Fort Gibson
Army post, Fort Gibson (Indian Territory), Oklahoma.
- Side
- Union
- Kind
- Army post
- Where
- Fort Gibson (Indian Territory), Oklahoma
- Years
- 1863-1865
- Today
- State historic site
FORT GIBSON
Union post in eastern Indian Territory, supplied at first only by wagon train from Fort Scott, Kansas. After 1863 it could be resupplied by water. On June 15, 1864 Stand Watie's troops destroyed the steamboat J.R. Williams, bound for Fort Gibson with flour and bacon.
Then
Union forces in eastern Indian Territory were first supplied only by wagon train from Fort Scott, Kansas, and the trains were easy targets for Confederate raiders. After the victories at Cabin Creek and Fort Smith in 1863 gave the Union control of the Arkansas River, posts such as Fort Gibson could be resupplied by water.
On June 15, 1864 Stand Watie's Confederate Indian troops ambushed the steamboat J.R. Williams on the Arkansas River, bound for Fort Gibson with a thousand barrels of flour and 15 tons of bacon, and destroyed the boat with a cargo said to be worth $120,000.
Now
State historic site
The Oklahoma Historical Society runs the site as the Fort Gibson Historical Site, a National Historic Landmark.
Track in service today runs beside the site, on a line owned by Union Pacific.