Oklahoma and the Sesquicentennial

Oklahoma may not be the first state that you think of when you hear or read the phrase “Civil War Sesquicentennial,” but there was a lot of activity in the Indian Territory during the conflict. Oklahoma’s Sesquicentennial website has several digitized collections including the letter collections of David Breese, George Fine, Cyrus Byington, and Dallas Bowman. A Fort Blunt Ledger has also been digitized, and there are over twenty maps to peruse. Check it out!

Cabin Creek Preservation?

The site of the First and Second Battles of Cabin Creek is currently commemorated in a tiny park near Pensacola, Oklahoma, consisting of about ten acres. There is no visitor center and essentially no attempt at interpreting the battle actions that occurred there; a few granite markers line the roadway but they serve little purpose other than to inform the visitor of the units that participated in the actions. Since the park itself contains just a small percentage of the actual battlefields, I've long thought of it as a prime candidate for further preservation.

As a member of the Oklahoma Historical Society, I receive the organization’s official journal, The Chronicles of Oklahoma. Every issue includes the minutes of the Society’s quarterly meeting. Reading minutes is one of my odd pleasures, and I found the following part in the most recent issue to be quite informative:

“Consideration of projects for the Civil War Sesquicentennial. Bob Blackburn reported the Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission will hold its next meeting on April 30 at Honey Springs. He asked for at least four top priority projects, supported by the board, to submit to the commission at the meeting on Saturday and suggested the following: (1) finishing the visitor’s center at Honey Springs, (2) acquiring two parcels of land at the Cabin Creek Battlefield, (3) hosting an academic conference at the History Center in 2013 on the War in the West, and (4) changing reenactment schedules, having the Honey Springs reenactment in 2011, 2013, and 2015 in September…The president of the Civil War Trust and his chief fundraising officer were at the History Center last week and reported that the Civil War Trust has an option to buy the two parcels of land at Cabin Creek for $360,000. The Civil War Trust is applying for a grant from the American Battlefield Protection Plan for half the purchase price, leaving $180,000 to be raised” (The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Fall 2011, p. 380).

Wolverines in the West

Did you know that the 1^st, 5^th, and 6^th Michigan Cavalry regiments of Brigadier General George A. Custer’s brigade served in the trans-Mississippi? In the summer of 1865 most of these regiment’s companies were dispatched to the West. Below is the short history of the 1^st Michigan Cavalry from William F. Fox’s Regimental Losses In The American Civil War, 1861-1865 (1898). Note that the Wolverines suffered a loss of two killed at Willow Springs in the Dakota Territory.

For more information about the 1^st Michigan Cavalry, see the following:

Michigan Historical Museum: has a photograph of a flag of the 1^st Michigan Cavalry

Michigan in the Civil War: this website has a roster and a short history of the regiment

“Custer’s Brigade —Kilpatrick’s Division--Cavalry Corps, A. P.

（1) Col. Thornton F. Brodhead; Bvt. Brig.-Gen. (Killed).	（2) Col Charles H. Town.
（3) Col. Peter Stagg; Bvt. Brig.-Gen.

companies.		killed and died of wounds.			died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c.			Total Enrollment.
		Officers.	Men.	Total.	Officers.	Men.	Total.
Field and Staff		2	2	4		1	1	26
Company	A	1	20	21	2	20	22	198
	B	1	15	16		25	25	219
	C	3	10	13	1	24	25	222
	D		5	5		9	9	166
	E		12	12		18	18	201
	F	3	10	13		17	17	228
	G	1	7	8		13	13	201
	H		15	15	2	20	22	205
	I	1	11	12		25	25	183
	K	1	17	18		18	18	197
	L		16	16	1	28	29	239
	M	1	10	11		26	26	201
Totals		14	150	164	6	244	250	2,486

Total of killed and wounded, 584; died in Confederate prisons (previously included), 56.

battles.	K. & M. W.	battles.	K. & M. W.	battles.	K. & M. W.
Charlestown, Va., March 7 1862	1	Falling Waters, Md., July 14, 1863	2	Trevilian Sta'n, Va., June 12, 1864	17
Middletown, Va., March 24, 1862	1	Rapidan, Va., Sept. 14, 1863	1	Winchester, Va., Aug. 11, 1864	2
Salem, Va., April 1, 1862	1	Robertson's River, Sept. 23, 1863	1	Front Royal, Va., Aug. 16, 1864	4
Piedmont, Va., April 17, 1862	2	Brandy Station, Oct. 11, 1863	1	Shepherdstown, Va., Aug. 25, 1864	2
Winchester, Va., May 24, 1862	10	Centreville, Va., Nov. 6, 1863	1	Smithfield, Va., Aug. 29, 1864	2
Cedar Mountain, Va., Aug. 9, 1862	4	Todd’s Tavern, Va., May 6, 1864	8	Opequon, Va., Sept. 19, 1864	11
Manassas, Va., Aug. 30, 1862	15	Beaver Dam,Va., May 9, 1864	2	Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864	7
Brentsville, Va., Jan. 9, 1863	3	Yellow Tavern, Va., May 11, 1864	14	Picket, Va., Dec. 14, 1864	1
Fort Scott, Va., Jan. 12, 1863	1	Milford Station May 20, 1864	1	Dinwiddie, Va., March 30, 1865	3
Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863	14	Hawes's Shop, Va., May 28, 1864	6	Five Forks, Va., April 1, 1865	8
Monterey Md. July 4, 1863	4	Old Church, Va., May 30, 1864	2	Willow Springs, D. T., Aug. 12, 1865	2
Hagerstown, Md,, July 6, 1863	2	Cold Harbor, Va., June 1-6, 1864	5	Place unknown	3

Notes.--This regiment, with one exception, sustained the heaviest loss in action of any cavalry regiment in the war. It was organized at Detroit in August, 1861, and left the State on September 29, with 1,144 officers and men. It went into winter quarters at Frederick, Md., but in February, 1862, moved into Virginia, joining Banks's troops in their advance up the Shenandoah Valley. While there it was attached to Williams's Division, and took a large share of the cavalry fighting in that campaign. Colonel Brodhead fell, mortally wounded, at Manassas while leading a charge; the loss of the regiment in that battle was 8 killed, 13 wounded, and 97 captured,--many of the latter being wounded; it was then in Buford's Cavalry Brigade. In 1863 the regiment was assigned to Custer's Brigade of Michigan Cavalry. At Gettysburg the regiment lost 10 killed, 43 wounded, and 20 missing out of 300 engaged, the loss occurring in a charge against a superior force; a charge which Custer pronounced unequalled for brilliancy and gallantry in “the annals of warfare.” In the spring campaign of 1864, the losses from May 4th to June 30th were 40 killed, 138 wounded, and 65 missing; total, 243. The list of battles given above are those only in which men were killed, but the regiment participated in many others in which it lost men wounded or captured” (Fox, p. 376).