[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.]
[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.]
[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.]
[Footnote 12: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 698-699.]
[Footnote 13:--Ibid., 687.]
[Footnote 14:--Ibid., 691.]
[Footnote 15: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 721.]
[Footnote 16:--Ibid., 720.]
[Footnote 17:--Ibid., 727.]
[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.]
[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.]
[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.]
[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.]
[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.]
[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.]
[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.)]
[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].]
[Footnote 51: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, vol. viii, 462.]
[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.)]
[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.]
[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.]
[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].]
[Footnote 67: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 292.]
[Footnote 68:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 819.]
[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].]
[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.]
[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.]
[Footnote 81: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 282, 790; vol. liii, supplement, 796.]
[Footnote 82:--Ibid., vol. viii, 795-796.]