Battle of Honey Springs Memorial Service

Honey Springs Battlefield will hold its annual memorial service honoring the 159th anniversary of the Battle of Honey Springs near Checotah on Saturday, July 16, at 10:30 a.m.

The memorial service will be held outside on the lawn of the visitor center. Adam Lynn, site manager for Honey Springs Battlefield, will give a welcome and opening remarks, followed by the presentation of colors by the color guard, an invocation by Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Mr. Grover Wind, and a special program by Dr. James Finck from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. After the program, the color guard will retire the colors. The Friends of Honey Springs Battlefield will host its annual meeting following the retiring of the colors. There will also be special Civil War demonstrations and guided tours on the battlefield throughout the day. Included in the Civil War demonstrations will be an Artillery crew working a 12-pound brass Napoleon Cannon from the Fort Smith National Historic Site in Arkansas, a unit of the National Park Service. Volunteers working the gun will be from the Fort Smith Historic Site, and the Drennen-Scott Historic Site, a property owned by University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

The service commemorates the largest of approximately 107 documented Civil War military engagements throughout Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma. The engagement took place on July 17, 1863, just two weeks after the famous Battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Approximately 9,000 Union and Confederate troops, mostly American Indians and African Americans, were involved in the Battle of Honey Springs. Of those, approximately 200 total casualties were suffered. After a decisive Union victory, Confederates lost control of Indian Territory north of the Arkansas River. The Union victory also ensured Federal control of Fort Gibson in Indian Territory and Fort Smith in Arkansas.

For more information regarding the memorial service and Honey Springs Battlefield, please email alynn@okhistory.org or call 918-473-5572.

Honey Springs Battlefield is located east of US Highway 69 between Oktaha and Rentiesville. The visitor center is located on a hill within close proximity to the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in Rentiesville. Take the second left after reaching the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame Museum (driving from the west).