Fort Towson

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Fort Towson was a frontier outpost for Frontier Army Quartermasters along the Permanent Indian Frontier located about two miles northeast of the present community of Fort Towson, Oklahoma.

It was established May 1824, under Col. Matthew Arbuckle, on the southern edge of Indian Territory to guard the Spanish border. It was named for Nathaniel Towson, Paymaster General of the Army. Originally called "Cantonment Towson," it was abandoned in 1829, but soon reestablished as "Camp Phoenix" to protect the Choctaw Nation and renamed Fort Towson in 1831. The fort was garrisoned until 1854 when it was turned over to the use of the Choctaw Indian Agency.

The Confederacy took over the fort at the beginning of the American Civil War, but it eventually became the headquarters of Confederate General Samuel B. Maxey. The last remaining Confederate Army troops, commanded by General Stand Watie, surrendered to Union forces at Fort Towson on June 23, 1865. The post was abandoned at the close of the Civil War.

The location of the fort is an Oklahoma Historic Site and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#70000531) in 1970.

[edit] References

  • Morrison, W.B. "Fort Towson", Chronicles of Oklahoma 8:2 (June 1930) 226-232 (retrieved August 16, 2006).

[edit] External links

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