A brief history of the fort that became a city, Fort Smith, Arkansas

Second Fort Smith

In 1838, fourteen years after the original fort was abandoned by the army, construction started on a second Fort Smith.  The white settlers of the area had petitioned Congress for a new fort because of an unfounded fear of trouble due to the influx of Indians into the Indian Territory.  Many Native Americans from the Five Civilized Tribes were settling on the Indian lands. 

Above is one of the earliest pictures we have of the new fort - an artist's painting made in 1853 of "The Little Gibraltar on The Arkansas." The growing town of Fort Smith can be seen on the left.  When finished the new stone fort consisted of two large buildings housing officer's quarters and administration offices (seen at the right of the flag), an enlisted men's barracks in the center of the fort (left of the flag) and a few other smaller buildings enclosed in a six to eight foot stone wall.  

The new fort before the Civil War - view from Garrison Avenue. The two large buildings on the right behind the flag pole are the officer's quarters and administrative buildings.  The building on the left is the enlisted mens barracks which became Judge Parker's courthouse.  Only the enlisted mens barracks and the commissary building (not seen in this picture) survive.

The old Commissary building

Col. Zachary Taylor took command of the fort in 1841 while it was still under construction. In his opinion, "A more useless expenditure of money and labor was never made by this or any other people...The sooner it is arrested the better." The Army listened, and when Col. Taylor, future president of the U.S., went off to fight the war with Mexico construction was halted. Two block houses were left unfinished and two converted into storehouses. In 1845 the fort became an Army supply depot.

The old commissary building (above), which stood at the northeast corner of the fort, was one of the former blockhouses. It is the only building still standing that looks today as it did when the fort was an active Army post.  The enlisted men's barracks became Judge Parkers courthouse and jail. It was enlarged and a jail wing added giving it the appearance it has today. The other buildings and stone fortifications are now gone although a small portion of the main gate has been restored.

Photo of the fort during the Civil War. The men in uniform appear to be Union soldiers 

At the start of the Civil War, Federal forces abandoned the fort and Confederate General and former U.S. Senator Solon Borland took command in April, 1863.  The fort remained in Confederate hands until September, 1863 when Confederate Gen. William L. Cabell retreated from the advancing forces of Union Gen. James G. Blunt; the fort was once again under the U.S. flag. 

In 1865 the fort was formally reactivated. In that year a grand council of Oklahoma tribes ceded almost half of all land claimed by them before the Civil War in restitution for siding with the Confederacy during the war. 

 By 1871 the frontier had moved so far west that Fort Smith was no longer useful, even as a supply depot, and it was again abandoned by the Army.  However, it was soon to become more famous as the seat of a federal court than it ever was as a bastion against warring hoards.  It became a bastion against the outlaw.

Ronald N. Wall
Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved.
Revised: May, 2006