Confederate [and] Union Occupation of Fort Smith

On April 23, 1861, the U.S. garrison at Fort Smith abandoned the post as Confederate militiamen approached, and Fort Smith became an important recruiting and training center for Confederate forces in west Arkansas. Troops from Fort Smith fought at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, in 1861 and participated in the battle of Pea Ridge on March 7-8, 1862. Confederate General Thomas C. Hindman led an army from Fort Smith to the bloody combat at Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862. The post remained under Confederate control until Union forces took Fort Smith on September 1, 1863, when U.S. troops under General James Blunt seized it. It remained a Union post for the duration of the war, became a haven for white war refugees and former slaves, many of whom joined the Union army, and its troops fought in the 1864 Camden Expedition while most local fighting focused on guerrilla units in the area. In the summer of 1864, Union troops withstood a series of Confederate attacks from the Indian Territory, and soldiers and civilians faced a supply shortage until peace came in 1865.

Moffett, Oklahoma · United States