April 30 1861 Tuesday
Indian Territory. US President Abraham Lincoln ordered the evacuation of US troops from the Indian Nations, leaving the Five so-called Civilised (or slaveholding) Tribes exposed to Confederate influence. The main aim was to make more efficient use of the Regular Army and to reduce commitments to Frontier garrisons. In due course, the Confederates secured the allegiance of the Cherokee Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, the Choctaw Nation, the Creek Nation, and the Seminole Nation.
Indian Territory. Fort Washita, the major US Army post in the Indian Territory, was abandoned by the US Army. Fort Washita was established about twelve miles northwest of the present-day town of Durant, Oklahoma, just north of the confluence of the Washita River with the Red River. The original fortification extended across seven square miles, with more than ninety buildings and sites. Camp Washita was first set up in 1834 near the mouth of the Washita River as a base of operations for the area. Camp Washita was abandoned later that year.
The area was not secure for the arriving Five Civilised tribes as they arrived from the southern States, and the region was exposed to raids from the plains Indians because the closest US Army garrison at Fort Towson was eighty miles to the east, too distant to offer protection. In 1838 the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Western Territory, William Armstrong, asked the War Department to build a military post so that the arriving tribes could occupy their allocated reservations in greater safety.
Captain T A Blake led a company of US Dragoons from Fort Towson to the proposed site of Fort Washita in late 1841.
A site was chosen on the Choctaw lands west of Fort Towson on high ground a mile and a half east of the Washita River and 18 miles north of its junction with the Red River. The Red River was the southern border of the Indian Territory with the Republic of Texas.
Fort Washita held a strategic position. In addition to being located near crossings of the Red and Washita Rivers, it was also adjacent to an ancient known as the Texas Road, leading from Missouri to Texas and beyond. This route was called the old Preston Trail after it crossed into Texas on the Red River near Preston Bend at Coffee’s Trading Post and later Colbert’s Ferry. Fort Washita became a major junction on this road. The Shawnee Cattle Trail later followed this route and the Butterfield Overland Stage crossed the river just east of Fort Washita. Two military roads were constructed into the area, one from Fort Gibson to the north and one from Fort Towson to the east. Later roads connected Fort Washita with Fort Arbuckle and Fort Sill.
Construction began in the spring of 1842 near the Chickasaw Indian Agency mostly by Companies A and F of the 2nd US Dragoons. Difficulties in transporting supplies almost resulted in the project being abandoned but General Taylor testified to the fort’s valuable location and insisted on its completion. The plans to complete the fort were revived and the US Army garrison moved in on 23 April 1843. During the Mexican-American War, activity increased dramatically as the fort served as a staging point on the Texas Road. The usual garrison of 150 men increased temporarily to almost 2,000 troops.
After the discovery of gold in California in 1848 many settlers travelled through Fort Washita to avoid the cold winters, snow, and cholera outbreaks that affected more northerly routes. However, the presence of the plains Indians along this route posed its own dangers. Travellers gathered in groups for protection and it became customary for emigrants to rendezvous and make final preparations at Fort Washita before crossing the Red River into Texas. In 1850, a new fort was established to the west of Fort Washita to protect California emigrants and was named Fort Arbuckle. Fort Worth was also established 120 miles from Fort Washita on 6 June 1849 for the same reason. Several artillery units were assigned to the fort in addition to infantry and cavalry and it served as a Field Artillery School.
Fort Smith, Fort Washita, Fort Belknap, and Fort Arbuckle were abandoned temporarily in 1858 when their troops were sent to Utah during the Utah War. The Fort closed on 17 February 1858 but was reoccupied on 29 December in response to increased Comanche activity.
Fort Washita’s importance as a military post waned as the frontier moved westward. The Chickasaw and Choctaw nations grew more settled and incursions by the plains Indians lessened. As the frontier moved westward new military posts were established farther west to protect the new frontier, such as Fort Cobb in October 1859.
Anticipating war early in 1861, Lieutenant-Colonel William Hemsley Emory (1st US Cavalry) concentrated the Federal troops withdrawn from Forts Arbuckle and Cobb at Fort Washita. On 16 April 1861, he set out northward for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, pursued by 4,000 Texas militiamen who arrived at the fort only one day behind his departure and seized control. Fort Washita became an important supply depot for the Confederates in the Indian Territory. It was the headquarters at different times of Brigadier-General Douglas Hancock Cooper, Brigadier-General General Albert Pike before he established Fort McCulloch a few miles to the east, and Brigadier-General Stand Watie. Near the end of the war, Confederate forces burned the existing buildings and abandoned the post and Fort Washita was never reoccupied by the US Army.
Louisiana. The USS Powhatan arrived off the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River with the first elements of a blockading fleet. The arrival of these vessels occurred much earlier than had been anticipated in New Orleans, and neutral shipping rushed to vacate the port after a fifteen-day grace period was announced.
Texas. Major Caleb C Sibley’s detachment of paroled US troops set sail from Texas for New York.
Union Organisation
Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery
Potomac Flotilla: James Harmon Ward
General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott
Department of Annapolis: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited
Department of the East: John Ellis Wool
Department of Florida: Harvey Brown
Department of New Mexico: William Wing Loring
Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner awaited
- District of Oregon: George Wright
Department of Pennsylvania: Robert Patterson
Department of Texas: Vacant
Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke
Department of Washington: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
Department of the West: Edmund Brooke Alexander temporary
Confederate Organisation
Commander in Chief: President Jefferson Finis Davis
Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Secretary of War: Leroy Pope Walker
Secretary of the Navy: Stephen Russell Mallory
Department of Alexandria: Philip St George Cocke
- Alexandria Line: Philip St George Cocke
Department of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes
- Defences of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes
Department of South Carolina: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
- “Forces in Charleston”: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Department of Texas: Earl Van Dorn
Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg
- “Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg
District of Louisiana: David Emanuel Twiggs
- “Forces in New Orleans” “Army of Louisiana”: Braxton Bragg
Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton
Potomac Line: Daniel Ruggles
“Forces in Harper’s Ferry”: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
“Forces in Norfolk”: Walter Gwynn
Forces in Richmond: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Union Generals
Major-General USA
Winfield Scott
Brigadier-General USA
John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner
Confederate Generals
Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission
Major-General PACS
David Emanuel Twiggs
Brigadier-General ACSA
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg
Brigadier-General PACS
Alexander Robert Lawton
Milledge Lake Bonham
American Civil War High Command 