the post for a short time had 508 men of the Regular Army.⁴² As the Texans secured their victory to the south, it became apparent that Towson's troops would not engage in the conflict. Thus by December the post returned to a more normal strength of 136 men.⁴³

Although the military command reduced Towson's strength after the war scare, the post continued to be the scene of important events. In January, 1837, Arbuckle requested more troops for Towson in order to offset the fears of the Choctaws over the Comanches to the west.⁴⁴ That same month the Choctaws met with representatives of the government and of the Chickasaw tribe at nearby Doaksville. An agreement was reached whereby the Choctaws allowed the Chickasaws into the western portion of their domain. The Chickasaws subsequently began their large-scale immigration to Indian Territory.⁴⁵

The ruins of Fort Towson

Vose complained to his superiors in September, 1837, that William Armstrong, the Choctaw Indian agent, was not performing his duties. Vose wanted an agent for the Choctaws stationed at or near the fort if he was assured that no white or Indian traders would be allowed within ten miles of the post. He was hesitant about distributing Choctaw annuities at the fort because this induced the Choctaws to remain near the fort and trade at civilian trading posts or with the military sutlers. He was concerned because he felt that trade between the sutlers and Indians often led to unnecessary friction between the Indians and the military. Although he thought highly of the Doaks brothers near the fort, he disliked most of the civilian traders. Vose probably wanted the traders barred from the post because he did not like his men purchasing liquor from them. He liked to boast, “No ardent spirits has been kept at this post for several years.”⁴⁶

Despite the isolated position of the fort, morale among the men seemed high. After one of his many visits to the fort, Reverend Kingsbury noted the positive influence of Vose among the men: “I have never seen a place where there was a more decided religious influence.”⁴⁷

The road from Fort Smith to Fort Towson was rebuilt a second time in 1838, this time following the original route of 1827–1828.⁴⁸ Captain Henry Miller Shreve finished opening the “Great Raft” in 1838. Four steamboats already had worked their way to the Fort Towson landing between 1831 and 1838. A fifth ship reached the landing in 1838, bringing 180 recruits from New York City under the command of Captain De Hart.⁴⁹ Although the landing at Fort Towson continued to function for the benefit of the port, there were some particularly dry years when eleven months would pass without a single boat docking.⁵⁰

Throughout 1838 and 1839, Vose and his successors, Major Henry Wilson and Captain J. B. Clark, faced curious incursions into Indian Territory by emissaries of the Mexican government. As early as August, 1838, these emissaries contacted not only the Choctaws and Chickasaws, but also the Shawnee, Delaware and Kickapoo Indians.⁵¹ Vose was concerned about the presence of the Mexicans, and he made efforts to have them arrested, at first unsuccessfully.⁵² On June 21, 1839, Henry Connelly, A United State citizen, arrived at Fort Towson as a representative of the Mexican government. Connelly presented to Major Henry Wilson a passport from the Mexican governor of Chihuahua, Simón Elias Gonsales. Wilson was understandably concerned inasmuch as a party of 100 heavily armed men was coming only a few days behind Connelly. These men supposedly were guards for a huge quantity of silver and gold bullion the expedition carried. Connelly said this bullion was bound for New Orleans where he would exchange it for trade goods. Wilson did not know what to do so he reported the matter to William Armstrong, the Indian agent, and to Thomas Leflore, the local Choctaw chieftain. These men sent word to the Secretary of War, who sent instructions that Connelly and his men could pass through the territory so long as they did not violate the “Intercourse Law” regulating trade with the Indians. Armstrong was concerned that Connelly's real purpose might be recruitment of the Indians for an alliance against the United States.⁵³

Fort Towson was one of the major points on the early-day military road system in Oklahoma (Source: Morris, Goins and McReynolds, Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 2nd ed., Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976, map 27)

Captain George W. Allen took command of Fort Towson in November, 1840. The next year, the strength of the garrison varied dramatically. Throughout the summer of 1841, the men were engaged in repairs on the road to the Washita River. These repairs cost $3,000. Captain R. D. Moore and men from Towson temporarily occupied a site on the Washita, which he recommended for a new fort.⁵⁴ That fall General Zachary Taylor passed through Towson on his way to the Washita, where he approved of Moore's site. The following winter a company of the 2nd Dragoons under the command of Captain A. H. Blake left Fort Towson to begin the permanent occupation of the new post.⁵⁵

In the spring of 1842 forts on the frontier again faced a possible involvement in a Mexican war. In April, Major Thomas Turner Fauntleroy commanded 191 men of the 2nd Dragoons at Towson. Within a month the garrison's strength rose to 893 men. Most of these new arrivals were in the 6th Infantry, which had been stationed at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. They made their way to Towson, descending the Mississippi River in four steamboats, each pulling a keelboat. Coming up the Red River, they snagged several times in low water. Finally the men made it to the fort on foot. The keelboats came later with their provisions.⁵⁶

Colonel Gustavus Loomis was sent to Fort Towson to assume command. When he arrived, he found the post in a terrible state of disrepair. The entire 6th Infantry was stationed at the fort from May, 1842, to February, 1843. With their help, Loomis began a much-needed reconstruction of the post. Several of the oldest wooden buildings were beyond repair, and these were totally rebuilt. All the buildings were put on stone foundations, the stone cut from the bluff behind the officers’ quarters. These repairs were not completed until October, 1844.⁵⁷

To improve morale, Loomis started a post school, a library with a substantial reading room and a post military band. Private Garrett C. Williamson of the 6th Infantry taught the school. His task was easy because seven-eighths of the men could read. The post exhibited a vigor in 1842 and 1843 that was not seen again. The troops at Towson gradually were transferred to other commands as the chances of war subsided.⁵⁸

The steamboat Fort Towson tried to ascend to the fort during the high waters of the spring of 1843. It carried several thousand dollars worth of merchandise intended for the Choctaw merchants of Doaksville: David Folsom, Joel H. Nail and Robert M. Jones. Before the steamship could reach the Towson boat landing, unexpectedly low water forced it to halt. The boat's crew stored the cargo at Bryarly's Landing on the Texas bank of the river. James Bourland, the revenue collector for Texas, seized the cargo for a supposed violation of the Texan revenue laws. This treatment angered the crew of the Fort Towson. With the crew of another boat, the Hunter, they took back the cargo by force. When Texan authorities attempted to seize the cargo a second time, Colonel Loomis used the troops at Fort Towson to hold the cargo. He justified his action because part of the merchandise was “…public property going to the sutlers at Forts Towson and Washita.” Naturally the Texans did not appreciate Loomis’ action, but in a subsequent investigation his actions were fully supported by his superior at Fort Smith, General Zachary Taylor.⁵⁹

Loomis left Fort Towson to take command of Fort Gibson in December, 1843. Brevet Major George Anderson then assumed command of the detachment, consisting of four companies of the 6th Infantry and one of the 4th. One of Anderson's men was Lieutenant Winfield Scott Hancock, who served for more than one year at Towson.⁶⁰

When the Reverend W. H. Goode, a prominent Methodist missionary, visited the fort in 1844, he complimented the “…moral and religious influences among the soldiers.”⁶¹ Until May, 1845, troop strength remained significant, with 201 men stationed at the post under the command of Captain Thomas Alexander.⁶² When it became apparent that war with Mexico would soon erupt, the men of Fort Towson were transferred to the south in large numbers, reducing the strength of the post.

Colonel Loomis returned to Towson in November, 1845. When he left for the south, Captain Alexander resumed command. Although the post returns show a small garrison at Towson through 1846, there were, in fact, hundreds of soldiers who passed through the fort on their way to the war. The largest concentration of troops apparently came during the summer months. More than 800 men celebrated the Fourth of July at Fort Towson, firing the post cannon throughout the day.⁶³ When these men departed, Towson for the first time was left under the command of a 2nd lieutenant, John Bacon. Bacon had a skeleton force of only twenty-two men. Bacon left Fort Towson in April of 1847 as a first lieutenant, leaving the command of fourteen men to Lieutenant R. W. Foote.

Between 1831 and 1846, Fort Towson was one of the bulwarks of the American frontier. In the years after the Mexican War, the fort's importance declined until it was little more than a quartermaster's post. Except for a brief time in February, 1849, when Captain R. B. Maxey commanded, the post never again had more than 100 men. The fort continued to provide important services to the Choctaws, and men from Towson repaired portions of the road from Fort Smith. In 1850, troops of the 5th Infantry from Fort Towson helped open Fort Arbuckle.⁶⁴

As the frontier moved west, the Army moved with it. Brevet Major D. P. Whiting was in command in April, 1854, when he received orders to abandon the post. As he prepared to carry out this order, a tornado struck the post on May 28, destroying the roofs of several buildings. Whiting and company K of the 7th Infantry marched out of the fort on June 8 bound for Fort Arbuckle.⁶⁵

At Fort Washita, Captain Samuel G. French received orders to go to Towson and “…examine the public buildings and sell them.” If possible, French was to retrieve salvagable materials for use at Fort Washita. He rode down the lonely road first opened twenty years before by Captain Dear and his men. After inspecting the post, he recommended that the buildings be given to the Choctaws. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who had served at Fort Towson briefly during his time in Indian Territory twenty years before, agreed with French's proposal.⁶⁶

In subsequent years both Doaksville and Fort Towson served as centers of the Choctaw nation. Two national Choctaw Councils were held at Fort Towson. During the Civil War, Major General Sam Bell Maxey (CSA) made Fort Towson his command post for all of the Indian Territory. Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered his Confederate Indian Brigade to Lieutenant Colonel Asa Matthews of the Union Army at Fort Towson on June 23, 1865. Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender, thirty-six years after the first abandonment of Fort Towson.⁶⁷

¹ Cummings’ command usually numbered only two companies of less than 100 men. See Fort Towson Post Returns, Office of the Adjutant General Consolidated Files, United States War Department, 1824–1854. Microfilm copy at the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Roll 10. July, 1824.

² Alexander Cummings to Samuel C. Roane, November 8, 1824, Clarence Edwin Carter, comp., The Territorial Papers of the United States (23 vols., Washington: Government Printing Office, 1934–1958) Vol. XX, p. 31.

³ Cummings to Roane, February 26, 1825, ibid., p. 330.

⁴ Rex W. Strickland, “The establishment of ‘Old’ Miller County, Arkansas Territory,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XVIII, pp. 154–170.

⁵ The whites did not move in large numbers until after the winter of 1831–1832, when the Choctaws first arrived in the Territory in large numbers. Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860 (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1933) pp. 84–85.

⁶ Cummings to Edmund P. Gaines, June 22, 1826, Carter, comp., Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. XX, pp. 266–267.

⁷ Cummings to Matthew Arbuckle, April 14, 1827, ibid., p. 457.

⁸ George Gray to the Secretary of War, July 13, 1827, ibid., pp. 500–501.

⁹ Cummings to Adjutant General, September 1, 1827, ibid., pp. 526–527.

¹⁰ This road was later extended to Natchitoches.

¹¹ Acting Quartermaster General to Cummings, June 25, 1827, Carter, comp., Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. XX, p. 493.

¹² Quartermaster General to Matthew Arbuckle, December 19, 1827, ibid., p. 568.

¹³ Cummings to the Adjutant General, November 1, 1827, ibid., p. 550.

¹⁴ Lieutenant Newell to the Quartermaster General, October 24, 1836, ibid., p. 436n.

¹⁵ Cummings to the Quartermaster General, October 3, 1836, ibid., pp. 754–755.

¹⁶ Francis Lee to the Quartermaster General, ibid., p. 438n.

¹⁷ Certificate of John Thurston, November 17, 1828, ibid., p. 789.

¹⁸ Hyde to the Adjutant General, November 17, 1828, ibid., pp. 784–785.

¹⁹ The Adjutant General to Alexander Cummings, November 10, 1827 and Matthew Arbuckle to Russell B. Hyde, February 3, 1828, ibid., p. 667.

²⁰ Hyde to the Adjutant General, May 29, 1828, and Patrick H. Galt to the Adjutant General, ibid., pp. 690–691, 724–725.

²¹ George Izard to the Secretary of War, September 21, 1828, ibid., p. 748.

²² Fort Towson Post Returns, June 1829. See also Arkansas Gazette, July 15, 1829.

²³ Grant Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest (Cleveland, The Arthur H. Clark Company), p. 61.

²⁴ Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 83.

²⁵ Grant Foreman, “River Navigation in the Early Southwest,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. XV, pp. 50–53.

²⁶ E. W. Powers, “Notes on Doaksville, Choctaw Nation,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 540–541.

²⁷ F. W. Armstrong to Lewis Cass, January 26, 1832, Letters to the Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. Grant Foreman, comp., The Foreman Transcripts, Vol. III, pp. 147–148.

²⁸ Muriel H. Wright, “The Removal of the Choctaws to Indian Territory,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. VI, pp. 122–123.

²⁹ Kenneth E. Lewis, “Archaeological Investigations at Fort Towson, Choctaw County, Oklahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. L, pp. 274–275.

³⁰ Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 86.

³¹ Muriel H. Wright, “Historic Spots in the Vicinity of Tuskahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. IX, p. 27.

³² Carolyn Thomas Foreman, intro. and ed., “Report Captain John Stuart on the Construction of the Road from Fort Smith to Horse Prairie on Red River,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. V, pp. 333–347.

³³ Matthew Arbuckle to the Commanding General, June 6, 1833, Carter, comp., Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. XXI, pp. 735–737.

³⁴ Fort Towson Post Returns, August 1834; see also Grant Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest, pp. 114–115.

³⁵ Matthew Arbuckle to the Commanding General, March 28, 1834, Carter, comp., Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. XXI, pp. 926–928.

³⁶ Memorial to Congress by the Territorial Assembly, ibid., pp. 833n.

³⁷ Arkansas Gazette, February 16, 1836.

³⁸ Gaines to Arbuckle, April 18, 1836, Carter, comp., Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. XXI, p. 1211.

³⁹ Arkansas Gazette, June 7, 1836.

⁴⁰ Arkansas Gazette, August 23, 1836.

⁴¹ Fort Towson Post Returns; also Arkansas Gazette, October 4, 1836.

⁴² Colonel Vose's many worries were no doubt tragically increased when, on September 9, his daughter Charlotte died. Only nine months earlier she had married Lieutenant C. Barnwell of South Carolina, in a ceremony at the post. See Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 64.

⁴³ Fort Towson Post Returns, December, 1836.

⁴⁴ Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 149.

⁴⁵ William B. Morrison, “Fort Towson,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. V, p. 231. Sec also Gaston L. Litton, “The Negotiations leading to the Chickasaw-Choctaw Agreement, January 17, 1837,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XVII. pp. 417–427.

⁴⁶ Josiah H. Vose to Brigadier General R. Jones, September 4, 1837, Letter to the Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. Grant Foreman, comp., The Foreman Transcripts, Vol. I, pp. 96–98.

⁴⁷ Morrison, “Fort Towson,” p. 229.

⁴⁸ Wright, “Historic Spots in the Vicinity of Tuskahoma,” p. 28.

⁴⁹ Morrison, “Fort Towson,” p. 230. See also Foreman, “River Navigation in the Early Southwest,” pp. 51–52.

⁵⁰ Ed Bearss and Arrell M. Gibson, Fort Smith: Little Gibraltar on the Arkansas (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1969), p. 227.

⁵¹ William Armstrong to C. A. Harris, August 31, 1838, Letters to the Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. Grant Foreman, comp., The Foreman Transcripts, Vol. I, p. 185.

⁵² William Armstrong to T. Hartley Crawford, January 16, 1839, Letters to the Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. Grant Foreman, comp., The Foreman Transcripts, Vol. I, pp. 238–239.

⁵³ Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, pp. 164–165; see also T. Hartley Crawford to William Armstrong, July 29, 1839, Letters to the Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. Grant Foreman, comp., The Foreman Transcripts, Vol. I, pp. 272–274.

⁵⁴ Arkansas Gazette, April 13, 1842.

⁵⁵ Grant Foreman, introduction and notes, “A Journal Kept by Douglas Cooper,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. V, pp. 381–390. See also Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 100.

⁵⁶ Fort Towson Post Returns, April-May 1842; see also Grant Foreman, “River Navigation in the Early Southwest, pp. 53–54.

⁵⁷ Kenneth E. Lewis, “Archaeological Investigations at Fort Towson, Choctaw County, Oklahoma,” p. 275.

⁵⁸ Grant Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest, p. 291. See also Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “Gustavus Loomis,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XVIII, p. 222.

⁵⁹ Grant Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest, p. 304. Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “Gustavus Loomis,” p. 222.

⁶⁰ Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 92.

⁶¹ Morrison, “Fort Towson,” p. 230.

⁶² Fort Towson Post Returns, May, 1845.

⁶³ Muriel H. Wright, “John Hobart Heald, Pioneer Trader,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. II, pp. 311–318. See also Fort Towson Post Returns, July 1846.

⁶⁴ Bearss and Gibson, Fort Smith: Little Gibraltar on the Arkansas, pp. 203–204.

⁶⁵ Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 92.

⁶⁶ Bearss and Gibson, Fort Smith: Little Gibraltar on the Arkansas, p. 233.

⁶⁷ For further discussion of the recent archaeological work at Fort Towson, see Douglas D. Scott, “Archaeological and Historical Investigations at the Fort Towson Powder Magazine,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. LIII, pp. 516–527.

FORT GIBSON: FORGOTTEN GLORY

By Richard C. Rohrs

All that remains of Fort Gibson are a few weathered buildings. Without the timely intervention of the Oklahoma Historical Society, even these last reminders of the past probably would have vanished. Although the fort is still remembered in local lore, its place in the development of the United States generally has been ignored or forgotten. Like many other frontier outposts, this garrison enjoyed a brief period of significance during the nineteenth century before being permanently abandoned. Early in its intermittent sixty-six year history, Fort Gibson became one of the most prominent forts in the Southwest, exemplifying both the danger and the drudgery of frontier military service. The men stationed there were not simply undisciplined frontiersmen; among them were numerous graduates of West Point. Almost every class from 1811 to the Civil War was represented, and each class after 1819 had at least three men stationed there. During the decades of the 1820s and 1830s the post served as a staging area for the settlement of eastern Indian tribes emigrating to the sparsely inhabited area west of Arkansas Territory, the link between the American government and the wild Plains Indians, and was one of a series of forts responsible for imposing order on the frontier. Only as the frontier surged westward and the Plains Indians were pacified did Fort Gibson become dispensible.¹

Prior to the 1820s, the major fortification in the Southwest was Fort Smith in the Arkansas Territory. Yet when the western border of Arkansas was extended farther west and Osage warriors began causing difficulties for the Cherokees, Fort Smith was abandoned and a portion of the 7th Infantry under the command of Colonel Matthew Arbuckle was ordered west to the banks of the Grand River above the confluence of the Arkansas and Verdigris. Earlier military expeditions, led by Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson in 1806 and by Captain John R. Bell and Major Stephen H. Long in 1820, recommended this location as a possible site for a future fort. Fort Gibson, named after Commissary General George Gibson, was occupied in April, 1824, by more than one hundred men and became the westernmost outpost in the area acquired by the Louisiana Purchase.²

Early sketch of Fort Gibson, Indian Territory

Although the initial duty of the Seventh Infantry was to maintain peace between the Cherokee and Osage tribes, the troops, during these early years, frequently devoted their time to more mundane affairs. Work on barracks’ construction and the defense perimeter progressed slowly. Instead of being allowed to concentrate their energies on these tasks, troops often were detailed to provide military protection for surveying teams, remove white settlers from Indian lands, and construct roads.³ These other duties were a constant cause of concern to Colonel Arbuckle. In correspondence with his superiors, he complained that the number of troops under his command was insufficient to accomplish all the assigned tasks. He argued that the arduous tasks of road construction and other responsibilities were preventing him from completing construction of the fort and providing adequately for the defense of the frontier.⁴

Front view of the army barracks at Fort Gibson

The powder magazine at Fort Gibson

The decade of the 1830s marked the zenith of Fort Gibson's importance, as the number of troops stationed there fluctuated between two hundred and six hundred. It was during this period that the fort became a focus of national public interest and a prime source of information on Indian relations and the opening of the Southwestern frontier. As the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes commenced and expanded during the 1820s and 1830s, activity at Fort Gibson increased; the frontier post then became a central point in the government's Indian policy. On their way westward, the emigrating tribes stopped at Fort Gibson to receive their allotment of farm implements, firearms, ammunition, clothing, grains and other provisions necessary for the establishment of their new homes. Moreover, troops from Fort Gibson escorted traders along the Santa Fe trail, preserved amicable relations between the eastern tribes, and protected them “during the infant period of their settlement” from the wild tribes residing on the Plains.⁵

Fort Gibson also served as the point of departure for several important expeditions. To calm the fears of tribes emigrating from the East, Congress, in 1832, authorized the formation of a commission to contact the indigenous tribes of the plains and establish peace between them and the emigrant tribes. For this purpose a company of Rangers left Fort Gibson in October, 1832.⁶ The inability of this expedition and a subsequent one the following year to fulfill this objective necessitated the outfitting of yet another expedition in 1834. More successful than its predecessors, this expedition, under the command of General Henry Leavenworth and Colonel Henry Dodge encountered tribes of plains Indians and established the basis for later negotiations.⁷ In the following year, 1835, a detachment of troops from Fort Gibson was sent west to arrange discussions between American commissioners and the tribes contacted during the Leavenworth and Dodge expedition. As a result a treaty establishing amicable relations between some of the predatory tribes, the emigrant tribes, and the United States was signed in August, 1835.⁸ In 1837, another treaty was signed at Fort Gibson with representatives of the Kiowa, Apache and Tawakoni, the last major tribes of plains Indians not previously bound to the United States by treaty.⁹ Despite the importance of these contacts, the garrison still had more mundane responsibilities. For example, during the early thirties, troops from the post were continually detailed to prevent the introduction of liquor into the areas settled by the Indians.¹⁰

By the 1830s Fort Gibson had grown into a bustling military enclave. Steamships of shallow draft transported goods to the fort, and Indians in the vicinity supplied the troops with provisions. Steamboat landings were a major event, as they signaled the arrival of visitors, supplies, mail and news to the otherwise isolated outpost. Cargoes included everything from hat brushes and violin strings to cologne water and silk purses, which were available at the sutler's store for those of discriminating tastes.

Although less than a decade old, the fort was already in a state of disrepair. The post was originally constructed of materials that were not sufficiently resistant to the climatic extremes, and Colonel Arbuckle continually pleaded for appropriations to construct a permanent, stone facility. Besides the physical decay, the fort no longer was large enough to accommodate the increasing number of troops necessary for its role on the frontier.¹¹

The physical conditions and limitations of Fort Gibson were not Arbuckle's only concern; the post also had become infamous for the incidence of disease and death among the troops. Two hundred and ninety-eight soldiers died there in 1834 and 1835, and in the third quarter of 1835 alone, more than 600 cases of illness were reported. Officers stationed at the post characterized the conditions in particularly gloomy terms. One described it as “the charnel house of the Army.” Another asserted that being stationed there was “servitude” and reported that the buildings had rotted before they were completed, the troops were constantly ill, and the arduous labor and monotonous duty were unbearable.¹² This type of information was one argument used by the people of Arkansas to pressure the government into abandoning Fort Gibson and transferring the garrison back to Fort Smith.

Arbuckle ardently defended his command and argued against abandonment. He believed that if the garrison was transferred eastward, it would be necessary to dispatch troops to the vicinity of Fort Gibson to maintain peace between the different tribes. Arbuckle contended that it was still the ideal location “to preserve peace, and good order.” Furthermore, he challenged the characterization of Fort Gibson as unhealthy. Maintaining that relatively few soldiers had died “considering the severe duty the troops had to perform,” he argued that most of the deaths were among troops not permanently stationed there or else involved men stricken while on detached service from the fort. In addition, he questioned the assertion that illnesses were caused by the location of the camp. He demonstrated that people at a distance of sixty miles also died of “the fever,” concluding that there must be some alternate explanation for the frequency of disease. Arbuckle believed that the real cause of poor health was the climate west of the post. He was convinced that stagnant pools, created by surface moisture retained on the prairies, were responsible for the incidence of disease.¹³

Instead of abandoning that location, Arbuckle advised that the fort be enlarged and rebuilt with stone or brick. He was not alone in advancing these recommendations. Other officers, including Colonel S. W. Kearney, Major T. F. Smith and Captain Nathan Boone supported Arbuckle's position by informing the secretary of war that Fort Gibson was “the key of the country about it,” and advised new construction instead of abandonment. These arguments apparently were sufficient to convince the secretary of war; in 1838 Joel R. Poinsett announced that Fort Gibson would not be abandoned. He and his advisors had decided that the garrison was still necessary to protect the citizens of Arkansas from possible Indian raids, prevent war between the various tribes and inhibit whites from intruding on Indian lands.¹⁴

Despite the decision to maintain Fort Gibson as the principle post in the area, renovation of the facility was delayed considerably. Construction of new stone buildings began nearly a decade later in 1845. The site of the new fort was on higher ground, one quarter of a mile from the original post and in a healthier location at a distance from the river bottom. The proximity of the original post to the river had not always been advantageous. Floods inundated the area on several occasions and the fluctuation of water depth, particularly during the dry season, at times made river travel to Fort Gibson unreliable.¹⁵ The relocation of the fort apparently had no substantive effect on health conditions; in subsequent years the garrison was continually troubled by illness.¹⁶

After the decade of the 1830s, activity at Fort Gibson decreased significantly. By the 1850s, the Cherokee Nation was pressing for abandonment of the post. The Cherokees argued that there was no valid reason for the garrison's continued occupation; instead of reducing the availability of liquor, the existence of the post within their tribal lands seemed to facilitate it. In addition, they believed that the fort was not necessary because they were civilized and no longer required military supervision. The brothels surrounding the fort were considered scandalous, and the tribe was eager to assume control of the boat landing on the river. This agitation proved effective. In June, 1857, Fort Gibson was abandoned and, as stipulated in previous treaty arrangements, the land and buildings comprising the fort reverted to Cherokee ownership.¹⁷

Officers quarters at Fort Gibson during the 1900s

South view of the army barracks at Fort Gibson

Not all the tribes in the area agreed with this decision; the Creeks, in particular, opposed withdrawal. They feared that, with the absence of the military authority, their tribe would not be protected adequately from the plains Indians, liquor and criminal activity. The Creeks also hoped that the post would continue to serve as a buffer between their tribe and the Cherokees, and prevent the encroachment of whites onto Indian land. Some of these concerns were shared by government officials; the superintendent of Indian affairs for the district feared that abandonment would open the area to liquor dealers, and he anticipated an increase in crime and other disturbances.¹⁸

Although the relinquishment of Fort Gibson to the Cherokees seemed to portend the demise of the post, its abandonment was short-lived. During the Civil War the fort regained some of its earlier significance. In 1861, it was occupied by Confederate troops and served as the headquarters of the South's Indian Department. The fort continued to be an important center for contact between the Confederacy and Indian tribes in the area until it was reoccupied by Union forces in the winter of 1862–1863.¹⁹

Once under Northern control, the post became one of the most strategically significant fortifications in the Indian Territory and was temporarily renamed Fort Blunt in honor of General James G. Blunt, Commanding General of the District of Kansas. Yet, Union control of the area remained precarious. Northern troops, under the command of Colonel William A. Phillips, were surrounded by Confederates, and their flanks and communications with the rear were constantly harrassed by enemy patrols. General Blunt expressed concern that unless the post was reinforced, withdrawal would be necessary, and valuable support from the loyal tribes would be lost. This threat was greatly diminished in July, 1863, when General Blunt and a large Union force arrived in the Indian Territory from Kansas to defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Honey Springs. This decisive engagement ensured Northern control of Fort Gibson for the remainder of the conflict.²⁰ In addition to its military role during the war, Fort Gibson also was important in relations between the federal government and the Indians. From May, 1863, until the end of the war, members of the Cherokee tribe, remaining loyal to the North, established their seat of government at Fort Gibson under the protection of federal troops. The post also served as a staging area and food dispersal point for Indian and Black refugees.²¹

In 1871, the war a receding memory, the fort once again was abandoned as an active military post. It did, however, continue to serve as a depot for the Quartermaster Corps. Unlike the earlier abandonment, the Cherokees this time opposed withdrawal. They now favored a continued military presence to protect their lands from intruders and to maintain peace within their tribe.²² Less than a year later, in the summer of 1872, Fort Gibson was reoccupied to curtail the introduction of liquor into the area and to “capture and drive out the murderers and maurauders.”²³

During the final two decades of Fort Gibson's existence, there was little excitement to rival the adventuresome life of the 1830s. Perhaps the earthquake of 1882 reminded residents of earlier, more provocative times. Yet the frontier had still not been entirely tamed. Fort Gibson became known as “a ‘tough’ place, infested with out-laws, fortune hunters and the riff-raff of all creation.” Paydays were particularly troublesome; then gamblers “from all over” arrived to separate wages from soldiers.

Various circumstances during the 1870s and 1880s only delayed the in evitable abandonment. In 1879 the number of troops stationed there suddenly increased fivefold to eliminate a gang of thieves and in response to rumors of an attempt by white settlers to colonize part of the Indian Territory. In 1882, troops from Fort Gibson were summoned when internal conflict among the Creeks for control of the tribe resulted in the Green Peach War. A detachment from the post quelled the unrest and arranged for a cease fire. The final abandonment of Fort Gibson occurred late in the summer of 1890, when all troops were withdrawn. It was briefly reoccupied on several occasions after 1890, when renewed difficulties necessitated military intervention. By October, 1897, however, the barracks were uninhabitable, and the troops were forced to camp on the parade grounds.²⁴

Interior courtyard at Fort Gibson

Despite the aura of frontier excitement evident throughout the early history of Fort Gibson, daily life was dominated by work and military routine. Boredom was frequently rampant. The typical day began at dawn when reveille sounded. After breakfast the troops were detailed to assignments such as caring for the garrison gardens, feeding the livestock, road construction, repairing the post, hauling wood, guard duty and drills. The main gates closed at nine p.m., encouraging the soldiers to rest in preparation for the next day's work. This repetitive routine resulted in a generally dull existence.²⁵

Fort Gibson after restoration

The realization that their lives at Fort Gibson would not always be one of continual adventure, forced the troops to find alternative sources of excitement. To satisfy this need, taverns and brothels appeared around the post. The proximity of this type of entertainment and the desire of the soldiers for a diversion from their monotonous routine frequently led to difficulties. Drunkenness, brawls and even murder occurred, particularly during the 1830s and 1840s. As a result, military discipline was strictly imposed and, at times, rather brutally. Two men accused of desertion had a letter “D” branded on their thighs, their heads were shaved, and they were removed from the service with halters around their necks. Punishment for drunkenness and other offenses was equally humiliating. One man, charged with unsoldier-like conduct, was ordered to stand on a barrel with an empty bottle in each hand and a sign identifying him as a whiskey seller. Another, who had pleaded guilty to a charge of drunkenness, was imprisoned for ten days and sentenced to march around the camp every two hours with fifty pounds of stones on his back. R. B. Mason, who intermittently served as the temporary commandant of the post, instituted measures to reduce visitation to neighborhood taverns and “disorderly houses.” The practices of doubling the guard, having unannounced roll calls in the middle of the night, and closing the taverns prohibited a few of the pleasures enjoyed by the men to escape their monotonous daily routine.²⁶

There were socially acceptable diversions. The fort rapidly became the social center of the Cherokee Nation. Dances, piano concerts, dinners, horseback rides, fishing trips and hunting parties were frequent, as were marriages between the troops and daughters of Indian tribes in the area. A theater was constructed in which enlisted men presented plays for the enjoyment of their fellow troops and the local population. The Fort Gibson Jockey Club was founded in 1844, and races were an annual affair throughout the 1870s. Not all the activities were organized or available to everyone. Colonel J. J. Coppinger, the commandant during the late 1880s, owned a sailboat and enjoyed cruises along the Grand River. When the daily routine permitted and boredom was rampant, groups of soldiers listened to a 130-year-old Creek reminisce about earlier, more exciting times.²⁷

The role of Fort Gibson in the opening of the Southwestern frontier certainly had repercussions beyond that locality. The officers and men stationed there played a crucial part over several generations in taming the frontier and formulating relations between Indian tribes in the Southwest and the federal government. Fort Gibson in many ways was symbolic of the dychotomy of frontier life: military discipline and lawlessness, adventure and boredom, the inconvenience of isolation and the refinements of civilization. Its geographical position, beside a navigable river and on the Southwestern frontier, was ultimately responsible for both the glory and the inevitable demise of the post. As the Eastern tribes settled and assimilated, as the plains Indians were pacified, and as the river proved to be more an enemy than a friend, the military presence in the Indian Territory shifted westward, leaving Fort Gibson an historic relic of bygone days.

¹ Grant Foreman, Fore Gibson: A Brief History (Muskogee, n.d.), p. 24 For a brief introduction to the history of Fort Gibson consult Grant Foreman, “The Centennial of Fort Gibson,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. II, No. 2 (June, 1924), pp. 119–128; G. Foreman, Fort Gibson.

² Lieutenant T. S. Brown to General C. Gratiot, May 8, 1833, John Porter Bloom and Clarence Edwin Carter (ed. and comp.), The Territorial Papers of the United States, 28 vols. (Washington, 1934–1975), Vol. XXI, p. 715; General Matthew Arbuckle to General R. Jones, December 31, 1834, Fort Gibson, Letterbook of the Adjutant General, November, 1834–May, 1836, Grant Foreman Collection, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City; Records of the War Department–Office of the Adjutant General, Post Returns, Fort Gibson, 1824–1901 (Washington, National Archives, microfilm); United States House of Representatives, House Report Number 442, 24th Congress, 1st Session (Washington: Blair and River, 1836); G. Foreman, “Centennial of Fort Gibson,” pp. 119, 120–121; Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860 (Norman, 1933), p. 35; Louise Morse Whitham, “Early Times Along the Arkansas River,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXIII, No. t (Spring, 1945), p. 28.

³ General H. Atkinson to Major C. J. Nourse, August 11, 1824, Lieutenant Samuel McRee to Arbuckle, March 3, 1825, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XIX, pp. 690, 785; James Balfour to Governor George Izard, March 18, 1825, Balfour to General J. Brown, March 19, 1825, General Edmund P. Gaines to Arbuckle, March 28, 1826, Jones to Arbuckle, March 5, 1826, Arbuckle to Jones, July 1, 1827, ibid., Vol. XX, pp. 15–16, 59, 218–219, 414, 499.

⁴ Arbuckle to Lieutenant Rawlins Lowndes, April 4, 1826, Arbuckle to Jones, May 7, 1826, April 23, 1827, Arbuckle to General Thomas S. Jesup, December 16, 1826, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XX, pp. 224, 241, 242, 330, 451.

⁵ Jones to Arbuckle, September 5, 1827, ibid., p. 529; John H. Eaton to Arbuckle, March 25, 1830, General A. C. Macomb to A. H. Sevier, February 7, 1835, William Armstrong to Elbert Herring, June 23, 1836, ibid., Vol. XXI, pp. 200, 1020, 1230–1231; Eaton to Arbuckle, October 5, 1830, Copies of Manuscripts In the Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 7 vols., Grant Foreman Collection, Indian Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Vol. III, p. 60; A. P. Chouteau to the Secretary of War, March 3, 1834, Armstrong to C. A. Harris, December 5, 1837, ibid., Vol. II, pp. 209–210, 251; Arbuckle to Jones, August 16, 1836, ibid., Vol. V, p. 317; Arbuckle to Harris, August 27, 1838, ibid., Vol. I, pp. 183–184; Arbuckle to Jones, September 11, 1838, ibid., Vol. VI, p. 226; Interview with Dan Smith, Indian-Pioneer History, Grant Foreman Collection, Indian Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City; G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, p. 139; Post Returns, Fort Gibson; G. Foreman, Fort Gibson, pp. 16, 17–18.

⁶ G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, p. 114; Steven Gragert, “Washington Irving, Henry Ellsworth, Albert-Alexandre de Pourtalès and Charles Latrobe, 1832,” in Joseph A. Stout, Jr. (ed.), Frontier Adventurers: American Exploration in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: 1976), Oklahoma Historical Society, p. 80.

⁷ George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, 2 vols. (London, 1841), Vol. II, p. 38; Brad Agnew, “The Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition of 1834, The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. LIII, No. 3 (Fall, 1975): pp. 377–379; Brad Agnew, “Brigadier General Henry Leavenworth and Colonel Henry Dodge, 1834–1835,” in Stout, Frontier Adventurers, pp. 91, 96. For a contemporary account of this expedition consult Catlin, Letters and Notes.

⁸ Arbuckle to Major R. B. Mason, May 18, 1835, Fort Gibson, Letterbook; Grant Foreman (ed.), “Journal of the Proceedings at our First Treaty with the Wild Indians,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XIV, No. 4 (December, 1936), pp. 395–397; Mason to Lewis Cass, March 14, 1836, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 64; Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “General Richard Barnes Mason,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XIX, No. 1 (March, 1941), p. 18.

⁹ Armstrong to Harris, May 28, 1837, M. Stokes to J. R. Poinsett, May 30, 1837, Stokes and Chouteau to Poinsett, September 8, 1837, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Vol. I, pp. 82, 85, 99, 100; G. Foreman, Fort Gibson, p. 15.

¹⁰ Jones to the Commanding Officer at Fort Gibson, January 30, 1833, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XXI, p. 909; Captain John Stuart to Jones, March 29, 1833, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 35; W. Seawell to Lieutenant Bowman, December 27, 1834, Seawell to Lieutenant Montgomery, December 27, 1834, Seawell to Lieutenant Britton, January 4, 1834 [sic], D. L. Miles to Lieutenant W. N. Grier, December 1, 1835, Fort Gibson, Letterbook.

¹¹ Arbuckle to Jones, July 29, 1832, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XXI, pp. 523, 524; G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, p. 62; “Notes,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XIII, No. 2 (June, 1935), p. 232.

¹² Captain J. A. Phillips to [?], December 8, 1835, Phillips’ memorandum, December 8, 1835, Phillips to Colonel R. M. Johnson, January 3, 1836, United States House of Representatives, House Report Number 442, 24th Congress, 1st Session; Lieutenant William W. Mather to [?], January 13, 1836, Carolyn Thomas Foreman (ed.), “Notes and Documents: Reports from Fort Gibson, 1835 to 1839,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXI, No. 2 (Summer, 1953), p. 207.

¹³ Arbuckle to Macomb, June 6, 1833, Arbuckle to Jones, February 10, 1834, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XXI, pp. 736, 901; Arbuckle to Jones, December 31, 1834, January 10, 1836, Fort Gibson, Letterbook.

¹⁴ Arbuckle to Jones, December 31, 1834, February 23, 1836, Arbuckle to Jesup, January 9, 1836, Fort Gibson, Letterbook; Arbuckle to Jones, February 10, 1834, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XXI, pp. 901–902, Poinsett to Johnson, February 20, 1838, United States Senate, Senate Executive Document Number 224, 25th Congress, 2nd Session (Washington: Blair and River, 1838), Colonel Kearney, Major T. F. Smith and Captain Nathan Boone to Secretary of War, December 11, 1836, United States House of Representatives, House Executive Document Number 278, 25th Congress, 2nd Session (Washington: Thomas Allen, 1837).

¹⁵ Cherokee Advocate (Tahlequah), July 31, 1845); Macomb to Cass, February 29, 1836, United States Congress, House of Representatives, House Report Number 442, 24th Congress, 1st Session; Brown to Gratiot, May 8, 1833, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XXI, pp. 715–716; G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, p. 69; Q. B. Boydstun, “Fort Gibson Barracks, Powder Magazine, and Bake Oven,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. L, No. 3 (Autumn, 1972), p. 289; Grant Foreman, The Five Civilized Tribes (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1934), p. 24; Philip A. and Beatrice J. Kalisch, “Indian Territory Forts: Charnel Houses on the Frontier,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. L, No. 1 (Spring, 1972), pp. 67, 68.

¹⁶ Ibid., p. 76. Cherokee Advocate, September 17, 1846; Kalisch and Kalisch, Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “A Cherokee Pioneer, Ella Floora Coodey Robinson,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. VII, No. 4 (December, 1929), pp. 366–367.

¹⁷ G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, pp. 71, 72, 73; G. Foreman, Five Civilized Tribes, p. 417; G. Foreman, “Centennial of Fort Gibson,” p. 125; Boydstun, “Fort Gibson Barracks, Powder Magazine and Bake Oven,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. L, p. 290.

¹⁸ Elias Rector to J. W. Denver, September 24, 1857, United States Senate, Senate Executive Document Number 11, 35th Congress (Washington: William A. Harris, 1838), 1st Session; 0. Foreman, Five Civilized Tribes, pp. 210–211, 217; Joel D. Boyd, “Creek Indian Agents, 1834–1874,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. LI, No. 1 (Spring, 1973), p. 48.

¹⁹ Colonel Douglas H. Cooper to J. P. Benjamin, January 20, 1862, United States Department of War, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 70 vols. 128 books. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), Series I, Volume VIII, pp. 5, 11.

²⁰ General James G. Blunt to General J. M. Schofield, June 8, 1863, memorandum, December 16, 1863, ibid., Series I, Volume XXII, Part I, pp. 341, 342, 779; Blunt to Schofield, June 26, 1863, ibid., Series I. Volume XXII, Part II, pp. 337, 338, G. Foreman, Fort Gibson, pp. 23, 24.

²¹ Interview with Annie Eliza Hendrix, Indian-Pioneer History; Muriel H. Wright and LeRoy H. Fischer, “Civil War Sites in Oklahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XLIV, No. 2 (Summer, 1966), p. 196; Ohland Morton, “The Confederate States Government and the Five Civilized Tribes,” Part II, The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXI, No. 3 (Autumn, 1953), p. 311.

²² Cherokee Advocate, October 21, 1871; G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, p. 75; G. Foreman, “Centennial of Fort Gibson,” p. 127.

²³ Cherokee Advocate, May 4, 1872; Nancy Hope Self, “The Building of the Railroads in the Cherokee Nation,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XLIX, No. 2 (Summer, 1971), p. 203.

²⁴ Cherokee Advocate, April 20, 1879, October 22, 1882; Post Returns, Fort Gibson; G. Foreman, Fort Gibson, p. 26.

²⁵ G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, p. 61.

²⁶ Arbuckle to Jones, January 26, 1834, December 6, 1834, Territorial Papers of the U.S., Vol. XXI, pp. 890, 1002; Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “Military Discipline in Early Oklahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. VI, No. 2 (June, 1928), pp. 140, 141, 143, 144; C. Foreman, “General Mason,” pp. 17, 27, 29; G. Foreman, Five Civilized Tribes, p. 379.

²⁷ C. Foreman, “General Mason,” p. 28; Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “General John Joseph Coppinger: Commandant Fort Gibson,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXI, No. 2 (June, 1943), pp. 127–128; G. Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, pp. 62, 64, 134; Kathleen Garrett, The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3 (Autumn, 1955), p. 343.

FORTS AND CAMPS IN OKLAHOMA BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

By J. Patrick Hughes

Early on the morning of June 21, 1834, the soldiers of the United States Dragoon Regiment left their assembly point at Camp Rendezvous, eighteen miles from Fort Gibson.¹ They set out to explore and come to terms with “the wild regions of the West, prairies, Indians.” Some of them had apprehensions as to the proper role of a dragoon. As one account put it: “Many were enlisted under the express declaration that they were to rank with the cadets at the military academy, and under the belief that they were rather to be considered as a volunteer corps, whose wants and comforts were to be attended to, and that they should not be subjected to the more severe restrictions of army discipline. Many were told, when they were entreated to enlist, that they would have nothing to do but to ride on horseback over the country, to explore the western prairies and forests, and, indeed, spend their time continually in delightful and inspiring occupations.” As the expedition proceeded across the Indian territory, however, theirs was to be a story of disease, dissatisfaction and desertion.²

The expedition proceeded, often stopping at various points which served as temporary military bases of operation. Many of these had been sufficiently used to warrant a designation as “camps” and to receive names such as Camp Cass where they spent the night of July 22 at the base of a “prairie mound” some four hundred feet in height.³

By July 25 the dragoons came upon soldiers of the 7th United States Infantry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Theophiclus Hunter Holms. These men had been engaged since the twenty-first of the month in building fortifications at a site termed Camp Canadian because of its location on the Canadian River (at the mouth of the Little River). This was to be a palisaded post, and the men of the 7th were employed in felling trees, preparing the lumber, laying foundations, and building chimneys.⁴

The dragoons already were suffering severe casualties to which the heat only added. Twenty-seven sick men had to be left at Camp Canadian under the charge and care of a lieutenant and assistant surgeon. Also, Lieutenant Cook was left there sick. His comments on the expedition were pointed: “Nature would seem to have conspired with an imbecile military administration for the destruction of the regiment.”⁵ Another whose memory of this trip was less than pleasant was First Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, who later would serve as Secretary of War in addition to his role in the Civil War.

The dragoons continued westward through a profusion of camps whose main function seemed often to be a site for depositing sick and dying. They proceeded through Camp Osage, Camp Washita, Camp Leavenworth (named for the commander of the expedition), Camp Choctaw and Camp Comanche. These camps often were created and designated as they moved through them. Colonel Dodge had to assume command when Brigadier General Henry Leavenworth died. The expedition succeeded in contacting the Comanches, Kiowas and Wichita tribes and in dotting their path with military fortifications of a temporary nature, but only at great cost in sick and dying. When they returned to Camp Canadian, Lieutenant Wheelock noted, “Lieutenant Holmes [was] well advanced with his buildings; one block house, and quarters for one company erected,” but the infantry also had a high number on the sick list.⁶

That site proved unhealthy and was abandoned within a year. After the Army left, the site became known as Fort Holms after the officer who had built it. It also was called Fort Edwards after a trader who did business there in later years. Neither name was carried on the War Department records for the site.⁷

Following the contact with the western plains tribes by the dragoons, a great conference was held near Fort Gibson the next year. To arrange for this meeting, Major Richard B. Mason and troops of the Dragoon Regiment constructed what was named Camp Mason in his honor. Representatives of the Civilized Tribes, as well as the Western tribes, attended it, and a formal treaty was signed there.⁸

In that same sweltering June that the dragoons rode out, the infantry was engaged in building several posts. Companies E and G of the 7th United States Infantry Regiment, under the command of Major George Birch, were establishing the first of a series of posts that would bear the name of the colonel commanding the 7th Infantry, Matthew Arbuckle. The site saw the erection of a blockhouse, the clearing of ground and the beginning of defensive works. Then it was realized that Brigadier General Henry Leavenworth, who had died during the Dragoon campaign, had misunderstood the directions of the War Department when he had ordered the construction. The location was too deep in Indian country and too costly to maintain. By November 11, 1834, it had been abandoned. It is easy to sympathize with the soldiers of the 7th who had erected a fort only to have it abandoned because of the mistake of a dead general.⁹

Brigadier General Henry Levenworth who, until his death during the expedition, commanded the United States Dragoons in their march of 1834 through portions of southwestern Oklahoma

The troops of Company C the 7th Infantry were more fortunate in their work, which also had been recommended in June of 1834 at Swallow Rock. The history of this fort, which came to be known as Fort Coffee (after a recently deceased Paymaster General of the Army), in large measure was the story of Captain John Stuart, its commander, but also of the differing concepts about frontier policy within the army.¹⁰ The major question involved was the struggle about whether the army was in the territory to protect the Indians or to serve the political and private interests of the citizens of Arkansas.

Captain Stuart described the fort as

situated on a high promontory, which appears to make into the river, from there being a large circular cove or gulf in the river, immediately above it, and where the force of the current strikes the rock bluff. The first fifty eight feet of this bluff, above low water mark is a perpendicular rock. The surface then rises, on a gradual slope, to the summit of the hill, on which the fort stands, which is four hundred and thirty feet from the extreme point of the bluff, and is one hundred and eight feet above low water mark.

He also noted that plenty of timber was in the vicinity for the needs of the post and that the site appeared to be healthy.¹¹

At that time Indian nations of the Southeastern part of the United States were in the process of moving from their traditional homelands to the area that would become Oklahoma. In the process of assisting this move, the 7th Infantry located its regimental headquarters at Fort Gibson. However, in order to police the border and, in particular, the illegal liquor trade, Captain Smith and his company were detached to Fort Smith on the Arkansas border. However, they were unsuccessful in stopping the flow of spirits that violated treaties with the Indians, and they became victims both of the sickness for which Fort Smith was noted and of the drunkenness from the liquor peddler's wares. The citizens of Arkansas sold whiskey where they could make a profit, irrespective of treaty or uniform.¹²

In May, 1834, the War Department ordered Captain Stuart to move nine miles up the Arkansas River to the site designated Fort Coffee. This was in response to Captain Stuart's own requests. The location of the new fort was ideal for controlling the river and for halting the liquor trade. Moreover, it was healthier than either Fort Gibson or Fort Smith, as the lowered casualty rates attested. It also put distance between the soldiers and the temptations of drink that the border location had afforded.¹³ The bluffs at the new site provided a natural fortification at the new post, and these Captain Stuart located a blockhouse which afforded a clear view of the river, provided a commanding position and served as the guardhouse. The fort consisted of a number of wooden buildings providing officer and enlisted quarters arranged around a central parade ground.¹⁴

The soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment were not new to this part of the frontier, for they had been serving in the region since 1822. This was considered to be an unhealthy area, and officers of the 7th appealed to Army headquarters and to friends in Congress to have them moved; this availed them naught, however, for the commander of the 7th, Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Matthew Arbuckle had no desire to see his command moved. He had a plantation across the line in Arkansas and strongly preferred to remain in the area. Thus instead of being rotated out of the area, the 7th remained.¹⁵ In the area the troops did not enjoy a life of excitement and high adventure, for which most had enlisted, but rather endured an endless round of building forts like Fort Coffee, chasing bootleggers and constructing roads.

The citizens of Arkansas felt that there was no need for forts like Coffee and Gibson in the Indian territory, where they were clearly aiding the Indians. Instead they believed that these troops ought to be pulled back to the border where they might more directly aid the Arkansas economy. Because they found it easier to convince the federal government to move troops on grounds of defense against an Indian threat, Arkansawers set about creating the appearance of war. In this desire, however, they were confounded by the fact that the civilized tribes gave them little excuse for their desired alarms.¹⁶

Their plans nearly backfired when Commanding General of the Army Alexander Macomb suggested they might have a point about Fort Gibson being too remote and unhealthy. He suggested that the 7th be consolidated at Fort Coffee, and that Coffee be made into a secure, permanent, model fort. The commanding general made it clear that he disapproved of scattering the troops in small, temporary posts, for he believed the army would be most effective if concentrated at large, permanent forts. Fort Coffee was his recommendation for such a site.¹⁷ His comments on this to the Secretary of War provoked General John E. Wool, the Inspector General, to disagree openly with his superior. Wool believed that forts should be established ten, fifteen, or more miles in the Indian lands, but felt that such posts should be viewed as temporary in nature, to be changed as circumstances required.¹⁸ The War Department was heading toward an open split on the nature of frontier garrisoning.

March of the Dragoon Expedition (Photograph courtesy of Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa)

While the matter was being debated in the nation's capital, Captain Stuart and his men continued their rounds of police work and road building. As troops were drawn off to guard the borders during the war for Texas independence, the citizenry of Arkansas became more strident in their cries about “Indian depredations.” As arms and munitions were stockpiled at Fort Coffee in case of emergency, Captain Stuart's men had to build more storage area for them. Stuart resisted demands to increase the fortifications at the post, saying such work was likely to alarm the Indians. In the course of this period, Stuart made it clear that he would prefer to have Choctaws as reinforcements rather than Arkansas militia, another indication of his low esteem for the citizens of that area. The scare passed, and the fate of Fort Coffee shifted back to the debate in Washington over the best method of frontier fortification.¹⁹

For years, officials in Washington had argued about the best way to deal with the Indian population and to police the western border. This had led to the concept of a “Permanent Frontier,” making it possible for the Indians to live without fear of further white encroachment, while whites would be protected in the lands they sought. This concept involved the stationing of troops along the border and not allowing more than limited contact between the two races to occur. In the late 1830s this led to the idea of a great Military Road, which would stretch between the different posts and allow them to reinforce one another.

The opponents of such a plan felt that the proper method was to send troops on expeditions (such as the Dragoon Expedition), and to station them in advanced forts that would impress the Indians with the power of the federal government. Opponents pointed out that the Military Road would violate basic military strategy in that it would leave the routes of supply and reinforcement vulnerable to attack rather than having them stretch back to a more secure interior.

In May, 1836, the citizens of Arkansas, meanwhile, had secured Congressional legislation requiring that the troops at Fort Gibson and Coffee be pulled back to their border.²⁰ However, in January of 1838 when Secretary of War Joel R. Poinsett laid different plans before Congress for defending the western frontier, the two forts were still in operation. The Secretary was mindful of the criticism of opponents of the great Military Road. He asserted,

After mature reflection, I am of opinion that military posts ought to be established and kept up within the Indian Territory in such positions as to maintain peace among the Indians and protect the emigrant and feebler tribes against the stronger and more warlike nations that surround them—which the United States are bound to do by treaty stipulations. To withdraw those which now exist there would be to violate our faith, as there is reason to apprehend that it would be the signal of war.²¹

The early forts of Oklahoma played a major role in the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes to the area (Source: Morris, Goins and McReynolds, Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 2nd ed., Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976, map 20)

The eventual solution was a double string of forts, the more advanced penetrating the Indian Territory and the secondary ones providing supply and logistical support. Two different plans were proposed: the first made by Chief of Engineers General Charles Gratist, called for Fort Coffee to be part of a north-south line of forts, and the second, made by Secretary of War Poinsett, called for Fort Smith to be reactivated. The Secretary's plan proposed not one but two forts on the Arkansas border, the second to be located on the Illinois River. This new location had the added advantage of being near the area to which the Cherokees had recently been removed, and trouble between the different factions of this tribe were expected shortly.²²

In July, 1838, Captain Stuart received orders to leave Fort Coffee and move to where Lieutenant Colonel Mason of the Dragoons was constructing a new fort on the Illinois. The citizens of Arkansas had won not one, but two forts. Forts Smith and Wayne were to stand on their borders. Thus the troops of the 7th Infantry had to abandon Fort Coffee, which was ideally located for achieving the goals which the Army had been told it was on the frontier to secure. The post was strategic and it was healthy. Captain Stuart, who had served as commander of Fort Coffee, was one of the casualties of the less healthy environment at Fort Wayne. So high was the casualty list there that the post was moved to be even closer to the Arkansas line. Had Captain Stuart lived, ht would have seen all the old ills (and low grade whiskey) that he had complained of at Fort Smith repeated at the new site.²³

Fort Wayne served little purpose except to bolster the local economy. When Colonel Ethan Allan Hitchcock visited the area in connection with his investigation of frauds practiced on the Cherokees, he recommended that the place be abandoned. The post at this point was only partially constructed, but the soldiers in May, 1842, marched out to begin new construction further north on the road to Fort Leavenworth.²⁴

The idea of a permanent military frontier was an illusion, for time and new conflicts would draw the army further west. After the Mexican War the relationship between the United States and its western holdings and with the Plains Indians was drastically altered. What before had been the problems of the Republic of Texas had become concerns for the United States Army. In addition, the settlements of the five civilized tribes needed protection from belligerent Indians to the west. Finally, there was a stream of settlers heading west across the plains who needed protection.

Painted by George Catlin, His-oo-san-chez, the Comanche-Spanish, mixed-blood warrior was the first to confront the dragoon column (Courtesy of Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa)

Captain Randolph B. Marcy in August, 1850, established a camp to accomplish some of these goals seventy-five miles southeast of Fort Washita on the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Road. This camp was given the name of the man who long had been connected with the area, Arbuckle. However, word soon came that this was an unacceptable site and that Marcy should relocate it to the south on the Washita River.²⁵

In April, 1851, the captain and Company D of the 5th Infantry marched to a spot on Wild Horse Creek some four miles south of the Washita. The new site again was named Arbuckle and received the designation of fort in Army records. It was formally designated a fort in June of 1851 when Brevet Brigadier General Matthew Arbuckle died. The soldiers of the 5th Infantry thereupon were replaced at Fort Arbuckle by the troops of Arbuckle's old command, the 7th Infantry, under the command of Major George Anderson.²⁶

In 1852, Captain Marcy, accompanied by Captain George B. McClellan and a company of the 5th Infantry, set out from Fort Belknap, Texas, on a trip of exploration along the Red River to the site of the future Fort Sill. They ended this trek at Fort Arbuckle. These two later would serve together under altered circumstances (when McClellan was commander of the Army of the Potomac, Marcy would be his Chief of Staff).²⁷

The soldiers at Fort Arbuckle spent most of their time building roads and engaging in an endless round of court martials. Those officers who were not on detached duty seemed to spend most of their time either sitting on court martial boards or being court martialed themselves. For example, in March, 1852, Brevet Major J. C. Henshaw, the commander of the post, placed First Lieutenant Stevenson under arrest, and in May they both went to Fort Gibson for the trial. The lieutenant was returned to duty in July and then departed to sit on a court martial board in September. Major Henshaw was placed under arrest in January, 1855, tried in November that year, and dismissed from the service in February, 1856. Other officers seemed to devote much of their time to trying or being tried under the articles of war.²⁸

The 7th Infantry Regiment located its headquarters at the fort on June 26, 1857. On the third of October of that year, the headquarters was shifted back to Fort Smith. In February, 1858, the 7th Infantry marched out of Fort Arbuckle, leaving it abandoned.²⁹ First Lieutenant James E. Powell, in command of Company E of the 1st United States Infantry, reoccupied the post on June 29, 1858. The fort continued to be occupied, except during the Civil War, until June, 1870, when it was abandoned for the better location of Fort Sill.

Prior to the Civil War there were a series of incidents that pointed up the difficulties of the Army in dealing with the Plains Indians who crossed the Army's administrative boundaries in their raids into Texas. These Indians held the mistaken idea that they were dealing with two separate nations of white men: Texans and Americans; it was hard to convince them that Texas had become part of the Union. In 1858 the command in Texas decided to pursue the raiding Comanche aggressively. Brevet Major Earl Van Dorn of the Second Cavalry was put in charge of a force at Fort Belknap. He rode out in September and established a forward camp on the banks of Otter Creek. He named this stockaded camp after a fellow officer of the Second Cavalry, Charles Radziminski, a native of Poland who had died of consumption the previous August.³⁰

The target of these troops from Texas was the Comanches at Fort Arbuckle. Captain William E. Prince, the commander of Fort Arbuckle who had just been released from arrest in August, was in the process of holding discussions with the Indians. The Comanche chiefs were attempting to repair the damage done by young braves who had stolen horses from the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Wichitas in the vicinity of Fort Arbuckle. Expressions of friendship were exchanged between the chiefs and Captain Prince.³¹

On September 15, 1858, Van Dorn's troops encountered the Comanches of Chief Buffalo Hump at their camp near Rush Springs.³² In the ensuing battle fifty-eight Indians, including two women, were killed. Another twenty-five later died of wounds. Van Dorn himself was wounded, but clearly emerged as a hero in Texas for punishing the Indians who had been raiding. However, the Indians felt they had been betrayed because of their conversations with Captain Prince at Fort Arbuckle. The troops moving out of Camp Radziminski obviously had not been acting in coordination with those at Arbuckle.³³ This provoked Commanding General of the Army Winfield Scott to issue orders placing the new commander of Fort Arbuckle, Major William H. Emory, under the dual control of the Department of the West and the Department of Texas, not a usual or happy military arrangement.³⁴

Typical uniforms of the men of the United States Dragoons

Chief Buffalo Hump's people felt revengeful, for they did not believe that the United States and Texas were the same nation. Van Dorn, who was not expected to live, recovered from his wound and returned to his command at Camp Radziminski. He was able in the next campaigning season to attack the Comanches at Crooked Creek. The Indians were badly defeated but successful in wounding Captain E. Kirby Smith and Lieutenant Fitzhugh Lee and killing four (including two Indian allies of the white man).³⁵

In the fall of 1859, Major Emory left Fort Arbuckle to select a site for a new fort. He decided on a location at the junction of Pound Creek and the Washita River. When Fort Cobb was erected at this spot, Camp Radziminski was abandoned. It had been moved a few times in the course of its existence, but Radziminski had always retained its nature as a temporary forward base for campaigns against the Comanches.³⁶

The Indians possibly found confirmation for their belief that the United States and Texas were two different nations when the Civil War broke out. Major Emory at Fort Arbuckle eventually would command the 5th Cavalry (the later designation of the Second Cavalry of the Radziminski Campaign) and become a Brevet Major General in the Union Army, while the officers of the Second Cavalry and Camp Radziminski, Major Van Dorn, Captain E. Kirby Smith and Lieutenant Fitzhugh Lee all became generals in the Confederacy.³⁷

As the Indians were moved westward, the Army had been sent to defend the frontier. From 1834 to 1861 that frontier had shifted westward from the border of Arkansas to the lands of the Comanches and Kiowas. Tribes that were first encountered by the Dragoons in their costly expedition of 1834 had become the major threat to and opponent of troops in the Indian Territory by 1861. During this period the soldiers had policed the liquor traffic, negotiated treaties and fought or protected the different Indian tribes as national policy dictated.

Many of the officers of that era deserve to be remembered and honored. Such men as Captains Stuart and Marcy were good officers who made valuable contributions; occasionally they thought better of the Indian population than the citizens of Arkansas—and had cause to do so. Colonel Arbuckle, Major Mason and Lieutenant Holmes not only left their names on the countryside of Oklahoma, but also contributed significantly to its history. Memories of Oklahoma and associations formed there doubtless affected the military decisions of Jefferson Davis and George B. McClellan during the Civil War, while places such as Forts Coffee, Wayne and Arbuckle and Camps Canadian, Mason and Radziminski formed important entries in our national annals. Yet the troops who served there found the duty hard and often unhealthy, more characterized by the tedium of road and post construction than the excitement of battle or exploration. Their government paid them poorly, while their fellow citizens conceded them little honor. Their efforts and achievements deserve better in the land in which so many of them died lonely deaths.

¹ First Lieutenant T. B. Wheelock, “Journal of Colonel Dodge's Expedition From Fort Gibson to the Pawnee Pict Village,” in American State Papers: Military Affairs (multi volume, Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1860–1861), Vol. V, p. 373. Much of the immediately following account is from this source.

² James Hildreth, Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains (Wiley and Long; New York, 1836), p. 44.

³ Lewis Cass, former governor of the Michigan territory was the Secretary of War at the time.

⁴ Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “Lieutenant General Theophilus Hunter Holms, C.S.A., Founder of Fort Holms,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXV, No. 2 (Summer, 1957), p. 225.

⁵ Philip St. George Cooke, Scenes and Adventures in the Army or Romance of Military Life (Lindsay and Blakiston: Philadelphia, 1857), p. 225.

⁶ Wheelock, p. 382.

⁷ William Brown Morrison, Military Posts and Camps in Oklahoma (Harlow Publishing Corporation: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1936), p. 76.

⁸ Ibid., p. 78.

⁹ United States Adjutant Generals Office, Returns from United States Military posts 1800–1916, Fort Arbuckle, Oklahoma, August 1850–June 1870, National Archives Microfilm 617, Roll 38, War Department summary sheet, National Archives and Records Center, Washington, D.C.

¹⁰ Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. and Lonnie E. Underhill, “Fort Coffee and Frontier Affairs, 1834–1838,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. LIV, No. 3 (Fall, 1976), p. 314–338.

¹¹ John Stuart and William Whistler in report forwarded September 30, 1837 and included in Secretary J. P. Poinsett's report “On the Selection of a Site for the Erection of a Fort on the Western Frontier of Arkansas,” American State Papers: Military Aflairs, Vol. VII, p. 976.

¹² John Stuart to the Secretary of War, 1833 and June 30, 1833, Clarence Edwin Carter, (ed.), The Territorial Papers of the United States (27 vols., United States Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1954), Vol. XXI, pp. 710–712, 744–745.

¹³ Littlefield, “Fort Coffee and Frontier Affairs,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. LIV, p. 314.

¹⁴ Vinson Lackey The Forts of Oklahoma (Tulsa Printing Company: Tulsa, 1963), p. 2.

¹⁵ J. A. Phillips, Cpt., 7th Infantry to Colonel R. M. Johnson, U.S. Congress, January 3, 1836 and December 8, 1835 contained in a report “On the Expediency of Removing the troops from Fort Gibson to the Western Boundary of Arkansas,” American State Papers: Military Affairs, Vol. VI, pp. 180–181.

¹⁶ John Stuart and William Whistler to Major General Macomb, September 30, 1837, ibid., Vol. VII, p. 979.

¹⁷ Alexander Macomb to Lewis Cass, February 29, 1836, ibid., Vol. VI, p. 184.

¹⁸ John E. Wool, ibid.

¹⁹ Littlefield, “Fort Coffee and Frontier Affairs,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. LIV, P. 329.

²⁰ Ibid., p. 323.

²¹ J. R. Poinsett, December 30, 1837, “Report of the Secretary of War, with Plans for the Defense and Protection of the Western Frontiers of the United States, and Statements of the Number of Indians and Warriors on those Frontiers,” American State Papers: Military Affairs, Vol. VII, p. 778.

²² Ibid., pp. 777–781.

²³ Littlefield, “Fort Coffee,” p. 338.

²⁴ William Morrison, Military Posts, p. 265.

²⁵ “Returns of Fort Arbuckle,” National Archives Microfilm 617, Roll 38.

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ W. S. Nye, Carbine and Lance (University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1969), p. 17; and George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York (3 vols., Houghton, Mifflin and Company: New York, 1891), Vol. 1, p. 521.

²⁸ “Returns of Fort Arbuckle,” National Archives Microfilm 617, Roll 38.

²⁹ Ibid.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ George T. Price, Across the Continent with the Fifth Cavalry (Antiquarian Press Ltd.: New York, 1959), P. 131.

³² “Returns of Fort Arbuckle,” and Robert M. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue (Macmillan Company: New York, 1967), p. 131.

³³ This was the polite English version of his name.

³⁴ Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, p. 131, and Nye, Carbine and Lance, p. 21.

³⁵ Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, p. 133.

³⁶ Nye, Carbine and Lance, p. 133.

³⁷ Ibid.

FORT WASHITA

By James A. Howard II

At summer's close in 1841, General Zachary Taylor, recently appointed commander of the Second Military Department, was considering a proposal to locate a new military post in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory. Unable to reach a decision at. his headquarters in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Taylor decided on a personal exploration of the area under consideration. On September 25, 1841, accompanied by a small military escort, Taylor left Fort Smith and passed through Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation and Fort Towson, Choctaw Nation, before he arrived at the proposed site near the Washita River. After thoroughly exploring the entire region, Taylor concurred with Captain B. D. Moore, who previously had recommended constructing a new fort approximately eighteen miles from the Red River and a mile and a half above the Washita River. Taylor’s selection of the site was influenced by the availability of building materials and other supplies, the possibility of navigating the rivers to within easy access of the post, and the strategic location along a ridge overlooking an open prairie.¹

The Chickasaw leaders in 1834 had negotiated a treaty with the United States government in which they had agreed to move west if the United States would protect them from hostile Plains tribes which controlled the adjoining lands. William Armstrong, Acting Superintendent of the Western Territory, reported in 1838 that the Chickasaws would not settle on their assigned lands unless they had protection. Chickasaw leaders the previous year had requested that a fort be built near the mouth of the Washita River, and the failure of the government to meet this request, Armstrong believed, would cause the Chickasaws to retreat to the security of the Choctaw lands. Conditions worsened through 1841, and A. M. M. Upshaw, the Chickasaw agent, estimated that there were approximately 5,000 Plains Indian refugees from the Texas frontier living in the Chickasaw Nation. Upshaw further indicated that a majority of the Chickasaws still refused to settle on their own lands. He urged the United States government to construct a military post near the mouth of the Washita River not only to control the hostile Plains tribes, but also to supervise the traders, trappers, and other migrants who frequently crossed the Chickasaw lands.²

The decision to locate a military post along the Washita River was greeted by an immediate migration of Chickasaws to a point near the proposed site. Upshaw located his headquarters one mile from the proposed site and began construction of permanent buildings to serve as the Chickasaw Agency.³

Military occupation took place on April 23, 1842, when Captain George A. H. Blake led the fifty-eight men of Company A, 2nd Dragoons to the proposed site. Establishing a camp that morning, they immediately began construction of temporary quarters. After touring the post in May, 1842, Taylor recommended that construction of permanent buildings begin in the fall. Taylor also suggested that the post be named Fort Washita.⁴

Conditions at Fort Washita remained stable during the summer of 1842. However, reinforcements arrived there in mid-October, and on the 20th of the month Major T. J. Fauntleroy replaced Blake as post commander. Company F of the 2nd Dragoons and Company C of the 6th Infantry brought the aggregate number of troops assigned to the post to 198. In addition to the officers and enlisted men, the post also had one bugler, one fifer, one drummer and a farrier.⁵

With the exception of the promotion of Captain B. L. Beall, while Fauntleroy was on leave, there were no major changes at the post until April, 1843. That month Beall was promoted to the rank of Brevet Major and reassigned to the Field Staff. Company C of the 6th Infantry remained at the post, and the dragoons were replaced by Companies A and I of the United States Regiment of Riflemen, thereby keeping the number assigned to the post at approximately 200.⁶

Through September of 1845, the post experienced relative stability, although there were some personnel changes. From April, 1843, through July, 1844, the number assigned to Fort Washita fluctuated between 200 and 265, and command of the post was transferred twice. Brevet Colonel William S. Harney assumed command in June, 1843, but returned it to Beall in December that year. Beall served as post commander until June, 1844, when he again was replaced by Harney. The number of men assigned to the post declined slowly to a low of 171 in December, 1844. The following January Beall again assumed command of the post, and by March the number had increased to 212 because of the arrival of recruits and transfers. In April, Company E of the 1st Dragoons was transferred there from Fort Towson, increasing the number to 269, where it remained until September, 1845.⁷

An artist's reproduction of Fort Washita

Under General Order No. 37, Beall led the 182 men of Companies A, G and I, 2nd Dragoons, to Austin, Texas. The departure of the 2nd Dragoons on September 13, 1845, left to the 100 men of Companies A and E of the 1st Dragoons, under the command of Captain E. Steins, the responsibility of guarding the Chickasaw lands. Steins and the 1st Dragoons were reassigned to Fort Gibson in November, 1845; they were replaced at Fort Washita by Companies J and K of the 6th Infantry, commanded by Brevet Major George Andrews.⁸

For the remainder of the 1840s, Fort Washita was garrisoned by various companies of the 6th and 5th Infantry, with the number of troops fluctuating between 68 and 112, although men temporarily at the post frequently were included in the monthly reports, raising the number present to above 160 for a few months during the late 1840s. Andrews continued as the post commander until November, 1848, when he was reassigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. First Lieutenant H. R. Seldon of the 5th Infantry replaced Andrews and served as post commander until February, 1849. His replacement, Brevet Major Daniel Ruggles, commanded the post for only four months and then was replaced by Major Dixon S. Miles on May 27, 1849.⁹

Fort Washita was reinforced on May 29, 1851, by Company C, 7th Infantry, and Captain Theophilus H. Holmes of that company became the post commander. The two companies of the 5th Infantry, which had been stationed at Fort Washita, were reassigned, leaving only the fifty men of Company C to garrison the post. Conditions at the post remained stable until August 31, 1853, when Companies L and M, 2nd Artillery, arrived at Fort Washita. Captain Henry Hunt assumed command of the post while Holmes was on leave. However, when Holmes returned, he again resumed command and served in that position until June, 1854, when the 7th Infantry was reassigned.¹⁰

The following month Company C, 3rd Artillery, under the command of Captain Braxton Bragg, arrived from Fort Gibson. The 2nd and 3rd Artillery remained at Fort Washita, under the command of either Bragg, Hunt, or Andrews, until December, 1856, when they were replaced by Captain Daniel P. Whiting and Company K, 7th Infantry. Whiting and Company K remained at the post until February 17, 1858, when Fort Washita was temporarily abandoned.¹¹

Threatened with a Comanche uprising along the southern Great Plains, the United States Army ordered Companies C and I of the 1st Cavalry from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Fort Washita. Captain Thomas J. Wood led the two companies of the 1st Cavalry into Fort Washita on December 29, 1858, and they remained at the post until May 1, 1861, when Fort Washita was abandoned for the final time by the United States Army. During this final period of occupation, there were frequent changes in both command and the number of men at the post. The number of men assigned to Fort Washita varied from 170 to 16. These changes occurred primarily because the 1st Cavalry frequently was in the field pursuing Indians. While in the field, a small housekeeping force was left to garrison the post; then, when the pursuit had ended, the main body of soldiers would return.¹²

Construction and repair of the physical plant at Fort Washita was a continuous task by both military personnel and civilian employees. The temporary quarters which the first occupants constructed during the summer, 1842, were maintained until 1849, when they were found to be beyond repair. Construction of permanent quarters, designated as permanent because the buildings were larger and somewhat better constructed, began in 1843.¹³

New construction of some type began yearly, and by 1854 the physical plant of Fort Washita consisted of several types of structures in various stages of repair. An Army Inspection Board examined the post during the early summer and issued a detailed report in July, 1854. The condition of standing structures and comments about their improvement, as well as recommendations for the construction of new buildings and other structures, were included in the report.¹⁴

As a result of the Army Inspection Board report, a number of improvements to the existing structures, as well as some new construction, was initiated during the next few years. By 1857 a new stone barracks, a surgeons quarters and a long-needed and requested hospital had been completed. Other structures were planned, and sufficient materials were on hand to complete many of the proposed buildings.¹⁵

However, some recommendations of the Army Inspection Board apparently were never effected. Fort Washita was plagued by a shortage of water since 1844 when a flood washed out the spring which had supplied the post. Wells had been dug, cisterns constructed, and water had been transported long distances to supply the fort. The Army Inspection Board recommended that new cisterns be constructed to catch and hold water, but this was not done. In addition, recommended stables, storage and work shops, and gun houses were never constructed.¹⁶

All of the construction at Fort Washita was plagued by problems. One difficulty that had to be overcome was a shortage of skilled labor. Although soldiers frequently supplied the labor, they did not always possess the necessary skills to complete a task, and during certain periods the soldiers did not have time to pursue construction. Civilian laborers, particularly for skilled jobs, usually were employed to construct the permanent buildings. However, the instability of this labor force and the shortage of skilled civilian laborers frequently frustrated the efforts to erect permanent facilities.¹⁷

Fort Washita, 1903 (Western History Collections)

Another problem that slowed construction was the lack of certain building materials and tools. Materials and tools produced in other areas had to be shipped to the Fort Towson landing and then transported the eighty miles to Fort Washita by wagon. Delays in shipping were frequent and often caused work at Fort Washita to stop completely. Even materials that were available in the area of the fort had to be transported to the construction site, and during the peak construction periods wagons and horse teams were over-extended, resulting in delays for repair and recuperation.¹⁸

Construction costs also were a problem for the designers of Fort Washita, usually the officers stationed there. They almost always underestimated the final cost of a building, and therefore continually were requesting further appropriations; this sometimes doubled the original estimated cost of constructing certain facilities. Commanding officers frequently blamed the high cost of construction on either inefficient quartermasters or inept commanding officers who preceded them.¹⁹

Despite these problems, progress continued during the life of the post, and the various permanent buildings, as well as temporary facilities, provided an adequate base for the soldiers stationed there. As the frontier receded, additions to the post, such as a bar, a billiard table, a bowling alley, a school room, a library and a newspaper, provided comfort and entertainment for the men and officers of Fort Washita.²⁰

Soldiers stationed at Fort Washita enjoyed both hunting and fishing during their off-duty hours. There was an abundance of game in the area, and the soldiers hunted for both sport and food. They killed wild turkey, deer, rabbits and prairie chickens, using both rifles and shotguns. Fish “which frequently pulled the fisherman into the water” also provided the soldiers with amusement as well as food for the table. They considered thirty pounders small fry, preferring instead the fifty-pound catfish that were “daily caught and brought home.”²¹

Horse racing was a popular pastime for both officers and enlisted men. The sport was enjoyed by participants as well as spectators. On some occasions the races matched Fort Washita stock against that at other posts, but most often the races were between Fort Washita stock. Betting on the outcome of these races produced some happy and some sad faces. One series of challenge races that brought only happy faces among the Fort Washita troops resulted from a challenge issued by an officer from Fort Arbuckle. After sweeping three consecutive races and winning a basket of champagne, Captain Wood proposed a race between the mules of the two posts. This resulted in a great deal of laughter and no winners, for all the riders were thrown from their mounts before they could reach the finish line. One other race brought as much enjoyment to the men of Fort Washita. That was between a Chickasaw female and a black man. Just as it appeared that the man was going to pass her, he became entangled in her dress and both fell from their horses. The female regained her feet and proceeded to beat the man severely.²²

The soldiers stationed at Fort Washita frequently were invited to parties and dances in the homes of Chickasaw families near the post, and, in turn, the Chickasaws were invited to festivities at the fort. Younger soldiers occasionally would become too familiar with Chickasaw maidens and would fall victim to a jealous or outraged Chickasaw male. On one occasion a young soldier nearly had his throat cut because he was competing for the affections of a Chickasaw female. On another occasion a soldier was attacked by relatives of the Chickasaw maiden he was courting.²³

The arrival of guests or visits to other posts were usually festive occasions. Parties, banquets and dances, at which the Fort Washita Band frequently supplied the music, often continued during an entire visit. The departure of guests and friends meant a return to normal routine—or sometimes worse. Frequently the wives and families felt isolated and alone and, as a result, suffered illness and depression. The mobility of Army personnel often separated husbands and wives and occasionally children from parents, a condition to which many of the families never adjusted.²⁴

The religious needs of those stationed at Fort Washita were filled by the post chaplains. W. Skull served during the early years, and Reverend John Burke of the Protestant Episcopal Church was employed from November, 1850, until the post was abandoned in May, 1861. The post chaplain also served as the schoolmaster, and a single building was utilized as both school and church. Burke maintained a library from which he allowed the soldiers to take books. One visitor, William H. Goode, recorded, “Colonel Harney had politely escorted me to the door, and then turned away. Others were there…, in the quarters of common soldiers, surrounded by glistening armor, we worshipped God….”²⁵

Fort Washita acquired a mascot during the Comanche scare of 1859. A scouting patrol, returning to the fort, was startled by a struggle between a dog and an Indian at the crossing of a creek. The dog was victorious but received a severe wound during the struggle. The patrol determined that the dog was truly patriotic and took him to the post to care for his wounds. There he was placed on equal rations with the soldiers and was protected from harm by the threat of a court martial to anyone who mistreated him.²⁶

Restored barracks of old Fort Washita in Bryan County, Oklahoma. This Fort stood as an outpost of protection for the Choctaws and Chickasaws against the Plains Indians and for migrants and wagon trains moving west. Many famous generals headquartered here in the days prior to the Civil War

As early as March, 1860, rumors of Confederate plans to take over the territory in the event of Civil War circulated among the soldiers of Fort Washita. They continued to watch anxiously as the pace of events quickened, and when the overland mail arrived on January 1, 1861, announcing the secession of South Carolina, some soldiers cheered while others stood by. However, the rumors directly concerning Fort Washita and the surrounding area continued with increased intensity, and by February the troops believed that an attack by Texas Confederate forces was imminent.²⁷

During April, Federal troops from the surrounding area were assigned to Fort Washita. This was part of a plan for an orderly evacuation of the territory, not to consolidate for the purpose of holding it. After making the necessary preparations to evacuate all useful and moveable possessions, Lieutenant Colonel W. H. Emory, 1st Cavalry, issued “Special Order No. 16,” abandoning Fort Washita on May 1, 1861, and withdrawing Federal forces from the Indian Territory.²⁸

One day following the evacuation by Federal troops, Fort Washita was occupied by a company of Texas Rangers from Jefferson, Texas. Fort Washita served the Confederate forces as a base of operations, supply base and hospital. The post afforded the protection necessary to encourage a large number of Confederate Indian refugees to locate nearby while waiting for the war to end.²⁹

At the close of the Civil War, Fort Washita was not reopened as a Federal military post but was transferred in 1870 to the United States Department of the Interior. Under the general ownership of the Chickasaw Nation, the fort was used for storage and residences, but it was not properly maintained by anyone. The property was allotted to the Colbert family in 1906 and 1908, which, in turn, sold it to the State of Oklahoma in 1962.³⁰

On April 25, 1962, ownership of Fort Washita was transferred to the Oklahoma Historical Society, and the site was placed under the supervision of the Fort Washita Restoration Commission. Achievements under the supervision of this commission included restoration of the post, designation as a National Historic Landmark and extensive archaeological investigations.³¹

The establishment of Fort Washita had enabled the Chickasaw Indians to settle on their own lands. The post had provided the necessary protection not only from Plains Indians but also from other migrants who crossed the Chickasaw lands. The location of a post in the Chickasaw lands had fulfilled a treaty obligation of the United States and also was part of the American military expansion onto the Great Plains. One observer, William H. Goode, commented in 1844 that Fort Washita also was well situated in relation to Texas and Mexico.³²

The selection of the site by Major General Zachary Taylor proved beneficial in all respects except the availability of water. Acquisition of water was the one problem never solved during the occupation of Fort Washita, although it was not plagued by illness and disease, as were some other posts. During one three-year period, for example, only one soldier died of disease at Fort Washita.³³

The fluctuation in the number of men assigned to the post and the frequent changes in command were common to other contemporary military posts. Construction and maintenance efforts carried out there had the physical plant in excellent condition at the outbreak of the Civil War. However, from the beginning of Confederate occupation on May 2, 1861, until the Oklahoma Historical Society began restoration efforts in 1962, the post suffered from vandalism and neglect. That Fort Washita today is registered as a National Historical Landmark attests to its importance in the history of the state and the nation.

¹ Kenneth E. Lewis (ed.), Fort Washita from Past to Present, An Archeological Report (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 1975), p. 18; Grant Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1933), pp. 100–102.

² Ibid., pp. 102, 238–239; Foreman Transcripts, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Indian Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Vol. I, p. 186; Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, An Archeological Report, pp. 13, 16, 18–20.

³ Ibid., p. 19; Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, 1830–1860, p. 102.

⁴ Ibid., p. 101; The National Archives, Fort Washita, Oklahoma, June 1834–April 1861, Returns from U.S. Military Posts 1800–1916 (Washington: General Services Administration, 1965).

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Louise Barry, “With the First U.S. Cavalry in Indian Country 1859–1861,” The Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, No. 4 (Winter, 1958), pp. 257–258; The National Archives, Fort Washita, Oklahoma, June 1834–April 1861, Returns from U.S. Military Posts 1800–1916.

¹³ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, An Archeological Report, pp. 20, 24–25; Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, pp. 102–103.

¹⁴ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, An Archeological Report, pp. 20–26.

¹⁵ Ibid., pp. 26–31; John B. Beall, In Barrack and Field: Poems and Sketches of Army Life (Nashville: House of M. E. Church South, 1906), p. 250.

¹⁶ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, An Archeological Report, pp. 22, 29, 31.

¹⁷ Ibid., pp. 20–21, 23, 31; The National Archives, Fort Washita, Oklahoma, June 1834–April 1861, Returns from U.S. Military Posts 1800–1916.

¹⁸ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, An Archeological Report, pp. 21, 25, 30; Kingsbury Day Book, Section X, Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Socieey; Grant Foreman, “Indian Pioneer History,” 112 vols., Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 164–165; Ibid., Vol. LXXXIII, pp. 177–178.

¹⁹ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, An Archeological Report, pp. 22–25, 30; Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, pp. 265–266.

²⁰ Francis Paul Prucha (ed.), Army Life on the Western Frontier (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958), p. 133; Beall, In Barrack and Field: Poems and Sketches of Army Life, pp. 262–263; J. J. Methvin, “The Fly Leaf: A Manuscript Newspaper of the Early Days,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. VI, No. 1 (March, 1928), pp. 348–353.

²¹ Barry, “With the First U.S. Cavalry in Indian Country, 1859–1861,” The Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, pp. 269, 271, 280, 284.

²² Ibid., pp. 263, 267, 270.

²³ Beall, In Barrack and Field, pp. 266–270.

²⁴ Ibid., p. 266; W. Eugene Hollon, Beyond the Cross Timbers: The Travels of Randolph B. Marcy, 1812–1887 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955), pp. 120–129; Barry, “With the First U.S. Cavalry in Indian Country,” pp. 278; George H. Shirk, “Mail Call at Fort Washita,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXIII, No. s (Spring, 1955), pp. 14–35.

²⁵ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, p. 24; The National Archives, “Fort Washita, Oklahoma,” June. 1834–April 1866, Returns from U.S. Military Posts 1800–1916; William H. Goode, Outposts of Zion with Limnings of Mission Life (Cincinnati: Poe and Hitchcock, 1863), pp. 204–205.

²⁶ Barry, “With the First Cavalry in Indian Country,” The Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, p. 265.

²⁷ Ibid., pp. 283, 417, 418, 420–422.

²⁸ Ibid., PP. 423–425; United States Department of War, War of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (70 vols., 128 books, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), Ser. I, Vol. I, pp. 659–660, 650, 656, 647; The National Archives, “Fort Washita, Oklahoma,” June 1834–April 1866, Returns from U.S. Military Posts 1800–1916.

²⁹ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. I, pp. 648–652; Ser. I, Vol. XXXIV, Pt. 1, p. 108; Ser. I, Vol. XIII, p. 947; Foreman, Advancing the Frontier, p. 266.

³⁰ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, pp. 1–2; Don G. Wyckoff and Towana Spivey, “Preliminary Summary of Archaeological Investigations in the South Barracks, Fort Washita, Bryan County, Oklahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XLIX, No. 4 (Winter, 1971–1972), pp. 492–503.

³¹ Lewis, Fort Washita from Past to Present, pp. 1–2.

³² Goode, Outposts of Zion, p. 203.

³³ Beall, In Barrack and Field, pp. 277–278.

CONFEDERATE STRONGHOLDS IN INDIAN TERRITORY: FORTS DAVIS AND McCULLOCH

By William P. Corbett

Flames sliced through the cool wintry air in December, 1862, as troopers of the 3rd Indian Regiment, United States Army, set fire to Fort Davis. Located on the southern shore of the Arkansas River near Fort Gibson, the outpost had stood for almost a year as a symbol of Confederate domination of the Indian Territory. Approximately 150 miles southwest of Fort Davis, units of the Confederate Army had constructed another stronghold on a bluff overlooking the Blue River. Known as Fort McCulloch, it consisted of a series of earthen works erected in the spring of 1862. These two installations served as the principal military facilities during the period of Southern ascendency within the region, and their rise and decline reflected the fortunes of the Confederacy in Indian Territory.

Confederate officials developed an interest in Indian Territory several months before the outbreak of hostilities. They viewed the region as a possible storehouse for supplies that later could be shipped to the main theaters of conflict. Also, the close proximity of the area to Texas provided a vital transportation link over which horses for the Confederate cavalry could be driven. Finally, the Indian Territory could serve as a staging area for attacks on Kansas and neighboring territories that remained loyal to the Union.¹ Early in 1861, Governor Henry M. Rector of Arkansas contacted John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokees. Rector attempted to pressure Ross into joining the Confederacy, but the wily chief dismissed the governor's overtures and announced a policy of strict neutrality.² However, not all the Five Civilized Tribes followed the example of the Cherokees. In February, the General Council of the Choctaw Nation adopted a resolution that supported the Southern states.³

In order to maintain an initiative in the Indian Territory, officials in the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, decided to send a representative to treat with the Five Civilized Tribes and other native Americans in the territory. In March, 1861, President Jefferson Davis appointed Albert Pike commissioner to all Indians west of Arkansas and south of Kansas.⁴ Davis made an excellent choice. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in December, 1809, Pike grew to maturity in the small town of Newburyport. He attended local public schools and entered Harvard at the age of sixteen. The next year he quit the university and became a full-time school teacher. In 1831, he resigned this position and started west. For two years the young Yankee traveled, traded and lived among various tribes of plains Indians, and he became familiar with their languages and customs. In 1833, he settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he edited a newspaper, practiced law and became prominent in local society. During the Mexican War he served as a captain in the cavalry, and, when civil war seemed imminent, Pike offered his services to the Confederacy.⁵ The tall, broad-shouldered lawyer from Little Rock enthusiastically accepted the assignment.

While Pike prepared to embark on his mission, Confederate gunners opened fire on Fort Sumter and the Civil War began. As a result, units of the United States Army stationed in the Indian Territory prepared to defend the region against an invasion by Southern Forces in Texas. Lieutenant Colonel William H. Emory, the Federal commander, concentrated his troops at Fort Washita near the Red River. However, Emory realized his small force could not repel a determined effort by the Confederates, and in mid-April, he received orders to evacuate the Indian Territory. He immediately withdrew to the vicinity of Fort Cobb to assemble the entire 750-man detachment and on May 9, started for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.⁶ The Confederates reacted quickly and occupied Fort Washita on April 16, Fort Arbuckle on May 5 and Fort Cobb on May 14.⁷ Although harassed by an overzealous advanced guard of Texans—which the Federals captured, then paroled-Emory's command straggled into Leavenworth three weeks after it left Fort Cobb with the loss of only two men, both deserters.⁸

Because of the evacuation of the Indian Territory by the United States Army, Pike encountered little opposition negotiating treaties with the Indians. Also, he gained a second advantage when several of the federal agents among the tribes professed loyalty to the Confederacy.⁹ Pike first met with Chief John Ross of the Cherokees, but he made little headway as Ross stubbornly adhered to a policy of strict neutrality. Disappointed but not discouraged, the commissioner moved on to parley with the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks. By mid-July he successfully had completed treaties with those tribes. On August 1, Pike signed an agreement with the Seminoles, and twelve days later the Wichitas and other tribes of plains Indians from the southwestern part of the territory accepted Pike's terms. He then returned to the Cherokee Nation and reopened negotiations with Chief Ross.¹⁰

Fort Cobb, which was quickly occupied by the Confederates after the federal abandonment of Indian Territory early in the Civil War

Since Pike's first visit, the situation among the Cherokees had changed radically. Stand Watie, a Cherokee leader who supported the South, had organized a large number of tribesmen into militia units and had joined Confederate troops in Arkansas. Also, Ross’ commitment to strict neutrality became increasingly unrealistic as other tribes agreed to alliances with the Confederacy. On October 7, after several weeks of negotiations, leaders of the Cherokee Nation signed a treaty with Pike.¹¹

All of the agreements negotiated by the Confederate commissioner basically contained the same provisions. The government in Richmond promised to protect the tribes from invasion, to continue payment of annuities, to ensure a measure of tribal self-government, to legalize the institution of slavery and to guarantee the Indians’ right to their lands. In return, the Indians agreed to an alliance with the Confederacy and promised to provide troops to fight only in the Indian Territory when requested by the corn-mander-in-chief.¹² Pike successfully completed his mission in less than five months, and he prepared to depart for Richmond with the treaties. However, in November, 1861, the high command of the Confederate Army created the Department of Indian Territory, commissioned Pike a Brigadier General, and appointed him departmental commander.¹³

Before he left for Richmond, Pike selected a site for the headquarters of the Confederacy in the Indian Territory, located on the south side of the Arkansas River, about two miles south of the Verdigris River and several miles west of Fort Gibson. In 1857 the United States Army had abandoned Fort Gibson, and it had fallen into disrepair. Instead of rebuilding the old federal facility, Pike decided the southern shore of the river provided a better location. The Arkansas would serve as an obstacle to invasion from the north, and the new outpost commanded the ford where the Missouri-to-Texas road crossed the river. Pike envisioned the installation as a permanent base for military operations, and, in honor of the President of the Confederacy, he named it Cantonment Davis. Pike then departed for Richmond.¹⁴

By the end of December Cantonment Davis—soon known as Fort Davis—started to take shape. Apparently units of white soldiers from Arkansas and Texas, as well as Indians recruited into the Confederate Army, performed most of the work. In Pike's absence the quartermaster of the brigade took charge of construction.¹⁵ Arranged in a U-shaped pattern with the open end facing east, thirteen buildings rose on the bluff that overlooked the Arkansas River. The compound included a hospital, commanding officer's quarters, barracks, a kitchen and stables all constructed of planks or logs. The soldiers dug two wells and placed the flag pole atop a twenty-five-foot-high prehistoric burial mound. No stockade surrounded the ten-acre compound, but the terrain provided unique advantages for defense. On the west side of Fort Davis the land sloped in such a way that a large number of men and equipment could assemble there undetected by sentries at Fort Gibson, should Union forces reoccupy the old outpost. To the east, Confederate lookouts enjoyed an unobstructed view of the countryside, of the Arkansas River, and of Fort Gibson.¹⁶

On February 24, 1862, General Pike arrived at Fort Davis and began to organize his command. The majority of his troops consisted of four regiments of Indian soldiers. They included the 1st Regiment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles commanded by Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, Pike's second-in-command; the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles led by Colonel John Drew; the 2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles organized by Colonel Stand Watie; and a regiment of Creek Indians commanded by Colonel Daniel McIntosh.¹⁷ All of the regiments elected their officers, but Cooper proved particularly effective as he had served as an Indian agent among the Choctaws and Chickasaws for eight years prior to the outbreak of the war. Pike hoped to augment the soldiers drawn from the Five Civilized Tribes with white troops from Arkansas and Texas and to assemble an army of 10,000 men. However, Confederate forces seldom amounted to half that number, but detachments from regiments formed in Arkansas and Texas frequently served with the Indians.¹⁸

Fort Davis became an imposing symbol of the success of the Confederacy in the Indian Territory, but the troops it sheltered contended with several handicaps. Getting adequate supplies became the most difficult problem. The Indian Territory contained limited industrial facilities and, as a result, the Confederate commander had to look elsewhere for equipment. During his visit to Richmond, Pike tried to secure arms, ammunition, and other materials of war, but the scarcity of military equipment and the depreciation of Confederate currency limited his success. Transportation provided another stumbling block. The quartermaster's department at Fort Davis possessed about one-third of the equipment necessary to serve the command, and many of its animals, wagons and harnesses were in poor condition. Also, the overworked and outmoded railroads of the South caused delays, and troops stationed along the routes of shipment often commandeered material consigned to Indian Territory. Finally, the Southern Indians experienced difficulties adjusting to the regulations of the Confederate Army, and the absence of discipline impaired the effectiveness of the troops. Fortunately the Indian Territory remained undisturbed by the war until the early months of 1862.¹⁹

In March the situation changed quickly and with disastrous results. A Union Army commanded by Major General Samuel Curtis invaded northwestern Arkansas, and Confederate forces led by Generals Sterling Price and Benjamin McCulloch fell back on Bentonville and Leetown, near the border of the Indian Territory. As a result, Major General Earl Van Dorn, Pike's immediate superior and commander of the Trans-Mississippi District, ordered Confederate troops in the Indian Territory to support Price and McCulloch. Yet the treaties signed by the Five Civilized Tribes prohibited the use of Indian soldiers beyond the borders of their homeland without their consent. Pike knew this and expressed no surprise when the Creeks refused to go to Arkansas. Also, the Choctaws and Chickasaws delayed their decision because they had received no pay for several months. However, two regiments of Cherokees agreed to follow Pike, and, along with a few companies of Texan cavalry, he arrived in Arkansas in time to participate in the Battle of Pea Ridge.²⁰ The three-day engagement began on March 6, 1862, and ended in complete victory for Curtis. During the fighting, General McCulloch was killed, and Pike assumed command of a large portion of the decimated Confederate Army. On March 8, Van Dorn ordered a retreat. Pike then took his command back to the Indian Territory. He stopped briefly at Fort Davis to furlough about one-third of the Indians to plant corn. Also, he appointed Cooper commanding officer of the post before he departed with most of the white troops going south to the Blue River.²¹

Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who had one of the strongholds of the South in Indian Territory named after him

Pike justified his move to the Blue River by pointing to the defeat suffered by the Confederates at Pea Ridge. With Federal troops firmly in control of western Arkansas, he believed Fort Davis indefensible and, therefore, no longer suitable as the headquarters of the Confederacy in the Indian Territory. Also, the move to the Blue brought him within thirty miles of the border of Texas. This location placed his troops closer to supplies of food and virtually eliminated the possibility of an invasion by federal forces that might block avenues of further retreat.²²

Meanwhile, at Fort Davis the military situation remained calm until June, 1862. Apparently Colonel Cooper reassembled his regiments of Indian troops, but they were poorly supplied and isolated from the bulk of Confederate forces in the territory. An outbreak of cholera, perhaps in late spring, swept through the encampment and further reduced the effectiveness of these men.²³ In early June a large expedition of Federal soldiers and Indians loyal to the Union moved south from Kansas and invaded the Indian Territory. Stand Watie's 2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles encountered the enemy at Locust Grove on July 3 and were routed. Three days later Cooper returned to Fort Davis—he had been conferring with Pike-and began to organize the defense of the area. The colonel rallied his troops at the fort and awaited the Yankees’ next move.²⁴ Within a few days 200 men of the 64th Kansas Cavalry occupied Fort Gibson and scattered the small detachment of Confederates stationed there. Pickets sent out from Fort Davis exchanged shots with the new occupants of Fort Gibson, and Colonel William Weer, commander of the invaders, hesitated. The federals overestimated the size of Cooper's command, and they expected Pike to arrive with reinforcements at any time. Moreover, dissension among senior Union officers prevented a full-scale engagement. Subordinates arrested Weer on charges of incompetency and withdrew the expedition to Fort Scott, Kansas.²⁵

Fort Arbuckle was another former United States post occupied by the South at the outbreak of the Civil War

A more-determined and better-organized Union Army returned to Indian Territory in October and ended control by Confederates of the region north of the Arkansas River. They were helped by the frustration and infighting which had weakened the Confederate command, causing Pike to resign in July. Nevertheless, when federal invaders crossed into Indian Territory, Cooper marched out from Fort Davis to meet them. The crucial battle took place at Beattie's Prairie, near old Fort Wayne. At seven o'clock the morning of October 22, 1862, Cooper's force of Texans and Indians engaged a portion of the invading army commanded by Brigadier General James G. Blunt. Blunt led a cavalry charge that completely routed the Confederates.²⁶ The Battle of Beattie's Prairie not only removed the South's challenge to the federals for control of the region north of the Arkansas River, but also signaled the end of Fort Davis. Cooper no longer possessed a force large enough to defend the fort.

Following Cooper's defeat, units of the Union Army moved unmolested through the Indian Territory north of the Arkansas, and on Christmas Day, 1862, the 3rd Indian Regiment camped near Fort Gibson. Colonel William A. Phillips, regimental commander, decided to boost the morale of the men and to effect a show of force with an attack on Fort Davis. Apparently only a small detachment of Confederates remained at the fort as Cooper encamped with most of the Texans and many of the Indians at Scullyville in the Choctaw Nation. Rainy weather delayed Phillips’ plans, and not until the morning of December 27 did the regiment ford the Arkansas at Frozen Rock. The Federals captured the fort without a fight. Despite the cool, wet weather, soldiers fired the buildings. The conflagration eagerly consumed the wooden structures, and the flames were seen at a distance of twenty-five miles.²⁷ The symbol of domination of Indian Territory by the Confederacy became a heap of ashes less than a year after its completion.

After the Battle of Pea Ridge in Marcy, 1862, Pike withdrew deep into the Choctaw Nation and began the construction of Fort McCulloch. Named for General Benjamin McCulloch, who died at Pea Ridge, the fort consisted of extensive earthen works atop a bluff on the south side of the Blue River, near Nail's Crossing. The Missouri-to-Texas Road forded the Blue at Nail's Crossing, and Pike's breast works commanded the site, as well as other overland trails that led east to Fort Smith, west to Fort Washita, and south to Sherman, Texas. Within 100 yards of either side of the main fortifications, workers dug pits to serve as magazines to store ammunition.²⁸ Apparently no permanent structures rose within the confines of the fort, and the soldiers lived in tents or makeshift dwellings.

The size of the garrison at Fort McCulloch varied widely. On paper it consisted of one regiment of infantry and two companies of artillery from Arkansas, two regiments of cavalry from Texas, and eighteen unassigned pieces of artillery. At full strength this force should have totaled 3,000 men. However, on June 1, 1862, the Confederate commander reported approximately 1,000 men on the duty roster. Hernia, hepatitis and “general debility” put many of the soldiers on the sick list, and Pike temporarily furloughed about half of the command to harvest wheat in Texas. Also, many of the Texans assigned to McCulloch voiced a dislike for the pick and shovel and the hard work involved in construction of earthen fortifications. As a result, work progressed slowly, and Pike's bastion-on-the-Blue, which he hoped to garrison with 5,000 men, never was fully completed.²⁹

The problem of supply continued to plague Pike, for the cause of his difficulties was largely beyond his control. The Trans-Mississippi District of the Confederate Army had been hard pressed for material almost from the beginning of the war. Many of the commanders of departments east of the Indian Territory intercepted supplies bound for Fort McCulloch and distributed them among their own troops. In Richmond during the fall of 1861, Pike had obtained 5,000 pairs of shoes and 1,000 tents. When the shipment finally arrived at the fort the following spring, other commanders had commandeered all but 1,800 pairs of shoes and 160 of the tents. Consignments of small arms suffered the same fate, and ammunition always was in short supply. Of the eighteen unassigned field pieces at Fort McCulloch, twelve were powerful Parrot guns. Yet Pike's quartermaster could secure no fixed ammunition for the guns, and the command could spare no men or horses to serve them. Even official stationery and forms for reports fell prey to pilferers, and a shortage of writing paper developed late in the spring of 1862.³⁰

Despite these handicaps, the Confederate commander of the Indian Territory attempted to implement some strategy. Pike ordered two regiments of Cherokees to raid along the border with Kansas; he sent a regiment of Creeks to reconnoiter the road to Santa Fe, New Mexico; and he dispatched one battalion each of Creeks and Seminoles to raid in the vicinity of Fort Larned, Kansas. In June, he divided his command, placing Colonel Cooper in charge of all operations north of the Canadian River. However, Pike did not commit the white troops at Fort McCulloch. Instead he kept them busy building field works. To some of the Texans, Pike appeared ready to remain at the outpost on the Blue for the duration of the war.³¹ The prospect of continued inactivity caused morale to drop, and many troopers lost confidence in the commanding officer.

Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie, who remained loyal to the South throughout the Civil War regardless of the inability of the Confederacy to adequately supply his men (Division of Manuscripts, University of Oklahoma Library)

Departures from the routine of garrison duty came infrequently for the soldiers, but provided welcome distractions from their daily duties. Early one morning in April, the sound of cannonfire awoke the encampment. Soldiers scurried from their tents like prairie dogs from their burrows, and chaos reigned for a short time. Fortunately, the troopers saw no blue uniforms charging across the prairie. The gunfire came from their own batteries; one of the officers, without consulting his superiors, had decided to conduct an early morning gun drill. He reasoned that in the event of an attack the horses should be accustomed to artillery fire. The visits of Plains Indians to the fort provided another source of relaxation and entertainment. Cannons attracted the attention of many Indians, and the “squaws and girls…captivated the younger men of the battalion.”³² The Kiowas, Comanches, and other tribes of the plains traded buffalo meat to the soldiers for items they believed of value, and many of the officers developed a fondness for buffalo tongue.³³

Pike worked hard to maintain a good relationship with the tribes in the Indian Territory, but a shortage of supplies and money—and the absence of support from Richmond—restricted his success. When payment of annuities came due at the end of June, he had no money to give the Indians. Because of his serious problem of obtaining supplies, Pike had no clothes, shoes, or ammunition to distribute to the tribes as provided in the treaties. Also, Southern forces had failed to frustrate attempts by the Union Army to recapture the Indian Territory, and some tribes had lost confidence in the Confederacy's pledge to protect them. Finally, when the leaders of the tribes allied with the Confederacy learned that Pike took orders from authorities located far from the Indian Territory, their confidence in him plummeted.³⁴ Nevertheless, General Pike struggled to maintain the Indians’ loyalty and to fulfill his treaty obligations.

An inadequate supply of currency provided another problem for the fort's occupants. When Southern forces first arrived at the Blue River, the smallest denomination of Confederate paper in circulation was the five dollar bill. To provide notes of lesser value, Pike's chief quartermaster, Captain William Quesenbury, used the post's printing press to produce script on the plain side of wall paper. This scheme lasted only a short time, and by June 1, 1862, Pike reported the command's treasury exhausted. He then resorted to personal funds and spent $20,000 to purchase horses, secure provisions and pay discharged soldiers.³⁵

The daily problems Pike contended with faded into the background when he received orders to move the command to Fort Gibson. At the end of May, Major General Thomas Hindman relieved Van Dorn as the commander of the Trans-Mississippi District. Hindman believed an invasion of Arkansas and the Indian Territory by federal troops to be imminent, and he planned to stop it. Also, Pike had encamped at Fort McCulloch for three months and had made no effective use of the garrison. As a result, Hindman ordered Pike to send one company of artillery and the regiment of infantry to Little Rock, Arkansas, and to remove the remainder of the white troops to Fort Gibson.³⁶ Pike protested the orders and refused to act. He informed Hindman that to transfer the white troops from Indian Territory violated the treaties of alliance and increased distrust among the tribes about the intentions of the Confederacy. Furthermore, he reported the command to be in no condition to travel owing to the shortage of ammunition, draft animals and food. Discouraged, disgusted, and perhaps disillusioned, Pike ignored Hindman's orders until July 12, when he resigned his command.³⁷

Pike stayed at Fort McCulloch for several weeks to lobby unsuccessfully for his cause. He wrote Jefferson Davis a letter that listed the difficulties of command in the Indian Territory, and he blamed disinterested superiors for the poor state of affairs. He railed at Van Dorn's failure to cooperate with him and branded Hindman an ambitious politician. To heighten the controversy, Pike printed an inflammatory broadside that justified his refusal to send troops out of the Indian Territory and distributed it among the Five Civilized Tribes. Douglas Cooper, recently promoted to brigadier general and appointed commander of the Indian Territory, obtained a copy of the declaration and ordered Pike's arrest. A detachment of 250 troopers apprehended Pike at Tishomingo, Indian Territory, and took him to Washington, Arkansas. Later, Pike went to Little Rock where he awaited a courtmartial that never convened, and he was discharged from the army in November, 1862.³⁸

With Pike's removal, Fort McCulloch no longer served as an important outpost of the Confederacy. A handful of soldiers garrisoned the fort, and, as units of the United States Army established control over greater areas of the Indian Territory, refugees of the Five Civilized Tribes settled in the region. The fort remained a neglected outpost until it was evacuated at the end of the Civil War. For a short time in the spring of 1865, Stand Watie established the executive offices of the Cherokee Nation there. This was the last known official use of Fort McCulloch.³⁹

Fort Davis and Fort McCulloch served in a capacity typical of the fortifications of their design. Both forts were distribution centers for supplies, provided accommodations for troops, and rendered facilities for command. Yet as the forces of the Confederacy began to collapse, the forts became impotent symbols of Southern ascendency in the region. As a result, the rise and decline of Fort Davis and Fort McCulloch reflected the fortunes of the Confederacy in the Indian Territory.

¹ Larry C. Rampp, “The Twilight of the Confederacy in Indian Territory, 1863–1865,” Master of Arts Thesis, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, 1968, p. 2.

² Ibid., p. 3.

³ United States Department of War, War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (70 vols., 128 books, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), Ser. I, Vol. I, p. 682.

⁴ Ibid., Ser. IV, Vol. I, p. 785.

⁵ William C. Boyden, A Bibliography of the Writings of Albert Pike (Washington: n.p.,1931), no page.

⁶ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. I, pp. 648, 667.

⁷ Ibid., pp. 648, 652.

⁸ Ibid., pp. 648.

⁹ Ibid., Ser. IV, Vol. I, p. 360.

¹⁰ James W. Ware, “Indian Territory,” The Western Territories in the Civil War, ed. LeRoy H. Fischer (Manhattan, Kansas: Journal of the West, Inc., 1977), p. 104.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Official Records, Ser. IV, Vol. I, pp. 669–686, 426–439, 445–465, 513–525, 542–547.

¹³ Ibid., Ser. I, Vol. XIII, p. 978.

¹⁴ Ibid., Ser. I, Vol. LIII, p. 764; Grant Foreman, “Fort Davis,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XVII, No. 2 (June, 1939), p. 148.

¹⁵ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. LIII, p. 764.

¹⁶ Foreman, “Fort Davis,” pp. 147–150; Muriel Wright and LeRoy H. Fischer, “Civil War Sites in Oklahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XLIV, No. 3 (Summer 1966), pp. 195–196; Grant Foreman, ed., Indian-Pioneer History, 112 vols., Indian Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Vol. IV, p. 363; ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 228; ibid., Vol. XLIII, p. 387.

¹⁷ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, p. 937; Ware, “Indian Territory,” 104.

¹⁸ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. LIII, pp. 795–796; ibid., Ser. I, Vol. VIII, pp. 5, 11, 18, 22.

¹⁹ Kenny A. Franks, “The Confederate States and The Five Civilized Tribes: A Breakdown of Relations.” The Civil War Era in Indian Territory, ed. LeRoy H. Fischer (Los Angeles: Lorrin L. Morrison and Carroll Spear Morrison, 1973) p. 446–447.

²⁰ Fischer, The Western Territories, p. 107; Official Records, Ser. i, Vol. XIII, p. 940; Frederick W. Allsopp, Albert Pike: A Biography (Little Rock: Parke Harper Co., 1928), p. 189.

²¹ William B. Morrison, Military Posts and Camps in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Co., 1936), pp. 125; Edward E. Prag, “The Confederate Diplomacy with the Five Civilized Tribes,” Master of Arts Thesis, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, 1966, p. 69.

²² Morrison, Military Posts, p. 126; Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, p. 946.

²³ “Indian-Pioneer History,” Vol. IV, p. 364.

²⁴ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, p. 965.

²⁵ Marion S. Brooks, “The History of the Indian Territory during the Civil War,” Master of Arts Thesis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 1917, pp. 132–133; Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, p. 161; Albert Costel, A Frontier State at War: Kansas 1861–1865 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1958), p. 98.

²⁶ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, 325.

²⁷ Donald L. Rampp and Larry C. Rampp, The Civil War in Indian Territory (Austin: Presidial Press, 1975), 18–19; Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XXII, Pt. 2, pp. 61–62, 873–874; “Notes and Documents,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXIII, No. 3 (Autumn, 1945), p. 293.

²⁸ Wright and Fischer, “Civil War Sites,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XLIV, pp. 163–165; Dean Trickett, “The Civil War in Indian Territory—1862,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XIX, No. 4 (December, 1941), p. 393; Morrison, Military Posts, pp. 127, 130.

²⁹ Ibid., 127; Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, pp. 935, 940, 944, 972.

³⁰ Ibid., 935, 940, 943, 948.

³¹ Ibid., pp. 944, 948; Muriel Wright, “General Douglas Cooper, C.S.A.,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXII, No. 3 (Summer, 1954), p. 167.

³² Morrison, Military Posts, pp. 128–129.

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, pp. 941, 957.

³⁵ Morrison, Military Posts, p. 130; Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, p. 935.

³⁶ Fischer, Civil War Era, Franks, “The Confederate States,” 449; Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIII, pp. 40, 837, 934.

³⁷ Ibid., pp. 860, 936, 938, 944, 948.

³⁸ Ibid., pp. 860–868; Wright, “General Douglas H. Cooper,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXII, pp. 168–169; Allsopp, Albert Pike, pp. 198–199, 201, 205–206; “Notes and Documents,”The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XLIV, No. 3 (Autumn, 1966), p. 339.

³⁹ Ohland Morton, “Confederate Relations with the Five Civilized Tribes,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXI (Autumn 1953), p. 314; Edward Everett Dale and Gaston Litton, Cherokee Cavaliers (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969), p. 234.

FORT SUPPLY, ISOLATED OUTPOST

By Susan Peterson

After the Civil War, federal officials turned their attention to westward expansion and pacification -of the Indians on the plains. In order to contain these nomadic tribesmen, it became necessary to establish new outposts for provisioning troops, guarding supply routes, and offering protection to white settlements. One such outpost was Camp Supply in the Indian Territory. This fort began as a temporary link in the Army's supply chain during the Indian wars on the Southern Plains during the late 1860s, achieved permanence as tribes accepted reservation status, and remained to supervise cattle drives through the territory. The last major duty undertaken by troops at Supply was policing the opening of the Cherokee Outlet in 1893. During the fort's twenty-six years of existence, soldiers there participated in the pacification, exploration and settlement that has been the story of the taming of the American West.

During an expedition in the autumn of 1868 against the Indians of the Southern Plains, General Alfred Sully selected a site near the confluence of Beaver River and Wolf Creek in the Indian Territory to serve as a base camp to keep the troops fed and clothed during the upcoming winter. Sully named this temporary depot Camp Supply and ordered the construction of stockades, a storehouse and wells. Army officials did not intend the new post to become permanent, but it remained useful for more than two decades and was continuously occupied from its opening until just before it was abandoned in October, 1894. It was from this base that George Custer led his 7th Cavalry to the Washita River and the battle with Black Kettle's Cheyennes only a few days after the founding of the camp.¹

During the next ten years of Indian resistance, the garrison at Camp Supply performed various duties. In addition to almost constant construction, as the base was expanded and improved, troops protected the fort from attack on several occasions. During periods of frequent Indian activity, the men slept on the floor near windows, with their ammunition close at hand for immediate use. Sentries posted at several points around the camp had especially hazardous duty, and many instances of bravery occurred. In 1872 one trooper named Humpy Brown was ordered to sentry duty near the base hay stack. When a replacement came to relieve him, the man called out Brown's name. Hearing no reply, he and several other men searched for the missing soldier. They found Brown still in the hay stack but with two arrows in his neck. When asked why he hadn't answered when his name was called, Brown replied that he'd been waiting quietly for his attacker to appear so he could shoot him. Brown was then taken to the camp hospital where his wounds were dressed, and he recovered to participate in other activities of the garrison.²

Lithograph of Camp Supply, Indian Territory, frontier outpost on the plains (Western History Collections)

Because the post served as a supply base, one of the major duties of its soldiers was to establish and protect a trail from Fort Dodge, Kansas to Camp Supply. This route was necessary for transporting provisions from Kansas to the new forts in the Indian Territory; from there they were distributed to troops in the field. After the Indian threat declined, the road's safety was important in actions against illegal non-Indian traders, whiskey sellers and horse thieves. The trail was more than ninety miles long, the most difficult stretch being the thirty-eight miles between the Cimarron River and Camp Supply. Wagons, stagecoaches and mule trains used the road, and, when danger from Indian attack was high, troops from the camp increased their patrols of the route.³

Ground plan of Camp Supply (Western History Collections)

For a time in 1870 Camp Supply served as an agency for the recently defeated Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes. One of the duties performed by soldiers at the base was issuing rations to these Indians. This occasionally became difficult owing to shortages of supplies and the Indians’ reluctance to come into the camp for rations. This meant that provisions had to be hauled as many as seven miles, deposited and distributed. When the Indians received their beef ration, they often killed the cattle in the same manner that they hunted buffalo, but they seldom ate the meat because bison were still plentiful, and they preferred its taste to beef.⁴

After Indian trouble declined in the early 1870s, during which time Camp Supply was made a permanent post, the garrison returned to more routine duties. General Philip Sheridan outlined the military's responsibilities in his report of 1874. The Army was to protect the frontier from attacks by Indians, maintain order on reservations, explore and survey unknown territory, aid civil authorities in outlying districts, escort surveying parties in their expeditions to determine boundaries and protect the western railways. The soldiers at Supply as early as 1872 had participated in such duties by helping with a survey of the salt plains of the Cimarron River, pursuing whiskey traders and horse thieves between Dodge City and the fort and protecting railroad survey crews near the Cimarron.⁵

As the 1870s drew to a close, the Indian Territory no longer was the scene of Indian resistance. The Southwestern tribes had settled onto reservations, and government officials had begun the process of “civilizing” their charges. However, Fort Supply—officially named such in 1878—did not lost its importance with the end of hostilities. Two groups of non-Indians on the Great Plains demanded attention—cattlemen and settlers. Tribal lands blocked several important cattle trails and contained many acres of grazing land. These attractions made it difficult for ranchers to respect reservation boundaries. At the same time, pressure was building along the Kansas line to allow white settlement in unoccupied areas of the Indian Territory. This “Boomer” movement continued, with varied intensity, for more than ten years. As a result, the garrison at Supply turned its attention from controlling the Indians to protecting their lands from encroachment by non-Indians.

The Cheyenne-Arapahoe Reservation, located to the south of Fort Supply, became an irritation to Texan cattlemen driving herds north to railheads in Kansas. Some ranchers paid tribal taxes on their cattle; others evaded the expense. This inconsistency led to non-Indian resentment. Confusion over leases, plus the Indians’ anger at seeing vast numbers of cattle on their reservation, caused tensions which troops from Fort Supply frequently investigated. The soldiers policed the herds and escorted drives through the reservation in order to protect Indian farms from damage and to ensure that ranchers were not illegally grazing their cattle. This responsibility continued until the opening of the Cheyenne-Arapahoe Reservation to non-Indian settlement in 1892.⁶

Another area of conflict between a tribe and cattlemen was the Cherokee Outlet. This strip of land, one degree in width and stretching west of the Cherokee Reservation to the tooth meridian, contained good pasturage and presented a temptation to white ranchers because it had been cut off from the reservation by the settlement of other tribes according to provisions of the Treaty of Washington of 1866. After early confusion over leasing from Cherokees living in the Outlet, cattlemen formed the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association to negotiate with tribal leaders, and they requested the garrison at Fort Supply to patrol the Outlet and expel all persons not authorized by the Association. The Cherokees then were pressured to sell this western land, and the Outlet was opened for settlement in 1893. For three years prior to this opening, troops from Supply escorted cattle drives through the region and investigated charges of illegal occupation; a presidential proclamation outlawing leasing and grazing in the Outlet was issued in February, 1890.⁷

In the midst of escorting cattle, Fort Supply's forces were called on to help open acreage to white settlers. In April, 1889, when the Unassigned Lands were opened, troops patrolled roads and cattle trails and aided homesteaders moving into the area. During the spring, 1892, the Cheyenne-Arapahoe unoccupied acreage was opened to settlement by a run during which soldiers from the fort took a month's detached service from policing the Cherokee Strip in order to help supervise the run. The next year when the Outlet was opened, troops from Supply ejected “Sooners” from the region and guarded land offices and registration booths. With the run into the Outlet, three years of patrol duty for the troops came to an end. Subsequently, the men saw mainly routine garrison duty except for maneuvers and arrests during the Enid-Pond Creek railroad war of 1893–1894.⁸

One of the duties performed by the soldiers at Camp Supply was issuing of rations to the Indians at the frontier post (Western History Collections)

Day-to-day life at Fort Supply typified the frontier existence. Life was arduous and, at times, dangerous, but the base contained most elements of an outpost on the edge of permanent settlement. As the fort grew, the number of men stationed there ranged from a high of 638 in 1870 to a low of 86 in 1876. The average number was approximately 300, comprising between three and eight companies of infantry and cavalry. Officers included captains, a medical officer, subalterns, a post chaplain, a regimental adjutant and a regimental quartermaster. The commanding officer generally held the rank of colonel; however, a major or a captain occasionally served in that capacity. In addition to its soldiers, Fort Supply supported a considerable civilian population. As early as 1869 the Post Returns reported five civilians employed, and the number reached 160 in January, 1875. Nonmilitary personnel served as guides, interpreters, engineers, wheelrights, teamsters, carpenters and laborers. Several civilians operated businesses at the base: the post trader, a bootmaker, a barber, a tailor and a dry-goods merchant.⁹

The daily routine, with time for construction duty, began early. Soon after Fort Supply was founded, roll call was set at 4:oo a.m. in order to prepare for possible dawn attacks on the base, and breakfast followed at sunrise. The troops participated in garrison duties and horse-grazing, with a break for dinner at noon. The bugler sounded retreat at sunset and taps at 9:00 p.m. In a satirical article for a Dodge City newspaper, one soldier elaborated on the camp routine. After an early awakening, the soldiers ate a breakfast of weak coffee, hard bread, and hash made from leftovers. He enumerated the troopers’ duties: building roads, digging sewers, blasting rock, making bricks, policing the garrison, caring for animals, etc. Lunch consisted of watery soup, small portions of meat, and crusty bread, after which the men returned to their labor. Supper included only bread and coffee. During the evening hours, the troopers were transformed from workers into soldiers for maneuvers and drill before retiring for the night. Men on construction duty in the early days of the camp built quarters with logs and sod, then chinked them with timber or mud to protect against the wind. Earthen roofs and floors made the buildings damp, and one officer's wife complained that they provided a fertile field for toadstools. Construction proceeded rapidly because of the post's expansion and also because of fires. More permanent structures replaced the picket-wall buildings by 1870, as the base grew to include a variety of barracks, officers’ quarters, storehouses, stables, and guardhouses plus a post hospital, bakery, laundry, butcher shop and black-smith's shop. Fire caused extensive damage to several of the officers’ quarters in 1876, and the residences built to replace them were of frame construction.¹⁰

Because of Fort Supply's isolated location, communication was important. Roads linked the post to Fort Dodge, Fort Sill and Fort Elliot (in the Texas Panhandle). After irregular service in the first years of the depot's existence, mail eventually was delivered three times a week, although residents requested more frequent service. After 1880, telegraph lines were completed to Supply. Stagecoaches ran between Fort Dodge and the camp, as did wagons with provisions. Supplies were hauled from Fort Hayes, Kansas, until the railroad reached Fort Dodge in 1872. In the years just prior to the abandonment of Fort Supply, railroad service to Woodward was supplemented with a stage line to the fort. The Dodge-Supply road became well-known to both military and civilian travellers. Several creeks intersected the route and provided water for the lengthy journey. Ranches, mail stations and outposts were frequent overnight stopping-places. More than fifty miles from Dodge City, the arrival of the stage at the Cimarron River's low banks signaled the half-way point in the four-day journey to Supply. The road twisted around gulches on the way to Devil's Gap, and soon the fort could be seen in the distance.¹¹

Holidays, especially Christmas and July 4th, were special occasions and one of the main entertainments included a trip to the opera house (Western History Collections)

Living conditions for the soldiers and civilians at Supply were often uncomfortable. Barracks sometimes had dirt floors, lacked bathing facilities and possessed ineffective insulation from inclement weather. The ever-present winds of the Great Plains contributed to fierce blizzards, while in frequent rainfall in the summer made gardening at the post a risky undertaking. During winter storms in the 1880s, several persons froze to death on the Dodge-Supply road. One stagecoach arrived at the post with the driver frozen in his seat. The passengers survived, however, and knew nothing of the macabre death until they climbed out of the coach. After numerous summer droughts and grasshopper infestations had destroyed the post gardens, the fort received appropriations to build irrigating facilities to aid in growing vegetables.¹²

The troopers’ good health depended on a sound diet, a clean water supply and an adequate post hospital. Although abundant game abounded near the fort, most other foodstuffs had to be transported from Fort Dodge. Finding a source of fresh vegetables to ward off scurvy presented a problem at first, but the men sometimes picked wild garlic or lamb's quarter to supplement their rations. Water from Wolf Creek near the post had to be hauled to the fort and stored in large barrels close to the barracks and laundry until the installation of a windmill in 1879. A new sewage system a few years later ensured a relatively healthy water supply. The medical officer supervised the post hospital. Expenditures for the expansion and improvement of this facility grew as the fort attained permanence. The most frequent ailments reported were malaria, diarrhea, tonsilitis and digestive diseases. In the later years of Fort Supply's existence, cooperation between the medical officer and the post gardener gave the base the distinction of being one of the healthiest on the plains.¹³

The hospital building at Fort Supply was a great asset to the base for those requiring more serious medical treatments (Western History Collections)

Recreation at Fort Supply took many forms. One of the most common and useful amusements was hunting. A veritable hunter's paradise, the area teemed with deer, elk, antelope and fowl. Turkey shoots provided sport for the soliders, and officers frequently used hounds to chase antelope and jack-rabbits. The catch at times was large enough to feed nearly 1,000 men. Other leisure activities included baseball, boxing, card-playing and croquet. Road companies and magic shows appeared regularly at Supply, and touring regimental bands gave evening concerts.¹⁴

Holidays, chiefly Christmas and the Fourth of July, were special occasions, as were dances and balls given by the fort's various social clubs. One of the first dances, held in a grainery with a tarpaulin stretched over the floor, featured a program of twenty-four assorted waltzes, polkas, Virginia reels, and quadrilles. One soldier complained that too few ladies attended the dances and that the strongest drink served was lemonade. These soirees must have been popular, however, because they were held frequently. The Officers’ Club and the Camp Supply Social Club invited officers, their wives and the elite of the post's civilian population to festive balls in celebration of New Year's Eve, St. Patrick's Day and other occasions.¹⁵

Despite recreational activities, boredom was a constant problem at the post, and it most often ended in desertion or violence. Deserters usually were soldiers in their first or second year of service, dissatisfied with their duties and resentful about their low salaries. Often after payday the men would gather in crude saloons and spent most of their wages in a few hours. Drunkenness then led to complaints, and desertion followed. In 1871 and 1872, to protest a cut in pay from $16.00 to $13.00 per month, large numbers of enlisted men deserted from forts across the West, and Supply felt the impact of this action with as many as eighteen runaways in a month. A new bill, passed in May, 1872, helped reduce desertions, but there were a few escapees every year.¹⁶

Drunkenness usually caused most of the brawls and shootings that took place at Fort Supply. Resentments and conflicts in personality that could be controlled during sober moments flared after the men consumed too much liquor. In one incident, two civilian employees at the fort—Bill Gibbs, a black wagon boss, and Joe Campo, a Mexican cook—lost their tempers and fired at each other. Campo's scalp was grazed and one of Gibbs’ lungs was wounded, but both men recovered. In another incident at Supply, Joe Mason, a former official from Dodge City, was being taunted by Ed Ryan, a hunter whom Joe had previously arrested. When Ryan threatened someday to get even with him, Mason shot Ryan and killed him. In a court of inquiry held at Fort Elliot in January of 1878, the members reached a decision of justifiable homicide.¹⁷

With the settling of the Cherokee Outlet in 1893 and the subsequent arrival of the railroad, mobility increased in the formerly isolated area, and the necessity of maintaining outposts such as Fort Supply diminished. Although it was located in a sparsely populated part of Oklahoma Territory, federal officials decided to abandon the post in 1894. In October its garrison was transferred, and its equipment designated for removal to Fort Sill. A few months later, the buildings were placed in the custody of the Department of the Interior and then passed on to the Territory of Oklahoma. The town of Supply sprang up after the post was abandoned, and in the early 1900s the legislature established an insane asylum there.¹⁸

First occupied in 1908, Western State Hospital housed its 400 patients and employees in the old buildings of Fort Supply. By 1940 the hospital held 1,500 inmates and 135 workers. The former headquarters office, a guardhouse and five officers’ quarters were among the thirty structures occupied by the institution. In 1955 the hospital won a first-place award for outstanding improvement from the American Psychiatric Association following a three-year modernization plan for facilities and treatment methods. A series of scandals and investigations prompted this program of improvement. Fire destroyed many of Fort Supply's original buildings, but two officers’ residences, a guardhouse, a firehouse and a teamster's cabin remain. Some civilian graves are still located in the cemetery (the fifty-six soldiers’ bodies were moved to Fort Leavenworth when the post was abandoned), and a portion of the ruts of the Dodge-Supply road run through the town. More than 100 years after its establishment as a supply base for military operations in the Indian Territory, Fort Supply is a reminder of the contributions of the Army to the westward movement.¹⁹.

¹ Robert Carriker, Fort Supply, Indian Territory (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), pp. so, 16; Edward Everett Dale, “The Cheyenne-Arapahoe Country,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XX, No. 4 (December, 1942), p. 361; United States Department of War, Adjutant-General's Office, Fort Supply Post Returns, November, 1868, Library, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; William H. Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” Master of Arts Thesis, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, Stillwater, Oklahoma, 1941, pp. 5–8.

² P. M. Ashburn, A History of the Medical Department of the United States Army (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), p.100.

³ Carrier, Fort Supply, pp. 40, 71; Harper County Journal (Buffalo, Oklahoma), January 5, 1974.

⁴ Carriker, Fort Supply, pp. 31–33; Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” p. 15.

⁵ United States Department of War, Report of Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan to the Secretary of War, 43rd Congress, 2nd Session, 1874, p. 23; Fort Supply Post Returns, November, 1872; Carriker, Fort Supply, p. 73.

⁶ Ibid., pp. 129, 180; Dale, “The Cheyenne-Arapahoe Country,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XX, pp. 363, 364; Edward Everett Dale, “The Cherokee Strip Livestock Association,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. V, No. 1 (March, 1927), pp. 60, 72; United States Department of War, Report of Major-General John Pope to the Secretary of War, 48th Congress, 1st Session, 1833, p. 130; Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” pp. 25, 27.

⁷ Dale, “The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XX, pp. 59, 67, 75; United States Department of War, Report of Brigadier-General Merritt to the Secretary of War, 51st Congress, 2nd Session, 1890, p. 196; Carriker, Fort Supply, p. 188.

⁸ Ibid., pp. 181–219; Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” pp. 30–31.

⁹ United States Department of War, Report of the Adjutant-General to the Secretary of War, 41st Congress, 3rd Session, 1870, 68; United States Department of War, Report of the Adjutant-General to the Secretary of War, 44th Congress, 2nd Session, 1876, p. 42; Fort Supply Post Returns, July, 1869, February, 1875; March, 1894; Carriker, Fort Supply, pp. 148, 149.

¹⁰ Ibid., p. 39, 144; Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” 40; Supply Republican (Supply, Oklahoma), March 18, 1926.

¹¹ Carriker, Fort Supply, pp. 144, 158; Captain Richard T. Jacob, “Military Reminiscences,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. II, No. 1 (March, 1924), p. 29; Dodge City Times, June i, 1876, July 7, 21, August 25, 1877, Library, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

¹² Ashburn, History of the Medical Department, p. 98; Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” p. 43; Carriker, Fort Supply, p.139.

¹³ Ibid., pp. 139, 140; Ashburn, History of the Medical Department, p. 99 United States Department of War, Report of the Surgeon-General to the Secretary of War, 50th Congress, 2nd Session, 1888, p. 727; United States Department of War, Report of the Surgeon-General to the Secretary of War, 49th Congress, 1st Session, 1886, p. 721.

¹⁴ Ashburn, History of the Medical Department, p. 99; Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), April 22, 1909; Donald Rickey, Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), p. 120; Carriker, Fort Supply, pp. 22, 152, 153.

¹⁵ Ashburn, History of the Medical Department, p. 99; Rickey, Forty Miles a Day, p. 198; Supply Republican, March 18, 1926; Dodge City Times, September 1, 1877; Carriker, Fort Supply, p. 154.

¹⁶ Fort Supply Post Returns, January, 1871-December, 1872; Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” pp. 33, 34; Rickey, Forty Miles a Day, p. 129; Carriker, Fort Supply, p. 142.

¹⁷ Ibid., p. 149; Dodge City Times, August II and August 18, 1877; Ibid., January 19 and January 26, 1878.

¹⁸ Carriker, Fort Supply, p. 220; United States Department of War, Report of Major-General Nelson A. Miles to the Secretary of War, 53rd Congress, 3rd Session, 1894, p. 108 Supply Republican, March 18, 1926.

¹⁹ Hughes, “Old Fort Supply,” p. 43; Daily Oklahoman, October 18, 1925; Oklahoma City Times (Oklahoma City) May 12, 1955; Edna Couch, “Map of Fort Supply Tour,” Library, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

OUTPOSTS IN POST-CIVIL WAR INDIAN TERRITORY

By Michael Everman

The end of the Civil War marked the beginning of a turbulent era in the Indian Territory. Vast reaches of land lay open in the western part of the territory. The question of ownership and administration of this geographical treasure occupied the thoughts of thousands of Indians and whites for years after the cessation of hostilities in 1865. Military activity in the Indian Territory involved the supervision of the transformation of the area from an unused and unwanted wasteland to a “last frontier.” As the region evolved, its inhabitants and composition changed significantly. The operations of the Army during this period of change were both stimulus and reaction to the changes. Military operations became intertwined with governmental policy in settling the problem of the future function and use of the Indian Territory.

Several major military posts were established in the area to enforce governmental policy. Fort Sill, Fort Reno and Camp Supply served pivotal roles in the eventual termination of the Indian wars and the settlement of the Southwest. However, the success of military action in the Indian Territory can also be credited to the numerous minor posts established in the same area. Logistical difficulties hampered the effectiveness of large posts in carrying out a comprehensive strategy. To solve these problems of distance and accessibility, many satellite camps were established. These lesser-known garrisons provided the efficiency crucial to the success of the frontier Army. They were established for specific purposes and abandoned after the accomplishment of those purposes.¹

The overriding concern of government officials and soldiers with the Indian Territory was the solution of the Indian problem. As settlers moved into the “Great American Desert” previously consigned to nomadic Indian tribes, conflicts arose. The renewal of the problem of dealing with the warriors of the plains occurred simultaneously with the alteration of governmental relations with the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory. The western half of Indian Territory was ceded or sold to the United States by these tribes during the settlement after the Civil War, partly as penance for supporting the Confederacy. The opening of this western land provided a convenient answer to the question of what to do with Plains Indians.

The treaties of the Little Arkansas in 1865 and Medicine Lodge Creek in 1866 assigned the tribes of the Southern Plains to reservations in the newly vacated territory. However, many of the Indians were not willing to leave the prairies for the sedentary life proposed by the white man's government. Bands of Indians refused to enter or stay on the reservations and terrorized travelers and settlers who entered their hunting grounds. American settlers cried out for help against their foes. To the United States Army fell the responsibility for enforcing the regulations set down by the government. The Indian Territory was traversed for the next two decades by recalcitrant Indians and soldiers determined to enforce the law. Military outposts were established in the area to operate in conjunction with posts in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas to crush Indian resistance.²

The first of the satellite posts established after the Civil War was Camp Nichols. Brutal murders committed by Indians in northeastern New Mexico struck terror in the hearts of many settlers, and the resultant fear stifled trade and travel along the Cimarron route of the Santa Fe Trail. Wagon trains bearing travelers and goods were subject to sporadic attacks at several points on the long and deserted route between Fort Union, New Mexico and Fort Dodge, Kansas. To halt such depredations on the trail, Brigadier General James H. Carleton sent Colonel Christopher (Kit) Carson to seek a suitable location for an outpost to provide protection. Carson and three companies of California and New Mexico volunteers left Fort Union in May, 1865, and traveled to Cedar Bluff. The site selected for Camp Nichols was about four miles east of the present boundary between Oklahoma and New Mexico and about twenty-four miles west of present-day Boise City in Cimarron County. The camp, located about 140 miles west of Fort Union, was halfway between Fort Union and Fort Dodge, thereby providing a convenient way station on the long journey between these two posts.³

The troops set to work constructing a defensible position, completing their task in June, 1865. The desolate, rock-strewn terrain offered abundant building material. High rock walls protected the inhabitants of the rectangular post. Quarters for the troops consisted of tents and dugouts, although a hospital, a commissary and other functional structures inside the fort were built out of native stone. The garrison of 300 soldiers at Camp Nichols saw little hostile activity. Mounted howitzers stood at the corners of the little post in anticipation of attack, but life at the lonely guardian on the prairies consisted of routine garrison duties. Respite from the monotony came about every two weeks. Wagon trains halted at the post for protection on their journey eastward, and the troops stationed at Camp Nichols escorted them on the remainder of their trip to either Fort Dodge or Fort Larned. After shepherding the travelers safely to their destination, the troops escorted wagons along the westward route back to the outpost, where they could continue on their trek to Fort Union or Santa Fe.⁴

Fort Reno, Oklahoma Territory, showing General Sheridan's cabin in right foreground (Western History Collections)

The deterrent to hostile activity provided by the garrison at Camp Nichols, when combined with the firm and effective activities of the military in the Department of New Mexico, led to a lessening of Indian attacks on the Santa Fe Trail. Camp Nichols was originally intended to be merely a temporary effort to provide protection during the season of heaviest travel. This purpose accomplished, the post was abandoned in November, 1865.⁵

The refusal of many Indians to accept life on reservations became evident in 1868 when Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors raided in Kansas and Kiowa and Comanche war parties struck in Texas. To stifle the irritating raids, Lieutenant General William T. Sherman, commanding the Military Department of the Missouri, mounted an intensive winter campaign against the renegades. Responsibility for the atrocities in Kansas and Texas lay with certain bands, not entire tribes; therefore, Sherman directed friendly Indians to restrict themselves to authorized areas to avoid the onslaught of troops commanded by General Phillip H. Sheridan. To consolidate friendly Indians in the area, Sherman appointed Brigadier General William B. Hazen to head the southern Indian district, with headquarters at Fort Cobb, Indian Territory. The post had been abandoned in 1861, but Hazen was to use the old post as a nucleus for his agency.⁶

The post was reopened in October, 1868, by an advance contingent from Fort Arbuckle. Indians began assembling there in accordance with Sherman's orders, and the troops began the task of restoring the remaining stone facilities for use. To Hazen and his men fell the responsibility of providing supplies and rations promised to the Indians in exchange for peace. Hundreds of Indians of various tribes encamped in the area around the fort. The distribution of rations and supplies was the primary function of the garrison at Fort Cobb. On ration day thousands of Indians converged on the post to receive supplies. Complaints about the quality and quantity of supplies added to the difficulty of administering such an extensive program. However, Fort Cobb served a crucial function because the promise of provisions and guidance was the strongest influence in preventing the Indians from taking to the warpath.⁷

By November, 1868, a diverse multitude had settled along the Washita River near Fort Cobb to signify their peaceful dispositions and receive sustenance from the government. Hazen was concerned lest some bands, who had tarried on the way from Kansas, encountered the wrath of Sheridan's vengeance in his campaign against hostiles. Sheridan was determined to bring the miscreants, particularly Cheyenne and Arapaho, to justice as soon as possible and by whatever means necessary. On November 20, Chiefs Black Kettle and Big Mouth of the Cheyenne asked permission from Hazen to camp near the fort. This plea Hazen refused, stating that these bands were at war with General Sheridan and would have to seek terms with him. Thus rebuffed, these bands returned to camp on the Washita River far to the northwest where one week later they were decimated by Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Washita.⁸

The intimidation provided by the defeat of Black Kettle's Cheyennes led other tribes in the area to hasten to Fort Cobb to assure the authorities of their peaceful intentions. Sheridan's troopers continued on their march toward Fort Cobb. On December 18, they arrived at the post and set up camp. Sheridan placed Kiowa chiefs Satanta and Lone Wolf under arrest upon his arrival to insure that the remainder of the Kiowas would report to Fort Cobb as directed. Sheridan's determination to halt marauding on the Southern Plains convinced most of the tribes in the area to accept the reservation.⁹

The battle-weary troops camped at Fort Cobb found a scene of considerable activity. The administration of the various Indian tribes occupied the time of the men under Hazen's command. The bustle of camp life allowed soldiers and Indians to mingle and observe one another. The soldiers erected tents and dug square pits to live in during their brief stay at the fort. They were called upon to supervise the distribution of rations and to keep the hordes of Indians controlled. While the soldiers were thus engaged, the weather at the post became almost unbearable. Incessant rain soaked the troops and their supplies and filled their shallow living quarters, turning the entire camp into a morass of mud. Sheridan decided shortly after his arrival to abandon the post in favor of a site farther south, closer to the Kiowa and Comanche reservation and to the Texas border. He sent Colonel Benjamin Grierson to choose a suitable location. Grierson settled on the site of Camp Wichita near Medicine Bluff. The garrison at Fort Cobb was ordered to move to the new post, later to become Fort Sill.¹⁰

With the establishment of Fort Sill, the army had a strong base from which to pursue the Indians who continued to plague the area. The post was located near the Kiowa-Comanche Agency to provide a deterrent to runaways, and it was near enough to the Texas border to provide assistance with punitive sorties against raiders in northern Texas. However, a single post to cover such an extensive area of the Indian Territory was not sufficient. Supply lines would be broken or over-extended if all Army patrols had to rely on Fort Sill for support. Troops could not depart from Fort Sill and reach troubled areas in time to deal with the guilty parties, who would vanish into Texas or return to the reservation and the protection of Indian agents. To provide more efficient control of the area, authorities at Fort Sill established outposts. These satellites were supplied with men and provisions from the main post, and extended the influence of the Army in maintaining order around the reservations.

Rebuilding of the old stockade at Fort Gibson in 1936 (Western History Collections)

One of the outposts from Fort Sill was established in the summer of 1871 on Otter Creek, west of the main post. This camp, almost on the site of old Camp Radziminski, usually consisted of fewer than three companies of troops. These troops escorted supply trains passing through the area to their destinations. Patrols went out from Camp Otter to check reports of Indian depredations and to deal with the perpetrators. The other major outpost, Camp Augur, was located south of Fort Sill on the Red River. This post was also sparsely populated; however, a constant flow of troops traveled between it and the main post. Camp Augur's major purpose was to provide a base from which the soldiers of the 10th Cavalry could patrol the reservation line. Kiowa and Comanche warriors who considered leaving the reservation for the warpath had to consider the consequences of being brought to justice quickly by the roving cavalrymen.¹¹

Fort Sill, Indian Territory, prior to 1905 (Western History Collections)

The troops on detached service at both Camp Otter and Camp Augur gained valuable experience in the field by performing a variety of functions. They served as escorts for prominent visitors to the area, such as General Sheridan. The detachments at the tiny bastions on the frontier provided welcome aid to travelers and supply trains moving through potentially hazardous terrain. The troops drilled and performed normal garrison duties when not assigned to specific functions. Most of these men were Buffalo Soldiers, or black troops of the 10th Cavalry, who admirably performed their duties on the harsh frontier.¹²

Despite the deterrent provided by these outposts, Indians continued to slip away from the reservations and wreak havoc in northern Texas and the Indian Territory, stealing horses, mules and supplies from the Army and attacking white settlers. Persistent recurrence of such recalcitrance by previous offenders caused considerable friction between Indian agents assigned to protect them and soldiers determined to discipline them. In the summer of 1874, the Army mounted an extensive campaign to eliminate hostile activity on the Southern Plains. Troops from New Mexico, Kansas, Texas, and Indian Territory converged on the border between Texas and the Indian Territory. A major part of this punitive expedition departed from Fort Sill. To consolidate troops in the area for the attack and for the defense of the post, the garrisons at Camp Otter and Camp Augur were ordered to return to Fort Sill in September of 1874. These troops participated in subduing the raiders and restoring peace to the area. The Red River War of 1874 stifled resistance and convinced the Indians to accept the sedentary life imposed upon them by the government. The purpose of Camp Augur and Camp Otter was negated by the outcome of the campaign; thereafter, the sites were used occasionally for training or escort duties.¹³

With the cessation of major hostilities, the Army in the Indian Territory settled down to the routine of garrison life, drilling and maintaining a vigil on the reservations. However, not all Indians accepted life on the reservations. In September, 1878, a band of Northern Cheyennes led by Dull Knife left the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation on a determined trek to their northern homeland. The Indians were unhappy with conditions on the reservation and complained about the quality and quantity of provisions. This daring escape and the subsequent haphazard pursuit by soldiers from several posts along Dull Knife's route underscored the need for military enforcement of reservation law. In March, 1879, a post was established on the north fork of the Canadian River near the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation. Cantonment was the designation for this small station established by Lieutenant Colonel Richard I. Dodge and four companies of the 23rd Infantry. The soldiers at Cantonment served as police to prevent further outbreaks or rebellions by the Cheyenne. Bands of Northern Cheyenne continued to grumble about treatment and to threaten escape. Military authorities were determined to exert all necessary force to demonstrate the futility of resistance to reservation policy. Agents and soldiers were instructed to arrest instigators of riots or escape attempts.¹⁴

Although Cantonment was to serve a temporary function, a hospital, a commissary and an officers’ barrack were built out of stone, which lent an air of permanence to the Army's presence. However, most of the quarters were makeshift dwellings constructed by placing pickets vertically in the ground and filling in the cracks with mud and grass. The soldiers at the post were in close contact with the Indians in the vicinity. Complaints from the Indians about rations and treatment created a tense atmosphere. The discontent of the Indians was heightened because of the intrusion of cattlemen on their territory on their drives to Kansas. The soldiers had to intervene to prevent bloodshed when warriors demanded tribute of a few beeves from cattlemen who resisted their “extortionate” demands.¹⁵

Guard house at Old Camp Supply, July 10, 1910 (Western History Collections)

The military presence close to the reservation prevented further outbreaks or major uprisings. After the Northern Cheyennes were allowed to return to their homeland, the necessity for the post decreased. In June, 1882, troops were removed from the post and sent to Fort Supply or to Fort Elliott, Texas. The buildings and materials remaining at the site were transferred to the Interior Department for use as a school for Indian children.¹⁶

With the settlement of the conflict in the Indian Territory, the attention of public officials and soldiers was turned to a new problem. As the Indians were assigned to designated areas, the land remaining in Indian Territory was left unoccupied. A clamor arose among land-hungry Midwesterners for the opening of the land to white settlement by the government. The soldiers in the area were assigned to keep out intruders until the question was resolved. While elected officials and special interest lobbyists argued the merits of opening the land, others took more precipitous action. Bands of prospective settlers led by David L. Payne made repeated excursions onto the open lands, where they were apprehended by the military and returned to Kansas. Because the offenders were merely returned to the Kansas line and were not prosecuted, these “Boomers” did not fear eviction and continued to intrude and settle until they were forced out by soldiers. This game of chasing out intruders exasperated military commanders in the Indian Territory, who maintained that it was a waste of the government's time and money to have soldiers act as policemen when the law was not enforced.¹⁷

The advance and retreat of the Boomers continued throughout the early 1880s. Troops from Fort Reno patrolled the area looking for intruders and escorting them out. In the fall of 1884, a subpost of Fort Reno was set up north of present-day Guthrie at the juncture of Skeleton Creek and the Cimarron River. This post was to provide the logistical balance necessary for efficient supervision of the forbidden lands. This station on the south bank of the Cimarron, called Camp Russell, was supplied with troops and provisions for winter operations against the Boomers. These troops, mostly black soldiers of the 9th Cavalry, roamed for miles searching for and flushing out intruders. The harsh winter weather made their seemingly futile task more unbearable. However, the sleet, snow and rain did not deter the hardy Boomers. After Payne's death in September, 1884, the leadership of the Boomers fell to William L. Couch. This stubborn advocate of free land led a colony of more than 200 people to Stillwater Creek in December of 1884. The members of the colony built dwellings at Stillwater and prepared to remain there as a demonstration of the validity of their claims to the open land.¹⁸

Troops led by Lieutenant M. W. Day left Camp Russell on December 21 to oust the invaders. When they arrived at the Boomer camp on December 24, they were met by more than 200 men with determined minds and loaded guns. The Boomers refused to vacate Stillwater, and the troops did not test their resolve. As neither side desired an open conflict, the troops and settlers entrenched themselves and awaited further developments. Lieutenant Day requested reinforcements in case a forcible eviction bcame necessary, and the Boomers sent a telegram to President Chester A. Arthur asking him to consider the validity of their claims, a plea which the president subsequently refused.¹⁹

On January 11, 1885, Colonel Edward L. Hatch left Caldwell, Kansas, with a detachment of soldiers bound for Camp Russell and the Stillwater camp. Fighting bitter cold and driving rain, the command reached Camp Russell on January 17. While Hatch awaited reinforcements from Fort Reno, a troop of the 9th Cavalry was sent to the Boomer's camp to deflect incoming reinforcements and supplies. Despite the watchful eyes of the soldiers, the colony grew as the days passed. When cavalry and infantry arrived at Camp Russell from Fort Reno, Hatch moved on the colony and camped there on January 24. With supplies running low and armed conflict imminent, Couch and his colony surrendered on January 26. The Boomers were escorted to the Kansas border, where they continued to lobby for the opening of Oklahoma.²⁰

Patrols from Camp Russell continued to go out across the northern prairies, apprehending and evicting isolated parties of settlers. However, by June, 1885, the patrols were finding little evidence of invasion in the area, and orders came from Fort Reno for the abandonment of Camp Russell. The troops left the banks of the Cimarron on June 27 and returned to Fort Reno.²¹

Military activity in the Indian Territory became a matter of routine by 1885. Hostilities with the Indians had ceased, and the threat of conflict with intruders was lessened because of the probability of the opening of Oklahoma to settlement. Soldiers at the posts in the Indian Territory settled into the performance of normal garrison duties. The Army was continually called upon to referee disputes between cattlemen and Indians and to evict occasional settlers and ranchers. However, extensive military activity faded away with the passage of years. The Army changed its emphasis from wartime to peacetime activity and concentrated on drill and discipline. However, the high command wished to insure that the peacetime Army would not stagnate because of the lack of combat. To carry out this preparedness strategy, orders were given for field training maneuvers simulating combat conditions.²²

Fort Reno, after 1885, looking to the northeast (Western History Collections)

In July, 1889, Brigadier General Wesley Merritt, commanding the Department of the Missouri, issued directives for field maneuvers to take place in the fall of that year. The site selected for these maneuvers was in present-day Kay County on the undulating prairies north of Chilocco Creek. The site was named Camp Schofield in honor of General John Schofield, the current General-in-Chief of the Army. Troops from posts throughout the department were ordered to rendezvous at Camp Schofield on September 23. The operation included large contingents of cavalry, infantry and artillery to initiate a comprehensive training exercise. Troops from the major and minor posts in Oklahoma, including the Indian scouts, joined those from surrounding states. From Forts Crawford, Lyon and Logan in Colorado came infantry. From Forts Hays, Leavenworth and Riley in Kansas came cavalry, infantry and artillery. Infantry from Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and Little Rock Barracks, Arkansas, and cavalry from Fort Elliott, Texas, joined the pilgrimage to northern Oklahoma.²³

The training exercise provided instruction and practice in almost all aspects of combat preparedness. The logistical problems inherent in assembling a large body of troops provided valuable practical experience in transportation. When all the troops arrived at Camp Schofield, it numbered 86 officers and 1,583 enlisted men. The operations around Chilocco Creek were meant to simulate combat conditions as nearly as possible. Cavalry units wheeled and galloped over the rolling grasslands in mock charges. Infantry units moved en masse, charging breastworks and firing volleys at imaginary foes. Artillery units devastated trees and landscape with precise assaults on phantom enemies. As the units honed their skills separately, they also worked in conjunction with the other branches, the swiftness of the cavalry complementing the massed force of the infantry, while howitzers sent their lethal charges screaming overhead in support. Specified units wore brown fatigue coats or white stable frocks to designate them as enemy forces to lend authenticity to the proceedings and enthusiasm to the performance of the troops. The soldiers participated actively in accordance with ground rules established by Merritt and his staff.²⁴

After more than a week of drill and mock combat, the troops passed in review before their commanders. The sight of twenty-one troops of cavalry and thirteen companies of infantry massed into a precisely functioning whole signified the success of the operation. Another week of perfecting various martial skills followed. The apparent success of the affair and the threat of inclement weather led General Merritt to bring the exercises to an end. On October 11, 1889, the troops left Camp Schofield to return to their respective bases. Merritt considered the operation valuable for officers and men. The dust and smoke created by mock battles was disseminated by the swirling breezes, leaving new prairies of northern Oklahoma once more silent and uninhabited.²⁵

The operations at Camp Schofield signalled a new phase of military responsibility in Oklahoma. The Army changed from an active enforcer of governmental policy to another branch of the federal bureaucracy. The Army had served its function well in the Indian Territory in the pivotal years between 1865 and 1890. The supplementary posts established for specific purposes accomplished their goals and were crucial to the effectiveness of the Army in the area. As the need dwindled, these posts faded into the past. However, they hold firm positions in the panorama of Oklahoma history; because they performed their tasks well, the region was transformed from wasteland to territorial status and eventually to statehood.

¹ For a comprehensive view of the Indian wars in Indian Territory, see William H. Leckie, The Military Conquest of the Southern Plains (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963).

² Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vol. II (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904), pp. 887–895, 911–947, 977–989.

³ United States Department of the Interior, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1865 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1866), pp. 346–347; United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1865 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1866), p. 745; Leo E. Oliva, Soldiers on the Santa Fe Trail (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967), pp. 160–164.

⁴ Mrs. Hal Russell, “Memoirs of Marian Russell,” Colorado Magazine, Vol. XX, pp. 236–237.

⁵ Ibid., Vol. XXI, pp. 29–33; Oliva, Soldiers on the Santa Fe Trail, p. 164.

⁶ Marvin E. Kroeker, Great Plains Command: William B. Hazen in the Frontier West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), p. 74; Muriel Wright, “A History of Fort Cobb,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXIV, No. 1 (Spring, 1956), pp. 58–62; United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1869 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1869), pp. 45–51, 69.

⁷ Kroeker, Great Plains Command, pp. 76–78, 80–82.

⁸ lbid., pp. 78–80.

⁹ De Bienville Randolph Keim, Sheridan's Troopers on the Borders (Philadelphia: 1885), p. 165; Kroeker, Great Plains Command, p. 86; Leckie, Military Conquest, pp. 108–113.

¹⁰ Ibid., pp. 111–112; Keim, Sheridan's Troopers, pp. 172–173; Kroeker, Great Plains Command, pp. 85–86.

¹¹ United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1870 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1870), pp. 6–14; Adjutant General's Office, Post Returns, Fort Sill, Indian Territory, September 3, 1871, October 4, 1871, November 18, 1871, July, 1872; Special Orders, Fort Sill, Indian Territory, June—September, 1871 (Fort Sill Museum Library, Fort Sill, Oklahoma).

¹² Ibid., Post Returns, Fort Sill, 1871–1874.

¹³ Leckie, Military Conquest, pp. 182–235; Medical History of Fort Sill, 1873–1880 (Microfilm: Library, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), June—September, 1874; Special Orders, Fort Sill, February, 1879; United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1874 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1875), pp. 26–29; United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1875 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1876), pp. 78–85.

¹⁴ United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1878 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1879), pp. 44–50; United States Department of the Interior, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Afairs, 1879 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880), p. 164; Major J. K. Mizner to Agent J. D. Miles, June 13, 1879, Assistant Adjutant General E. R. Platt to Commanding officer, Fort Reno, March 19, 1879 and April 5, 1879 (Cheyenne-Arapaho File-Military Relations, Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma).

¹⁵ Henry C. Keeling, “My Experience With the Cheyenne Indians,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. III, No. 1 (April, 1925), pp. 59–73; United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1880 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1881), pp. 89–93; United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, 1882 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883), pp. 97–98).

¹⁶ Agent J. D. Miles to Commissioner H. Price, June 1, 1882, and June 2, 1882 (Cheyenne-Arapaho Letter Press Book No. 5, Darlington Agency, Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society); Cheyenne-Arapaho File—Buildings, Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society.

¹⁷ United States Department of War, Report of the Secretary of War, r881 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1882), pp. 114–115; see also Carl Coke Rister, Land Hunger: David L. Payne and the Oklahoma Boomers (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1942), passim.

¹⁸ Army and Navy Journal, Vol. XXII, p. 886; Adjutant General's Office, Post Returns, Fort Reno, Indian Territory, September 30, 1883; ibid., May 31, 1884.

¹⁹ Army and Navy Journal, Vol. XXII, p. 486; Adjutant General's Office, Post Returns, Camp Russell, Indian Territory, December 31, 1884; reports cited in Berlin Basil Chapman, The Founding of Stillwater (Oklahoma City: Times Journal Publishing, 1948), pp. 160–173.

²⁰ Ibid.; Adjutant General's Office, Post Returns, Fort Reno, January 31, 1885.

²¹ Army and Navy Journal, Vol. XXII, pp. 741, 780; Adjutant General's Office, Post Returns, Fort Reno, June 30, 1885.

²² Army and Navy Journal, Vol. XXII, PP. 741, 780; George H. Shirk, “Action on Chilocco Creek,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXVI, No. 2 (Surmmer, 1948), p. 234.

²³ Ibid., pp. 234–238.

²⁴ Ibid., pp. 239–247.

²⁵ Ibid., pp. 248–257. The entire report of the maneuvers at Camp Schofield was reprinted as a supplement to the Army and Navy Journal for January and February of 1890.

FORT SILL: THE FORMATIVE YEARS

By Timothy A. Zwink

In January, 1869, Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson, commander of the 10th United States Cavalry, rode to the proposed site of a new fort which was to be nestled at the foothills of the Wichita Mountains. Arriving at the location near Cache Creek in southwestern Indian Territory, he studied the site, dismounted and took the saddle from his horse. Then he threw the harness to the ground saying, “We will build the post here.” Later that month General Philip Sheridan, commanding the Department of the Missouri, visited the camp to approve Grierson's selection. There the general gave his personal assistance in officially creating the post by holding the first stake driven to make the parade ground.¹

This began the long and eventful history of Fort Sill. For more than a century the role of Fort Sill changed with the times: during its early years troopers patrolled the prairies for hostile Indians, but more recently artillery-men have directed cannon and missile fire at distant targets. A cursory view of the fort's history shows its changing personality, its adaptation from frontier to modern times while remaining a protective fortress that continually has served American interests at home and abroad.

First to recognize the need for a post at this site was Captain Randolph B. Marcy, 5th United States Infantry, and Brevet Captain George B. McClellan, Corps of Engineers. In 1852 they were ordered by the War Department to explore the Red River and its surrounding regions.² After completing the assignment, Marcy reported to the Secretary of War:

A garrison established near the western extremity of the Wichita range of mountains would be in the heart of the Comanche country, and near the point where they cross Red river upon their marauding expeditions into Texas and Mexico.³

However, this recommendation went unheeded until after the Civil War.⁴

With the outbreak of the Civil War, all building of western forts ceased. Fort Cobb had been established in 1859 on the Washita River to protect and police the villages of the Wichita and Caddo Indians, but its location was too far north to protect the Texas border. Soon after the war ended, military authorities decided that a post was needed farther south. As a result of Sheridan's winter campaign in 1868–1869 against the Cheyenne, Kiowa and other Indians of the southern plains, Fort Cobb was abandoned because of its poor location. The focus of military operations then was moved to the junction of Cache and Medicine Bluff creeks (near the eastern base of the Wichita Mountains) as Marcy had suggested years before.⁵

Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson and party, Medicine Bluffs, Fort Sill, 1869 (Fort Sill Museum)

Colonel Grierson explored the site in May, 1868, and reported to Sheridan that it was an excellent location for a new post. A final survey of the site was made in December, 1868, by Grierson, Colonel William B. Hazen, 38th United States Infantry and Major George A. Forsythe, 9th United States Cavalry. These officers recommended immediate occupation of the location.⁶

“Bird's eye view of Fort Sill, I. T.,” 1877, by Brigadier General S. B. Holabird (Fort Sill Museum)

During the first week in January, 1869, Sheridan ordered the troops and Indians to move from Fort Cobb to the new camp, approximately thirty-six miles south of the Washita River. Troops of the 7th United States Cavalry, 10th United States Cavalry, 19th Kansas Volunteers and 6th United States Infantry began the move. By January 10 all the troops were at the new site, which had an abundance of water, grass and building materials. The black troops of the 10th United States Cavalry and the white troops of the 6th United States Infantry were directed to construct and garrison the new post.⁷

The camp was established on January 7, 1869, by Sheridan, and construction began the next day. During the first year troops were quartered in shabby tents, while Grierson had his headquarters in a picket house near Medicine Bluff Creek. Other officers were housed in crude huts of the same picket type. Soldiers built the first buildings at Camp Wichita by using rough logs cut along Medicine Bluff Creek. The materials for more permanent structures could not be obtained during those early years of the camp because the nearest railroad station was some 300 miles to the north at Fort Harker in Kansas.⁸

“Fort Sill, I. T., general plan of post, 1874” (Fort Sill Museum)

Initially the new garrison was called Camp Wichita (or Camp Medicine Bluff). However, on July 2, 1869, the camp was renamed Fort Sill in honor of Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill. Sheridan recommended this change to honor his classmate at West Point who had been killed on December 31, 1862, in the Battle of Stone River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Fort Sill was to serve as the base of operations against such hostile south plains Indians as the Cheyenne, Comanche and Kiowa. It also replaced Fort Cobb as the Indian agency headquarters for the tribes in the immediate area.⁹

Construction of the permanent stone buildings began at Fort Sill in the spring, 1870. A few skilled civilian artisans and foremen were recruited in Kansas to direct the building. Stone masons, brick layers, sawyers, carpenters and plasterers were hired by the quartermaster. However, soldiers of the 10th United States Cavalry did most of the actual labor. Troops from the 6th United States Infantry helped the “buffalo soldiers” quarry stone at Quarry Hill east of the post. These men also erected warehouses and quarters. Along Cache Creek they burned lime in homemade kilns for plaster, and lumber came from timber cut near neighboring Mount Scott and Mount Sheridan. In 1871 nearly all the building was completed at a negligible cost to the government. The parsimonious Congress had appropriated only $10,000 for the hospital. Originally, the fort was designed as a six-company post, but soon that capacity was passed. Other construction continued slowly, and was interrupted intermittently by patrols and campaigns against hostile Indians.¹⁰

Although General Sheridan drove the Kiowa and Comanche onto their reservation, they remained restive. In 1870 warriors made repeated raids on government stock at Fort Sill, resulting in a substantial loss of horses and mules. Consequently a stone corral and other defensive positions were built at the post. A large pentagonal redoubt and two smaller redoubts were built to guard the fort. The blockhouse on Signal Mountain six miles west of the post also was built in 1871 as an outpost to warn the fort's soldiers of the arrival of friend and foe.¹¹

Other buildings were constructed during the early years of Fort Sill. In the summer of 1873 the stone guardhouse was completed, and the chapel was erected during 1875 and 1876. This ended the building program during the post's frontier period.¹²

The original military reservation was quadrangular-shaped and had an area of approximately thirty-six square miles. The main building formed a square enclosing the parade ground. With a garrison strength never more than 800 troops and frequently less than 300, the post's solitary location on the oceanlike prairies provided an inviting target for hostile Indian raiders. Oxen and mule trains had to haul supplies there from distant Westport, Missouri.¹³

Crowd of people observing games that are being played on the Old post parade ground, Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory, c1890s (Fort Sill Museum)

Post chapel, Fort Sill, in use as children's school, 1896 (Fort Sill Museum)

North line of quarters, Fort Sill, Indian Territory, c1870–1880 (Fort Sill Museum)

The isolation of the post was evident. Fort Richardson, the principal post in Texas, was 123 miles to the south, while the Wichita Indian Agency was 35 miles north. The Cheyenne Indian Agency was 75 miles north. Camp Supply was 190 miles to the northwest. Nevertheless, visitors reveled in the beauty of Fort Sill's location. On his first inspection tour of the region, General William T. Sherman commented, “This is a magnificent military site.” Arriving from Fort Richardson in 1872 Lieutenant R. G. Carter wrote, “A more beautiful locality could hardly be imagined, wild, romantic and full of nature…”¹⁴

Often Fort Sill was the center of dramatic military activity during its early years. Established primarily to control the Indians and protect the Kiowa and Comanche Agency, it also became the meeting place for Indian and military leaders. In May, 1871, Kiowa warriors nearly killed General Sherman at a parley on the porch of the commanding officer's house at Fort Sill. With Indian depredations occurring in the vicinity, troops were kept occupied on numerous patrols of the area. The punitive expeditions against the south plains Indians in 1874 and 1875 brought the final pacification of these native nomads. These military maneuvers were directed by such noted military officers as Generals Ranald MacKenzie, Nelson Miles and John “Black Jack” Davidson, and their base of operations centered at Fort Sill.¹⁵

With peace attained on the prairies, soldiers at Fort Sill became burdened with the task of protecting the Indians and their reservation lands against white intruders. Texans drove cattle across reserve grasslands, outlaws found refuge and unsuspecting victims on the reservation and whiskey peddlers plied the Indians with their debauching spirits. Troops from Fort Sill constantly pursued and arrested the interlopers, while trying to protect the once proud but often helpless Indians.¹⁶

The soldiers at Fort Sill also had to cope with the poor living conditions which were common at most frontier posts. Water supply, sewage systems and sanitary facilities failed to be fully developed at the fort. Consequently, epidemics of malaria, typhoid and dysentery frequently ravaged the garrison. However, in 1884, Surgeon Morse K. Taylor supervised the building of a spring house at the fort. The luxury of bath tubs was added to the barracks and officers’ quarters. Wash basins also were installed to improve the soldiers’ personal hygiene, and constant efforts were made by the post surgeon to better the living environment.¹⁷

Military life at Fort Sill also was similar to that at other western frontier posts. Sleepy troopers arose when reveille sounded at daybreak, and after a full day of work, tired men were in their bunks when taps sounded at 9:00 p.m. When the soldiers at Fort Sill were not pursuing recalcitrant Indians and renegade whites, they found the routine of post duty boring and monotonous. At the isolated fort men were assigned such fatigue duty as cutting hay, sawing lumber, baking lime, repairing equipment and cleaning the garrison's grounds. Because of the drab duty soldiers searched for various types of amusement and entertainment. Some of these were found in the form of wrestling, foot races, horse racing and drinking. Although their life generally was hard, the frontier regulars of Fort Sill performed commendably as policemen of the prairies.¹⁸

Troop of 8th Cavalry on Old post ground, Fort Sill, c1900 (Fort Sill Museum)

In 1891 news of the Ghost Dance movement arrived from the northern plains. By the combined efforts and peaceful intervention of Lieutenant (later General) Hugh L. Scott and I-See-O, his Indian aide, a volatile confrontation was averted. Scott also influenced the decision of military authorities to locate Geronimo and his fellow prisoners-of-war at Fort Sill in 1894. In 1913, after nearly twenty years at the post, most of the Apaches were released as prisoners-of-war.¹⁹

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Fort Sill bustled with activity. On July 4, 1901, the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation was parceled out to white settlers. Hundreds of homesteaders converged on Fort Sill to take part in the lottery that was held at the post. With the sudden influx of newcomers came the birth of Lawton, which was established a few miles from the fort. The townsite was named for General Henry W. Lawton, a soldier who had been the quartermaster at Fort Sill in the 1880s and a part of the expedition against Geronimo in the southwestern deserts.²⁰

With the arrival in 1902 of the 29th Battery of Field Artillery, Fort Sill experienced a transformation that significantly influenced the future of the post. The 2d Provisional Regiment of Field Artillery was organized three years later at Fort Sill, and then the Chief of Staff of the Army recognized that the varied and expansive terrain of the Fort Sill Reservation was ideal for artillery maneuvers. By 1907, the 1st Field Artillery was organized, and its headquarters and three batteries were stationed at the post.²¹

From the establishment of Fort Sill in 1869 to 1905, the fort had been a typical western army post. It had been at a strategic position in the battle to control Indian raiders and to protect Indian reservations. However, this type of frontier post had become obsolete. In 1905 the Quartermaster General had reported: “Among posts which should either be abandoned or rebuilt in whole or in part, if they are to be permanently retained, may be mentioned Fort Sill, Oklahoma.”²² However, the artillery had arrived, and Fort Sill was not abandoned. The climate, water and terrain influenced the decision by army officials to retain the post. New buildings were erected and additional barracks were constructed. With the new surge in expansion came what was called the “New Post.” Structures of the “Old Post” remained and were used by the army in its activities. The “New Post” grew rapidly to provide service for the needs of the army.²³

¹ Captain Richard T. Jacobs, “Military Reminiscences of Captain Richard T. Jacobs,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. II, No. 1 (March, 1924), p. 13; John Murphy, “Reminiscenses of the Washita Campaign,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. I, No. 2 (June, 1923), pp. 266–267.

² Randolph B. Marcy, “Expedition of the Red River of Louisiana in the Year 1852,” Senate Executive Document No. 54, 32nd Congress, 2 Session, p. 1.

³ Ibid., p. 88.

⁴ William B. Morrison, Military Posts and Camps in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Corporation, 1936), p. 159.

⁵ Ibid., p. 160; P. H. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan (2 vols.; New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1888), Vol. II, p. 338.

⁶ Marvin Kroeker, Great Plains Command: William B. Hazen in the Frontier West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), p. 86; William H. Leckie, The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967), p. 45; Carolyn Thomas Foreman, “General William Babcock Hazen,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XX, No. 3 (September 1942), p. 332.

⁷ William H. Leckie, Military Conquest of the Southern Plains (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), p. 112; Lieutenant Colonel Melbourne C. Chandler, Of Garryowen in Glory: The History of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment (Annandale, Virginia: The Turnpike Press, Inc., 1960), p. 28; “Brief History of Fort Sill,” Fort Sill Museum Library, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, p. 1.

⁸ G. A. Custer, My Life on the Plains, ed. by Milo Milton Quaife (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971), p. 467n; Robert W. Frazer, Forts of the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), p. 124; W. H. Quinette, “Early Days at Fort Sill,” Prairie Lore, Vol. IV (October, 1967), p. 171; Morris Swett, Fort Sill, Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society, p. 17.

⁹ Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 338–339; General Orders, No. 25, 1869, Headquarters, Department of the Missouri, Fort Sill Museum Library, Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Robert M. Utley, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866–1891 (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1973), pp. 154–155; Wilbur S. Nye, Plains Indian Raiders (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968), p. 144; Wilbur S. Nye, Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969), p. 100.

¹⁰ Vinson Lackey, “Fort Sill,” Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society, pp. 3–4; Gillett Griswold, “Old Fort Sill: The First Seven Years,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (Spring, 1958), p. 4; The Lawton Constitution and Morning Press, March 11, 1973; Nye, Carbine and Lance, p. 122; Major E. L. N. Glass (comp. and ed.), The History of the Tenth Cavalry, 1866–1921 (Fort Collins, Colorado: The Old Army Press, 1972), p. 18; “Brief History of Fort Sill,” pp. 1–2.

¹¹ Ibid.; Griswold, “Old Fort Sill, p. 4.

¹² Ibid., p. 5.

¹³ Ibid., pp. 5–6.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ Ibid., pp. 6, 7, 12 ; Robert G. Athearn, William Tecumseh Sherman and the Settlement of the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956), pp. 293–294; “Brief History of Fort Sill,” pp. 2–3.

¹⁶ Ibid.; The Lawton Constitution and Morning Press (Lawton), March 11, 1973; Gillett Griswold, “Fort Sill, Oklahoma: A Brief History,” Fort Sill Museum Library, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, pp. 5, 8.

¹⁷ Medical History of Fort Sill, 1873–1880, Archives, Oklahoma Historical Society; Lackey, “Fort Sill,” p. 6.

¹⁸ General Order No. 14, January 30, 1873, Fort Sill, as cited in Major Morris U. Lively, “Early Day Orders at Fort Sill,” Fort Sill Museum Library, Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Don Rickey, Jr., Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), pp. 88–213.

¹⁹ Morris Swett, “Sergeant I-See-O, Kiowa Indian Scout,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. XIII, No. 3 (September, 1935), PP. 349–350; Swett, Fort Sill, pp. 20–25; “Brief History,” p. 3.

²⁰ Nye, Carbine and Lance, pp. 304–308; Griswold, “Fort Sill, Oklahoma,” p. 8.

²¹ Swett, Fort Sill, pp. 22, 24; Nye, Carbine and Lance, p. 315; “Brief History,” p. 3.

²² Swett, Fort Sill, p. 22.

²³ Ibid.; United States, Congressional Record, 70th Congress, 1st session, 1928, Vol. LXIX, Part 8, p. 8957.

FORT RENO: DEFENDER OF THE SOUTHERN PLAIN

By W. Edwin Derrick

An old tree-lined wagon road winds in a westerly direction from Fort Reno, passing over pasture and grassland for about half a mile. At the end of this is the old post cemetery. Surrounded by a four-foot rock wall, it is located on a cedar-dotted knoll overlooking the former military reservation. The gravestones, which date from 1874 to 1947, are symbolic reminders of the significance of Fort Reno and the role it played in defending the interests of the United States.

The fort was established in 1874, primarily for the protection of the Darlington Agency from Cheyenne uprisings which began in the early spring of that year. Originally called the “Post at the Cheyenne Agency,” it officially was created on July 17, 1874, with the troops temporarily quartered at Darlington. The camp was within the boundaries of the Reservation of the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians.¹

Early in the spring, 1874, the Cheyenne violence became so general that Agent John D. Miles armed his employees. Warned by friendly Arapahoes that the Cheyennes intended an attack on the agency, Miles sent urgent appeals to Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for military aid. A company of soldiers started from Fort Sill, but it got no farther than the Wichita Agency (near the present Anadarko, Oklahoma), where they became involved in a serious fight with hostile Indians. Lieutenant General Phillip H. Sheridan thereupon sent four companies of infantry and a troop of cavalry to Darlington, and they were successful in quieting the rebellious Indians.² Miles convinced Sheridan that the agency should not remain unguarded, and a request for a permanent encampment was forwarded to the War Department. A site for the new post was selected by the agent and Captain Theodore J. Wint, about one mile southwest of Darlington, on the south side of the North Canadian River (three miles west and one mile north of El Reno, Oklahoma). It was named Fort Reno on February 21, 1876, by Sheridan in honor of Major General Jesse L. Reno, United States Volunteers, who died in September, 1862, at the Battle of South Mountain in western Maryland. The fort was built as a stockade in 1876, but the original military reservation was carved out of the Cheyenne and Arapaho land holdings by executive order on July 17, 1883, and originally consisted of 9,593 acres. Major John K. Mizner was the first post commander (Lieutenant Colonel Thomas H. Neill had been assigned as commander when the troops were sent to the area in 1874 to protect the agency). Colonel Nelson A. Miles operated the fort in 1875–1876 in a campaign to stop the Indian raids. Sheridan came later in 1876, along with Brevet Brigadier General George A. Custer. In the winter, 1877, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie conducted a vigorous attack against the hostile Indians in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico, operating from Fort Reno as a base.³

By 1875, the last of the hostile Indians had been returned to the agency. However, after the cold winter passed, a band of the boldest Cheyenne warriors fled to the sand hills along the North Canadian River where they had hidden a supply of guns; there they dug in to fight the pursuing soldiers. Led by Neill, the troops attacked on the afternoon of April 6. Fighting continued until nightfall; however, there were not enough soldiers to guard the hill and the Indians were able to escape during darkness. Casualties at the Battle of Sand Hill included nineteen troopers wounded and eleven Indians killed, including their leader, Chief Black Horse.⁴

An artist sketch of Fort Reno, 1891

The frontier was changing rapidly. Perhaps the most significant alteration of the geographical landscape was the destruction of the buffalo. Soldiers from Fort Reno accompanied the Indians on their annual buffalo hunt, and during the winter of 1876–1877 more than 7,000 animals were killed. The Indians near the post also tanned 15,000 hides for traders, who paid them two dollars apiece for these. This for the most part was their means of livelihood. The next year, however, the hunt was a disaster; only 219 buffalo were killed, and they received only 640 robes from traders to tan.

Army camp on site of Fort Reno before Fort Reno was built

The millions of buffalo that once had blackened the Western prairies were gone; the federal government unwillingly prepared to provide for the Indians.⁵

Thousands of cattle were driven into corrals near Fort Reno to be distributed on beef-issue days to the Indians. Each cow was branded and released through the gate “on the hoof,” to be pursued by the whooping Indian to whom it had been assigned. This system enabled the Indian to reenact the buffalo hunt of earlier years as he shot the animal with arrows. As the cow dropped to the ground, the squaw and children who had been following the chase with a travois began skinning it.⁶

Following the close of the Sioux-Cheyenne campaigns in the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming in 1877, a large group of Northern Cheyenne were removed to the Indian Territory as part of their punishment for participataing in the Sioux wars. On August 5, 1877, First Lieutenant Henry Lawton arrived at Fort Reno with 937 Cheyennes after a seventy-day journey. The task of guarding, moving and feeding these disgruntled prisoners was accomplished by only twenty civilians, who had charge of the pack train and wagons, and seventeen troops. A year after their arrival, on September 9, 1878, more than 350 of these Indians, led by Dull Knife, Wild Hog and Little Wolf, fled the reservation through Indian Territory, Kansas, and Nebraska, hoping to make their way back to their northern home. Troops set out from Fort Reno to prevent a general Indian uprising. This insurrection was the immediate cause of the establishment of Cantonment, an Army post midway to Fort Supply.⁷

By 1880 a set of officers’ quarters, built of brick, was under construction at Fort Reno. Better wells were dug and walled up with stone, shade trees were planted and paths were graveled. Captain George M. Randall commanded the post of approximately 300 cavalry troops, while more than 1,500 Indians were located near the Darlington agency. As a result of a shortage of rations (the War Department believed that the Indians still had plenty of buffalo and ordered the agency to restrict beef rations), most of the Indians were in an unmanageable and angry mood. After being refused additional supplies, some of the young braves struck Agent Miles in the face with their riding quirts and made for the sand hills. Randall at once ordered out his garrison to arrest these insurgents, only to be met by a large force of armed Indians. Facing the possible extinction of Fort Reno and the agency, the captain resorted to a bluff by telling the Indians that on the way from Caldwell, Kansas, were more troops than there were blades of grass on the prairie before them. The bluff worked and bloodshed was avoided; nevertheless, the troops remaining at the fort had their cannon trained on the location of the conference and were prepared to fire if Randall was attacked.⁸

Much of the work of the troops at Fort Reno during the 1880s had to do with keeping the area free from incursions by white men. Most notable were the encounters with David L. Payne and the Boomers, who attempted to organize permanent settlements in the Indian Territory on land not assigned to any particular tribe. Western Oklahoma's first newspaper, the Cheyenne Transporter, published at Darlington from 1879 to 1885, noted that the “Oklahoma boom” had called away the greater portion of the garrison and that Fort Reno was remarkably dull.⁹ Punishing the Boomers was difficult, if not impossible. W. A. Eaton, editor of the Cheyenne Transporter, observed that many of the trespassers were arrested, and removed to Fort Reno for detention. They would be kept for a few days and then “sent on their way rejoicing—back to Kansas—from whence a fresh start for Oklahoma would be made.”¹⁰ Disciplining Payne was hazardous also, for by his numerous arrests he was able to posture himself as harassed and persecuted by the Army. By his persistence he focused national attention on the valuable and unoccupied lands.

The cavalrymen at the fort also were used during the 1880s to keep roaming herds of cattle out of the reservation. Herds being driven up the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Kansas normally went through the unassigned lands. However, the cattle occasionally left the trail and grazed on the grass on the reservation. The Indians were angry at this encroachment, and leases of land to cattlemen were made. Every issue of the Cheyenne Transporter carried pictures of the brands of the paying ranchers; the intent was to alert everyone to this arrangement and prevent confusion. Nevertheless, the leasing agreement did not work satisfactorily, and in June, 1885, the Indians threatened to kill the new agent, B. D. Dyer, and burn the agency. This volatile condition caused President Grover Cleveland to send Sheridan, Miles and reinforcements into the territory of the Cheyenne in the summer of 1885 to expel the cattlemen and discourage the Indians from further hostilities.¹¹

National interest continued to develop during the 1880s in the empty “Oklahoma” lands, and Congress at last voted to open 2,000,000 acres to settlement. Troops from Fort Reno guarded the boundaries in 1889, and attempted to preserve peace and order among the huge hordes of land-hungry people. The previous ordeal with the Boomers evolved into a new confrontation with “Sooners,” the name given individuals and families who attempted to move into the territory before the proper time. Patrols searched the area to insure that no one gained early access. However, many did. At noon on April 22, 1889, soldiers from the post fired their guns as a signal to start the land run; by nightfall the entire region was spotted with homesteaders who had claimed 160-acre tracts in the rural areas or fifty-foot lots in areas plotted for towns.

During the 1890s troops from Fort Reno often were called out to suppress disturbances among the Five Civilized Tribes when political disputes arose. In late 1892 a company of soldiers was ordered to Tuskahoma, the Choctaw capital, to preserve peace during the opening of the council and the election which followed. The presence of troops effectively restored order, but the following spring political factions again resorted to violence, an incident known as the Antlers War. Troops were called in from Fort Reno, and order was restored.¹²

Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Scouts at Fort Reno, 1892

Tribal government was threatened by the growing number of white settlers moving into the Indian Territory, as well as by increasing numbers of tribal members accepting land allotments in severalty. In 1900 this sparked an open rebellion in the Creek Nation, led by Crazy Snake, who organized a rival government in defiance of the legitimate chief, Pleasant Porter. He also established a light-horse cavalry, and intimidated those who accepted allotments. A troop of cavalry from Fort Reno captured Crazy Snake and sixty-seven of his followers. After a short imprisonment, the rebels were released on parole. This was the final attempt by Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes to avoid absorption into the white civilization.¹³

During President Theodore Roosevelt's second term, Fort Reno experienced its final incident of national significance. In August, 1906, black soldiers at Fort Brown, Texas, reportedly were involved in a shooting brawl with white citizens from nearby Brownsville. Although only a few of the soldiers were implicated, a military investigation failed to indicate the perpetrators, and the president ordered the entire First Battalion of the 25th Cavalry discharged. The black troops were ordered to Fort Reno where this severe order was carried out.¹⁴

Part of the old horse barn Fort Reno, 1929

Army barracks at Fort Reno, 1929

With the opening of all Indian lands to settlement, there was little need for Fort Reno. The soldiers were removed and the fort was formally abandoned on February 24, 1908. The buildings were placed in the care of Benjamin Clark, who had served as chief of scouts under Custer. However, the popularity of the cavalry in the Indian wars and in the recently concluded Spanish-American War brought new life to Fort Reno when the Federal government converted the large reservation into a remount depot. The Fort Reno Remount Station, under the command of Captain Letcher H. Hardeman with a civilian staff, was taken over by the Quartermaster Corps on May 25, 1908.¹⁵ Horses and mules were purchased, trained and distributed to various military stations as needed, and the remount station became noted for the high quality of its artillery and polo horses.

Officers quarters, Fort Reno, 1929

In its final days, Fort Reno lost many of its military characteristics. However, during World War II the post was a place of confinement for German and Italian prisoners of war. The old military cemetery was enlarged to include the graves of more than seventy of these men. With the close of the war, Fort Reno changed emphasis. Long used as an instrument of war, it became a tool of peace in July, 1948, when the United States Department of Agriculture and Oklahoma State University assumed control of it and established a livestock experiment station there. Experiments in breeding, feeding and disease elimination were the major areas of concern. Thus the post continued its tradition of service. The purpose and direction had altered over the decades, but Fort Reno remained in service to the American people.

¹ “Fort Reno,” Fred Barde Papers, Library, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

² United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1874 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1874), pp. 232–234.

³ Fred Barde Papers.

⁴ “Fort Reno,” Archives, Carnegie Library, El Reno, Oklahoma.

⁵ United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1877 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1877), p. 82; United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1873 (Washington: Government Printing Office 1874), p. 55; United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1879 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1879), p. 58.

⁶ Herbert E. Rollins, Warpath and Cattle Trail (New York: Morrow and Company, 1928), p. 180; and Fred Barde Papers.

⁷ Joseph B. Thoburn and Muriel Wright, History of Oklahoma (4 vols., New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1929), Vol. II, p. 860.

⁸ Fred Barde Papers; and Henry C. Kelling, “My Experience with the Cheyenne Indians,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. III, No. 1 (April, 1925), pp. 67–68.

⁹ Cheyenne Transporter (El Reno), December 24, 1880.

¹⁰ Ibid., November 26, 1880.

¹¹ Fred Barde Papers.

¹² RCIA, 1892, pp. 260–263.

¹³ RCIA, 1901, Part I, pp. 235–237; and Thoburn, History of Oklahoma, Vol. II, pp. 617–618.

¹⁴ Fred Barde Papers.

¹⁵ Robert W. Frazer, Forts of the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), p. 123; and passim.

EARLY MILITARY FORTS, POSTS AND CAMPS IN OKLAHOMA

By Mac R. Harris

The first removal of the Cherokees in 1817 to the new lands in the west precipitated the establishment of military posts in that region. The first of these, located at Fort Smith, Arkansas Territory, was founded as a government post to deal with the Cherokees as they established their new homes, and also to ease the friction between them and the settlers already in that area.¹ Agitation by these settlers caused the United States Government to move the Western Cherokees into lands comprising present-day Oklahoma and Kansas as early as 1819. As the Indians moved into this territory, construction of Fort Gibson was begun. In May, 1824, Fort Towson followed Fort Gibson as a government offensive and defensive post. Fort Towson was to become to the Choctaws and Chickasaws what Fort Gibson had become to the Cherokees and Creeks. In the decade which followed, Government funded surveys of the newly acquired lands led to the establishment of more posts and camps.²

The declaration of war against Mexico in 1846 halted the exploration of the West for a time, as the United States Army turned its attention toward Texas and Mexico. But the end of this war in 1848 again brought the caravans of traders and settlers across the Great Plains. They poured across the empty plains by the thousands in search of gold, land and adventure. Yet, the encroachment of the white man posed no serious problem for the Indians of the Great Plains in the 1850s, for they looked on the wagon trains of the white man with curiosity. However, by the 1870s the invasion of these people resulted in the reduction of the food supply and timber land so vital to the nomadic Plains Indians. Contrary to earlier opinions, the loss of land was not realized as much by the Indians as was the loss of buffalo and natural resources.³ The natural instinct of the Plains Indians to raid and plunder soon turned toward the new menace of the East—the white settler. The protection of these settlers and traders fell to the United States Army. The construction of posts and forts resulted in a buffer between the advancement of the settlers and the Plains Indians. In addition, the Five Civilized Tribes welcomed the construction of a string of forts along their western borders as a means of ensuring their security, since their society was dependent upon the raising of crops and the grazing of cattle.

The following chronology of camps, forts and posts cannot be considered complete. It is hoped this list will draw more attention to the importance of military encampments in the settlement of Oklahoma. The division of this list into major and minor posts does not necessarily reflect the importance of each post, but rather the time period in which each was active. Many of the camps were only temporary, having been mentioned in diaries and correspondence of the officers in charge. In some cases the locations of the camps are vague, and it is possible that their exact locations will never be found. As more research is done in this area, it is hoped this list will grow and a new compilation will be printed.

MILITARY FORTS, POSTS AND CAMPS

FORT GIBSON | Southwest of Fort Smith, Arkansas | 1817–1824; April, 1861—September 3, 1863, Confederate occupation; Returned control September, 1863 to September, 1871.
*FORT GIBSON     *See also       Fort Blunt. | East side of Grand River, Present day town of Fort Gibson, Muskogee County. S. 1,2,11, T 15N R 19E | April 20, 1824-June 1856; April, 1863–1890.
FORT TOWSON, (Camp Phoenix and Cantonment Towson.) | 1 mile Northeast of present day town of Fort Towson, Choctaw County. S.24, T6S, R20E. | 1824–1829; moved to Gates Creek in 1831–1854; Confederate occupied, 1863–1865.
FORT COFFEE | 6 miles north of Spiro, LeFlore County. S.30, T.10N, R.26E. | 1834.
CAMP ARBUCKLE | 1 mile Northwest of Byars, McClain County. S.4, T.5N, R.2E. | 1832–1834.
FORT ARBUCKLE | 3 miles east of Keystone, Tulsa County. S.2, T.19N, R.26E. | 1834.
FORT WAYNE #1 | East of Watts, Adair County. S.1, T.19N, R.26E. | 1838.
FORT WAYNE #2 | Near Spavinaw, Mayes County. S.28, T.22n, R.25E. | 1839–1862; Confederate occupied, 1861.
POST AT CHICKASAW AGENCY | Chickasaw Agency. | 1834.
**FORT EDWARDS **See also Camp Holmes | Near the mouth of the Little River. | 1834?
CAMP LEAVENWORTH | 2 miles south of Kingston, Marshall County. S.7, T.7n, R.1W. | 1834.
CAMP MASON (Also called Fort Holmes and Mason's Fort.) | East and north of present day Lexington, Cleveland County. S.17, T7N, R.1W. | 1835–1840.
ROSS’ LANDING POST AT | Mouth of Ross Creek, Choctaw Nation. | 1836?
CHOUTEAU'S CREEK CAMP | Near Cherokee, Alfalfa County. T.26N, R11W. | 1838.
CAMP WASHITA | Near mouth of Washita River, Bryan County. S.22, T.5S, R7E. | 1834.
FORT WASHITA | Northwestern Bryan County, 12 miles from the mouth of the Washita River. S.22, T.5S, R7E. | April, 1842—May 1, 1861; occupied by Confederate forces, 1861–1865.
CAMP HOLMES | Mouth of the Little River. | 1834.
FORT ARBUCKLE | 6 miles west of Davis, Garvin County. S.25, T.1N, R.1W. | 1851–1861; 1861–1867; 1867–1870.
CAMP RADZIMINSKI #1 (Also called Camp Otter Creek and Otter Creek Station.) | 1½ miles north and 2½ miles west of Mountain Park, Kiowa County. NE ¼ S.16, T.3N, R17W. | 1858–1859.
CAMP RADZIMINSKI #2 | 5 miles north of Mountain Park, Kiowa County. S.16, T3N, R17W. | 1858–1859.
FORT COBB | 1 mile east of present day Fort Cobb, Caddo County. NW ¼ S.12, T7N, R12W. | 1859–1861; Confederate occupied, 1862.
FORT DAVIS (Confederate) | 1 mile north of Bacone College, Muskogee County. S.7, T15N, R.19E. | 1861–1862.
CAMP McINTOSH (Confederate) | 5 miles east of Anadarko, Caddo County. S.17, T.7N. R9W. | 1861–1865.
CAMP ARMSTRONG (Confederate camp and hospital.) | 3 miles northeast of Bokchito, Bryan County. T.6S, R11E. ? | 1862–1865.
FORT McCULLOCH | 3 miles southwest of Kenefic, Bryan County. S.7, T.5S, R9E. | 1862–1865.
CAMP AT PERRYVILLE DEPOT | 3 miles south of McAlester, Pittsburg County. T5N, R.14–15. ? | 1862.
FORT BLUNT | Name applied to Fort Gibson during Civil War, named for Major General J. G. Blunt. | 1863–1865.
FORT SUPPLY | Near present town of Fort Supply, Woodward County. S.8, T.24N, R.12W. | 1868–1893.
FORT SILL (Also called Camp at Medicine Bluff, and Camp Wichita.) | North of Lawton, Comanche County. S.1, T.2N, R.12W. | 1869–.
FORT RENO | West of present day town of El Reno, Canadian County. S.34, T.13N, R.8W. | 1874–1948.
CANTONMENT | 5 miles northwest of Canton, Blaine County. S.29, T.19N, R.13W. | 1879–1882.

MINOR POSTS AND CAMPS IN INDIAN TERRITORY

CAMP CANADIAN | North of Atwood, Hughes County | 1834.
CAMP CASS | 4 miles south of Stidham, McIntosh County. | 1834.
CAMP CHOCTAW | Stephens County. | 1834.
CAMP COMANCHE | Cache Creek, near Apache, S. 7–8, T. 4N., R.11W. | 1834.
CAMP CEDAR | Near the mouth of the Cimarron, may have been predecessor of Camp Arbuckle. | 1834.
CAMP JACKSON | 1 mile from present day Fort Gibson. | 1834.
CAMP LEAVENWORTH | Around Kingston, Marshall County. | 1834.
CAMP OSAGE | Southern Pontotoc County, south of Jesse. | 1834.
CAMP RENDEZVOUS | 18 miles from Fort Gibson | 1834.
CAMP SMITH | 25 miles west of the Washita River ? | 1834.
CAMP NEOSHO | Opposite Fort Gibson | 1850.
CAMP McDANIEL | Near present town of Owasso, Tulsa County. | 1861.
CAMP WASHITA | Now under Lake Texoma, South of Rock Creek. | 1834.
CAMP JUMPER (Confederate) | Near Eufaula, McIntosh County. | 1862.
CAMP BOGGY DEPOT (Confederate) | North of Atoka, Atoka County. | 1863–1864.
CAMP QUAPAW (Confederate) | Near Hudson's Crossing on Quapaw land. | 1863.
CAMP ROSS (Confederate) | Near the home of John Ross, Parkhill, Cherokee County. S.15, T.16N, R.22E. | 1863.
CAMP WATTLES (Confederate) | Near the mouth of Pryor Creek, Mayes County. | 1862–1863.
CAMP STEEL (Confederate) | Choctaw Nation near Fort Smith. | winter of 1862.
CAMP BRASSIE (Confederate) | Cherokee Nation. | 1863.
CAMP PRAIRIE SPRINGS (Confederate) | Choctaw Nation. | 1863.
CAMP IMOCHIAH (Confederate) | Choctaw Nation. | 1863.
CAMP ILLINOIS | Same as Fort Wayne. |
CAMP BROOKIN (Confederate) | Near Brookin, south of the Canadian River, Haskell County. | 1862.
CAMP NICHOLS | Near Boise City, Cimarron County, 6 miles east of Oklahoma-New Mexico line. S. 2, T.3N, R. 1E. | 1865.
CAMP NAPOLEON (Confederate) | Near present day Verden, Grady County. S. 18, T.7N, R.8W. | 1865.
CAMP AUGER | 5 miles southwest of Grandfield, Tillman County. S. 31, T.4S, R.4W. | 1870–1871.
SHERIDAN'S ROOST | Near Orion, Major County. | 1870.
CAMP ROBINSON | On Otter Creek at the old Radziminski Crossing. | 1871.
†CAMP CHILOCCO | South of Arkansas City, Kansas. | 1885.
†CAMP GUTHRIE | Guthrie, Logan County. | 1889–1891.
†CAMP SCHOFIELD | 3 miles east of Chilocco, Kay County. | 1889.
†CAMP OKLAHOMA | Oklahoma Station, present town of Oklahoma City. | 1889.
†CAMP PRICE | South of Arkansas City, Kansas. | 1889.
†CAMP AT PURCELL | Near present day Purcell, McClain County. | 1889.
†CAMP AT KINGFISHER | Near present day Kingfisher, Kingfisher County. | 1889.
†CAMP RUSSEL | 7 miles northeast of Guthrie, Logan County. | 1883–1885.
CAMP HICKORY | During Smoke Meat Rebellion. | 1909.
CAMP TIGER | West of Tiger Mountain, Okmulgee County. | 1909.
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR CAMP    (no name given.) | East of Fort Reno, Canadian County. | July–August, 1898.
CAMP BOB WILLIAMS | Oklahoma City Fairgrounds, Oklahoma County. | September, 1916.

†Note: These camps were established to control the settlers making the run into Oklahoma Territory.

¹ William Brown Morrison, Military Posts and Camps in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Corporation, 1936), p. 3.

² See J. H. Moore, The Political Conditions of the Indians and the Resources of the Indian Territory (St. Louis: Southwestern Book and Publishing Company, 1874); Randolph B. Marcy and George B. McClellan, Adventure on Red River, Grant Foreman, ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1937); Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, eds., Relations with the Indians of the Plains, 1857–1861 (Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1959); Albert de Pourtalès, On the Western Tour with Washington Irving, George F. Spaulding, ed., Seymour Feiler, trans. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968).

³ Robert M. Utley, Frontiersman in Blue, the United States Army and the Indian, 1848–1865 (New York: MacMillan, 1967), p. 60.

SELECTED INDEX

Compiled by Paul F. Lambert

—A—

Adams, President John Quincy, 13

Agriculture, U.S. Department of, 121

Alexander, Captain Thomas, 24

Allen, Captain George W., 22

Anadarko, 124

Anderson, Brevet Major George, 23, 50

Antlers War, 119

Apache, Town of, 125

Arbuckle, Colonel Matthew, 3, 9, 13, 16, 18, 26–27, 30–31, 41, 43, 50, 53

Arkansas City, Kansas, 126

Arkansas River, 26, 65, 68

Arkansas Volunteers, 17

Armstrong, William, 18, 22, 54

Arthur, President Chester A., 100

Atoka, 126

Atwood, 125

Austin, Texas, 56

—B—

Bacone College, 124

Bacon, Lieutenant James, 24

Beall, Captain B. L., 55

Bean, Robert, 16

Beattie's Prairie, 72, 73

Beaver River, 78

Bell, Captain John R., 26

Bentonville, Arkansas, 70

Big Mouth, Chief, 93

Birch, Major George, 40

Black Horse, Chief, 115

Black Kettle, Chief, 93

Blake, Captain George A. H., 22, 55

Blue River, 65, 71, 73, 76

Blunt, General James G., 34, 35, 72, 125

Boise City, 91, 126

Bokchito, 124

Boomer Camp at Stillwater, 99–100

Boomer Movement, 81

Boomers, 99–100, 117–118

Boone, Captain Nathan, 32

Bowmap, John, 10

Bragg, Captain Braxton, 57

Brice, William, 10

Brookin, 126

Brown, Humpy, 79

Bryarly's Landing, 23

Buffalo, destruction of, 115–116

Buffalo Hump, Chief, 51

Buffalo Soldiers, 96, 107

Burbank, Lieutenant S., 13

Burke, Reverend John, 61

Byars, 123

—C—

Cache Creek, 103, 104, 105, 107

Caldwell, Kansas, 100, 117

Camp Arbuckle, 50, 123, 125

Camp Armstrong, 124

Camp Augur, 95–97, 126

Camp Bob Williams, 127

Camp Boggy Depot, 125

Camp Brookin, 126

Camp Canadian, 39–40, 125

Camp Cass, 39, 125

Camp Cedar, 125

Camp Chilocco, 126

Camp Choctaw, 40, 125

Camp Comanche, 125

Camp Guthrie, 126

Camp Hickory, 127

Camp Holmes, 124

Camp Illinois, 126

Camp Imochiah, 126

Camp Jackson, 125

Camp Jumper, 125

Camp Leavenworth, 40, 124, 125

Camp Mason, 40, 53, 124

Camp McDaniel, 125

Camp McIntosh, 124

Camp Medicine Bluff, 106

Camp Nichols, 91–92

Camp Napoleon, 126

Camp Neosho, 125

Camp Oklahoma, 126

Camp Osage, 40, 125

Camp Otter, 96, 97

Camp Prairie Springs, 126

Camp Price, 126

Camp Phoenix, 123

Camp Quapaw, 126

Camp Radziminski, 51–53, 95, 124

Camp Rendezvous, 39, 125

Camp Robinson, 126

Camp Ross, 126

Camp Russell, 99–100, 127

Camp Schoefield, 101–102, 126

Camp Smith, 125

Camp Steel, 126

Camp Supply, 90, 98, 109

Camp Supply Social Club, 88

Camp Tiger, 127

Camp Wattles, 126

Camp Washita, 40, 105–106, 124–125

Campo, Joe, 88

Canadian River, 39, 74, 97

Cantonment, 97, 117, 125

Cantonment Leavenworth, 3

Cantonment Phoenix, 13

Cantonment Towson, 9–12, 123

Carleton, Brigadier General James H., 91

Carson, Colonel Christopher (Kit), 91

Cedar Bluff, 91

Cherokee Nation, Treaty with Confederacy, 67–68

Cherokee Outlet, 78, 82, 89

Cherokee Reservation, 82

Cherokee Strip Livestock Association, 82

Cherokee, Town of, 124

Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation, 82–83

Cheyenne Indian Agency, 109

Cheyenne Indians, Black Kettle's Band of, 78

Cheyenne Transporter, 117–118

Chickasaw Agency, 55

Chickasaw Indians, 51, 54

Chilocco Creek, 101–102

Chilocco, Town of, 126

Chisholm Trail, 118

Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles, 69

Choctaw Indians, Arrival in Indian Territory, 14

Choctaw Indians, Removal of, 13

Choctaw Nation, General Council, 65

Chouteau's Creek Camp, 124

Cimarron River, 81, 99, 125

Civil War, 53, 63

Clark, Benjamin, 120

Clark, Captain J. B., 19

Clear Creek, 10

Colbert Family, 64

Colquhoun, Lieutenant William S., 13

Comanches, 51–52

Confederate Army, Department of Indian Territory, 68

Connelly, Henry, 19

Cooke, Lieutenant Phillip St. George, 40

Cooper, Colonel Douglas H., 69, 71–72, 74, 77

Coppinger, Colonel J. J., 38

Couch, William L., 99–100

Crazy Snake, Chief, 119

Crooked Creek, 52

Cummings, Major Alexander, 9–11

Curtis, Major General Samuel, 69

Custer, Brevet Brigadier General George A., 78

—D—

Dancing Rabbit Creek, Treaty of, 113

Darlington, 113, 117

Darlington Agency, 113, 117

Davidson, General John “Black Jack”, 110

Davis, Lieutenant Jefferson, 25, 40

Davis, President Jefferson, 53, 65, 70, 76

Dawson, Lieutenant James L., 11

Day, Lieutenant M. W., 99–100

Dear, Captain J., 16

DeHart, Captain, 19

Devil's Gap, 85

Doaks Brothers, 19

Doaks, Josiah H., 14

Doaksville, 14, 23, 25

Doaksville Agreement, 18

Dodge City, Kansas, 81, 85, 89

Dodge, Colonel Henry, 30, 40

Dodge, Lieutenant Colonel Richard J., 97

Dodge-Supply Road, 84–85, 89

Dragoon Regiment, 39

Dragoons, 53

Dragoons, uniforms, 52

Drew, Colonel John, 69

Dull Knife, Chief, 97, 117

Dyer, B. D., 118

—E—

Eaton, W. A., 118

El Reno, 113, 125

Eighth Cavalry, 111

Emory, Major William H., 52–53, 63, 66

Enid-Pond Creek Railroad War of 1893–94, 82

Enlisted men, diet, 5; desertion rate, 8; health, 5; life at frontier posts, 5; remuneration, 4–5

Enterprise, steamship, 14

Eufaula, 125

—F—

Fauntleroy, Major Thomas Turner, 22, 55

Field Artillery, 112

Fifth Cavalry, 53

Fifth Infantry, 24, 50, 57

First Cavalry, 57, 63

First Dragoons, 17, 57

Folsom, David, 23

Foote, Lieutenant R. W., 24

Forsythe, Major George A., 104

Fort Arbuckle, 4, 50–53, 66, 72, 93, 123

Fort Belknap, Texas, 50–51

Fort Brown, Texas, 119

Fort Blunt, 34, 125

Fort Cobb, 4, 53, 66–67, 93–94, 103, 105–106, 124

Fort Cobb, Town of, 124

Fort Coffee, 3, 42–45, 48, 53, 123

Fort Crawford, Colorado, 101

Fort Davis, 65–77, 124

Fort Dodge, Kansas, 84, 91–92

Fort Dodge, Kansas-Camp Supply Trail, 79–80

Fort Edwards, 40, 124

Fort Elliot, Texas, 84, 89, 98, 101

Fort Gibson, 3–4, 16, 23, 26–40, 42–43, 50, 54, 65, 68, 71–73, 76, 95, 122–123

Fort Gibson Jockey Club, 38

Fort Gibson, Town of, 125

Fort Hays, Kansas, 84, 101

Fort Harker, Kansas, 106

Fort Holmes, 40

Fort Jessup, Louisiana, 13

Fort Larned, Kansas, 74, 92

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 48, 57, 66, 89, 101, 113

Fort Logan, Colorado, 101

Fort Lyon, 101

Fort McCulloch, 65–77, 124

Fort Reno, 4, 90, 92, 99–101, 113–121, 125, 127

Fort Reno Remount Station, 14

Fort Richardson, Texas, 109

Fort Riley, Kansas, 101

Fort Scott, Kansas, 72

Fort Sheridan, Illinois, 101

Fort Sill, 4, 50–51, 84, 89–90, 94, 96, 103–113, 125

Fort Smith, Arkansas, 3, 11, 14, 16, 26, 42–43, 48, 54, 73, 122, 126

Fort Smith-Fort Towson road, 11, 16, 19

Fort Smith-Santa Fe road, 50

Fort Supply, 4, 78–89, 117, 125

Fort Supply, Town of, 125

Fort Towson, 2, 3, 9–25, 54, 122–123

Fort Towson-Fort Jessup road, 11

Fort Towson, steamboat, 23

Fort Towson-Washita road, 22

Fort Union, New Mexico, 91–92

Fort Washita, 4, 50, 54–60, 73, 124

Fort Washita Restoration Commission, 64

Fort Wayne, 48, 53, 72, 123

Fourth Infantry, 23

French, Captain Samuel G., 24

Frozen Rock, 73

—G—

Gaines, Major General Edmund P., 16, 17

Garlinghouse, Sheriff of Ontario County, New York, 13

Gates Creek, 9, 11, 15

Geronimo, 111–112

Ghost Dance Movement, 111

Gibson, Commissary General George, 3, 26

Gibbs, Bill, 88

Goode, Reverend William H., 24, 61, 64

Gonsales, Simón Elias, Governor of Chihuahua, Mexico, 22

Grandfield, 126

Grand River, 26, 38

Gratist, General Charles, 48

“Great American Desert,” 90

“Great Raft” on the Red River, 14, 17, 19

Green Peach War, 36

Griedson, Colonel Benjamin H., 94, 103–104

Guthrie, 99, 126–127

—H—

Hancock, Lieutenant Winfield Scott, 23

Hardeman, Captain Litcher H., 121

Harney, Brevet Colonel William S., 55

Harvard University, 66

Hatch, Colonel Edward L., 100

Hazen, Brigadier General William B., 93, 104

Henshaw, Brevet Major J. C., 50

Hindman, Major General Thomas, 76

Hitchcock, Colonel Ethan Allen, 48

Holabird, Brigadier General S. B., 105

Holmes, Lieutenant Theophiclus Hunter, 39–40, 53, 57

Honey Springs, Battle of, 35

Horse Prairie, 14, 16

Hudson's Crossing, 126

Hunt, Captain Henry, 57

Hunter, steamboat, 23

Hyde, Captain Russell B., 11–12

—I—

Illinois River, 45

Indian Removal Act of 1830, 3

Inglish, John, 9–10

“Intercourse Act” of 1802, 9, 22

I-See-O, 111

Izard, Governor George, of Arkansas, 11, 13

—J—

Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 22

Jefferson, Texas, 63

Jesse, Town of, 125

Jones, Robert M., 23

—K

Kay County, 101

Kearney, Major Stephen W., 13; Colonel, 32

Kenefic, 124

Keystone, 123

Kiamichi River, 9, 14

King, William, 12–13

Kingsbury, Reverend Cyrus, 20

Kingfisher, 126

Kingfisher, Camp at, 126

Kingston, 124–125

Kiowa-Comanche Agency, 94, 110

Kiowa-Comanche Reservation, 112

—L—

Lake Texoma, 125

Land Run of 1889, 118

Landers, Clark, 13

Lawton, General Henry W., 112, 117

Lawton, Town of, 112, 125

Leavenworth and Dodge Expedition, 30

Leavenworth, General Henry, 30, 40–41

Lee, Lieutenant Fitzhugh, 52–53

Lee, Lieutenant Francis, 11

Leetown, Arkansas, 70

Leflore, Greenwood, 14

Leflore, Thomas, 22

Lexington, 124

Little Arkansas, Treaty of the, 91

Little River, 39, 127

Little Rock, Arkansas, 76

Little Rock Barracks, Arkansas, 101

Little Wolf, Chief, 117

Locust Grove, 71

Long, Major Stephen H., 26

Loomis Colonel Gustavis, 23–24

Louisiana Purchase, 26

—M—

Mackenzie, Ranald, 110

Mackenzie, Colonel Ranald S., 114

Macomb, Alexander, Commanding General of the Army, 43

McAlester, 125

McClellan, Captain George B., 50, 53; Brevet Major, 103

McCulloch, General Benjamin, 70–71

McIntosh, Colonel Daniel, 69

Marcy, Colonel Randolph B., 50, 103

Mason, Joe, 88–89

Mason, Major R. B., 38, 40, 48, 53

Maxey, Captain R. B., 24

Maxey, Major General Sam Bell, 25

Matthews, Lieutenant Colonel Asa, 25

Medicine Bluff, 94, 104

Medicine Bluff Creek, 104–105

Medicine Lodge Creek, Treaty of, 91

Merritt, Brigadier General Wesley, 101

Mexican Government, emissaries to the Indians, 19

Mexican War, 4, 17, 24

Miles, Major Dixon S., 57

Miles, John D., 113

Miles, General Nelson A., 110, 114, 118

Military exercises in northern Oklahoma, 101–102

Military Road, idea of great, 45

Missouri-to-Texas Road, 73

Mizner, Major John K., 114

Moore, Captain R. D., 22, 54

Mountain Park, 124

Mount Scott, 107

Mount Sheridan, 107

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 106

—N—

Nail, Joel H., 23

Nail's Crossing, on Blue River, 73

Natchitoches-Fort Towson road, 17

Neill, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas H., 114–115

Newburyport, Massachusetts, 66

New Orleans, Louisiana, 22

Ninth Cavalry, 99

North Canadian River, 113–114

—O—

Officer Corps, characteristics of, 8; conditions faced by, 8

Oklahoma City Fairgrounds, 127

Oklahoma Historical Society, 26, 64

Oklahoma State University, 121

Oklahoma Station, 126

Old Miller Court House, 14

Orion, 126

Otter Creek, 51, 95, 126

Owasso, 125

—P—

Parkhill, 126

Payne, David L., 99, 117–118

Pea Ridge, Battle of, 73, 117

Pecan Point, on the Red River, 11

Pennington, Jacob, 10

Permanent Frontier, Idea of, 45, 48

Perryville Depot, Camp at, 125

Phillips, Colonel William A., 35, 73

Pike, Albert, 65, 67; Brigadier General, 68, 70–72, 74–76

Pine Ridge Mission, 14

Pine Ridge, Town of, 9

Plains Indian Refugees, 54

Plains Indians, raids into Texas, 51

Porter, Chief Pleasant, 119

Poinsett, Joel R., Secretary of War, 32, 45, 48

Pope, General John, 8

Post at Chickasaw Agency, 124

Post at Ross’ Landing, 124

Pound Creek, 52

Powell, First Lieutenant James E., 51

Price, General Sterling, 70

Prince, Captain Wililam E., 51

Prisoners of War, German, 121

Prisoners of War, Italian, 121

Purcell, 126

Purcell, Camp at, 126

—Q—

Quartermaster Corps, at Fort Gibson, 35

Quesenbury, Captain William, 76

—R—

Radziminski, Charles, 51

Radziminski Crossing, 126

Randall, Captain George M., 117

Rector, Colonel Wharton, 11

Rector, Governor Henry M., of Arkansas, 65

Red River, 9, 22, 50, 54, 66, 95, 103

Red River War of 1874, 96–97

Refugees, Black, 35

Refugees, Indian, 35

Reno, Major General Jesse L., 113

Riflemen, U.S. Regiment of, 55

Roane, Samuel C., 9–10

Roberts, James, 10

Rock Creek, 125

Ross, Chief John, 65–67, 126

Rover, steamship, 17

Ruggles, Brevet Major Daniel, 57

Rush Springs, 51

Ryan, Ed, 89

—S—

Santa Fe, New Mexico, 92

Santa Fe Trail, 29, 91–92

Scott, Major General Winfield, 9, 52

Second Artillery, 57

Second Cavalry, 51

Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles, 69, 71

Second Dragoons, 22, 55–56

Scullyville, 73

Seldon, First Lieutenant H. R., 57

Seventh Cavalry, 78, 94

Seventh Infantry, 9, 16, 24, 27, 39–43, 48, 50, 57

Shawnee Indians, 12

Sheridan, General Phillip H., 81, 93, 118

Sheridan's Roost, 126

Sherman, Lieutenant General William T., 93

Sherman, Texas, 73

Shreve, Captain Henry Miller, 14, 19

Sixth Infantry, 22–23, 55–56

Sixty-fourth Kansas Cavalry, 71

Skull, W., 61

Smith, Captain E. Kirby, 52–53

Smith, Major T. F., 32

Smoke Meat Rebellion, 127

Sooners, 82, 118

Spanish-American War, 121

Spanish-American War Camp, 127

Spavinaw, 123

“Special Order No. 16,” 63

Spiro, 123

Steins, Captain E., 56

Stevenson, First Lieutenant, 50

Stidham, 125

Stillwater Creek, 99

Stuart, Captain John, 16, 43–45

Sully, General Alfred, 78

Supply, Town of, 89

Swallow Rock, 42

—T—

Taylor, Surgeon Morse K., 110

Taylor, General Zachary, 22–23, 54–55, 64

Tenth Cavalry, 95–96, 105

Texas Rangers, 63

Third Artillery, 57

Third Indian Regiment, 65, 73

Third Infantry, 13, 17

Tiger Mountain, 127

Towehash Indians, 13

Towson, Nathan, 3, 9, 14

Tuskahoma, 118

Twenty-third Infantry, 97

Twenty-fifth Cavalry, 119–120

—U—

Unassigned Lands, 82

Upshaw, A. M. N., 54–55

—V—

Van Dorn, Major General Earl, 51–53, 70–71, 77

Verden, 126

Verdigris River, 26, 68

Vose, Lieutenant Colonel Josiah H., 15–19

—W—

Washington, Treaty of, 10, 82

Washita, Battle of the, 94

Washita River, 16, 53–55, 78, 93, 103, 105, 124, 125

Watie, Brigadier General Stand, 25, 67, 69, 75, 77

Watts, 123

Weer, Colonel William, 72

Western State Hospital, 89

Westport, Missouri, 109

Wheelock, Lieutenant T. B., 40

Whiting, Captain Daniel P., 57

Whiting, Brevet Major D. P., 24

Wichita Agency, 109, 113

Wichita Indians, 51

Wichita Mountains, 103

Wild Hog, Chief, 117

Wild Horse Creek, 50

Wilkerson, Lieutenant James B., 26

Williamson, Private Garrett C., 23

Wilson, Major Henry, 19, 22

Wint, Captain Theodore J., 113

Wolf Creek, 78, 86

Wood, Thomas J., 57

Woodward, 84

Wool, General John E., 44

The text of Early Military Forts and Posts in Oklahoma has been set on the Linotype in eleven-point Granjon. One point of line spacing has been added for increased legibility. The text and illustrations have been printed by offset on paper which has an intended effective life of at least three hundred years. Composed and printed at the University of Oklahoma Printing Services, Norman, Oklahoma 73019

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