The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War Part 25

Conversely and most fortuitously, a friendliness grew up between Holmes and the man whom he had supplanted that made the former, either forget the orders given him in Richmond or put so new a construction upon them that they were rendered nugatory. It was a situation, exceedingly fortunate for

[Footnote 504: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 855.]

[Footnote 505: He had reached Vicksburg by the thirtieth of July and from that point he issued his orders a.s.suming the command [ibid., 860].]

[Footnote 506: Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862 (Appendix); _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 121-122.]

the service as a whole, no doubt, but most unhappy for Indian Territory.

It finally dawned upon Pike that it was useless to argue any longer upon the matters in dispute between him and Hindman, for Holmes had pre-judged the case. Moreover, Holmes was beginning to appreciate the advantage of being in a position where he could, by ignoring Pike's authority and a.s.serting his own, be much the gainer in a material way.

How he could have reconciled such an att.i.tude with the instructions he had received from Randolph it is impossible to surmise. The instructions, whether verbal or written, must have been in full accord with the secretary's letter to Pike of the fourteenth of July, which, although Pike was as yet ignorant of it, had explicitly said that no supplies for Indian Territory should be diverted from their course and that there should be no interference whatever with Pike's somewhat peculiar command.[507] All along the authorities in Richmond, their conflicting departmental regulations to the contrary notwithstanding, had insisted that the main object of the Indian alliance had been amply attained when the Indians were found posing as a Home Guard.

Indians were not wanted for any service outside the limits of their own country. Service outside was to be deprecated, first, last, and always. Indeed, it was in response to a suggestion from Pike, made in the autumn of 1861, that the Indian Territory ought to be regarded as a thing apart, to be held for the Confederacy most certainly but not to be involved in the warfare outside, that Pike's department had been created and no subsequent

[Footnote 507: Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862. The same a.s.surance had apparently been given to Pike in May [_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 863].]

arrangements for the Trans-Mississippi Department or District, whichever it may have been at the period, were intended to militate against that fundamental fact.[508]

Despairing of accomplis.h.i.+ng anything by lingering longer in Little Rock, Pike applied to Holmes for a leave of absence and was granted it for such time as might have to elapse before action upon his resignation could be secured.[509] The circ.u.mstance of Hindman's having relieved Pike from duty was thus ignored or pa.s.sed over in silence. General Pike had come to Little Rock to see his family[510]

but he now decided upon a visit to Texas. Exactly what he expected to do there n.o.body knows; but he undoubtedly had at heart the interests of his department. He went to Warren first and later to Grayson County. At the latter place, he made Sherman his private headquarters and it was from there that he subsequently found it convenient to pa.s.s over again into Indian Territory.

Pike was in Arkansas as late as the nineteenth of August and probably still there when Randolph's letter of the fourteenth of July, much delayed, arrived.[511] If angry before, he was now incensed; for he knew for a certainty at last that Hindman had been a sort of usurper in the Trans-Mississippi District and, with power emanating from no one higher than Beauregard, had never legally possessed a flicker of authority for doing the many insulting things that he had arrogantly done to him.[512] Next, from some source, came the

[Footnote 508: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 861, 864, 868.]

[Footnote 509: Holmes to the Secretary of War, November 15, 1862 [ibid., 918].]

[Footnote 510: For an account of Pike's movements, see _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 126.]

[Footnote 511: Abel, _American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist_, 356.]

[Footnote 512: Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862, "Appendix."]

news that President Davis had refused positively to accept Pike's resignation.[513] What better proof could anyone want that Pike was sustained at headquarters? What that view of the matter may have meant in emboldening him to his later excessively independent actions must be left to the reader's conjecture. It never occurred to Pike that if his resignation had been refused, it had probably been refused upon the supposition that, with Hindman out of the way, all would be well.

One good reason for thinking that that was the Richmond att.i.tude towards the affair is the fact that no record of anything like immediate and formal action upon the resignation is forthcoming.

Pike heard that it had been refused and positively, which was very gratifying; but it is far more likely that it had been put to one side and purposely; in order that, since Pike was unquestionably the best man for Indian Territory, all difficulties might be left to adjust themselves, the less said about Hindman's autocracy the better it would be for all concerned.

But it was soon apparent that Hindman was not to be put out of the way. It was to be still possible for him to work mischief in Indian Territory. With some slight modifications, the Trans-Mississippi District had been converted into the Trans-Mississippi Department and, on the twentieth of August, orders[514] issued from

[Footnote 513: There is something very peculiar about the acceptance or non-acceptance of Pike's resignation. Randolph wrote to Holmes, October 27, 1862, these words: "... General Pike's resignation having been accepted, you will be left without a commanding officer in the Indian Territory..." [_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 906]. A letter endors.e.m.e.nt, made by Randolph, on or later than September 19th, was to this effect: "General Pike's resignation has not yet been accepted" [Ibid., liii, supplement, 821], and another, made by him, November 5th, to this: "Accept General Pike's resignation, and notify him of it" [Ibid., 822].]

[Footnote 514: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 877.]

Little Rock, arranging for an organization into three districts, the Texas, the Louisiana,[515] and the Arkansas. The last-named district was entrusted to General Hindman and made to embrace Arkansas, Missouri, and the Indian Territory. Hindman took charge at Fort Smith, August twenty-fourth and straightway planned such disposition of his troops as would make for advancing the Confederate line northward of the Boston Mountains, Fort Smith, and the Arkansas River. The Indian forces that were concentrated around Forts Smith and Gibson were s.h.i.+fted to Carey's Ferry that they might cover the military road southward from Fort Scott. To hold the Cherokee country and to help maintain order there, a battalion of white cavalry was posted at Tahlequah and, in each of the nine towns.h.i.+ps, or districts, of the country, the formation of a company of home guard, authorized.[516]

The maintaining of order in the Cherokee Nation had come to be imperatively necessary. John Ross, the Princ.i.p.al Chief, was now a prisoner within the Federal lines.[517] His capture had been accomplished by strategy only a short time before and not without strong suspicion that he had been in collusion with his captors. Early in August, General Blunt, determined that the country north of the Arkansas should not be abandoned, notwithstanding the retrograde movement of Colonel Salomon, had ordered Salomon, now a brigadier in command of the Indian Expedition, to send

[Footnote 515: Not all of Louisiana was in Holmes's department and only that part of it west of the Mississippi const.i.tuted the District of Louisiana. Governor Moore had vigorously protested against a previous division, one that "tacked" "all north of Red River" "onto Arkansas" [_Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 819].]

[Footnote 516:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 46-47.]

[Footnote 517: Nominally, Ross was yet a prisoner, although, as a matter of fact, he had started upon a mission to Was.h.i.+ngton, his desire being to confer with President Lincoln in person regarding the condition of the Cherokees [Blunt to Lincoln, August 13, 1862, ibid., 565-566].]

back certain white troops in support of the Indian.[518] Dr.

Gillpatrick, who was the bearer of the orders, imparted verbal instructions that the expeditionary force so sent should proceed to Tahlequah and complete what Colonel Phillips had confessed he had not had sufficient time for, the making of diplomatic overtures to the Cherokee authorities.[519]

Blunt's expeditionary force had proceeded to Tahlequah and to Park Hill and there, under the direction of Colonel William F. Cloud, had seized John Ross and his family, their valuables, also official papers and the treasury of the Cherokee Nation.[520] The departure of the Princ.i.p.al Chief had had a demoralizing effect upon the Cherokees; for, when his restraining influence was removed, likewise the Federal support, political factions, the Pins, or full-bloods, and the Secessionists, mostly half-breeds, had been able to indulge their thirst for vengeance uninterruptedly.[521] Chaos had well-nigh resulted.

The departure of the expeditionary force had meant more than mere demoralization among the Indians. It had meant the abandonment of their country to the Confederates and the Confederates, once realizing that, delaying nothing, took possession. The secessionist Cherokees then called a convention, formally deposed John Ross, and elected Stand Watie as Princ.i.p.al Chief in his stead.[522] Back of all such revolutionary work, was General Hindman and it was not long before Hindman himself was in Tahlequah.[523] Once there, he proceeded to set his stamp upon things with customary

[Footnote 518: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 531-532.]

[Footnote 519:--Ibid., 182.]

[Footnote 520:--Ibid., 552.]

[Footnote 521:--Ibid., 623, 648.]

[Footnote 522: _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 129.]

[Footnote 523: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 42.]

vigor and order was shortly restored both north and south of the Arkansas. Guerrilla warfare was summarily suppressed, marauding stopped, and the perpetrators of atrocities so deservedly punished that all who would have imitated them lost their taste for such fiendish sport. As far north as the Moravian Mission, the Confederates were undeniably in possession; but, at that juncture, Holmes called Hindman to other scenes. A sort of apathy then settled like a cloud upon the Cherokee Nation[524]. Almost lifeless, it awaited the next invader.

One part of the programme, arranged for at the time of the re-districting of the Trans-Mississippi Department, had called for a scheme to reenter southwest Missouri. Hindman was to lead but Rains, Shelby, Cooper, and others were to const.i.tute a sort of outpost and were to make a dash, first of all, to recover the lead mines at Granby. The Indians of both armies were drawn thitherward, the one group to help make the advance, the other to resist it. At Newtonia on September 30 the first collision of any moment came and it came and it ended with victory for the Confederates[525]. Cooper's Choctaws and Chickasaws fought valiantly but so also did Phillips's Cherokees. They lost heavily in horses[526], their own poorly shod ponies; but they themselves stood fire well. To rally them after defeat proved, however, a difficult matter. Their

[Footnote 524: Report of M.W. Buster to Cooper, September 19, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 273-277.]

[Footnote 525: For detailed accounts of the Battle of Newtonia, see Ibid., 296-307; Edwards, _Shelby and his Men_, 83-89; Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 355-363; Anderson, _Life of General Stand Watie_, 20; Crawford, _Kansas in the Sixties_, 54; _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 132.]

[Footnote 526: Evan Jones to Dole, January 8, 1864, Indian Office General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, J 401.]

disciplining had yet left much to be desired.[527] Scalping[528] of the dead took place as on the battle-field of Pea Ridge; but, in other respects, the Indians of both armies acquitted themselves well and far better than might have been expected.

The partic.i.p.ation of the Indians in the Battle of Newtonia was significant. Federals and Confederates had alike resorted to it for purposes other than the red man's own. The Indian Expedition had now for a surety definitely abandoned the intention for which it was originally organized and outfitted. As a matter of fact, it had long since ceased to exist. The military

[Footnote 527: "Since leaving the Fugitive Indians on Dry Wood Creek, nothing has occurred of material interest other than you will receive through official Dispatches from the Officers of our Army. The Indians under Col. Phillips fought well at the Battle Newtonia, they have at all times stood fire. The great difficulty of their officers is in keeping them together in a retreat, and should such be necessary on the field in presence of an enemy in their present state of discipline it would be almost impossible to again return them to the attack in good order--Another Battle was fought at this place in which the enemy were defeated with considerable loss, four of their guns being taken by a charge of the 2d Kansas.

"In this Contest the Indians behaved well, the officers and soldiers of our own regiments now freely acknowledge them to be valuable Allies and in no case have they as yet faltered, untill ordered to retire, the prejudice once existing against them is fast disappearing from our Army and it is now generaly conceded that they will do good service in our border warfare. This we have never doubted and confident as we have been of their fitness for border warfare we have been content to await, untill they had proven to the country not only their loyalty but their ability to fight. Since their organization they have been engaged in several battles and in every case successfully, one of us will start in a day or two for Tahlequah and may find something of interest on the march. We are now in the Cherokee Nation. An effort is now being made by Gen'l Blunt to punish plundering in the country.

Union People have suffered from this as much as rebels. We have before called the attention of our Army Officers to this fact; with our Fifteen Hundred Cherokee Warriors in the service of our government--we feel that every possible protection should be extended to them as a people" [Carruth to Coffin, October 25, 1862, enclosed in Coffin to Dole, November 16, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Southern Superintendency_ 1859-1862].]

[Footnote 528: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 894.]

organization, of which the Indian regiments in the Federal service now formed a part, was Blunt's division of the Army of the Frontier and it had other objects in view, other tasks to perform, than the simple recovery of Indian Territory.

It is true General Blunt had set his heart upon that particular accomplishment but he was scarcely a free agent in the matter. Men above him in rank had quite other aims and his, perforce, had to be subordinated to theirs. In August, Blunt had planned a kind of second Indian Expedition to go south to Fort Gibson and to restore the refugees to their homes.[529] It had started upon its way when the powers higher up interposed.

General Schofield, antic.i.p.ating the renewed endeavor of the Confederates to push their line forward, had called upon Blunt for a.s.sistance and Blunt had responded with such alacrity as was possible, considering that many of the troops he summoned for Schofield's use were those that had been doing hard service within and on the border of the Indian country for full two months. During all that time their horses had been deprived entirely of grain feed and had been compelled to subsist upon prairie gra.s.s. They were in a bad way.[530] Once outside the Indian Territory, the Indian regiments, begrudging the service demanded of them, were kept more fully occupied than were the white; for there was

[Footnote 529: "Orders have been given by General Blunt for the Indian Expedition to go South soon; he says the families of the Indians may go"--CARRUTH to Coffin, August 29, 1862, enclosed in Coffin to Mix, August 30, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Southern Superintendence_, 1859-1862.