USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. I > Part 30
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"The position which I have assumed in regard to all the impor- tant questions which affect the Cherokee people has been too often proclaimed to be misunderstood, however much it may be misrepre- sented. The great object with me has been to have the Cherokee people harmonious and united in the full and free exercise and enjoyment of all their rights of person and property. Union is strength ; dissension is weakness, misery, ruin. In time of peace, enjoy peace together; in time of war, if war must come, fight to- gether. As brothers live, as brothers die. While ready and willing to defend our firesides from the robber and the murderer, let us not make war wantonly against the authority of the United or Confed- erate States, but avoid conflict with either, and remain strictly on our own soil. We have homes endeared to us by every considera- tion, laws adapted to our condition and of our own choice, and rights and privileges of the highest character. Here they must be enjoyed or nowhere else. When your nationality ceases here, it will live nowhere else. When these homes are lost, you will find no others like them. Then, my countrymen, as you regard your own rights, as you regard the welfare of your posterity, be prudent how you act. The permanent disruption of the United States is now probable. The state on our border and the Indian nations about us have severed their connection from the United States and joined the Confederate States. Our general interests are inseparable from
2 The full text of the address of Chief Ross to the general coun- cil of the Cherokee people may be found in "The Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," Series I, Vol. III, pp. 673-5.
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theirs and it is not desirable that we should stand alone. The preservation of our rights and of our existence are above every other consideration. And in view of the circumstances of our situation I do say to you frankly that in my opinion the time has now come when you should signify your consent for the authorities of the nation to adopt preliminary steps for an alliance with the Confed- erate States upon terms honorable and advantageous to the Cherokee Nation."
Following the address of the principal chief, Col. Jolin Craw- ford, who had. been United States Indian agent for the Cherokees and who (being an active partisan of the secession movement) had been continued in that capacity by the Confederate Indian com- missioner, made a brief speech after which the convention organized by the election of a chairman and a secretary. The resolutions adopted by the convention were comparatively mild, favored neu- trality, though by inference inclining to the side of the South, and concluded by delegating the authority to enter into a new alliance to the constituted authorities of the Cherokee Nation in case such a course might be deemed expedient or desirable.3
General McCulloch and Commisioner Pike were promptly notified of the action and the Cherokee people assembled in general council. The Cherokee authorities took immediate steps for the recruiting and organization of a regiment of mounted riflemen, of which John Drew was chosen as colonel.4 Although the Cherokee Nation was thus committed to an alliance with the Confederacy by
3 The full text of the resolutions adopted by the people of the Cherokee Nation in general council, August 21, 1861, was printed in "The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," New Series, Vol. III, pp. 675-6.
4 The regiment of mounted riflemen which was raised by the national council and placed under the command of Col. John Drew, was composed largely of full blooded Cherokees, many if not most of whom were members of the full blood secret society known as the Kitoowha, the members of which were derisively known as "Pin Indians." Previous to this time, and spite of the efforts and in- fluence of Chief Ross to the contrary, Stand Watie (a prominent leader of the faction which had always opposed Ross, and who from the first was an active partisan of the seceding states), had been authorized by General McCulloch to raise a force of Cherokees to assist in patrolling and protecting the northern border of the Chero- kee country. Most of Col. Stand Watie's men were of mixed Indian and white blood and many of them were well educated. This com- mand consisted of about 300 men at that time. Later it was made the nucleus of a full regiment.
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the voice of its people in general council on the 21st of August, it was not until the 7th of October that the treaty was formulated and signed. In the meantime Commissioner Pike had been successful in negotiating treaties with representatives of parts of the Wichita, Caddo and federated tribes on the new reservation on the Washita, at their agency, near Fort Cobb, and with representatives of parts of the Osage, Quapaw, Seneca and Shawnee tribes, whom he met in council at Fort Gibson, October 2-4.
With the conclusion of an alliance, defensive and offensive, be- tween the Cherokee Nation and the Confederate States, the people of the entire Indian Territory became involved, directly or indi- rectly, in the great struggle between the Federal Union and the seceding states. Their geographical location and environment and their customs and institutions, which were more nearly akin to those of the South than those of the North, were chiefly responsible for their choice in the matter, though the fact that the United States had apparently forgotten and forsaken them in the hour of extrem- ity was not without its influence and effect, especially among the Cherokees. It is true that President Lincoln did write a letter to Chief Ross but it was never delivered and the latter had no means of knowing that the Lincoln administration was even mindful of the existence of the Cherokees or the obligations of protection due them under the terms of existing treaties.5
Having taken a stand on the side of the Confederacy, the Chero- kee tribal authorities immediately became interested in securing a united front on the part of the other Indian tribes. As previously stated, there had been a sharply defined division among the people of the Creek, or Muskogee Nation as to the course to be pursued by them in the pending conflict, the sons of General McIntosh being the recognized leaders of the faction which openly championed an alliance with the Confederacy, while the faction which adhered with equal fervor to the cause of the Union was led by Opothleyo- hola, who had stubbornly opposed the removal of his people to the
5 The story as told by the Cherokees is that President Lincoln wrote a letter to John Ross, urging that the Cherokees keep out of the war and informing him that the Federal Government would come to their assistance as soon as practicable; that the letter was entrusted to a missionary or priest, who was enroute to the Indian Territory and that the latter in turn gave it to a prominent citizen of the Cherokee Nation to be delivered to Chief Ross. For reasons of his own he did not deliver the letter .- From personal information gathered in the Cherokee country by the author.
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West thirty years before the beginning of the war. Mindful of his previous efforts to hold the other tribes to a policy of neutrality, Chief Ross sent letters to each of them, apprising them of the new alliance into which the Cherokees had entered and urging them to take similar action if they had not already done so. One of these letters was sent to Opothleyohola, who had always upheld Ross in his stand for neutrality and nonparticipation in the war. Opoth- leyohola remained unmoved by this change in attitude on the part of his friend nor could his determination to remain firm in his adherence to the Union be shaken by the further efforts which were made.6
Opothleyohola had been prominent in the affairs of the Creek Tribe for forty years or more before the outbreak of the Civil war. He was probably born before 1800 and is believed to have seen service in active warfare against the whites as early as the War of 1812. Like John Ross, of the Cherokee Nation, he was bitterly op- posed to the removal of his people to the West. Indeed, it is not improbable that his sentiment of attachment to the Federal Union at the outbreak of the Civil war was prompted by his resentment and suspicion toward the people of certain states of the South whom he blamed for forcing the Creeks to leave their ancient homes and move to the strange land west of the Mississippi.
As he had opposed McIntosh and the advocates of removal trea- ties thirty years before, so he now opposed the champions of an alli- ance with the Confederacy. Although he was an old man at that time, he was still very active and was possessed of a personal magne- tism and a capacity for leadership which gave him great influence and power among his people. He was probably amazed at the change of front on the part of Chief Ross in abandoning the policy of neutrality and openly espousing the cause of the seceding states. When he received the formal letter from Ross announcing this course, he returned it after having directed (for he could not write) that the question as to whether Ross was really its author should be written on the back of the communication. The Cherokee authori- ties thereupon sent Joseph Vann, who was second chief, to person- ally intercede with Opothleyohola in behalf of a united front by all the tribes for the Confederacy. Opothleyohola greeted Vann as a friend but refused to enter into the discussion of a matter upon which, as he said, he had already made up his mind. He said that he realized the futility of opposing the Federal Government be- cause, in the end, it would triumph. He also said that his opposition to the proposed war against the Union was not based upon his ani- mosity toward the faction to which he had so long been opposed (the McIntosh party) was lined up on the side of the Confederacy ; that it was based upon principle and that, under no circumstances, could he be induced to consider such an alliance. He concluded by stating that it was his purpose to take his followers to Kansas and
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As already stated, several of the treaties negotiated by Commis- sioner Pike were entered into by mere fragments of tribes. The Creek Treaty was never accepted by Opotheyohola and his follow- ers. Only a small part of the Osage Tribe was represented in the council at Fort Gibson and the rest of the Osages never recognized or admitted the validity of the treaty negotiated. Most of the Cad- does, Delawares, Absentee Shawnees and affiliated and federated tribes (which, after being forced to leave their reservation on the Brazos, in Texas, less than two years before, had been colonized on the Washita, in the Indian Territory) abandoned their new reser- vation and fled northward after the Federal garrison had been withdrawn from the near by post of Fort Cobb. The governor of Texas had even gone to the extent of sending a special envoy in the person of their trusted friend, Capt. L. S. Ross, to visit these tribes on the Washita to reassure them and to invite them to return to Texas, but the memory of the events of 1859 were too fresh in their minds and they not only left for the North but persuaded their friends, the Wichitas, to do likewise. Most of the Wichitas and their kinsfolk of the Waco, Tawakony and Keechi tribes settled for the time being at the mouth of the Little Arkansas River, where they remained until after the end of the war.7 The Caddoes took up their abode on the Arkansas River, in Eastern Colorado. Some of these Indians did not go immediately. Part of them went north- ward with Opothleyohola and the Creeks, in the winter of 1861-2. Others remained until later on in 1862. The Penateka Comanches and the Tonkawas remained at the Washita Agency, which was con- tinued by the Confederate authorities.
throw them and himself upon the bounties of the General Govern- ment. This, he subsequently attempted to do but was attacked by Confederate forces before he succeeded in getting beyond the borders of the Indian Territory.
Opothleyohola's Creek name was Hu-pui-hilth Yohola. It was spelled and pronounced in several different ways by the white people, the form here used being the most common. He died in exile, at the Sac and Fox Agency, Quenemo, Osage County, Kansas, in 1862.
7 The site upon which the Wichitas had their village, between 1862 and 1867, is the same upon which the City of Wichita bas since been built; hence its name.
1
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST OPOTHLEYOHOLA
Actual hostilities did not begin in the Indian Territory until late the first year of the war. After the Cherokee Nation was aligned on the side of the Confederate States, Opothleyohola began making preparations to lead the Creeks who adhered to the Union out of the territory into Kansas. In this movement he was joined by Halek Tustenuggee, a noted Seminole lcader, and his followers. Both of these chieftains had known from personal experience what war meant to a people and they proposed to take theirs to places of safety if possible. They accordingly began to assemble their fol- lowers at a point in the valley of the Deep Fork of the Canadian. The people brought not only their families but also their live stock and personal property, for they were abandoning their homes, at least until the war should be ended. But if they were proposing to leave the country to avoid war, they were not to be permitted to do so without tasting its bitterness before crossing the bounds of the territory into Kansas.
Col. Douglas H. Cooper, of the First Choctaw and Chickasaw Regiment, who had been for eight years the Government Indian agent for the Choctaws and Chickasaws, was temporarily in com- mand of the Confederate troops in the Indian Territory, with head- quarters at Fort Gibson. With a force of about 1,400 men, consist- ing of six companies of his own regiment, the Creek Regiment com- manded by Col. D. N. McIntosh ; 1ª the Creek and Seminole battal-
. 1ª Daniel N. McIntosh was born near Columbus, Georgia, in 1820. He was a son of William McIntosh, the Creek leader who was killed in 1825 because he had signed the treaty by which the Creeks were bound to relinquish their lands in Georgia and Ala- bama and accept a new reservation in the Indian Territory instead. Young McIntosh came to the Indian Territory with his mother. He was educated in a private school at Louisville, Kentucky. He was elected to the office of national clerk when he was quite a young man. . Afterward he served as a member of the House of Warriors (lower house) of the Creek National Council, as a mem- ber of the Supreme Court of the Creek Nation and was often
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ions, under Lieut. Col. Chilly McIntosh (the Creek war chief) and Maj. John Jumper (chief of the Seminoles), and a detachment of the Ninth Texas Cavalry under Lieut. Col. William Quayle, Colonel
COL. D. N. McINTOSH
Cooper marched in search of Opothleyohola's Camp on the 15th of November. It was found to be deserted, with a well marked trail
called to act as the representative of the tribe at Washington. He represented the Creeks in the council which resulted in the treaty separating the Seminoles from the Creek Nation, in 1856. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he raised the first Creek company for the Confederate service and was commissioned colonel of the First Creek Regiment. In October, 1864, he was placed in command of a brigade consisting of the First and Second Creek regiments and the Seminole Battalion, retaining that position until the end of the war. He represented his people in the negotiation of a new treaty with the Federal Government, in 1866. He lost heavily by the war, having been the owner of many negro slaves. He was a Vol. I-19
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leading to the northward. The fugitives were overtaken on the 19th at a place called Round Mountain, near the mouth of the Cimarron and an engagement ensued in which a severe loss was inflicted upon Opothleyohola's party. One hundred and ten men were killed or wounded, a number were taken prisoners, twelve wagons and a large amount of supplies, besides many cattle and horses were lost. The loss of the attacking forces in killed and wounded was very light.
In consequence of notice received from General McCulloch that Colonel Cooper and the forces under his command might be needed on the Arkansas border, the latter withdrew and took up a position at Concharta, November 24th, where his wagon train had been left. Five days later, having received word that the possible emergency in Arkansas which had been anticipated by General McCulloch, had been averted, Colonel Cooper again set forth, with about 800 men to effect a junction with the Fourth Texas Cavalry, under Col. Wil- liam B. Sims, and a detachment of 500 men of the First Cherokee Regiment, under the command of Col. John Drew. Opothleyohola and his followers were overtaken again on Bird Creek, north of Tul- sey Town (Tulsa) at a place known as Chusto-Talasah, or Caving Banks, where a severe engagement took place December 9th. Colo- nel Cooper estimated the loss of Opothleyohola's followers at 500 killed and wounded. His own loss was fifteen men killed and thirty- seven wounded. A remarkable incident in connection with this action was the fact that Colonel Drew's Cherokee Regiment went to pieces in a single night, a number of his officers deserting with the men, who claimed that they did not wish to fight their friends and neighbors, the Creeks. The real facts were that, belonging to the secret organization known as the Kitoowha (Pin Indians), their sympathies were entirely with Opothleyohola and his followers. Only about thirty of Colonel Drew's officers and men remained with him to participate with the other organizations of Colonel Cooper's command in the fight which took place the following day.
Although he had again been victorious, Colonel Cooper's forces were nearly out of ammunition and he deemed it prudent to retire to a position near his base of supplies (Fort Gibson) until prepara- tions for the continuance of the campaign could be made. He ac- cordingly took up a position at Choska, twenty miles above Fort
successful business man, however, and soon retrieved his fortune, giving much of his time and attention to farming and stock rais- ing. He died at his home, about ten miles southwest of Checotah (McIntosh County), in 1895.
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Gibson, on the 13th of December. Colonel Drew, who had saved his wagon train, promptly recruited and reorganized his regiment. Col. James McIntosh, who was in command of the Confederate forces at Van Buren, Arkansas, to whom Colonel Cooper had ap- pealed for reinforcements, ordered Col. William C. Young's Texas Cavalry Regiment, Maj. J. W. Whitfield's battalion and five com- panies of Col. E. Greer's Third Texas Cavalry to join the command of Colonel Cooper. He also authorized Colonel Cooper to send a requisition to Fort Smith for the needed supplies of ammunition. To Colonel Cooper's surprise, Colonel McIntosh later came in per- son and took command of the troops (2,000 in number) which he had ordered to reinforce the former, except Major Whitfield's bat- talion which marched with Cooper.1b Colonel Cooper claimed to have planned a joint movement against Opothleyohola's people by the forces of his own command and those under Colonel McIntosh, together with the Cherokee Regiment of Col. Stand Watie and he was severe in his strictures on Colonel McIntosh because of what he termed the "precipitancy" of the latter in pushing ahead and at- tacking the enemy before the troops of either his own command or that of Col. Stand Watie could arrive and co-operate. He intimated that if Colonel McIntosh had awaited the arrival and active co-op- eration of the other forces then in motion, Opothleyohola and his people might have been captured instead of merely being driven
1b James McQueen McIntosh was born in Florida in 1828. He came of distinguished ancestry. His father, Col. James S. McIn- tosh, was killed while in command of a brigade in the American Army at the Battle of Molino del Rey, in the war with Mexico. His grandfather, Gen. John McIntosh, was an officer in the Revolu- tionary Army and in the War of 1812. He graduated at West Point in 1849 and served in the regular army until he resigned to enter the Confederate service at the beginning of the Civil war. Shortly after his brief campaign in the Indian Territory he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He was killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge, March 7, 1862. A younger brother, John B. McIntosh, entered the United States Army as a second lieutenant of cavalry at the beginning of the Civil war and was successively promoted through the various grades until he reached the rank of brigadier general of volunteers, in July, 1864. He remained in the regular army after the end of the war and was retired with the rank of brigadier general in 1870. As a descendant of John "Mor" Mc- Intosh, who headed a party of 100 Scotch Highlanders that came to Georgia with Oglethorpe, Gen. James M. McIntosh was distantly re- lated to Col. Daniel N. and Chilly McIntosh, who were in the Con- federate service from the Creek Nation.
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off. The engagement between Colonel McIntosh's command and Opothleyohola, which occurred December 26th, was known as the Battle of Chustenahlah.2 Colonel McIntosh put his column in mo- tion, on the return march to Arkansas, immediately after the fight. Colonel Cooper scouted in the rear of the fugitive Opothleyohola almost to the Kansas line but, aside from capturing a few stragglers and picking up straying cattle and horses which had been lost by the Union Indians in their demoralized flight, the expedition of Cooper's command accomplished little. The command returned to Fort Gibson for the winter.
The published reports of Colonels Cooper and MeIntosh and of a number of their subordinates give accounts of the operations of this campaign in considerable detail. On the other hand, the fol- lowers of Opothleyohola were unorganized and no reports were made or required, so that, from the viewpoint of written history, but one side of the story is known. From the reports it appears that most of the prisoners taken were women and children, so it is evident that not all of Opothleyohola's followers were "painted warriors." 3 Indeed, one Texas commander (Col. W. C. Young) reported that the officers and men of his regiment had killed 211 Indians, with a loss of but one man killed and five wounded (two mortally ) on their own side in the engagement at Chustenahlah.4
Under the terms of a special order issued at Richmond, Novem- ber 22, 1861, the Indian Territory was constituted a military depart- ment and Albert Pike, having been commissioned as brigadier gen- eral, was placed in command. General Pike was at Richmond at the time and did not return to the Indian Territory until after the campaign against Opothleyohola had ended.
2 In his report of the operations of his command in the Indian Territory, Col. James McIntosh states that "on account of the scar- city of forage, it was mutually determined that either force should attack the enemy on sight. It is noticeable that Colonel Cooper's report was addressed directly to the Secretary of War instead of to the adjutant general of the Confederate Army. Thus, early in the war, there appeared the cvidences of friction and lack of harmony, among officers of high rank, which was destined to continue to char- acterize its history in the Indian Territory to the end.
3 The official reports of Colonels Cooper and McIntosh and of a number of other officers commanding battalions or companies which were engaged in the operations of the campaign against Opothleyo- hola are published in full in "The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," Scries I, Vol. VIII, pp. 5-33.
4 Ibid., p. 27.
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About the first of November, 1861, a delegation of Creeks, Semi- noles and Chickasaws arrived at Le Roy, Kansas, for the purpose of consulting with the Federal authorities concerning the intentions of the Government relative to the performance of its treaty obliga- tions to the people of those tribes. Dr. George A. Cutler, the Fed- eral agent for the Creeks, took the members of this delegation to Fort Scott, where the military commander referred them to Gen. David Hunter, the department commander at Fort Leavenworth. General Hunter and William G. Coffin, superintendent of Indian affairs, in turn, sent them on to Washington to interview the com- missioner of Indian affairs and the secretary of the interior. Be- fore their return, their fellow tribesmen under the leadership of Opothleyohola and Halek Tustennuggee had been driven northward across the Kansas line.
The refugees arrived in the valley of the Verdigris River, within the bounds of Montgomery County, Kansas, where, demoralized and in a state of utter destitution, they went into camp. A more heart-rending picture of abject human misery could scarcely be found outside of the hectic dreams of a disordered imagination. Some families had become separated during the course of the bat- tles which had been fought, some members being captured by the Confederate forces and taken back to the Indian country, while the rest, panie stricken and helpless, had struggled blindly on through the wilderness toward the place of refuge. All of their teams and wagons, bedding, blankets and extra clothing were lost as were most of their cattle and ponies also. The weather turned bitterly cold during the flight. As many of the people were afoot and without shoes, their sufferings were indescribable. A large number fell by the wayside and perished by freezing, their bodies, shrouded by the snow, being left to feed the hungry wolves. Families which, a few weeks before, had been accounted well-to-do, being able to count their horses by the hundred and their cattle by the thousand, and some, even, who had owned many slaves, were without the barest necessities of life. Exposure and privation brought on sickness and they died by scores. Over 2,000 of their ponies died of starva- tion and exposure in and around their camp in the valley of the Verdigris within the first few weeks after their arrival, so it became necessary to move the camp for sanitary reasons as soon as spring began to open. The camp was moved northward to Le Roy, in Coffee County and, several weeks later, the Seminoles were moved again pitching their camp near Neosho Falls. The officials of the Interior Department and the commander of the Military Department
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