Early life He was born 28 December 1778 in
Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia), the fourth of six sons of Capt.
Matthew Arbuckle Sr. and Frances (Hunter) Arbuckle. The father was a veteran of the
Battle of Point Pleasant during
Lord Dunmore's War and later distinguished himself in the
American Revolution.
Military career Little is known of his early life, but on 3 March 1799 he was commissioned
ensign in the
3rd Infantry Regiment, and advanced to first
lieutenant within eight months. In 1802, the Congress disbanded the 3rd Infantry and transferred him to the
2nd Infantry Regiment, where he was promoted to
captain in 1806. He returned to the 3rd Infantry as a
major in 1812. His regiment was assigned to various posts in the American South during the
War of 1812. In 1814, he was promoted to
lieutenant colonel and became the regiment's second-ranking officer. The 3rd Infantry was under General
Andrew Jackson during and after the war. In 1820, the President promoted Arbuckle to
colonel and gave him command of the
7th Infantry Regiment, four of whose companies he led in 1821 to reinforce
Fort Smith on the
Arkansas River. In 1824, he moved the regiment farther west, establishing Cantonments (later Forts)
Gibson and later
Towson, the first military posts in the
Indian Territory (now
Oklahoma). As commander at Fort Gibson, he was responsible for constructing roads and maintaining peaceful relations between the Indian tribes indigenous to the region and those then forced to migrate to Indian Territory. 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), Brigadier General Arbuckle was replaced as regional commander by General
Henry Leavenworth and returned to Virginia. General Leavenworth, however, unexpectedly died in July 1834, and the Department of War recalled Brigadier General Arbuckle to command Fort Gibson. 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. ==Dates of rank==