I have found no primary source that would put the battle near Atoka. All direct and indirect references I've found comment on movement from the mouth of Little River down the Chickasaw line. Seems if the event was on or near the Texas Road through present Atoka there would be at least one reference to a point on the Texas Road south of North Fork Town. The closest I've found to such a reference is Phillips mentions "Pike's Ditches" (which I assume to be Ft McCulloch) and Boggy Depot but makes no mention of moving in that direction. All accounts, like Perryman's, reference places down the Choctaw-Chickasaw boundary like Colbert's Mill, the Rock Academy, the Chickasaw Nation (Phillips said he would invade the Choctaw Nation on his next expedition), Ft Washita, Winchester Colbert's home, etc.. Phillips camped on the battlefield (Camp Kansas) and moved 20 miles south to Camp Kagi. If the battle was at Atoka, Camp Kagi would have been south of Boggy Depot, which he never reached, and near Armstrong Academy where the Indian Nations were in conference.

Phillips' and other Union sources never mention Perryville, Limestone Gap, Sulpher Springs, Geary's Station, Alex McKinney's, Little Boggy, Davis' Crossing, or Flack's place, all known landmarks along the Texas Road.

On Phillips' retreat, he writes from "Old Fort Arbuckle - Little River Town". I believe this is an error and he was at Old Fort Holmes at the mouth of Little River. However, if he was at Old Fort Arbuckle, he was even farther west between present Konawa and Ada. It is, I suppose, possible that Phillips' men traveled that far west as they were clearing the Confederates out of the Seminole Nation. Also, the retreat to Ft Gibson was via the mouth of Little River, not up the Texas Road (the obvious route had they been near Atoka) and reports state they returned by the same route they came down from Ft Gibson.

The Atoka location is on the National Register of Historic Places. The application cites Larry Ramp's book as an authority. I don't have the book but have read the passage on the battle and, as I recall, it gives no support for the Atoka location other than, I presume, that it is based on the assumption that Phillips would have moved south from Ft Gibson down the Texas Road via North Fork Town and that the Middle Boggy crossing at Atoka is a well know place and frequent Confederate encampment, and Phillips says the battle was in the Choctaw Nation. However, none of the primary sources I've found suggest Phillips was in the Choctaw Nation at all other than just south of the Canadian near the mouth of Little River on his way down Leavenworth's Road toward Ft Washita and where he would have been crossing the upper "Boggies" and their tributaries.

By Phillips' accounts, he did not move down the Texas Road from Ft Gibson and only sent a detachment to North Fork Town to leave corn for the balance of the 14th KS Cav (Willett's Battalion being already with him) that was to join him from Ft Smith. The rest of the 14th, under Major Brown, reportedly moved as far as North Fork Town, though Phillips says he never heard of them coming his way, and perhaps had some engagement with parties unknown before being recalled to Ft Smith. It seems unlikely they ventured far south on the Texas Road and it is quite a ways through unfamiliar enemy territory from North Fork Town to the Atoka vicinity. There is family lore regarding Texans and perhaps some of Quantrill's men being at the Atoka site after the battle anticipating a Union movement down the Texas Road which apparently never happened.

I would like to get copies of the Maxey Papers from the Texas State Archives for the period to see what Maxey had to say about Phillips' Expedition and the disposition of the Confederate forces. Also, I would like to find info on the movements of Maj Brown and the other two(?) battalions of the 14th KS Cav.

I have had no luck in finding the source of the story of Jumper hearing the guns but being too late to make a stand and the references to Nail and Bass being at the battle.