General Randolph B. Marcy
Randolph B. Marcy was born
at Greenwich, Massachusetts, April 9, 1812. He graduated at the
United States Military Academy at West Point in 1832 and was
commissioned a lieutenant of the 5th U. S. Infantry, with which
regiment he served through the Black Hawk and Mexican Wars. He
was on garrison duty and exploration service in Texas and Oklahoma
from 1849 to 1854.
In 1861 he was appointed
as Inspector General with the rank of colonel. He saw active
service during the Civil War and in 1869, he became Inspector General
of the U. S. Army with the rank of brigadier general. He retired
from active service in 1881. He was the author of several
interesting books on the west and western life. He died at
Orange, New Jersey, November 22, 1887.
Fort Arbuckle was
established by Capt. R. B. Marcy, April 19, 1851, and finally
abandoned June 24, 1870, when the establishment of Fort Sill rendered
its further maintenance as a military post unnecessary.
In the spring of 1852,
Capt. Randolph B. Marcy, 4th U. S. Infantry, and Lieut. George B.
McClellan, Corps of Engineers, were ordered to explore the sources of
the Red River. Entering Oklahoma from the south, near the
southeastern corner of Comanche county, the expedition skirted the
valley of the Red River to a point near the mouth of the North Fork
and then followed the course of the latter beyond the 100th Meridian.
After exploring the source of the North Fork, that of the Red River,
proper was also visited. The return was made through the Wichita
Mountains, and past the present site of Fort Sill, to Fort Arbuckle.
The sources and tributaries of the Red River were explored and
mapped. Some mistakes of Marcy's map complicated, if they did
not cause, the celebrated Greer county dispute between the state of
Texas and the government of the United States.
Source: A
History of Oklahoma by Joseph B. Throburn and Isaac M.
Holcomb, Doub and Company San Francisco 1908.
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