Civil War comes to the Indian Territory early

Recent discoveries through diaries, letters and other documented personal accounts have found that the Civil War in the Indian Territory was a bloodier and more violent than previously known.  References to more than 105 military engagements and 60 battles, over the 5 year period, have been found and documented.

Civil War came early in Indian Territory due to the disputes within the Cherokee Nation.  The Cherokee had split into factions prior to their forced move west. The issue was not slavery.  Most prosperous Indian families on both sides of the dispute owned slaves.  The split took hold back at the signing of the Treaty of New Echota, 1835, and a distrust of the US Government.

Although a small number of tribal members remained confident in the government and sided with the Union, the Confederate States of America exploited the splits within the tribes and multiple broken promises by the Federal government.  Militias sympathetic to the Confederacy occupied frontier forts, putting much of the Territory under Southern influence.

By mid-1863, Union soldiers had reoccupied some of the forts and resumed military operations. Raids on the forts’ supply lines by Confederate forces and guerillas continued to harass the Union, but, with the addition of the black troops from Kansas, the tide began to slowly turn. 

Union soldiers — black, white and Indian — marched out of Fort Gibson, down the Texas Road, to attack the Confederate Army at Honey Springs. The battle July 17, 1863, was a decisive victory for the Union and marked the end of any organized Confederate military activity in the Territory.  However, General Stand Watie and his Indian troops held on, raiding supply lines when they saw opportunities.  He did not surrender until 3 months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. 

I am just starting my zig-zag trek up the Jefferson Highway into Kansas and Missouri -- the border war between the two states over slavery was intense and left us with the term, Bloody Kansas.   Enter William Quantrill and John Brown. 

As time permits, I have info on the Battle of Honey Springs, that was the talk I attended at the Museum in Muskogee, and information on General Stand Watie of the Confederate Army.   I promise I will bore you to near death with history of the civil war era and the time of the Indian Territory.