Soon
after, the Pike Expedition (1806) explored the Arkansas River. Fort Smith was
founded in 1817 as a military post. A stockade was built and occupied, from
1817 until 1822, by a small troop of regulars commanded by Major William Bradford.
Around the fort a small settlement began forming, but the Army abandoned the
first Fort Smith in 1824 and moved 80 miles further west to Fort Gibson. Army
sutler and land speculator John Rogers bought up former government-owned lands
and promoted growth of the new civilian town of Fort Smith, eventually
influencing the federal government to re-establish a military presence at Fort
Smith during the era of Indian Removal and the Mexican War.
Fort
Smith's name comes from General Thomas Adams Smith (1781–1844), who commanded
the United States Army Rifle Regiment in 1817, headquartered near St. Louis.
General Smith had ordered Army topographical engineer Stephen H. Long
(1784–1864) to find a suitable site on the Arkansas River for a fort. General
Smith never visited the town or forts that bore his name.
Built
on the eastern edge of Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma, in 1838
Congress authorized the enlargement of the military post at Fort Smith. John
Rogers sold the United States 306 acres adjoining the site of the first Fort
Smith for $15,000. Due to the Indian removal primarily from the eastern states
now known as the “Trail of Tears,” western Arkansas was one of the busiest
places on America's southwestern frontier during the late 1830s. A
new military post was under construction and a bustling town named Fort Smith
was emerging on its perimeter.
 |
| Old Fort Smith ca. 1852 |
During
the Civil War, the North met the South here with devastating results.
 |
| Units stationed at Fort Smith |
The fort was occupied
by the Confederate Army during the early years of the Civil War. Union troops
under General Steele took control of Fort Smith on September 1, 1863. A small battle
occurred there on July 31, 1864, but the Union army maintained command in the
area until the war ended in 1865.
Courtesy of Bill
and Ann England / Men gather in front of Devany's shoe store on Garrison Avenue
on a day in September 1867. The buildings behind them were on the northwest
corner of the intersection of Garrison and North Sixth Street Notice the
fiddler seated in the covered wagon and the animal on top of the cover.
 |
| Postcard of early Garrison Street, Fort Smith |
The
town of Fort Smith became a haven for runaway slaves, orphans, Southern
Unionists, and other victims of the guerrilla warfare then raging in the Border
States. Federal troops abandoned the post of Fort Smith for the last time in
1871. The town continued to thrive despite the absence of federal troops.
The Butterfield Overland Mail Company maintained a
division center at Fort Smith, a junction point for its southbound coaches from
Tipton, Missouri, and its west bound coaches from Memphis, Tennessee.
 |
| Butterfield Overland Route Map |
Fort Smith has many sites commemorating and preserving
Trail of Tears, Civil War and Butterfield Overland Mail Company route history
that are now part of the Arkansas Heritage Trails System.
Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn
Echols for her historical novels.
Sources:
Fort Smith, Arkansas Wikipedia
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