Civil War Storm Approaches

As the thunder clouds of Civil War approached the new Lincoln Administration in March 1861, and as Arkansas and Texas threatened to leave from the Union and join the new Confederacy, several actions noted below illustrate how aware and involved the U. S. Army in Washington was to recent events in Indian Territory, to the Army, the country, and the Army’s support for building the Iron Bridges for the Beale Wagon Road in 1858-59.

General-in-Chief of U. S. Army

On March 27, 1861 one U. S. Senator from Arkansas had suggested to the new Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, certain actions about moving Army troops out of Arkansas to avoid further conflict with the state. Cameron had been in office only three weeks, and probably new little about what the Senator was suggesting. So the new Secretary of War turned to his old General-in-Chief of the Army, Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, for some military insight and guidance. It is reported that General Scott dictated his reply the new Secretary of War from memory, the following being only that portion of his reply related to Fort Cobb, whose building and posting by the Army in in 1859 we have recently noted:

Headquarters of the Army
Washington, D. C.
March 27, 1861
To: Secretary of War, Simon Cameron (since 3-5-1861)

Lieutenant General Scott says: “Fort Cobb, about 160 miles northwest of Fort Washita, was first occupied by troops October 1, 1859. The site is on a portion of the Choctaw country, leased as a reserve for several detached bands of Comanche and other Indians, which were moved there from points within the limits of Texas. This arrangement was made for the convenience of the State of Texas. Fort Cobb was designed for the double purpose of protecting these friendly bands against incursion from the hostiles of their own tribes and to restrain the latter in their descents upon Texas.”

Making of America. Union Army Correspondence during the Civil War. Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 660
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077725913&view=1up&seq=676

Commander of Indian Territory, USA

Lieutenant-Colonel Emory had been in Washington on a special West Point assignment for several months. He had left Washington about March 20, 1861 with his latest command orders for his forts in Indian Territory and given its annual military supply requisitions by telegraph to the St. Louis Arsenal. He passed thru Memphis on 3-24-61 and boarded a steamer for Fort Smith, finally arriving on the steamer Arkansas on 4-6-61. On 4-13,1861, the day telegraphic news reached Fort Smith that war had started at Fort Sumter, S.C., Lt. Col. Emory wrote a long (telegraphic) letter to Headquarters, U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. before heading out to visit his forts. In the first part of his letter, covering his observed status of his command in Indian Territory, Lieutenant Colonel W. H. Emory wrote the following from his residential headquarters in Fort Smith:

Fort Smith, Arkansas.
April 13, 1861
To: Headquarters, U. S. Army, Washington D. C.

“The usual (annual) supply of ammunition for this post (Fort Smith), Cobb, Arbuckle, and Washita has been reported seized at Napoleon" (AR, at mouth of the Arkansas River).

Making of America. Union Army Correspondence during the Civil War. Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 665
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077725913&view=1up&seq=681

We note that Fort Cobb is expecting to receive its annual military supply of ammunition from St. Louis Arsenal, like the rest of Emory’s command, by steamboat down the Mississippi to Napoleon, AR, and then up the Arkansas River past Little Rock to Fort Smith, where military quartermaster’s wagons trains will haul the ammunition, cavalry tack, and guns to the various forts using the military wagon roads to those forts. By 1860, the Beale Wagon Road was undoubtedly used going west to supply all three forts from Fort Smith to at least Skullyville, and nearly all the way to the Wichita Indian Agency and Fort Cobb.

Other correspondence shows similar shipments of cavalry tack for its horses was likewise in transit. Food stuff and general supplies are being supplied by private contractors, Johnson and Grimes, for the Army and Indian Affairs at Wichita Agency. It seems that many of the private shippers headed to Indian Territory on the Arkansas River used the steamboat landing on the north side of the Arkansas River at Van Buren, where smaller steamers headed upstream into Indian country carrying smaller loads to perhaps only one or two Indian landings at a time could more easily and economically load, trade and travel in shallower water to the Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole Nations, in addition to those in the Leased District around the Wichita Agency and Fort Cobb.

Indian Territory in Turmoil in April 1861

Lt. Col. Emory leaves Fort Smith for Fort Washita on the afternoon of 4-13-1861. And now he is away from daily telegraphic service to Washington, D. C. Every convoluted order he has brought from Washington or received since, regarding what he should do with his troops or the Indians in IT will be countermanded, but he won't know this for days. Emory seems to have arrived at Fort Washita on 4-16, and then moved north up the Dragoon Trail on the 17th to rest and assess the military and Wichita Agency Indian situations. The Choctaws and Chickasaw Indians have indicated to Indian Affairs in Fort Smith that Emory can't move some of the Wichita Agency Indians to Fort Washita, as Washington had authorized Emory to do. Fort Smith will be abandoned on April 23, while Emory's command is going in circles. Washington doesn't trust the telegraph service in Arkansas now, so they won't send any critical new command orders to Emory that they now want done. Word arrives from scouts that 2,000 Texans are marching north to overrun Forts Washita and Arbuckle. Not until Captain Sturgis and his small command from Fort Smith arrive at Emory's camp near Emet, CN on 4-30 will Emory begin to effectively command again.