Category:Fort Arbuckle

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Fort Arbuckle (1851-1870) - built by Captain Randolph B. Marcy in the unsettled Indian Territory to protect the Civilized Indians, Chickasaws and Choctaws, from the Kiowa and Comanche Indians and to protect the wagon train emigrants making their way to the California gold fields using the trails between Fort Smith and Santa Fe. The fort was established on April 19, 1851 and named for the late General Matthew Arbuckle. Gen. Arbuckle had been Commander of the Military Department of Missouri until his death from cholera on April 11, 1851 at Fort Smith .

The post originally measured 12 miles by 12 miles but it was reduced in size to 9 miles by 12 miles at the request of the Chickasaw government. The post needed the space for the friendly tribes to camp in the protection of the army post.

A young Lt. George B. McClellan served at Fort Arbuckle in the early 1850's and married Mary Ellen, one of Capt. Randolph B. Marcy's daughters. George and Mary Ellen were married in New York City on May 22, 1860. McClellan later served as the Commander of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War with Marcy as his Chief of Staff.

Over the years, Fort Arbuckle was occupied by the U.S. Army, Confederate troops including the Chickasaw Brigade during the Civil War, then reoccupied by the U.S. Army's 10th Calvary or "Buffalo Soldiers".

The troops from Fort Arbuckle were transferred to Fort Sill when it was established. The cemetery was moved to Fort Gibson National Cemetery. Part of a chimney from the officer's quarters is the only remaining part of the fort still on the site.

Location: Seven miles west of Davis on the south-side of Wild Horse Creek, Garvin County, Oklahoma

• Latitude: 34.52556
• Longitude: -97.24833

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