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By mid-1863, the Union presence in the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma) was well-established. That April, Union forces reoccupied Fort Gibson, located at the junction of the Military Road and the Arkansas River, and Major General James Blunt, the aggressive commander of newly-formed District of the Frontier, was determined to give battle to Confederates in the territory. That July, military operations there intensified. Confederate Colonel Stand Watie struck a Union supply column headed for Fort Gibson at Cabin Creek on July 1-2, but was driven off. Major General Blunt, believing that Watie’s superior, Brigadier General Douglas H. Cooper, was massing a force to attack him at Fort Gibson, moved to strike Cooper before reinforcements could arrive from Arkansas. Early on the morning of July 17, Blunt’s mixed force of Native-Americans, African-Americans and white volunteers began skirmishing with Cooper’s army at the supply depot of Honey Springs, and during the largest engagement fought in the Indian Territory, forced the Confederates to withdraw from the field. All of the Indian Territory north of the Arkansas River then came under Federal control.

Confederate forces did not abandon their attempts to disrupt Union operations and retake the territory, however. In June 1864 then Brigadier General Stand Watie captured the Union supply ship J.R. Williams carrying supplies to Fort Gibson, and on September 19, 1864 Brigadier Gens. Richard Gano and Watie captured a 300-wagon Union supply train in the Second Battle of Cabin Creek, the last major battle of the war in the Indian Territory. These impressive victories failed to alter the strategic picture, however, although Watie and his men fought on until June 1865.