Battlefield Dispatches No. 363 -- Badly cut up

In the spring of 1863, Union forces were campaigning in northwest Arkansas and the northeastern part of the Indian Territory (present Okla-homa). Their main objectives were to occupy Fort Gibson which had been evacuated early in the Civil War and to provide a safe haven for the return of the loyal Indian refugees who had been forced to seek safety in southeastern Kansas in the fall and early winter of 1861.

In April, Union troops commanded by Colonel William A. Phillips occupied Fort Gibson and it remained in Union hands for the balance of the war. The following is a report from Colonel Phillips describing the occupation of Fort Gibson and the return of the Indian refugees to their homeland. The report is located in Series I, Volume 22, Part I, Correspondence of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion on pages 211 and 212.

"Headquarters, Districts West Arkansas & Indian Territory, Dept. of Missouri,

In the Field, Camp at Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, April 12, 1863.

[To] Major General Blunt, Leavenworth, Kansas:

Sir: We have swept this side of the Arkansas River clean. A considerable portion of my force holds FORT GIBSON. I shall move the whole command there, except a small force to guard my hospital, which is here and the people who are here. The refugees have arrived and are greatly rejoiced. They are putting in crops.

We had two successful skirmishes with Rebels; one at Lindsay's Prairie took in or destroyed an entire guerrilla company that has infested there. The Captain and seven men killed. The other affair was below the Illinois (River). The Rebels attempted a surprise and were BADLY CUT UP, the commanding officer being killed and a number of his men in their attack or while trying to swim the Arkansas.

General Steele is on his way to the force they are gathering on the south side of the Arkansas River. They are firing over the river at my pickets; drove a force out of Gibson. The fords are deep and the enemy expects to hold them. Every ford to Fort Smith, Ark. [located down river and east of Fort Gibson] is guarded, the purpose being to keep the people south of the river from coming over to me. I have had overtures from Colonel Drew, Captain Vann and also from the Creeks. The enemy is nervous about my crossing the river and I expect to amuse him in front while I take him in. A good decent crack at him will fill up the Fourth and Fifth. The agents agree to [give] bread to the refugees as soon as they get it down [receive a supply of bread from Fort Scott or Fort Leavenworth]. I furnished an escort of 50 men for their [supply] trains. Owing to the flour I had made at Hilderbrand's Mill, we will get along well enough, but I had to feed the refugees the moment they came. Colonel Harrison wants me to go back and stand guard over Fayetteville, Ark. If he should be threatened, I shall order him this way? Please advise me of your designs and movements and report my course for the satisfaction of the commander of the Department. Respectfully,

WM. A. PHILLIPS,

Colonel Commanding."

Now then, Fort Gibson and the northeastern part of the Indian Territory were not reoccupied by Union forces without a fight. It was a combat zone throughout the balance of the war, but Fort Gibson remained a Union bastion and important supply base until the end of the war in 1865. The supply trains from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson and Fort Smith, Ark. normally had a large escort and usually, but not always arrived safely at their respective destinations and of course the war went on.