Fort Gibson, Oklahoma: Difference between revisions

Fort Gibson was originally established as a military garrison, Cantonment Gibson, in April 1824. The camp was set up to facilitate U.S. government policies of westward expansion and Indian removal.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1466.pdf|title=Headquarters Records Fort Gibson, Indian Territory 1830-1857|date=1987}}</ref> After the founding of Fort Gibson in 1824, military families, Indians desiring military protection, and free African-Americans settled near the fort, forming a town. After the Army abandoned Fort Gibson in 1857, the Cherokee Nation took over the military stockade and renamed the town Keetoowah.

The Army reoccupied Fort Gibson during the [[American Civil War]] and was renamed Fort Blunt from 1862 - 1865 for Maj. Gen. [[James G. Blunt]].<ref>{{cite web |last = Lees|first = William B.|title = Oklahoma's Civil War Monuments and Memorial Landscapes|publisher = William B. Lees|date = 2004|pages=25–26|url = http://uwf.edu/wlees/Monuments.pdf}}</ref> The town again prospered as refugees from fighting elsewhere fled to the relative safety of the fort.<ref name="EOHC-FtGibsonTown">Fort Gibson Genealogical and Historical Society. [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=FO034 "Fort Gibson,"] ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', Oklahoma Historical Society, Accessed May 6, 2015.</ref> By the spring of 1863, soldiers in the [[Indian Home Guard]] occupied the fort. For several months, the Federal supported garrison had to fight off raids by [[Stand Watie]] and his Confederate backed Cherokee horsemen. Aside from Confederate raids, the garrison also suffered from outbreaks of cholera and smallpox. [[Sonuk Mikko]], an officer in the Indian Home Guard, succumbed to smallpox while stationed at the Fort and succumbed to the illness.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=Kenneth W. |title=Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) in the Civil War (Part II) |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=April 1967 |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=399-400 |url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A22408 |access-date=13 April 2023}}</ref>