In April 1863, Union forces of the Indian Home Guard under Colonel William A. Phillips occupied Fort Gibson in Indian Territory. After receiving reports indicating no Confederate activity in the surrounding area, Phillips made the tactical decision to send the fort's livestock out to graze. However, this decision proved problematic when a Union sentry failed to scout a mountain road, allowing Confederate forces to descend upon and attack the grazing livestock, forcing a military response.
Upon learning of the Confederate attack on the livestock, Colonel Phillips dispatched his available mounted forces to retake the animals. The ensuing engagement saw the Confederates launch a strong counterattack against the Union sortie, nearly surrounding two Union companies and driving them back toward the fort. Phillips responded by personally leading infantry forces with an artillery battery from Fort Gibson itself. The arrival of these reinforcements, combined with the mounted infantry already engaged in the field, proved decisive in stopping the Confederate assault. The Confederate forces initially held their position in a forest but were subsequently routed and forced to withdraw beyond the Arkansas River. Following this retreat, Phillips sent his cavalry forward to pursue the withdrawing Confederate force.
The engagement resulted in a Union victory, with Confederate forces unable to sustain their position and forced to retreat across the Arkansas River. The Union forces successfully retook most of the livestock that had been initially seized and maintained control of Fort Gibson. While the article indicates that word was received of a second Confederate force attempting some action, the details of this second engagement are not provided in the available text.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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