As
the nation moved west, the US established a series of frontier
garrisons. Arkansas officially became part of the US as the
District of Arkansas in 1803. The federal government began to
intervene in inter-tribal hostilities in the area and in 1817. A fort
was built at Belle Point, where the Arkansas and Poteau rivers meet,
and named for General Thomas Smith of the federal garrison in St.
Louis. For the next 7 years, Fort Smith military personnel arbitrated
clashes between the Osage and Cherokee tribes, negotiated treaties,
and patrolled the borders of the US that were contested by Spain.
Soon
settlers arrived from the east, businesses arrived that catered to
the settlers and the soldiers and a community grew up around Fort
Smith. Separating the history of the fort and the history of
the town is difficult.
In
1823, a major outbreak of disease claimed the lives of 25% of the
troops at Fort Smith.The following year, Col Matthew Arbuckle
moved the 5 companies of soldiers under his command in search of
healthier land to the west. The army abandoned the fort in 1824
and moved west to establish Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory
(Oklahoma). The garrison stayed empty until 1833 when Capt John
Stuart used it as an inspection station to intercept those illegally
selling whiskey to the local Indians. His mission lasted 1 year, and,
again the post closed. In 1838 the Federal Government purchased land
at the southeast corner of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers,
reestablishing Fort Smith. From 1841 to 1845, Zachary Taylor
commanded the 2nd Department, Western Division, at the fort in the
years before the Civil War.
Fort
Smith lasted longer than most western posts due to its location in
the river valley that provided easy access to the west and due to its
close proximity to the newly established Choctaw reservation in the
Indian Territory. When the majority of the troops had vacated
Fort Smith, the fort retained its utility by serving as the
headquarters for the Western Choctaw Agency and also as the hub of
enforcement for prohibition activities in that area.
The
history of Fort Smith, the fort and the town, is interwoven
with that of native peoples from the fort's time as a peacekeeping
entity to the part it played in the forced relocation of thousands of
native tribes west of the Mississippi River, The Trail of Tears.
As
Americans demanded the need for more land, Thomas Jefferson proposed
a solution – relocate the eastern tribes into a buffer zone between
the US and the the land to the west claimed by European countries.
Between 1816 and 1840, a number of eastern tribes ceded their land to
the US and were forcibly moved west into what is now Oklahoma. As a
result more than 100,000 native men, women and children moved on an
arduous route that took them halfway across the country. There were
several points of debarkation and several western routes used, but
they ultimately passed thru or were held at Fort Smith.
US
Army Captain S. D. Sturgis, the post’s commander at the start of
the Civil War, withdrew his men from Fort Smith when he received word
that 2 approaching Confederate steamships carrying over 300 soldiers
were on the river. When the Confederate army arrived on April 23,
1861, they found the fort empty; it became a Confederate supply
depot.
In
1860, the state of Arkansas had a population of 435,450 people,
111,115 were slaves and 11,481 were slave owners. It appeared
inevitable that when the Confederacy voted to secede from the Union
in April 1861, Arkansas would be on board with the Confederates;
however, while more than 60,000 Arkansas residents joined rebel
troops, at least 9,000 citizens and more than 5,000 Blacks fought on
the side of the Union.
With
Arkansas’ formal secession from the Union, the fort remained in
Confederate hands until the summer of 1863. Fort Smith troops took
part in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in 1861 and the Confederate
defeat at the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862. Occupied by only a small
contingent of soldiers in August 1863, Union forces recaptured the
fort and held it for the remainder of the war.
Fort
Smith's strategic location on intersecting rivers and roads made it
both a valuable staging area as a Union outpost and a continuing
target for the Confederate faithful holed up in the surrounding
mountains and in Indian Territory. The fort became a refuge for
citizens aligned with the Union and suffering from supply raids by
rebel troops. In 1865, Confederate leadership officially turned
Arkansas, Texas and Indian Territory over to the Union, and the Fort
Smith Confederates returned home to begin the work of rebuilding
their community.
Post-Civil
War, Fort Smith became an outpost in the sub-district of Arkansas,
charged with enforcement of Reconstruction regulations and
registration of freedmen. Fort Smith evolved from military to
administration of frontier justice, as a succession of tough judges
presided on the bench and attempted to impose order. Judge Isaac
Parker, the infamous "hanging judge," meted out sentences
over a 21-year period, ordering hundreds of defendants to jail and
160 men to "hang by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead!"
Arkansas
weathered the Great Depression, the crop-killing drought and the
movement of many of its citizens to 'greener pastures.' As
the country began to rebound, Fort Smith, taking advantage of its
location, situated on two rivers that lead to the Mississippi, and an
abundance of roadways, became an industrial hub.
The
former military installation briefly served as a relocation camp for
Japanese and German U.S. citizens during World War II, but in 1975
and 1980 also provided shelter and transition for Vietnamese and
Cuban refugees seeking asylum in the United States.
The Fort
Smith National Historic Site includes the remains of the
original 1817 fort plus the 1870's Federal courtroom of the Western
District of Arkansas. Inside are the restored courtroom of the famed
"Hangin' Judge" Isaac C. Parker, and the dingy frontier
jail aptly named "Hell on the Border."
THE GALLOWS
