The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

By Annie Heloise Abel, Ph.D.

Professor of History, Smith College

1919

I. THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE, OR ELKHORN, AND ITS MORE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS

The Indian alliance, so assiduously sought by the Southern Confederacy
and so laboriously built up, soon revealed itself to be most unstable.
Direct and unmistakable signs of its instability appeared in
connection with the first real military test to which it was
subjected, the Battle of Pea Ridge or Elkhorn, as it is better known
in the South, the battle that stands out in the history of the War
of Secession as being the most decisive victory to date of the Union
forces in the West and as marking the turning point in the political
relationship of the State of Missouri with the Confederate government.

In the short time during which, following the removal of General
Fremont, General David Hunter was in full command of the Department of
the West--and it was practically not more than one week--he completely
reversed the policy of vigorous offensive that had obtained under men,
subordinate to his predecessor.[1] In southwest Missouri, he abandoned
the advanced position of the Federals and fell back upon Sedalia
and Rolla, railway termini. That he did this at the suggestion
of President Lincoln[2] and with the tacit approval of General
McClellan[3] makes no

[Footnote 1: _The Century Company's War Book_, vol. i, 314-315.]

[Footnote 2: _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 553-554.
Hereafter, except where otherwise designated, the _first series_
will always be understood.]

[Footnote 3:--Ibid., 568.]

difference now, as it made no difference then, in the consideration
of the consequences; yet the consequences were, none the less, rather
serious. They were such, in fact, as to increase very greatly the
confusion on the border and to give the Confederates that chance of
recovery which soon made it necessary for their foes to do the work of
Nathaniel Lyon all over again.

It has been most truthfully said[4] that never, throughout the period
of the entire war, did the southern government fully realize the
surpassingly great importance of its Trans-Mississippi District;
notwithstanding that when that district was originally organized,[5]
in January, 1862, some faint idea of what it might, peradventure,
accomplish did seem to penetrate,[6] although ever so vaguely, the
minds of those then in authority. It was organized under pressure from
the West as was natural, and under circumstances to which meagre and
tentative reference has already been made in the first volume of this
work.[7] In the main, the circumstances were such as developed out of
the persistent refusal of General McCulloch to cooeperate with General
Price.

There was much to be said in justification of McCulloch's obstinacy.
To understand this it is well to recall that, under the plan, lying
back of this first

[Footnote 4: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 781-782;
Edwards, _Shelby and His Men_, 105.]

[Footnote 5:--Ibid., vol. viii, 734.]

[Footnote 6: It is doubtful if even this ought to be conceded in view
of the fact that President Davis later admitted that Van Dorn entered
upon the Pea Ridge campaign for the sole purpose of effecting "a
diversion in behalf of General Johnston" [_Rise and Fall of the
Confederate Government_, vol. ii, 51]. Moreover, Van Dorn had
scarcely been assigned to the command of the Trans-Mississippi
District before Beauregard was devising plans for bringing him
east again [Greene, _The Mississippi_, II; Roman, _Military
Operations of General Beauregard_, vol. i, 240-244].]

[Footnote 7: Abel, _American Indian as Slaveholder and
Secessionist_, 225-226 and _footnote_ 522.]

appointment to the Confederate command, was the expectation that he
would secure the Indian Territory. Obviously, the best way to do that
was to occupy it, provided the tribes, whose domicile it was, were
willing. But, if the Cherokees can be taken to have voiced the opinion
of all, they were not willing, notwithstanding that a sensationally
reported[8] Federal activity under Colonel James Montgomery,[9] in the
neighborhood of the frontier posts, Cobb, Arbuckle, and Washita, was
designed to alarm them and had notably influenced, if it had not
actually inspired, the selection and appointment of the Texan
ranger.[10]

Unable, by reason of the Cherokee objection thereto, to enter the
Indian country; because entrance in the face of that objection would
inevitably force the Ross faction of the Cherokees and, possibly
also, Indians of other tribes into the arms of the Union, McCulloch
intrenched himself on its northeast border, in Arkansas, and there
awaited a more favorable opportunity for accomplishing his main
purpose. He seems to have desired the Confederate government to add
the contiguous portion of Arkansas to his command, but in that he
was disappointed.[11] Nevertheless, Arkansas early interpreted his
presence in the state to imply that he was there primarily for her
defence and, by the middle of June, that idea had so far gained
general acceptance that C.C. Danley, speaking for the Arkansas
Military Board, urged President Davis "to meet

[Footnote 8: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 679.]

[Footnote 9: The name of Montgomery was not one for even Indians to
conjure with. James Montgomery was the most notorious of bushwhackers.
For an account of some of his earlier adventures, see Spring,
_Kansas_, 241, 247-250, and for a characterization of the man
himself, Robinson, _Kansas Conflict_, 435.]

[Footnote 10: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 682.]

[Footnote 11: Snead, _Fight for Missouri_, 229-230.]

the exigent necessities of the State" by sending a second general
officer there, who should command in the northeastern part.[12]

McCulloch's relations with leading Confederates in Arkansas seem
to have been, from the first, in the highest degree friendly, even
cordial, and it is more than likely that, aside from his unwillingness
to offend the neutrality-loving Cherokees, the best explanation for
his eventual readiness to make the defence of Arkansas his chief
concern, instead of merely a means to the accomplishment of his
original task, may be found in that fact. On the twenty-second of May,
the Arkansas State Convention instructed Brigadier-general N. Bart
Pearce, then in command of the state troops, to cooeperate with the
Confederate commander "to the full extent of his ability"[13] and,
on the twenty-eighth of the same month, the Arkansas Military Board
invited that same person, who, of course, was Ben McCulloch, to
assume command himself of the Arkansas local forces.[14] Sympathetic
understanding of this variety, so early established, was bound to
produce good results and McCulloch henceforth identified himself most
thoroughly with Confederate interests in the state in which he was, by
dint of untoward circumstances, obliged to bide his time.

It was far otherwise as respected relations between McCulloch and
the Missouri leaders. McCulloch had little or no tolerance for the
rough-and-ready methods of men like Claiborne Jackson and Sterling
Price. He regarded their plans as impractical, chimerical, and their
warfare as after the guerrilla order, too much like

[Footnote 12: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement,
698-699.]

[Footnote 13:--Ibid., 687.]

[Footnote 14:--Ibid., 691.]

that to which Missourians and Kansans had accustomed themselves
during the period of border conflict, following the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill. McCulloch himself was a man of system. He
believed in organization that made for efficiency. Just prior to the
Battle of Wilson's Creek, he put himself on record as strongly opposed
to allowing unarmed men and camp followers to infest his ranks,
demoralizing them.[15] It was not to be expected, therefore, that
there could ever be much in common between him and Sterling Price. For
a brief period, it is true, the two men did apparently act in fullest
harmony; but it was when the safety of Price's own state, Missouri,
was the thing directly in hand. That was in early August of 1861.
Price put himself and his command subject to McCulloch's orders.[16]
The result was the successful engagement, August 10 at Wilson's Creek,
on Missouri soil. On the fourteenth of the same month, Price reassumed
control of the Missouri State Guard[17] and, from that time on, he and
McCulloch drifted farther and farther apart; but, as their aims were
so entirely different, it was not to be wondered at.

Undoubtedly, all would have been well had McCulloch been disposed to
make the defence of Missouri his only aim. Magnanimity was asked of
him such as the Missouri leaders never so much as contemplated showing
in return. It seems never to have occurred to either Jackson or
Price that cooeperation might, perchance, involve such an exchange of
courtesies as would require Price to lend a hand in some project that
McCulloch might devise for the well-being of his own particular

[Footnote 15: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 721.]

[Footnote 16:--Ibid., 720.]

[Footnote 17:--Ibid., 727.]

charge. The assistance was eventually asked for and refused, refused
upon the ground, familiar in United States history, that it would be
impossible to get the Missouri troops to cross the state line. Of
course, Price's conduct was not without extenuation. His position
was not identical with McCulloch's. His force was a state force,
McCulloch's a Confederate, or a national. Besides, Missouri had yet
to be gained, officially, for the Confederacy. She expected secession
states and the Confederacy itself to force the situation for her.
And, furthermore, she was in far greater danger of invasion than
was Arkansas. The Kansans were her implacable and dreaded foes and
Arkansas had none like them to fear.

In reality, the seat of all the trouble between McCulloch and Price
lay in particularism, a phase of state rights, and, in its last
analysis, provincialism. Now particularism was especially pronounced
and especially pernicious in the middle southwest. Missouri had always
more than her share of it. Her politicians were impregnated by it.
They were interested in their own locality exclusively and seemed
quite incapable of taking any broad survey of events that did not
immediately affect themselves or their own limited concerns. In the
issue between McCulloch and Price, this was all too apparent. The
politicians complained unceasingly of McCulloch's neglect of Missouri
and, finally, taking their case to headquarters, represented to
President Davis that the best interests of the Confederate cause in
their state were being glaringly sacrificed by McCulloch's too literal
interpretation of his official instructions, in the strict observance
of which he was keeping close to the Indian boundary.

President Davis had personally no great liking for

Price and certainly none for his peculiar method of fighting. Some
people thought him greatly prejudiced[18] against Price and, in the
first instance, perhaps, on nothing more substantial than the fact
that Price was not a Westpointer.[19] It would be nearer the truth to
say that Davis gauged the western situation pretty accurately and knew
where the source of trouble lay. That he did gauge the situation and
that accurately is indicated by a suggestion of his, made in early
December, for sending out Colonel Henry Heth of Virginia to command
the Arkansas and Missouri divisions in combination.[20] Heth had no
local attachments in the region and "had not been connected with any
of the troops on that line of operations."[21] Unfortunately, for
subsequent events his nomination[22] was not confirmed.

Two days later, December 5, 1861, General McCulloch was granted[23]
permission to proceed to Richmond, there to explain in person, as he
had long wanted to do, all matters in controversy between him and
Price. On the third of January, 1862, the Confederate Congress
called[24] for information on the subject, doubtless under pressure of
political importunity. The upshot of it all was, the organization of
the Trans-Mississippi District of Department No. 2 and the appointment
of Earl Van Dorn as major-general to command it. Whether or no, he was
the choice[25] of General A.S. Johnston, department commander, his
appointment bid fair, at the

[Footnote 18: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement,
816-817.]

[Footnote 19: Ibid., 762.]

[Footnote 20:--Ibid., vol. viii, 725.]

[Footnote 21:--Ibid., 701.]

[Footnote 22: Wright, _General Officers of the Confederate Army_,
33, 67.]

[Footnote 23: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 702.]

[Footnote 24: _Journal of the Congress of the Confederate
States_, vol. i, 637.]

[Footnote 25: Formby, _American Civil War_, 129.]

time it was made, to put an end to all local disputes and to give
Missouri the attention she craved. The ordnance department of the
Confederacy had awakened to a sense of the value of the lead mines[26]
at Granby and Van Dorn was instructed especially to protect them.[27]
His appointment, moreover, anticipated an early encounter with the
Federals in Missouri. In preparation for the struggle that all knew
was impending, it was of transcendent importance that one mind and one
interest should control, absolutely.

The Trans-Mississippi District would appear to have been constituted
and its limits to have been defined without adequate reference to
existing arrangements. The limits were, "That part of the State of
Louisiana north of Red River, the Indian Territory west of Arkansas,
and the States of Arkansas and Missouri, excepting therefrom the tract
of country east of the Saint Francis, bordering on the Mississippi
River, from the mouth of the Saint Francis to Scott County,
Missouri...."[28] Van Dorn, in assuming command of the district,
January 29, 1862, issued orders in such form that Indian Territory was
listed last among the limits[29] and it was a previous arrangement
affecting Indian Territory that was most ignored in the whole scheme
of organization.

It will be remembered that, in November of the preceding year, the
Department of Indian Territory had been created and Brigadier-general
Albert Pike assigned to the same.[30] His authority was not explicitly

[Footnote 26: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 767,
774.]

[Footnote 27: Van Dora's protection, if given, was given to little
purpose; for the mines were soon abandoned [Britton, _Memoirs of the
Rebellion on the Border, 1863_, 120].]

[Footnote 28: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 734.]

[Footnote 29:--Ibid., 745.]

[Footnote 30:--Ibid., 690.]

superseded by that which later clothed Van Dorn and yet his department
was now to be absorbed by a military district, which was itself merely
a section of another department. The name and organization of the
Department of Indian Territory remained to breed confusion, disorder,
and serious discontent at a slightly subsequent time. Of course, since
the ratification of the treaties of alliance with the tribes, there
was no question to be raised concerning the status of Indian Territory
as definitely a possession of the Southern Confederacy. Indeed, it
had, in a way, been counted as such, actual and prospective, ever
since the enactment of the marque and reprisal law of May 6, 1861.[31]

Albert Pike, having accepted the appointment of department
commander in Indian Territory under somewhat the same kind of a
protest--professed consciousness of unfitness for the post--as he had
accepted the earlier one of commissioner, diplomatic, to the tribes,
lost no time in getting into touch with his new duties. There was much
to be attended to before he could proceed west. His appointment had
come and had been accepted in November. Christmas was now near at hand
and he had yet to render an account of his mission of treaty-making.
In late December, he sent in his official report[32] to President
Davis and, that done, held himself in readiness to respond to any
interpellating call that the Provincial Congress might see fit to
make. The intervals of time, free from devotion to the completion
of the older task, were spent by him in close attention to the
preliminary details of the newer, in securing funds and in purchasing
supplies and equipment

[Footnote 31: Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the
Confederacy_, vol. i, 105.]

[Footnote 32: The official report of Commissioner Pike, in manuscript,
and bearing his signature, is to be found in the Adjutant-general's
office of the U.S. War Department.]

generally, also in selecting a site for his headquarters. By command
of Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, Major N.B. Pearce[33] was
made chief commissary of subsistence for Indian Territory and Western
Arkansas and Major G.W. Clarke,[34] depot quartermaster. In the sequel
of events, both appointments came to be of a significance rather
unusual.

The site chosen for department headquarters was a place situated near
the junction of the Verdigris and Arkansas Rivers and not far from
Fort Gibson.[35] The fortifications erected there received the name of
Cantonment Davis and upon them, in spite of Pike's decidedly moderate
estimate in the beginning, the Confederacy was said by a contemporary
to have spent "upwards of a million dollars."[36] In view of the
ostensible object of the very formation of the department and of
Pike's appointment to its command, the defence of Indian Territory,
and, in view of the existing location of enemy troops, challenging
that defence, the selection of the site was a reasonably wise one;
but, as subsequent pages will reveal, the commander did not retain it
long as his headquarters. Troubles came thick and fast upon him and he
had barely reached Cantonment Davis before they began. His delay in
reaching that place, which he did do, February 25,[37] was caused
by various occurrences that made it difficult for him to get his
materials together, his funds and the like. The very difficulties
presaged disaster.

Pike's great purpose--and, perhaps, it would be no exaggeration to
say, his only purpose--throughout the

[Footnote 33: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 764.]

[Footnote 34:--Ibid, 770.]

[Footnote 35:--Ibid, 764.]

[Footnote 36: Britton, _Memoirs of the Rebellion on the Border_,
72.]

[Footnote 37: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 286.]

full extent of his active connection with the Confederacy was to save
to that Confederacy the Indian Territory. The Indian occupants in and
for themselves, unflattering as it may seem to them for historical
investigators to have to admit it, were not objects of his solicitude
except in so far as they contributed to his real and ultimate
endeavor. He never at any time or under any circumstances advocated
their use generally as soldiers outside of Indian Territory in regular
campaign work and offensively.[38] As guerrillas he would have used
them.[39] He would have sent them on predatory expeditions into Kansas
or any other near-by state where pillaging would have been profitable
or retaliatory; but never as an organized force, subject to the rules
of civilized warfare because fully cognizant of them.[40] It is
doubtful if he would ever have allowed them, had he consulted only his
own inclination, to so much as cross the line except under stress of
an attack from without. He would never have sanctioned their joining
an unprovoked invading force. In the treaties

[Footnote 38: The provision in the treaties to the effect that
the alliance consummated between the Indians and the Confederate
government was to be both offensive and defensive must not be taken
too literally or be construed so broadly as to militate against this
fact: for to its truth Pike, when in distress later on and accused of
leading a horde of tomahawking villains, repeatedly bore witness. The
keeping back of a foe, bent upon regaining Indian Territory or of
marauding, might well be said to partake of the character of offensive
warfare and yet not be that in intent or in the ordinary acceptation
of the term. Everything would have to depend upon the point of view.]

[Footnote 39: A restricted use of the Indians in offensive guerrilla
action Pike would doubtless have permitted and justified. Indeed, he
seems even to have recommended it in the first days of his interest in
the subject of securing Indian Territory. No other interpretation can
possibly be given to his suggestion that a battalion be raised
from Indians that more strictly belonged to Kansas [_Official
Records_, vol. iii, 581]. It is also conceivable that the force
he had reference to in his letter to Benjamin, November 27, 1861
[Ibid., vol. viii, 698] was to be, in part, Indian.]

[Footnote 40: Harrell, _Confederate Military History_, vol. x,
121-122.]

which he negotiated he pledged distinctly and explicitly the opposite
course of action, unless, indeed, the Indian consent were first
obtained.[41] The Indian troops, however and wherever raised under the
provisions of those treaties, were expected by Pike to constitute,
primarily, a home guard and nothing more. If by chance it should
happen that, in performing their function as a home guard, they should
have to cross their own boundary in order to expel or to punish an
intruder, well and good; but their intrinsic character as something
resembling a police patrol could not be deemed thereby affected.
Moreover, Pike did not believe that acting alone they could even be a
thoroughly adequate home force. He, therefore, urged again and again
that their contingent should be supplemented by a white force and by
one sufficiently large to give dignity and poise and self-restraint
to the whole, when both forces were combined, as they always ought to
be.[42]

At the time of Pike's assumption of his ill-defined command, or
within a short period thereafter, the Indian force in the pay of the
Confederacy and subject to his orders may be roughly placed at four
full regiments and some miscellaneous troops.[43] The dispersion[44]
of Colonel John Drew's Cherokees, when about to attack
Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la, forced a slight reoerganization and that, taken
in connection with the accretions to the command that came in the
interval before the Pea Ridge campaign brought the force approximately
to four full

[Footnote 41: In illustration of this, take the statement of the Creek
Treaty, article xxxvi.]

[Footnote 42: Aside from the early requests for white troops, which
were antecedent to his own appointment as brigadier-general, Pike's
insistence upon the need for the same can be vouched for by reference
to his letter to R.W. Johnson, January 5, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 795-796].]

[Footnote 43: Pike to Benjamin, November 27, 1861, Ibid, vol.
viii, 697.]

[Footnote 44: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 8, 17-18.]

regiments, two battalions, and some detached companies. The four
regiments were, the First Regiment Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted
Rifles under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, the First Creek Regiment under
Colonel D.N. McIntosh, the First Regiment Cherokee Mounted Rifles
under Colonel John Drew, and the Second Regiment Cherokee Mounted
Rifles under Colonel Stand Watie. The battalions were, the Choctaw
and Chickasaw and the Creek and Seminole, the latter under
Lieutenant-colonel Chilly McIntosh and Major John Jumper.

Major-general Earl Van Dorn formally assumed command of the newly
created Trans-Mississippi District of Department No. 2, January 29,
1862.[45] He was then at Little Rock, Arkansas. By February 6, he had
moved up to Jacksonport and, a week or so later, to Pocahontas, where
his slowly-assembling army was to rendezvous. His call for troops had
already gone forth and was being promptly answered,[46] requisition
having been made upon all the state units within the district,
Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, also Texas. Indian Territory, through
Pike[47] and his subordinates,[48] was yet to be communicated with;
but Van Dorn had, at the moment, no other plan in view for Indian
troops than to use them to advantage as a means of defence and as a
corps of observation.[49] His immediate object, according to his own
showing and according to the circumstances that had brought about the
formation of the district, was to protect Arkansas[50] against

[Footnote 45: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 745-746.]

[Footnote 46:--Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 776-779, 783-785,
790, 793-794.]

[Footnote 47:--Ibid., vol. viii, 749, 763-764.]

[Footnote 48:--Ibid., 764-765.]

[Footnote 49: Van Dorn to Price, February 14, 1862, Ibid.,
750.]

[Footnote 50: Arkansas seemed, at the time, to be but feebly
protected. R.W. Johnson deprecated the calling of Arkansas troops
eastward. They were (cont.)]

invasion and to relieve Missouri; his plan of operations was to
conduct a spring campaign in the latter state, "to attempt St. Louis,"
as he himself put it, and to drive the Federals out; his ulterior
motive may have been and, in the light of subsequent events, probably
was, to effect a diversion for General A.S. Johnston; but, if that
were really so, it was not, at the time, divulged or so much as hinted
at.

Ostensibly, the great object that Van Dorn had in mind was the relief
of Missouri. And he may have dreamed, that feat accomplished, that it
would be possible to carry the war into the enemy's country beyond the
Ohio; but, alas, it was his misfortune at this juncture to be called
upon to realise, to his great discomfiture, the truth of Robert Burns'
homely philosophy,

The best-laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley.

His own schemes and plans were all rendered utterly futile by the
unexpected movement of the Federal forces from Rolla, to which safe
place, it will be remembered, they had been drawn back by order
of General Hunter. They were now advancing by forced marches via
Springfield into northwestern Arkansas and were driving before them
the Confederates under McCulloch and Price.

The Federal forces comprised four huge divisions and were led by
Brigadier-general Samuel R. Curtis. Towards the end of the previous
December, on Christmas Day in fact, Curtis had been given "command of
the Southwestern District of Missouri, including the

[Footnote 50: (cont.) text of continuation: needed at home, not only
for the defence of Arkansas, but for that of the adjoining territory
[_Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 781-782]. There were,
in fact, only two Arkansas regiments absent and they were guarding the
Mississippi River [Ibid., 786]. By the middle of February, or
thereabouts, Price and McCulloch were in desperate straits and
were steadily "falling back before a superior force to the Boston
Mountains" [Ibid., 787].]

country south of the Osage and west of the Meramec River."[51] Under
orders of November 9, the old Department of the West, of which Fremont
had had charge and subsequently Hunter, but for only a brief period,
had been reorganized and divided into two distinct departments, the
Department of Missouri with Halleck in command and the Department of
Kansas with Hunter. Curtis, at the time when he made his memorable
advance movement from Rolla was, therefore, serving under Halleck.

In furtherance of Van Dorn's original plan, General Pike had been
ordered to march with all speed and join forces with the main army.
At the time of the issuance of the order, he seems to have offered no
objections to taking his Indians out of their own territory. Disaster
had not yet overtaken them or him and he had not yet met with the
injustice that was afterwards his regular lot. If his were regarded
as more or less of a puppet command, he was not yet aware of it and,
oblivious of all scorn felt for Indian soldiers, kept his eye single
on the assistance he was to render in the accomplishment of Van Dorn's
object. It was anything but easy, however, for him to move with
dispatch. He had difficulty in getting such of his brigade as was
Indian and as had collected at Cantonment Davis, a Choctaw and
Chickasaw battalion and the First Creek Regiment, to stir. They had
not been paid their money and had not been furnished with arms and
clothing as promised. Pike had the necessary funds with him, but time
would be needed in which to distribute them, and the order had been
for him to move promptly. It was something much more easily said than
done. Nevertheless, he did what he could, paid outright the Choctaws
and Chickasaws, a performance that occupied

[Footnote 51: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, vol.
viii, 462.]

three precious days, and agreed to pay McIntosh's Creek regiment at
the Illinois River. To keep that promise he tarried at Park Hill
one day, expecting there to be overtaken by additional Choctaws and
Chickasaws who had been left behind at Fort Gibson. When they did not
appear, he went forward towards Evansville and upward to Cincinnati, a
small town on the Arkansas side of the Cherokee line. There his Indian
force was augmented by Stand Watie's regiment[52] of Cherokees and at
Smith's Mill by John

[Footnote 52: Watie's regiment of Cherokees was scarcely in either
marching or fighting trim. The following letter from John Ross to
Pike, which is number nine in the John Ross _Papers_ in the
Indian Office, is elucidative. It is a copy used in the action against
John Ross at the close of the war. The italics indicate underscorings
that were probably not in the original.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, PARK HILL, Feb'y 25th, 1862.

To BRIG. GEN'L.A. PIKE, Com'dy Indian Department.

Sir: I have deemed it my duty to address you on the present
occasion--You have doubtless ere this received my communication
enclosing the action of the National Council with regard to the final
ratification of our Treaty--Col. Drew's Regiment promptly took up the
line of march on the receipt of your order from Fort Smith towards
Fayetteville. _I accompanied the Troops some 12 miles East of this
and I am happy to assure you in the most confident manner that in my
opinion this Regiment will not fail to do their whole duty, whenever
the Conflict with the common Enemy shall take place_. There are so
many conflicting reports as to your whereabouts and consequently much
interest is felt by the People to know where the Head Qrs. of
your military operations will be established during the present
emergencies--_I had intended going up to see the Troops of our
Regiment; also to visit the Head Qrs of the Army at Cane Hill in view
of affording every aid in any manner within the reach of my power to
repel the Enemy_. But I am sorry to say I have been dissuaded from
going at present in consequence of some unwarrantable conduct on the
part of many _base, reckless and unprincipled persons belonging to
Watie's Regiment who are under no subordination or restraint of their
leaders in domineering over and trampling upon the rights of peaceable
and unoffending citizens_. I have at all times in the most
unequivocal manner assured the People that you will not only promptly
discountenance, but will take steps to put a stop to such proceedings
for the protection of their persons and property and to _redress
their wrongs_--This is not the time for _crimination_ and
_recrimination_; at a proper time _I have certain specific
complaints to report for your investigation_. Pardon me for again
reiterating that (cont.)]

Drew's.[53] The Cherokees had been in much confusion all winter. Civil
war within their nation impended.[54] None the less, Pike, assuming
that all would be well when the call for action came, had ordered
all the Cherokee and Creek regiments to hurry to the help of
McCulloch.[55] He had done this upon the first intimation of the
Federal advance. The Cherokees had proceeded only so far, the Creeks
not at all, and the main body of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, into
whose minds some unscrupulous merchants had instilled mercenary
motives and the elements of discord generally, were lingering far in
the background. Pike's white force was, moreover, ridiculously small,
some Texas cavalry, dignified by him as collectively a squadron,
Captain O.G. Welch in command. There had as yet not been even a
pretense of giving him the three regiments of white men earlier asked
for. Toward the close of the afternoon of March 6, Pike "came up with
the rear of McCulloch's division,"[56] which proved to be the very
division he was to follow, but he was one day late for the fray.

The Battle of Pea Ridge, in its preliminary stages, was already being
fought. It was a three day fight, counting the skirmish at Bentonville
on the sixth between General Franz Sigel's detachment and General
Sterling Price's advance guard as the work of the first day.[57] The
real battle comprised the engagement at

[Footnote 52: (cont.) the mass of the People _are all right
in Sentiment for the support of the Treaty of Alliance with the
Confederate States_. I shall be happy to hear from you--I have the
honor to be your ob't Serv't

John Ross, Prin'l Chief, Cherokee Nation.]

[Footnote 53: Pike's Report, March 14, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. viii, 286-292.]

[Footnote 54: James McIntosh to S. Cooper, January 4, 1862,
Ibid., 732; D.H. Cooper to Pike, February 10, 1862,
Ibid., vol. xiii, 896.]

[Footnote 55:--Ibid., 819.]

[Footnote 56:--Ibid., vol. viii, 287.]

[Footnote 57:--Ibid., 208-215, 304-306.]

Leetown on the seventh and that at Elkhorn Tavern[58] on the eighth.
At Leetown, Pike's Cherokee contingent[59] played what he, in somewhat
quixotic fashion, perhaps, chose to regard as a very important part.
The Indians, then as always, were chiefly pony-mounted, "entirely
undisciplined," as the term discipline is usually understood,
and "armed very indifferently with common rifles and ordinary
shot-guns."[60] The ponies, in the end, proved fleet of foot, as
was to have been expected, and, at one stage of the game, had to
be tethered in the rear while their masters fought from the
vantage-ground of trees.[61] The Indian's most effective work was
done, throughout, under cover of the woods. Indians, as Pike well
knew, could never be induced to face shells in the open. It was he who
advised their climbing the trees and he did it without discounting, in
the slightest, their innate bravery.[62] There came a time, too, when
he gave countenance to another of their

[Footnote 58: The Elkhorn Tavern engagement is sometimes referred to,
and most appropriately, as the Sugar Creek [Phisterer, _Statistical
Record_, 95]. Colonel Eugene A. Carr of the Third Illinois Cavalry,
commanding the Fourth Division of Curtis's army, described the
tavern itself as "situated on the west side of the Springfield and
Fayetteville road, at the head of a gorge known as Cross Timber Hollow
(the head of Sugar Creek) ..." [_Official Records_, vol. viii,
258]. "Sugar Creek Hollow," wrote Curtis, "extends for miles, a gorge,
with rough precipitate sides ..." [Ibid., 589]. It was there
the closing scenes of the great battle were enacted.]

[Footnote 59: The practice, indulged in by both the Federals and the
Confederates, of greatly overestimating the size of the enemy force
was resorted to even in connection with the Indians. Pike gave the
number of his whole command as about a thousand men, Indians and
whites together [_Official Records_, vol. viii, 288; xiii, 820]
notwithstanding that he had led Van Dorn to expect that he would have
a force of "about 8,000 or 9,000 men and three batteries of artillery"
[Ibid., vol. viii, 749]. General Curtis surmised that Pike
contributed five regiments [Ibid., 196] and Wiley Britton, who
had excellent opportunity of knowing better because he had access to
the records of both sides, put the figures at "three regiments of
Indians and two regiments of Texas cavalry" [_Civil War on the
Border_, vol. i, 245].]

[Footnote 60: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 819.]

[Footnote 61:--Ibid., vol. viii, 288.]

[Footnote 62:--Ibid.]

peculiarities. He allowed Colonel Drew's men to fight in a way that
was "their own fashion,"[63] with bow and arrow and with tomahawk.[64]
This, as was only meet it should, called down upon him and them the
opprobrium of friends and foes alike.[65] The Indian war-whoop was
indulged in, of itself enough to terrify. It was hideous.

The service that the Cherokees rendered at different times during the
two days action was not, however, to be despised, even though not
sufficiently conspicuous to be deemed worthy of comment by Van
Dorn.[66] At Leetown, with the aid of a few Texans, they managed to
get possession of a battery and to hold it against repeated endeavors
of the Federals to regain. The death of McCulloch and of McIntosh made
Pike the ranking officer in his part of the field. It fell to him to
rally

[Footnote 63: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 289.]

[Footnote 64:--Ibid., 195.]

[Footnote 65: The northern press took up the matter and the New York
_Tribune_ was particularly virulent against Pike. In its issue of
March 27, 1862, it published the following in bitter sarcasm:

"The Albert Pike who led the Aboriginal Corps of Tomahawkers and
Scalpers at the battle of Pea Ridge, formerly kept school in
Fairhaven, Mass., where he was indicted for playing the part of
Squeers, and cruelly beating and starving a boy in his family. He
escaped by some hocus-pocus law, and emigrated to the West, where
the violence of his nature has been admirably enhanced. As his name
indicates, he is a ferocious fish, and has fought duels enough to
qualify himself to be a leader of savages. We suppose that upon
the recent occasion, he got himself up in good style, war-paint,
nose-ring, and all. This new Pontiac is also a poet, and wrote 'Hymns
to the Gods' in _Blackwood_; but he has left Jupiter, Juno, and
the rest, and betaken himself to the culture of the Great Spirit, or
rather of two great spirits, whisky being the second."]

[Footnote 66: Van Dorn did not make his detailed official report of
this battle until the news had leaked out that the Indians had mangled
the bodies of the dead and committed other atrocities. He was probably
then desirous of being as silent as he dared be concerning Indian
participation, since he, in virtue of his being chief in command, was
the person mainly responsible for it. In October of the preceding
year, McCulloch had favored using the Indians against Kansas
[_Official Records_, vol. iii, 719, 721]. Cooper objected
strongly to their being kept "at home" [Ibid., 614] and one
of the leading chiefs insisted that they did not intend to use the
scalping knife [Ibid., 625].]

McCulloch's broken army and with it to join Van Dorn. On the eighth,
Colonel Watie's men under orders from Van Dorn took position on the
high ridges where they could watch the movements of the enemy and
give timely notice of any attempt to turn the Confederate left flank.
Colonel Drew's regiment, meanwhile, not having received the word
passed along the line to move forward, remained in the woods near
Leetown, the last in the field. Subsequently, finding themselves
deserted, they drew back towards Camp Stephens, where they were soon
joined by "General Cooper, with his regiment and battalion of Choctaws
and Chickasaws, and" by "Colonel McIntosh with 200 men of his regiment
of Creeks."[67] The delinquent wayfarers were both fortunate and
unfortunate in thus tardily arriving upon the scene. They had missed
the fight but they had also missed the temptation to revert to the
savagery that was soon to bring fearful ignominy upon their neighbors.
To the very last of the Pea Ridge engagement, Stand Watie's men were
active. They covered the retreat of the main army, to a certain
extent. They were mostly half-breeds and, so far as can be definitely
ascertained, were entirely guiltless of the atrocities charged against
the others.

General Pike gave the permission to fight "in their own fashion"
specifically to the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles, who were, for the
most part, full-blooded Indians; but he later confessed that, in his
treaty negotiations with the tribes, they had generally stipulated
that they should, if they fought at all, be allowed to fight as they
knew how.[68] Yet they probably did not mean, thereby, to commit
atrocities and the Cherokee National Council lost no time, after the
Indian shortcomings

[Footnote 67: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 292.]

[Footnote 68:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 819.]

at the Battle of Pea Ridge had become known, in putting itself on
record as standing opposed to the sort of thing that had occurred,

_Resolved_, That in the opinion of the National Council,
the war now existing between the said United States and the
Confederate States and their Indian allies should be conducted on
the most humane principles which govern the usages of war among
civilized nations, and that it be and is earnestly recommended to
the troops of this nation in the service of the Confederate States
to avoid any acts toward captured or fallen foes that would be
incompatible with such usages.[69]

The atrocities committed by the Indians became almost immediately
a matter for correspondence between the opposing commanders. The
Federals charged mutilation of dead bodies on the battle-field and the
tomahawking and scalping of prisoners. The Confederates recriminated
as against persons "alleged to be Germans." The case involving the
Indians was reported to the joint committee of Congress on the
_Conduct of the Present War_;[70] but at least one piece of
evidence was not, at that time, forthcoming, a piece that, in a
certain sense, might be taken to exonerate the whites. It came to the
knowledge of General Blunt during the summer and was the Indians' own
confession. It bore only indirectly upon the actual atrocities but
showed that the red men were quite equal to making their own plans in
fighting and were not to be relied upon to do things decently and
in order. Drew's men, when they deserted the Confederates after the
skirmish of July third at Locust Grove, confided to the Federals the
intelligence "that the killing of the white rebels by the Indians in"
the Pea Ridge "fight was determined

[Footnote 69: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 826.]

[Footnote 70: By vote of the committee, General Curtis had been
instructed to furnish information on the subject of the employment of
Indians by the Confederates [_Journal_, 92].]

upon before they went into battle."[71] Presumptively, if the
Cherokees could plot to kill their own allies, they could be found
despicable enough and cruel enough to mutilate the dead,[72] were the
chance given them and that without any direction, instruction, or
encouragement from white men being needed.

The Confederate defeat at Pea Ridge was decisive and, as far as Van
Dorn's idea of relieving Missouri was concerned, fatally conclusive.
As early as the twenty-first of February, Beauregard had expressed a
wish to have him east of the Mississippi[73] and March had not yet
expired before Van Dorn was writing in such a way as to elicit the
consummation of the wish. The Federals were in occupation of the
northern part of Arkansas; but Van Dorn was very confident they would
not be able to subsist there long or "do much harm in the west."
In his opinion, therefore, it was incumbent upon the Confederates,
instead of dividing their strength between the east and the west, to
concentrate on the saving of the Mississippi.[74] To all appearances,
it was there that the situation was most critical. In due time, came
the order for Van Dorn to repair eastward and to take with him all the
troops that might be found available.

The completeness of Curtis's victory, the loss to the Southerners, by
death or capture, of some of their best-loved and ablest commanders,
McCulloch, McIntosh, Hebert, and the nature of the country through
which the Federals pursued their fleeing forces, to say nothing of the
miscellaneous and badly-trained character of

[Footnote 71: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 486.]

[Footnote 72: The same charge was made against the Indians who fought
at Wilson's Creek [Leavenworth _Daily Conservative_, August 24,
1861].]

[Footnote 73: Roman, _Military Operations of General Beauregard_,
vol. i, 240.]

[Footnote 74: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 796.]

those forces, to which, by the way, Van Dorn ascribed[75] much of
his recent ill-success, all helped to make the retirement of the
Confederates from the Pea Ridge battle-ground pretty much of a
helter-skelter affair. From all accounts, the Indians conducted
themselves as well as the best. The desire of everybody was to get
to a place of safety and that right speedily. Colonel Watie and his
regiment made their way to Camp Stephens,[76] near which place the
baggage train had been left[77] and where Cooper and Drew with their
men had found refuge already. Some two hundred of Watie's Indians
were detailed to help take ammunition back to the main army.[78] The
baggage train moved on to Elm Springs, the remainder of the Indians,
under Cooper, assisting in protecting it as far as that place.[79]
At Walnut Grove, the Watie detail, having failed to deliver the
ammunition because of the departure of the army prior to their
arrival, rejoined their comrades and all moved on to Cincinnati, where
Pike, who with a few companions had wandered several days among the
mountains, came up with them.[80]

In Van Dorn's calculations for troops that should accompany him east
or follow in his wake, the Indians had no place. Before his own plans
took final shape and while he was still arranging for an Army of the
West, his orders for the Indians were, that they should make their way
back as best they could to their own country and there operate "to cut
off trains, annoy the enemy in his marches, and to prevent him as far
as possible from supplying his troops from Missouri and

[Footnote 75: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 282.]

[Footnote 76:--Ibid.. 291.]

[Footnote 77:--Ibid., 317.]

[Footnote 78:--Ibid., 318.]

[Footnote 79:--Ibid.; Britton, _Civil War on the Border_,
vol. i, 273.]

[Footnote 80: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 292.]

Kansas."[81] A little later, but still anterior to Van Dorn's summons
east, more minute particulars of the programme were addressed to Pike.
Maury wrote,

The general commanding has decided to march with his army against
the enemy now invading the northeastern part of the State. Upon
you, therefore, will devolve the necessity of impeding his advance
into this region. It is not expected that you will give battle to
a large force, but by felling trees, burning bridges, removing
supplies of forage and subsistence, attacking his trains,
stampeding his animals, cutting off his detachments, and other
similar means, you will be able materially to harass his army and
protect this region of country. You must endeavor by every means
to maintain yourself in the Territory independent of this army.
In case only of absolute necessity you may move southward. If the
enemy threatens to march through the Indian Territory or descend
the Arkansas River you may call on troops from Southwestern
Arkansas and Texas to rally to your aid. You may reward your
Indian troops by giving them such stores as you may think proper
when they make captures from the enemy, but you will please
endeavor to restrain them from committing any barbarities upon the
wounded, prisoners, or dead who may fall into their hands. You may
purchase your supplies of subsistence from wherever you can most
advantageously do so. You will draw your ammunition from Little
Rock or from New Orleans via Red River. Please communicate with
the general commanding when practicable.[82]

It was an elaborate programme but scarcely a noble one. Its note of
selfishness sounded high. The Indians were simply to be made to serve
the ends of the white men. Their methods of warfare were regarded as
distinctly inferior. Pea Ridge was, in fact, the first and last time
that they were allowed to participate in the war on a big scale.
Henceforth, they were rarely ever anything more than scouts and
skirmishers and that was all they were really fitted to be.

[Footnote 81: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 282, 790; vol. liii,
supplement, 796.]

[Footnote 82:--Ibid., vol. viii, 795-796.]

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