Research on the Skirmish at present day Dale Oklahoma

Although it was only a small skirmish during a summer morning in 1864 that dented the history of the county with the Civil War, its documentation has been entered in a few instances.

Proof that it happened was recorded by two former Civil War Veterans who many years later resided at Dale, Oklahoma.  A small party scouting for food and supplies for the Confederacy from Major John Jumper's Seminole Battalion under Gen. Stand Watie, had made an overnight bivouac at a previously used dug out crescent entrenchment located on a small rounded knoll about a quarter of a mile due east of the North Canadian River bridge just east of present Dale, Oklahoma.  The Confederate party had made a foray northward towards Kansas, and on their return apparently had beeen followed by the Union party that had made an all nifht forced march to enable them to execute their surprise daybreak atttack effective on the unsuspecting gray-clads that early spring morning. The points of the crescent trench pointed east, and the hand dug entrenchment was four feet deep and eight feet wide by about eighty feet in length.  Some of the Confederate troopers had camped about a hundred yards south of the trench in the protection of a clump of trees where their horses had been picketed.  (This location on the south side of the present sectio line road was many years later the Kickapoo Indian allotment of "Wa-Pa-Paw," and the northern position was near that of "Ok-a-bee," whose native son "Me-Nok" was an accomplished arrow maker.)

There were about 25 Confederates in this plundering party.  The skrimish occurred about daybreak on that summer morning in 1864.  The complacent Confederates without posting a guard, were in the process of cooking breakfast, and had a roaring fire of large logs built up against the wall of the entrenchment.  They thought the enemy was far away to the north.  The Union party, with about the same number of troops, mounted and charged the unsuspecting Indian troopers of the Confederacy who fled from their trenches and returned their fire during a frantic and swift exodus.   Their breakfast was left cooking as they ran for the picket line and their horses.  Here, in the semiprotection of the heavy wooded area, an in a defensive position, about half of the surviving troopers stopped the oncoming Federals with rifle fire while their comrades saddled all the horses.  They then made their escape with an orderly and well executed rear guard maneuver, without further casualties.

The entire skirmish which lasted only about thirty frantic minutes, killed five on each side.  The remaining Union party had captured the covered Chuck Wagon loaded with the food and supplies obtained by the raiding confederates; and they enjoyed the abundant breakfast still on the fire.

They loaded the ten dead soldiers in the box-bed of the wagon, both Union and Confederates, then hauled them south-west about a quarter of a mile to the North Canadian River and ungloriously dumped the bodies in the shallow water where they floated gently downstream, both Blue and Gray, with the mute witness of only the rippling water singing their "taps" in unison.

The author remembers over a half-century ago of first seeing the marked charcoal outline of the entrenchment on both sides of the deep cut through the knoll on the section line road, located about 200 yards east of where the old U.S. No. 270 Highway veered southeast, about a quarter of a mile east of the river bridge at Dale.  Then, one could see three half-consumed burnt logs visible from the walls of the road.  There were no trees near the old Civil War location.

Some unfounded but putative rumors floating down through the years say this location was where some government surveyors were murdered by Indians.  This is not based on fact.  The county was not surveyed until about five years after the Civil War.  Too, Capt. C.G. Neal (grandfather of C.C. Patton of Dale) was a member of that 4th Kansas Volunteers as was a Mr. Thomas Whipple.  Both were there on the Union assault party in 1864.

Ironically, they both later settled at Dale and were members of the GAR post and Relief Corps.  at Dale where they owned a large frame building.  Whipple, many years later, admitted that after the momentous skirmish he had ceased firing that morning when he had reached the entrenchment campfire over which the bacon was still cooking.  Their mission had been accomplished.

--Localized History of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma to 1907; By Charles W. Mooney

To This day you can ask the locals about this battle all they can tell you is that it took place on that hill. I have seen a small canon ball that was found on that hill. Witch tells me that there may have been other battles here.  This land is Indian land and they know about its history but they do not want anyone on it.

J.R. Lister III

The Montague County (Pre-Civil War) Texas Ranger, John Scanland, put together a Confederate Cavalry Unit in the Spring of 1861 to secure Fort Arbuckle in the Indian Territory from the Union.  The men in Scanland's squadron were mustered in Montague County.  They enlisted, November 18, 1861, in Company "E" Chickasaw Battalion.  The Company afterwards became Company "A" of Lt. Col. John W. Wells' Battalion, Texas Cavalry.

Lewis Keel Edmound Pickens

Chickasaw Battalion

Camps and Forts

Camp Arbuckle: 1 mile northwest of Byars, McLain County (Section 4, T5N, R2E), 1832-1834.

Fort Arbuckle: 3 miles east of Keystone, Tulsa County (Section 2, T19N, R26E), 1834.

Camp Armstrong (Confederate camp and hospital): 3 miles northeast of Bokchito, Bryan County, 1862-1865.

Camp Auger: 5 miles southwest of Grandfield, Tillman County (section 31, T4S, R4W): 1870-1871.

Fort Blunt: Name applied to Fort Gibson during the Civil War, named for Major General J. G. Blunt, 1863-1865.

Camp Boggy Depot (Confederate): North of Atoka, Atoka County, 1863-1864.

Camp Brasse (Confederate): Cherokee Nation, 1863.

Camp Brookin (Confederate): Near Brookin, south of the Canadian River, Haskell County, 1862.

*Camp Canadian: North of Atwood, Hughes county, 1834.

Cantonment: 5 miles northwest of Canton, Blaine County (section 29, T19N, R13W), 1879-1882.

*Camp Cass: 4 miles south of Stidham, McIntosh County, 1834.

*Camp Cedar: Near the mouth of the Cimarron, may have been predecessor of Camp Arbuckle, 1834.

**Camp Chilocco: South of Arkansas City, Kansas, 1885.

*Camp Choctaw: Stephens County, 1834.

Chickasaw Agency Post: Chickasaw Agency, 1834.

Fort Cobb: 1 mile east of present day Fort Cobb, Caddo County (NW1/4, section 12, T7N, R12W), 1859-1861, Confederate occupied 1862.

Chouteau's Creek, Near Cherokee, Alfalfa County (T26N, R11W), 1838.

Fort Coffee: 6 miles north of Spiro, LeFlore County (Section 30, T10N, R26E), 1834.

*Camp Comanche: Cache Creek, near Apache (section 7-8, T4N, R11W), 1834.

Fort Davis (Confederate): 1 mile north of Bacone College, Muskogee County (section 7, T15N, R19E), 1861-1862.

Fort Edwards (Camp Holmes): Near the mouth of the Little River, 1834?

Fort Gibson: Southwest of Fort Smith, Arkansas;1817-1824, confederate occupation April 1861- Septembr 3, 1863, Returned to US control September 1863-September 1871

Fort Gibson (Fort Blunt): East side of Grand River, present day town of Fort Gibson, Muskogee County (Sections 1,2,11, T15N, R19E), April 20, 1864-June, 1856, and April 1863-1865.

**Camp Guthrie (Camp McArthur): Guthrie, Logan County, 1889-1891. Camp Hickory: During Smoke Meat Rebellion, 1909.

Camp Holmes: Mouth of the Little River, 1834.

Camp Illinois: Same as Fort Wayne. Camp Imochiah (Confederate): Choctaw Nation, 1863.

*Camp Jackson: 1 mile from present day Fort Gibson, 1834.

*Camp Jumper (Confederate): Near Eufaula, McIntosh County, 1862.

**Camp at Kingfisher: Near present day Kingfisher, Kingfisher County, 1889.

*Camp Leavenworth: 2 miles south of Kingston, Marshall County (Section 7, T7N, R1W), 1834.

Camp Mason (Fort Holmes, Mason's Fort), East and north of Lexington, Cleveland County (section 17, T7N,R1W), 1835-1840.

Fort McCulloch: 3 miles southwest of Kenefic, Bryan County (section 7, T5S, R9E): 1862-1865.

*Camp McDaniel: Near the present town of Owasso, Tulsa County, 1861.

Camp McIntosh (Confederate): 5 miles east of Anadarko, Caddo County (section 17, T7N, R9W), 1861-1865.

Camp Napoleon (Confederate): Near present day Verden, Grady County (section 18, T7N, R8W), 1865.

*Camp Neosho: Opposite Fort Gibson, 1850.

Camp Nichols: Near Boise City, Cimarron County, 6 miles east of the Oklahoma-New Mexico state line (section 2, T3N, R1E): 1865.

**Camp Oklahoma: Present day Oklahoma City, 1889.

*Camp Osage: Southern Pontotoc County, south of Jesse, 1834.

Camp at Perryville Depot: 3 miles south of McAlister, Pittsburg County, 1862.

Camp Prairie Springs (Confederate): Choctaw Nation, 1863.

**Camp Price, South of Arkansas City, Kansas, 1889.

**Camp Purcell: Near present day Purcell, McLain County, 1889.

Camp Quapaw (Confederate): Near Hudson's Crossing on Quapaw land, 1863.

Camp Radziminske #1 (Camp Otter Creek and Otter Creek Station): 1 ½ miles north and 2 ½ miles west of Mountain Park, Kiowa County (NE ¼, section 16, T3N, R17W), 1858-1859.

Camp Radziminske #2: 5 miles north of Mountain Park, Kiowa County (section 16, T3N, R17W), 1858-1859.

*Camp Rendezvous; 18 miles from Fort Gibson, 1834.

Fort Reno: West of present day town of El Reno, Canadian County (section 34, T13N, R8W), 1874-1948.

Camp Robinson: On Otter Creek at the old Radziminski Crossing, 1871.

Camp Ross (Confederate): near the home of John Ross, Parkhill, Cherokee County (section 15, T16N, R22E), 1863.

Ross' Landing: Mouth of Ross Creek, Choctaw Nation, 1836?

**Camp Russell: 7 miles northeast of Guthrie, Logan County, 1883-1885.

**Camp Schofield: 3 miles east of Chilocco, Kay County, 1889.

Sheridan's Roost: Near Orion, Major County, 1870.

Fort Sill (Also called Camp at Medicine Bluff and Camp Wichita): North of Lawton, Comanche County (section 1, T2N, R12W), 1869-present.

*Camp Smith: 25 miles west of the Washita River?, 1834.

Spanish-American War Camp: East of Fort Reno, Canadian County, July-August, 1898.

Camp Steel (Confederate): Choctaw Nation near Fort Smith, Winter 1862.

Fort Supply: Near the present town of Fort Supply, Woodward County (section 8, T24N, R12W). 1868-1893.

Camp Tiger: West of Tiger Mountain, Okmulgee County, 1909. F

ort Towson (Camp Phoenix and Cantonment Towson): 1 mile Northeast of the present town of Fort Towson, Choctaw County (Section 24, T6S, R20E), 1824-1829; moved to Gates Creek in 1831-1854; Confederate occupied 1863-1865.

*Camp Washita: Near the mouth of the Washita River, Bryan County (section 22, T5S, R7E), 1834.

Fort Washita: Northwestern Bryan Cointy, 12 miles from the mouth of the Washita River (section 22, T5S, R7E), April 1842-May 1, 1861, occupied by Confederate forces, 1861-1865.

Camp Wattles (Confederate): Near the mouth of Pryor Creek, Mayes County, 1862-1863.

Fort Wayne #1: East of Watts, Adair County (Section 1, T19N, R26E), 1838.

Fort Wayne #2: Near Spavinaw, Mayes County (Section 28, T22N, R25E), 1839-1862, confederate occupied 1861.

Camp Bob Williams: Oklahoma City Fairgrounds, Oklahoma County, September 1916.