National Register Listing
Thus did an army private, D. L. Spots, in his Journal for Saturday, December 19, 1868, describe a final day of glory in the brief, but exciting--and not insignificant--life of Fort Cobb. It was an impressive assemblage. In and about the post parade ground were some 3,000 Kiowas and Comanches, hundreds of Wichitas, Cheyennes, Arapahoes and other tribes, some nominally friendly, other fiercely resentful because of the devastating early morning attack a few weeks before by General Custer on the sleeping Cheyennes camp of Chief Black Kettle a hundred miles to the northwest. Facing them were some 2,000 troops led by Generals Philip H, Sheridan, George A. Custer and William B. Hazen.
The hostiles had been cowed and peace on the Southern Plains had been, for all practical purposes, achieved. Ironically, however, Fort Cobb itself had outlived its usefulness, In the last week of December the rains came and the post became a sea of mud. Shortly General Sheridan was to follow the advice of earlier military men on the scene and establish a permanent base near Medicine Bluff in the Wichita Mountains about 30 miles to the south. Stakes for Camp Wichita (present Fort Sill) were driven January 8, 1869. On March 13, Fort Cobb was abandoned. Local significance of the site:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Fort Cobb Site
1 mi. E of Fort Cobb, Fort Cobb, OKPromptly at 2 o'clock we formed in battalions of three companies each on the parade ground and rode in front of the officers - Gens, Sheridan, Custer, Hazen and our regimental officers. About fifty feet to their right stood the Indian chiefs, Satanta, Lone Wolf of the Kiowas and Ten Bears, a Comanche chief. A son of Satanta was also with them. The Indians were on horse back and wore the chiefs headdress of beads and feathers.
Satanta's son had on pants and shirt and a red and black blanket over his shoulders. He is his father's messenger and a fine looking boy, straight as an arrow and appears about 20 years old, Satanta is quite large and very strongly built, much more noble looking than the others who are darker and just ordinary looking Indians, only finely dressed.
Thus did an army private, D. L. Spots, in his Journal for Saturday, December 19, 1868, describe a final day of glory in the brief, but exciting--and not insignificant--life of Fort Cobb. It was an impressive assemblage. In and about the post parade ground were some 3,000 Kiowas and Comanches, hundreds of Wichitas, Cheyennes, Arapahoes and other tribes, some nominally friendly, other fiercely resentful because of the devastating early morning attack a few weeks before by General Custer on the sleeping Cheyennes camp of Chief Black Kettle a hundred miles to the northwest. Facing them were some 2,000 troops led by Generals Philip H, Sheridan, George A. Custer and William B. Hazen.
The hostiles had been cowed and peace on the Southern Plains had been, for all practical purposes, achieved. Ironically, however, Fort Cobb itself had outlived its usefulness, In the last week of December the rains came and the post became a sea of mud. Shortly General Sheridan was to follow the advice of earlier military men on the scene and establish a permanent base near Medicine Bluff in the Wichita Mountains about 30 miles to the south. Stakes for Camp Wichita (present Fort Sill) were driven January 8, 1869. On March 13, Fort Cobb was abandoned. Local significance of the site:
Military; Politics/government; Social History
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
About National Register Listings
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.