The Battle of Locust Grove was a Civil War engagement fought on July 3, 1862, in what is now Mayes County, Oklahoma, then part of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. The battle occurred in a grove of locust trees that would later give the town its name. The engagement took place during the broader Civil War conflict, with Union and Confederate forces competing for control of Indian Territory.
The battle was characterized by a Union surprise attack against Confederate forces of similar size. According to historical records, approximately 250 Union troops surprised and destroyed a comparable Confederate contingent in what was described as a small but significant engagement. The Union forces executed their surprise effectively, overwhelming the Confederate position.
The outcome of the Battle of Locust Grove had important consequences for Confederate morale in Indian Territory. The Union victory resulted in substantial Confederate casualties and captures, while Union losses were minimal. The escaping Confederate forces retreated toward Tahlequah, and this defeat led to a significant loss of morale and desertions among the Cherokee Confederate supporters, weakening the Confederate position in Indian Territory. The battle thus demonstrated the fragility of Confederate support in the region and contributed to the erosion of their military strength among their Native American allies.
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.
Union: minimal losses; Confederate: approximately 100 killed, approximately 100 captured
Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.