Fort McKean is a fort located inside

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

along the Kansas-

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

border. On November 14, 1862, Company C of the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, led by Lieut. James B. Pond, established a camp at Morris Mills on Drywood Creek. It was fifteen miles southeast of Fort Scott. Sometime later this camp was given the name of Fort McKean. The post was probably on the Fort Scott-

Fort Gibson Fort Gibson is a historic military site next to the modern city of Fort Gibson, in Muskogee County Oklahoma. It guarded the American frontier in Indian Territory from 1824 to 1888. When it was constructed, the fort was farther west than any ot ...

Military Road, and many, including Pond, thought the post was inside Missouri. Throughout its history, Fort McKean was a small post, ranging in strength from 20 to 60 men. It is unknown what buildings or defenses were erected there. Pond wrote the duties of Fort McKean's troops were "escorting trains, scouting the country, and protecting the border." On October 2, 1863, Pond's men were ordered to leave the post and report to Fort Blair (see Fort Baxter (Kansas)), in present-day

Baxter Springs, Kansas Baxter Springs is a city in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States, and located along Spring River. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,888. History Indigenous settlement For thousands of years, indigenous peoples ...

. Three days later Pond's men were attacked by Confederate guerrilla

William C. Quantrill William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865) was a Confederate States of America, Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. Quantrill experienced a turbulent childhood, became a schoolteacher, and joined a group ...

and 400 men. On October 12, ten days later, Company C was back at Fort McKean. Pond remained in command until at least August 1864. After February 1865 Company C was replaced by Company G of the 17th Illinois Cavalry, which remained until at least June 1865. Then or probably shortly afterward, Fort McKean was abandoned."Organization of Troops in the Military Division of West Mississippi, Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, U.S. Army, Commanding, February 28, 1865," ''The War of the Rebellion'' (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896), Series I, Vol. XLVIII, Part II, p. 785.

References

McKean Buildings and structures in Bourbon County, Kansas Former installations of the United States Army 1862 establishments in Kansas {{kansas-stub