Fort Cobb Fort Cobb was a United State Army post established in what is now Caddo County , Oklahoma in 1859 to protect relocated Native Americans from raids by the Comanche , Kiowa and Cheyenne . The fort was abandoned by Maj . William H . Emory at the beginning of the Civil War and remained abandoned until it was reoccupied in 1868 . After establishing Fort Sill the Army abandoned Fort Cobb . Today there is little left of the former military post . Major William H . Emory of the First Cavalry , commander at Forts Washita and Arbuckle , established Fort Cobb in October 1859 on the west side of Pond Creek , near its confluence with the Washita River . The fort was named in honor of Howell Cobb , then Secretary of the Treasury . Background . Several small tribes , including the Anadarko , Caddo , Tonkawa and Penateka Comanche had made peace with the government of Texas in 1854 . In return , the Texas Legislature had created two reserves of land along the Brazos River . However , the Northern Comanche , more warlike people who dominated the area north of the Red River , continued to raid white settlements in northern Texas . The white settlers regarded the presence of any Indians as dangerous , and began attacking the friendly tribes along the Brazos . Trying to prevent overt war , Federal Indian Agents began moving the friendly tribes from Texas into Indian Territory along the Washita River . The removal , under U . S . Army escort , and commanded by Major George H . Thomas , began August 1 , 1859 . Before the removal , the chiefs of nine different tribes , including those living on the Brazos , plus the Wichitas , who already had a reservation in Indian Territory , met in a council with Army officers and Federal Indian Agents at Fort Arbuckle . The government representatives promised protection from both white Texans and hostile tribes if the chiefs would move their people to sites near the Wichita Mountains . An area near Medicine Bluff along had already been approved in 1855 and 1858 by Agent Douglas H . Cooper as an acceptable place for a military post . Elias Rector , Superintendent of Indian Affairs , whose office was at Fort Smith , was to make the final site selection for a new Agency . Rector made an expedition to Medicine Bluff , arriving June 22 , 1859 . He was accompanied by several Indian Agents and the chiefs of the Caddoes and Wichitas . He reported that the Medicine Bluff site was completely unacceptable because the heavy spring and summer rains caused creeks to overflow and become impassable , hot winds in summer caused " miasma " , ( an old term referring to a bad atmosphere ) and malaria outbreaks had caused great suffering to the local Wichitas . The Rector expedition marched farther north to the Washita River . Rector found an acceptable site near Pond Creek ( later renamed Cobb Creek ) . Fort Cobb in the Civil War . At the beginning of the Civil War , the garrison at Fort Cobb consisted of four companies of Federal troops . Colonel Emory ordered two companies sent to Fort Washita . The other two remained at Fort Cobb . Fort Washita was occupied by Confederate troops from Texas on April 17 , 1861 . On the same day , orders from Washington , D . C . , directed that all Federal troops in Indian Territory should march to Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . Emory received the order while marching to Fort Cobb . The latter fort was occupied by a small contingent of Confederate troops under William C . Young and Indian Agent Mathew Leeper . In May 1861 , Colonel Young made a " peace treaty " with the native tribes around the fort , promising them the same protections that they had with the U . S . government before the war . No official treaty was made with the tribal chiefs until Albert Pike , the Confederate Commissioner for Indian Affairs , arrived to sign the treaties with the chiefs on August 12 , 1861 . However , the relations soured after the Confederate government showed it was unable to keep its promises . In particular , Agent Leeper behaved " cantankerously " toward the natives . In return the chiefs were rude toward Leeper and finally demanded that he be removed . Leeper moved his family to safety in Texas . Many of the natives , fearing reprisals , moved away from the Fort Cobb area to live in Kansas until the Civil War ended . About thirty men from tribes loyal to the Confederate cause were recruited to the Confederate Army and armed to guard the fort in 1862 . No regular troops were assigned there until May , 1862 . They collected and guarded the abandoned supplies into the summer , but left the fort in August . An armed party of natives loyal to the North attacked the Wichita Agency on October 23 , 1862 , killed the white employees , put the corpses in the agency building and burned it to the ground . Agent Leeper escaped the massacre and fled to Texas . Post - war activities . On January 6 , 1869 the last soldiers left Fort Cobb . They moved to Medicine Bluffs , where they established Camp Wichita on January 8 . Fort Cobb was officially abandoned on March 29 , 1869 , and Camp Wichita was renamed Fort Sill . General Hazen transferred the Kiowa and Comanche Agency to Fort Sill .