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Ft. Arbuckle's Lost Troops |
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| In 1856, a troop of
cavalry was in route from Ft. Gibson, near Muskogee, to Ft.
Arbuckle. It was said that at that time there was not a single house
between Stonewall and Ft. Arbuckle. Somewhere between the present
day sites of Sulphur and Davis, the troop stopped to camp for the
night. When morning came, some of the troops were quite ill. A
runner was sent on to Ft. Arbuckle to retrieve the post doctor.
The troop had camped somewhere along Guy Sandy Creek. The post doctor brought the post ambulance with medical supplies and began taking care of the afflicted soldiers. The doctor diagnosed the troops as having cholera, a highly contagious disease at that time. The troops were ordered to remain in the camp on Sandy Creek until the crisis passed. By the time the illness had passed, twenty six soldiers had died. The soldiers were buried in the camp and their belongings were burned. After several weeks of recovery, the surviving troops continued their journey to Ft. Arbuckle. In the Indian Pioneer Paper of Bird Ashton, he states.... West of my ranch which is northwest of Sulphur, there are eighteen or twenty graves, where soldiers are buried. When I came here, there were the remains of their old rock ovens and the timber was scarred where they had used the trees for target practice. When the troops at Ft. Arbuckle were moved to Ft. Sill in 1870, the post cemetery at Ft. Arbuckle was moved to the Ft. Gibson military cemetery. I suppose that the troops buried on Guy Sandy Creek were left where they were since they had died of cholera. The troops graves have never been found again. Dennis Muncrief, September 2001.
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