Battle of Old Fort Wayne The Battle of Old Fort Wayne ( also known as Maysville , Beattie ' s Prairie , or Beaty ’ s Prairie ) was an American Civil War battle on October 22 , 1862 in Delaware County in what is now eastern Oklahoma , a part of the Trans - Mississippi Theater . Brig . Gen . James G . Blunt and his Cherokee , Indiana , and Kansas troops from the First Division of the Army of the Frontier attacked Col . Douglas H . Cooper and his Confederate command on Beatties Prairie near Old Fort Wayne at 7 : 00 a . m . on October 22 , 1862 . The Confederates put up stiff resistance for a half hour , but overwhelming numbers forced them to retire from the field in haste , leaving artillery and equipage behind . This was a setback in the 1862 Confederate offensive that extended from the Tidewater in the East to the plains of the Indian Territory of the West . Battle . In mid - July , the Confederates had started concentrating their forces at Fayetteville , Arkansas , for a planned raid into Missouri . Concurrently , Douglas Cooper was to raid Kansas with his force of Choctaws , Chickasaws , and Lower Creeks . After weeks of recruiting to bolster their numbers , Cooper led his men through Indian Territory to Old Fort Wayne , an abandoned pre - war Federal military garrison on the southern edge of the sprawling Beatties Prairie . He positioned pickets four miles ( 6 km ) to the north in Maysville , a small village directly on the Arkansas - Indian Territory boundary ( west of Bentonville ) . He was within supporting distance of John S . Marmaduke ' s small 4 , 000 - man force of mostly Texans , which was positioned at Cross Hollows ( near Lowell , Arkansas ) . The nearest Federal troops were from John Schofield ' s Army of the Frontier , encamped at Pea Ridge , Arkansas . Word had been received that Cooper , accompanied by Stand Watie ' s two Cherokee Indian Regiments , was at Maysville , and scouts reported his total force to be about 7 , 000 men . James Blunt ' s First Division was relatively small ( 3 , 500 men ) , but was better trained and equipped than many of the recently raised Confederate units . At 7 p . m . on October 20 , Blunt departed camp with the Second and Third Brigades . His command consisted of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry in the lead , followed by the 6th Kansas Cavalry , 10th Kansas Infantry and 11th Kansas Infantry , the 1st and 3rd Cherokee Regiments , the 1st Kansas Battery , 2nd Indiana Battery , and four mountain howitzers . After a night march southward , he arrived in Bentonville shortly after sunrise and paused until 5 p . m . to wait for his cumbersome supply wagons to arrive . He was anxious to surprise the Confederates , who were unaware of his advance . After a forced march of westward late on October 21 , he stopped his column at 2 a . m . and allowed most of his men to rest . However , he pushed forward the 2nd Kansas Cavalry , which struck the Confederates at 5 a . m . at Maysville , while the balance of the division was sleeping , nearly seven miles back . After driving in the pickets at Maysville , the Union cavalry followed them three and one - half miles into the Indian Territory , where they encountered Cooper ' s main Confederate battleline , aligned along an east and west road , facing north , with a dense wood at their backs . Despite early Federal reports that he had as many as 7 , 000 men , Cooper in reality had roughly 1 , 500 men at his disposal , with Howell ' s Texas Battery of four artillery guns in the center of his three - quarter mile line . Blunt positioned howitzers in place to duel with the Confederate artillery , then deployed the 2nd Kansas , which soon pushed back Confederate skirmishers from a ridge fronting their main battleline . When the balance of Blunt ' s division arrived , he attacked , concentrating his men on the center of the thinly spread Confederate battleline . His howitzers silenced the lone enemy battery , and the Kansans and Cherokees opened a wide hole in Cooper ' s center . Within a half hour , much of Cooper ' s ill - trained force was in full retreat ( minus their artillery ) , with Blunt in pursuit for nearly seven miles before halting . Blunt lost 14 men ; Cooper approximately 150 , including a reported 50 dead who were buried on the battlefield . The Confederates retreated nearly seventy miles to Fort Gibson . The Union Army once again had undisputed possession of Indian Territory north of the Arkansas River . For his decisive victory , Blunt was appointed major general of volunteers . The State of Arkansas erected a commemorative marker in Benton County at the northwest corner of state routes 43 and 72 in Maysville . Opposing Forces . Union . 1st Division , Army of the Frontier – Brigadier General James G . Blunt . Confederate . 1st Brigade , 1st Division , I Corps , Army of Mississippi – Colonel Douglas Cooper