5fish
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Skirmish at Iron Bridge, the Indian Territory.
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The area also witnessed action during the Civil War. The Choctaw sided with the Confederacy, and Camp Pike, near present Whitefield, served as a Confederate base. At different times as many as two thousand men camped at this location, named for Albert Pike, prior to expeditions against Federal troops. After the Battle of Honey Springs in July, a skirmish occurred on August 28, 1863, at Camp Pike as Confederate Brig. Gen. W. L. Cabell's rear guard engaged Col. W. F. Cloud's troops after the Southern soldiers had already begun their march east. Another engagement took place two days later near Sans Bois Creek between the same troops and another occurred the next day in present Le Flore County as the Confederates moved toward the Poteau River. In June 1864 Col. Stand Watie and his Confederate forces captured the steamboat J. R. Williams and its load of Federal supplies near Tamaha at Pleasant Bluff on the Arkansas River. The next morning Col. John Ritchie's men, who were stationed at the mouth of the Illinois River, engaged Watie's men as they tried to plunder the boat. The soldiers were on opposite sides of the river, which was rising, and they fought to a standoff. The advance of Union troops from Fort Smith, Arkansas, caused Watie to burn the J. R. Williams and much of its cargo. During this episode a number of Watie's men skirmished with Federal forces at Ironbridge, a community on Sans Bois Creek where the U.S. government had built an iron bridge to facilitate a mail route along the California Road. The bridge was destroyed during the Civil War, and the proposed mail route was never completely operational.
Here is a great Map of Indian territory and union invasion routes... click the link...
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Haskell County | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
www.okhistory.org
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The area also witnessed action during the Civil War. The Choctaw sided with the Confederacy, and Camp Pike, near present Whitefield, served as a Confederate base. At different times as many as two thousand men camped at this location, named for Albert Pike, prior to expeditions against Federal troops. After the Battle of Honey Springs in July, a skirmish occurred on August 28, 1863, at Camp Pike as Confederate Brig. Gen. W. L. Cabell's rear guard engaged Col. W. F. Cloud's troops after the Southern soldiers had already begun their march east. Another engagement took place two days later near Sans Bois Creek between the same troops and another occurred the next day in present Le Flore County as the Confederates moved toward the Poteau River. In June 1864 Col. Stand Watie and his Confederate forces captured the steamboat J. R. Williams and its load of Federal supplies near Tamaha at Pleasant Bluff on the Arkansas River. The next morning Col. John Ritchie's men, who were stationed at the mouth of the Illinois River, engaged Watie's men as they tried to plunder the boat. The soldiers were on opposite sides of the river, which was rising, and they fought to a standoff. The advance of Union troops from Fort Smith, Arkansas, caused Watie to burn the J. R. Williams and much of its cargo. During this episode a number of Watie's men skirmished with Federal forces at Ironbridge, a community on Sans Bois Creek where the U.S. government had built an iron bridge to facilitate a mail route along the California Road. The bridge was destroyed during the Civil War, and the proposed mail route was never completely operational.
Here is a great Map of Indian territory and union invasion routes... click the link...
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