War of 1812
General Matthew Arbuckle Signed War of 1812 Discharge Rare Printed Form With “Bounty Land” Bonus Included
April 9, 1815-Dated, Partially-Printed Document Signed, “M. Arbuckle - Lt. Col. 3rd Infan(try),” at New Orleans, Very Fine.
This is an original War of 1812 Army Discharge and Bounty Certificate, measuring 6” x 8”, for private Richard Beacham, a private in Captain Samuel Butler's Company of the 3rd U.S. Infantry. Private Beacham is herein Granted 160 Acres of government land for his services in the war with England. Unsual folds, well printed with clear, easily readable manuscript yext portions and having a few trivial pinholes. It is Signed by Lt. Colonel M. Arbuckle, as Commander of the 3rd Regiment. This historic document reads, in full:

“I CERTIFY that Richard Beacham a private of captain Samuel W. Butler’s company of the 3rd Reg. U.S. Infantry enlisted on the 22nd day of April one thousand eight hundred and 13 for during the war with England and that he has faithfully performed his duty as a soldier in the service of the United States for the period for which he engaged and is entitled to a bounty of one hundred & sixty acres of land from Government, agreeably to the act of Congress passed the 12th day of Dec. one thousand eight hundred and 1812. - Given under my hand at New Orleans this Ninth day of April on thousand eight hundred and fifteen.”

This is the first and only document we have seen that directly ties an American Officer’s War of 1812 military service to his receipt of the extremely rare and highly collected, US Government Land Office 160 Acre “Bounty” Bonds of this era. As such, it may well be unique and the sole example available to either collectors or institutions to acquire.
Matthew Arbuckle (1778-1851) was a career soldier in the U.S. Army closely identified with the Indian Territory for the last thirty years of his life. He was born 28 December 1778 in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia), the second of four sons of Capt. Matthew Arbuckle, a veteran of the Battle of Point Pleasant who later distinguished himself in the American Revolution. March 1799 he was commissioned ensign in the Third Infantry Regiment, where he advanced to lieutenant within eight months. In 1802, he transferred to the Second Infantry, where he was promoted to captain in 1806. He returned to the Third Infantry as a major in 1812. His regiment was assigned to various posts in the South during the War of 1812. In 1814, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and became the regiment's second-ranking officer. The Third Infantry was under the command of General Andrew Jackson during and after the war.

In 1820, Arbuckle was promoted to colonel and given command of the Seventh Infantry Regiment, four of whose companies he led the following year to reinformce Fort Smith on the Arkansas River. In 1824, he moved the regiment farther west, establishing Cantonments (later Forts) Gibson and Towson, the first military posts in present-day Oklahoma. As commander at Fort Gibson, he was responsible for maintaining peaceful relations between the indigenous Indian tribes and those being forced to migrate to Indian Territory, as well as constructing roads. After ten years of this service, he was breveted to brigadier general.

In the spring of 1834, on the eve of the First Dragoon Expedition (also called the Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition), Arbuckle was replaced as regional commander by Gen. Henry Leavenworth and, after twelve years on the frontier, he returned to Virginia -- he believed for good. Leavenworth's unexpected death in July, however, caused Arbuckle to be recalled to command.

During the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836, the majority of his troops were reassigned to Gen. Zachary Taylor's "Army of Observation" at Fort Jessup, Louisiana, but Arbuckle managed to maintain order even as the pace of Indian removal accelerated. By the end of the decade, the relocation of the southeastern Indian tribes to Oklahoma was largely complete. Though civil war threatened to break out among some of the tribes, in 1841, when he left Fort Gibson for the second time, Arbuckle was able to report that "I have maintained peace with this frontier."

He was transferred to Baton Rouge, where he headed the military district but commanded no troops directly. He had developed a considerable professional rivalry with Zachary Taylor, which may explain why he played no significant role in the War with Mexico. In 1848, he was posted to Fort Smith as commander of the newly-created Seventh Military District. The following year, his troops began to provide security for gold-hunters on the southwestern route to California along a route he established south of the Canadian River. The same year, Taylor, having been elected president, urged the War Department to close Fort Smith and retire Arbuckle, but he died before this could be accomplished. Arbuckle's superiors immediately confirmed his command and re-designated Fort Smith as headquarters of the Seventh Military District. The General was making plans to extend farther west the security system he had established to protect Americans traveling to California, when he died suddenly on 11 June 1851 in a cholera epidemic.

Just before his death, several units of troops under his command had built an outpost on Wildhorse Creek in present-day Garvin County, Oklahoma, and the new post was named Fort Arbuckle in his honor. The name soon transferred in common usage to the nearby hills, which still are known as the Arbuckle Mountains.