Fort Baxter, also known as Fort Blair, was a small

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

post located in the southeast corner of

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

near present-day Baxter Springs. This area was known as the

Cherokee Strip The Cherokee Outlet, or Cherokee Strip, was located in what is now the state of Oklahoma in the United States. It was a 60-mile-wide (97 km) parcel of land south of the Oklahoma-Kansas border between 96 and 100°W. The Cherokee Outlet wa ...

. It was one of a few Kansas forts attacked by Confederate forces during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. At one point the Confederate government claimed authority over the Neutral Lands. Both Union and Confederate troops operated in the area, as did guerrilla forces and militias prevalent in the Kansas-Missouri border area. Fort Baxter was established during the war by Gen. James G. Blunt in May 1863. It was later described by the writer William E. Connelley as "consist ngof some log cabins with a total frontage of about 100 feet, facing east toward Spring river. Back of the fort, and of the same width, was a large space enclosed by embankments of earth thrown up against logs and about 4 feet high." The west wall of the embankment was torn out on October 5, 1863, to extend the north and south walls some 200 yards farther west. While still unfinished, the fort was attacked by

Quantrill's raiders Quantrill's Raiders were the best-known of the pro-Confederate States of America, Confederate partisan guerrillas (also known as "bushwhackers") who fought in the American Civil War. Their leader was William Quantrill and they included Jesse Ja ...

the next day, while about 60 men were out foraging on the prairie. They had happened on to some Union forces while on the way to winter camp in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. The Union garrison, about 25 white cavalry and 65-70 infantry men of the United States Colored Troops"Chapter XIII: The History of Baxter Springs"
''History of Cherokee County, Kansas and representative citizens,'' Ed. and comp. by Nathaniel Thompson Allison, 1904 defended the fort. Quantrill moved his men against the Union force led by Blunt out on the prairie, who was transferring a detachment from Fort Scott east to

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

. Quantrill's guerrillas outnumbered the Union forces and killed most of them, a total of 103 men. Blunt and a few cavalry survived and escaped back to Fort Baxter. After the massacre of Blunt's force, Quantrill withdrew and continued to Texas. The troops stationed at Fort Blair and the survivors of Blunt's force moved away from Fort Baxter and into Camp Ben Butler. They buried most of the dead from both sides in mass graves. When word of Blunt's defeat reached Fort Scott, Kansas, five companies of US troops were sent to temporarily reinforce Baxter Springs. But on October 20, 1863, the troops in Baxter Springs were ordered to abandon the area and return to the better-fortified Fort Scott. They destroyed and burned everything they could not take with them, and the US Army abandoned Fort Baxter as a military post.Hugh L. Thompson, "Baxter Springs as a Military Post—1862–1863," ''Kansas in the Civil War Battles and Campaigns,'' Vol. 3, pp. 32-4 (from the Kansas State Historical Society).

References

External links

"Fort Baxter"
1912, Genweb Archives, Library, State of Kansas

Civil War Talk forum

Library of Virginia - Old West Forts {{coord missing, Kansas Closed installations of the United States Army Buildings and structures in Cherokee County, Kansas Baxter 1863 establishments in Kansas

See also

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External links