<P> During the American Civil War , Union troops occasionally occupied the post . During the summer of 1862 , Union soldiers repulsed a Confederate invasion of Indian Territory . They left the fort and withdrew to Kansas . In April 1863 , Colonel William A. Phillips of the Indian Home Guard ( Union Indian Brigade ) reoccupied Fort Gibson and kept it in Union hands throughout the remainder of the war . The Army briefly renamed the post Fort Blunt in honor of Brigadier General James G. Blunt , commander of the Department of Kansas . The fort dominated the junction between the Arkansas River and Texas Road , but Confederates never attacked the fort , though an attack on the fort 's nearby livestock grew to a heavy encounter in the battle of Fort Gibson . Its troops under General Blunt marched southward in July 1863 and won the Battle of Honey Springs , the most important in Indian Territory . </P>
why was fort gibson so important to both sides during the civil war
dominated the junction between the Arkansas River and Texas Road