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 31
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of the Missouri exerted every energy to alleviate the distress of the refugees but they were scarcely prepared for such an emergency. The lack of food, clothing and shelter and the consequent amount of sickness was such that hundreds died before spring. Superin- tendent W. G. Coffin used his private funds and when they were gone he was compelled to purchase supplies on credit to keep his charges from starving.5
Of the people who fled into Kansas at that time, there were ap- proximately 5,000 Creeks, 1,100 Seminoles, 185 Chickasaws, 315 Quapaws, 544 Uchees, 83 Keechis, 197 Delawares and 300 members of other tribes. Many of the men of these tribes and parts of tribes were anxious to enlist as volunteer soldiers in the Union Army, which they were later permitted to do. One thousand, one hundred Creeks and 193 Seminoles were duly enrolled and organized as the First Regiment of Indian Home Guards. Four hundred Osage war- riors and eighty Quapaws formed the nucleus of the organization of the Second Regiment of the Indian Home Guards. William P. Dole, United States commissioner of Indian affairs, came from Washington to Kansas to give his personal attention to the effort to alleviate the condition of the refugees from the Indian Territory.
5 Accounts of the arrival of the refugees from the Indian Ter- ritory, of their condition and of the efforts made to assist and pro- tect them are contained in the several reports and communications of the superintendent and tribal agents respectively of the South- ern Superintendency in the "Report of the Commissioner of In- dian Affairs for 1861," pp. 135-75.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE FIRST FEDERAL INVASION
The anxiety of the men of the refugee contingents of the several tribes to enlist in the volunteer military service of the Federal Government was no doubt prompted largely by a spirit of revenge- just as many a white man would have been moved to do under simi- lar circumstances. Opothleyohola was anxious that his people should be organized, armed, drilled and permitted to fight their way back to their own country. It was apparent to the military authorities, however, that a stronger force would be necessary to reclaim even a part of the Indian Territory, which was at that time entirely under the control of the Confederate forces and influences. The organization of such a force was a matter which required con- siderable time.
After the immediate necessities of the refugee Indians had been supplied through the efforts of the civil and military authorities, the work of feeding and clothing them was largely turned over to contractors, some of whom, at least, were more interested in making big profits than they were in giving value received for the purchase price. Such treatment only had the effect of making the refugees the more anxious to make their way back to their own country. Gen. James H. Lane, who was trying to hold a commission in the army while retaining his seat as a United States senator from Kan- sas, and who was always spectacular, had proposed that a strong expedition be organized under the command of himself for the pur- pose of restoring the refugee Indians to their homes. His urgent insistence upon having the privilege of personally leading such an expedition was fortified by a letter from Opothleyohola and Halek Tustennuggee, the recognized chiefs or leaders of the refugee bands, which read as if it had been written or dictated by Lane himself.1 The desired permission was finally granted by the President, much to the regret of the commanders of the military departments of
1 Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. VIII, p. 534.
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Kansas and Missouri, who unlike General Lane, were not engaged in playing politics.2
General Lane, who had been in the volunteer army during the war with Mexico, and who had been a prominent figure in the free- state-proslavery troubles in Kansas during its territorial period was entirely too liberal in his construction of military discipline to suit Generals Halleck and Hunter, who had been trained to the strict traditions of the Regular Army. In addition to this, however, there were ugly charges of unmilitary conduct laid at his door by respon- sible loyalists of Missouri and his name was a synonym for partisan vindictiveness far to the south, in Arkansas and the Indian Ter- ritory.3 While it is evident that President Lincoln wished to favor him by letting him have command of the expedition into the Indian Territory, the friction which characterized his relations with the commanders of the military departments of Kansas and Missouri, right from the beginning, must have convinced the President and his advisers that it would be safer to entrust the command of the proposed expedition to some other than General Lane. At any rate, Gen. James W. Denver was assigned to the command of the expe- dition into the Indian Territory, early in April, 1862.+ Apparently, there was considerable intriguing at Washington in opposition to General Denver, a spirit of spitefulness succeeding that of inter- ested opposition which had previously prevailed.5
General Denver was superseded within a few weeks, the com- mand of the Indian Expedition, as it was ealled, being given to Col.
2 Letter of Gen. H. W. Halleck and endorsement of President Lincoln, Ibid., pp. 449-50; letter of Adj. Gen. L. Thomas, pp. 525-6; letter of James H. Lane, pp. 529-30; letter of President Lincoln, p. 538; letter of President Lincoln, p. 551; letter of Gen. H. W. Halleck, pp. 554-5; letter of Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, p. 555; letter of Maj. Chas. G. Halpine, pp. 515-7; letter of Gen. H. W. Halleck, pp. 641-2; letter of Gen. David Hunter, pp. 329-31.
3 Letter of Edward M. Samuel and others, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. XIII, pp. 618-9; and letter of Lieut. Col. J. R. Kanady, C. S. A., Ibid., p. 492.
- 4 General Denver was a former territorial governor of Kansas. The City of Denver, Colorado, which was laid out in what was then a part of the Territory of Kansas, during Governor Denver's ad- ministration, was named in his honor.
5 Letter of James H. Lane to Gen. David Hunter, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, New Series, Vol. VIII, p. 482; letter of Gen. David Hunter to Gen. H. W. Halleck, pp. 629-31; and letter of Gen. H. W. Halleck to Seeretary Edwin M. Stanton, pp. 647-8.
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Charles Doubleday of the Second Ohio Cavalry. Colonel Double- day organized his command, consisting of one regiment each of cavalry and infantry and one battery of artillery, and started southward into the Indian Territory, June 1. Five days later he discovered and attacked the camp of Col. Stand Watie's Cherokee Confederate Regiment, near the mouth of Spring River, but the latter escaped during the night. Meanwhile, another brigade had been added to expeditionary forces and also two of the newly or- ganized Indian regiments, Col. William Weer, of the Tenth Kansas Regiment, succeeding to the command. Thus augmented, the In- dian Expedition marched down the valley of the Neosho, or Grand River, to a point about fifteen miles above Fort Gibson, where it halted, July 12, while detachments were sent to Fort Gibson and Tahlequah. At Park Hill, near the last mentioned place, John Ross, the Cherokee chief, was arrested at his home and paroled. At the same place there were found 200 Cherokees who had been members of Colonel Drew's Confederate Cherokee Regiment. One thousand, five hundred Cherokees came to the camp of the Union forces asking to be allowed to enlist in the Federal service." A small force of Confederates was engaged (July 3) and dispersed at Locust Grove.
Although the expedition had advanced to the heart of the Chero- kee country with no opposition of consequence, the disastrous effects of internal dissension was destined to do what the enemy did not do, namely, to cause it to abandon the Cherokee country and with- draw again into Kansas. Colonel Weer, the commander of the expe- dition, was placed in arrest by one of his own brigade commanders, Col. Frederick Salomon, of the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteers, who. then assumed command of the expedition and immediately ordered a retrograde movement, leaving the Indian Home Guard Brigade of two regiments, under the command of Col. R. W. Furnas to cover its retreat, July 19.7 As a military movement, the long-talked of Indian expedition had been almost barren of results, aside from the fact that recruits had been found for the organization of the Third Regiment of Indian Home Guards. Chief Ross, well knowing that the day of his power had passed, left with the retreating column and remained an exile until the end of the war.
If the Confederate authorities were surprised at the sudden abandonment of the Indian Territory which had thus been invaded
6 See Report of Col. William Weer, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, N. S., Vol. XIII, pp. 487-8.
7 See Report of Col. Frederick Salomon, Ibid., pp. 484-5.
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at such expense, it did not take them long to avail themselves of the opportunity to rcoccupy it. Not only were Fort Gibson and Tahle- qual again seized and occupied but the pro-Confederate faction of the Cherokees called a council at which the office of principal chief was declared vacant and then proceeded to elect Col. Stand Watie to fill the position. From thence on to the end of the war, the Chero- kees had rival tribal governments.
The Federal expeditionary force did not have a monopoly of trouble in the way of dissension and jealousy and insubordination, however, for the Confederate troops in the Indian Territory were having their share of the same sort of affliction. Gen. Albert Pike had been assigned to the command of the department of the Indian Territory on the 22d of November but he was in the East at. the time and did not return to the territory until midwinter. Within a few weeks, early in March, he was ordered to march with his com- mand, consisting mostly of Indian troops, to join the army of Gen. Earl Van Dorn, which was moving to attack the Federal forces at Pea Ridge, or Elkhorn Tavern. General Pike had considerable difficulty in persuading some of the Indian regiments to join in this movement, for they had enlisted with the understanding that they were not to be taken outside of the Indian Territory except with their own consent and, as they had not been paid, they were reluc- tant to agree to go. Making the best possible use of the funds avail- able, General Pike succeeded in moving his column across the line and in overtaking the army of General Van Dorn. The troops from the Indian Territory took an active part in the battle which fol- lowed. The two Cherokee regiments (Drew's and Watie's) charged a Federal position and captured a battery, which they were unable to take off the field for lack of horses, however. The Indian troops behaved admirably in the beginning but eventually became de- moralized and unruly.8 The defeat of the Confederate forces in this battle had disheartening effect upon the Indian troops. Colonel Drew's Cherokee Regiment became especially disaffected and even- tually many of its officers and most of its men deserted and went over to the Federal side, where they remained to the end of the war.
After returning from the Pea Ridge campaign, General Pike established his headquarters at Fort McCulloch, in the southwestern
8 See Report of Gen. Albert Pike on Battle of Pea Ridge, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. VIII, pp. 286-92.
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part of the Choctaw Nation, and he continued to remain there and at Fort Washita, far from the scene of any active hostilities, during the rest of his military service. He was a man of sensitive feelings and lie could not overlook the seeming slight in that the part borne by his command in the Battle of Pea Ridge was not even mentioned in the report of the commanding general." Then, too, supplies of clothing, arms, ammunition and even public moneys, which were en route to his department, had been (because of the exigencies of the service) diverted to the use of the forces in Arkansas.10 That there was just ground for complaint, there can be no doubt, for his men were unpaid, hungry and half-clad, yet, with all that, he brooded overmuch and, in the end, became sulky and ill-tempered. When he was preemptorily ordered by Gen. T. C. Hindman, com- mander of the Trans-Mississippi District, to move at once to the northern part of the Indian Territory and take active command of his troops in an endeavor to repel the first Federal invasion he re- signed (July 11), following his formal letter of resignation with another that was so sarcastic as to be suggestive of insubordina- tion.11 Strong in his regard for military punctilio and jealous of every encroachment upon his official prerogative, he carried his con- tentiousness beyond the limits of his correspondence with responsi- ble military officers by airing his grievances in a proclamation ad- dressed to the Indians and in a general order published to the troops of his command, whereupon, one of his own subordinates (Colonel Cooper), believing him to be insane, ordered his arrest.12 General Pike was granted a leave of absence pending action upon his resignation.13
9 Letter of Gen. Albert Pike, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. XIII, pp. 819-23.
10 Letter of Gen. Albert Pike, to President Jefferson Davis, Ibid., pp. 860-9.
11 Letter of Gen. Albert Pike, to Gen. T. C. Hindman, Ibid., pp. 857-8.
12 Proclamation of Gen. Albert Pike to Chiefs and People of Indian Tribes, Ibid., pp. 869-71; General Orders No. - , Depart- ment of Indian Territory, pp. 970-3; Letter of Col. Douglas H. Cooper to Gen. T. C. Hindman, p. 977.
13 The part borne by General Pike in the Civil war was unfor- tunate for his fame. As a scholar, a thinker, a poet, an orator, a philosopher and a fraternalist, he will always take high rank and justly. so. Though he had been a company commander in the vol- unteer army during the war with Mexico, he was not fitted for the exercise of an office of such rank and responsibility as that of a de- partment commander at the time of the Civil war. That he was not
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With discord and dissension among the officers who were respon- sible for the administration and control of military affairs in the Indian Territory, it was not strange that, poorly equipped and des- titute of supplies of clothing and subsistence as they were, demora- lization should have been general among the Confederate forces in the Indian Territory or that they were totally unprepared to defend it from another Federal invasion. Yet, despite such discouraging conditions, the war was destined to last as long in the Indian Ter- ritory as it was elsewhere in the South, where the star of the Con- federate States was still in its ascendency.
laeking in the element of energy personally, was abundantly proven by his activity during the period in which, as a commissioner for the Confederate states, he was engaged in negotiating treaties with the several Indian tribes. Apparently, he was lacking in military initiative, yet even this may have been due to the lack of equipment and provisions for the forces under his command rather than be- cause of the want of aggressiveness on his own part. As a corres- pondent he was inclined to prolixity, his letters being possibly the longest of any that were published in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Moreover, the rhetorical figures and phrases of the orator and poet would occasionally crop out in his reports and orders, where words of blunt, simple directness would have served better. His lack of ability to take things as he found them and make the most of the opportunity regardless of how far it might fall short of desired conditions was illustrated not alone in the policy which he pursued but also in his mental attitude with regard to matters of trivial detail. Thus, in one of his general orders (Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. XIII, p. 953) occurs the following clause :
"Captain Marshall's company of Texas Cavalry will proceed to the Wichita Mountains, on the head of Clear Creek, or a branch of Cache Creek, in the valley, at the foot of Mount Beauregard, heretofore known as Mount Scott, the highest peak of those moun- tains. The department quartermaster will furnish mechanics and laborers and he will erect there two block-houses, of two stories cach, loopholed, and the upper story projecting at different angles beyond the lower one ; also a commissary warehouse and other neces- sary buildings.
Despite his laek of efficiency and success as a military com- mander, the part which he took in persuading the various Indian tribes to align themselves on the side of the seceding states was an important one, even though the results did not justify his expec- tations. Physically, a man of gigantic stature and imposing pres- ence, he was one of the most picturesque figures of the period in the history of the Indian Territory, where he was remembered long after some of his abler successors had been forgotten.
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE SECOND FEDERAL INVASION
Unlike the first Federal invasion into the Indian Territory, the second one was not undertaken as a separate campaign but was a part of the general plan of operations which included the occupa- tion of Northwestern Arkansas also. During the interval follow- ing the first invasion, another regiment of Indians was organized for the Federal volunteer service and was designated as the Third Indian Home Guards.1 During the latter part of the summer and early fall of 1862 there was a great deal of active campaigning by both Union and Confederate forces in Southwestern Missouri and Northwestern Arkansas. As the Confederates were driven south- ward and southeastward, the way was opened for the advance into the Indian Territory.
Late in October a Federal force of two brigades (one of which consisted of the First and Third Indian Home Guard regiments), under the command of Gen. James G. Blunt, advanced into the northern part of the Cherokee country from Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and attacked the camp of Confederate troops under the command of Col. Douglas H. Cooper at old Fort Wayne, October 22, 1862. The Confederate troops stubbornly resisted the attack for a time but were soon forced to give way before superior numbers, with the loss of its battery or artillery (Howell's) and a part of its transporta- tion. The Confederates retreated by way of Tahlequah to Fort Gibson.2
1 The Third Indian Home Guards was largely recruited from among the fullblood element in the Cherokee Nation. Many of its men and quite a number of its officers had seen service in Col. John Drew's Cherokee Confederate Regiment. Maj. William A. Phillips, of the First Indian Home Guards was commissioned colonel of the new regiment. Although the Indian Home Guard regiments had been recruited and organized primarily for service in the Indian Territory, they were employed with the other volunteer regiments in operations in Missouri and Arkansas for a brief period immediately preceding the second invasion.
2 There are some pronounced discrepancies between the respec- tive reports on the battle at old Fort Wayne on the part of the Union and Confederate commanders. General Blunt (who does not
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Simultaneously with the second advance of the Federal forces into the Indian Territory, though probably not connected with it in any way, was the destruction of the Confederate Indian Agency on the Washita, near Fort Cobb, and the massacre of a large part of the people of the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians, on the night of Octo- ber 23-4, 1862, by a band of Indians belonging to other tribes. Of all the tribes attached to that agency the Tonkawas were (with the possible exception of the Penateka Comanches) the only people who, as a whole, remained attached to it after it was taken over by the Confederate authorities in 1861.3 A number of different tribes are said to have been represented in the attacking party, including practically all of those which had formerly been attached to the same agency and several others as well.+ The Tonkawa Camp was some miles distant from the agency, on Tonkawa Creek, south of
state the numerical strength of his own command, though he does name the regiments of which it was composed) estimates the strength of Cooper's command at from 5,000 to 7,000; Colonel Cooper said it was actually about 1,500. Blunt estimated Cooper's loss in killed and wounded at from 100 to 150; Cooper says it was actually six killed and thirty wounded. Likewise, Cooper estimates Blunt's casualties at 75 to 100; Blunt says it was but one killed and nine wounded (four mortally). Blunt says he captured the battery complete-guns, caissons, horses and harness; Cooper asserts that nearly all of the horses were killed before the battery was abandoned .- Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. XIII, pp. 325-8 and 331-6.
3 Matthew Leeper, who had been the Federal tribal agent for the Caddoes, Wichitas and affiliated tribes and bands at the agency on the Washita, was retained in that position by the Confederate In- dian office. He narrowly escaped with his life when the agency was destroyed. Dressed only in his night robe he succeeded in mak- ing his way to a ravine where he hid until the marauding party had gone. In the chilly weather of late autumn, he was forced to wander during the rest of the night and part of the next day until he was found and rescued by Toshewa, a friendly Penateka Comanche chief. -Personal information furnished to the writer by Mrs. Jeanne Harrison, daughter of Agent Leeper. Brief, though imperfect, in- formation concerning this affair is contained in the letters of Gen. T. H. Holmes and S. S. Scott, acting Confederate Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. XIII, pp. 916-21.
4 The Wichita, Waco, Towakony, Caddo, Keechi, Delaware, Shawnee, Cherokee, Creck and Seminole tribes are said to have been represented in the party which destroyed the agency and massacred the Tonkawas. It was reported that there were no white men with the attacking party.
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Anadarko. Had it not been that part of the Tonkawa people were absent on a hunting expedition the whole tribe would have been practically exterminated.5
The Federal authorities seemed to be in no haste to attempt a permanent occupation of the Cherokee country, at least not until they had secured control of the adjacent districts in Missouri and Arkansas. The three Indian Home Guard regiments were organized into a brigade which was placed under the command of Col. Wil- liam A. Phillips of the Third Regiment. Throughout the winter of 1862-3 this brigade continued to operate in Northwestern Arkan- sas, taking an active part in the battles of Cane Hill (November 28) and Prairie Grove (December 7), though occasional scouting expeditions were taken to the Indian Territory. One of these, under the personal command of Colonel Phillips, penetrated the Cherokee country as far as Fort Gibson, whence it crossed the Arkansas River, drove the Confederate forces from Fort Davis and destroyed that post.6 Colonel Phillips embraced the opportunity thus afforded to attempt to enter into negotiations with some of the Confederate leaders who had been reported as inclined to waver in their attach- ment to the Confederacy, but was ordered by General Blunt to return toward the Arkansas line before any definite results could be secured.7
5 It is generally believed that the attempt to exterminate the Tonkawas was due to the fact that they were reputed to be canni- bals. While there is some dispute as to the credibility of stories to this effect, there can be no question but that the people of the other tribes believed such stories to be true. The remnant of the Tonkawa Tribe, which escaped massacre, fled to Fort Arbuckle for refuge and eventually went back to Texas. About 1884 the few descendants of the Tonkawas, with a few Lipans, came back to the Indian Terri- tory and were settled on a small reservation in what is now Kay County.
6 Fort Davis was a post which had been established by Gen. Albert Pike who named it in honor of Jefferson Davis. It was located north of the site upon which the City of Muskogee has been built and about a mile north of Bacone College. It occupied a sightly eminence overlooking the valley of the Arkansas River opposite the mouths of the Grand and Verdigris rivers. A pre- historic Indian mound, in the form of a truncated pyramid, occu- pied the center of the post and the flagstaff of the garrison stood in the center of this mound. A large oaken post, to which horses and mules were tied while being shod at the post blacksmith shop, was still standing in 1914-the last visible relic of Fort Davis.
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