Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

I gues that technically, that should be "Confederate Indian Territory."
 

Done went and gone Confederate on me again. Pray tell what did 200 Rebels die of at Fort Washita in the two years they were there? Hang nails and colds?

Fort Washita's real history is the history of the Texas Road along which the Anglo Immigrants from Missouri and Illinois etc. flooded into Central and West Texas from the 1830s and into the 1850s and along which millions upon millions of dollars worth of trade goods flowed south over the years, and a while bunch of Texas cows went north in small groups. The Texas road and the Colbert Ferry were the I-35 of that era until replaced by the MK&T railroad. With effort, the Texas road is still decernable and walkable from the Red River to Kansas. About 10 years ago some of us tried to help get it designated a National Historical Monument or Trail. But our local Congressman at the time thought it would be a waste of taxpayers money so he killed it. Now he is out and gone. Might see if the new gal would be interested in it.
 

Ask the descendants of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Rebs, doc.
 

"Pray tell what did 200 Rebels die of at Fort Washita in the two years they were there? Hang nails and colds?"

I'm not even southern-born, but that sounded like a cheap shot. Slapping around someone else's interests and regional pride and then hijacking their topic with some drivel about what YOU think is important is just rude. I suppose the soldiers at Valley Forge just died of colds, too, during that long winter. Or was it dysentery?

--Chandler Bing
 

Ah Mr. Bling PC gaurdian of blog feelings. Truthfully I have to poke my elbow into my Historian friend here on this blog to get him to be more skeptical on occassion. 200 Confederate dead sounds like a whole lot for the I.T. and Fort Washita during that short stay during the Civil War. No battles were fought near it and it wasn't a "disease post" like Fort Gibson in I.T. was. So why? Epidemic? Overstatement? Why?
As for teasing him about "going Confederate on me" that's an ongoing dig that I will probably keep harping on him.

And:
"...hijacking their topic with some drivel about what YOU think is important is just rude."
"Drivel"? The only reason Fort Washita existed was the Texas Road ran through it, so I think I was on topic. "Rude"? Yep most probably, I think it is genetic.
"Hijacking their topic"..naw, just salting it to taste.

ER, is Chandler your mother using an alias again?
 

No clue who Chanandler Bong is. :-)

Two hundred dead over four years does not sound like too many to me.

Actually, I can't find any information on the cemetery. But it could be that Indians, as they were wont to do, brought their dead back to Chickasaw-Choctaw country to bury them, from wherever they fell.
 

Now, now Dr.lobojo, ER likes you best, there's no need to bring his mother into this.

Ft. Washita was established to protect Choctaws and Chickasaws from maurading Comanches. Later, because it was convenient, it was used as a staging area for immigrants jumping off towards the west or Texas. And, later the Feds deserted it and the Confederates used it as a supply route. There's no mention of the Texas Road on the Ft. Washita historical website, although, someone did put up markers 150 miles away from Ft. Washita in Okay, OK and in Honey Springs. And, please, don't write a long lecture about the route of the Texas Road; I can google with the best of them. I'm sure it did pass by Ft. Washita. I just find it interesting no one over at the Ft. Washita historical society thought it was important enough to mention.


The cemetary ER mentioned in his blog was used by pre-Civil war as well as Civil war time Indians, and yes, they did bring their dead back to be buried there. The Indians picked up the custom of marking their graves later on from the white man, which makes it impossible to identify anyone and determine who actually died in battle or from a hangnail. You should keep in mind, though, not every graveyard is also a battlefield.

--Chandler Bing
 

The Choctaw probably would not have put their "warriors" into a common cemetary like that, don't know about the Chickasaw. I suspect, and will try to check this out further, that these were Anglo-Texicans at Washita cemetary.
Check this out:
www.tc.umn.edu/~mboucher/mikebouchweb/choctaw/burial1.htm
 

Mr. Bing before the Texas Road was named the Texas Road by the Anglo community it was a warriors trail (a war path if you please) into area that latter became I. T., Kansas and Arkansas on the East side of the Cross Timbers. Thus to block West to East raids you would block the warriors trail. This blocking the "war path" is a typical way of locating defensive forts all across the "old" (east of the Mississippi) and new (West of the Mississippi) West of America.
So, the Fort was place where it was because of the Texas Road.
It is unfortunate that info on the Texas Road isn't more available via Google or any other search engine.
It is a part of the History of the Westward Expansion of the 1700-1800's that is yet unexplored as well as it should be.

Are you sure you're not ER's mother?
 

It's hard to refute your claims of importance of the Texas Road when there's nothing to find to read about it. Oh, wait..that's kind of telling right there isn't it?

I did find lots of websites on Ft. Washita and all of them agreed on one thing, which is what I said earlier about the Fort being established to protect Indians from other Indians, so you're not really debating me on that point. You need to take it up with all those historians who make up the web pages.

And, as far as the dead buried at Ft. Washita, you're, well...what are you saying there? That they're not even Indians? I don't even know how to respond to something that ludicrous. I'm not even going to try.

--Chandler Bing
 

Thank you Mr. Bing for your engagement.
 

Ahem.

Native Americans from Indian Territory fought and died both at the Battle of Wilson's Creek and at Pea Ridge. There was also plenty of internecine warfare during the Civil War, as of course all Five Tribes were riven by conflict. There certainly were plenty enough dying when Unionist Creek and Cherokee were being driven out of the state into Kansas.

After all, one of the last general officers to surrender was Stand Watie.

And it's "cemetery!" not "cemetary!" fortheloveofmike! No "a!"
 

Yes, the tribes were split. But me and Albert Pike got the documents to show which way they "officially" went! :-)