Fort McCulloch, May 4, 1862.

  SIR: I inclose a copy, marked A (with notes since added), of the part taken by myself and the small body of Cherokees under my command in the action of 6th and 7th March near Elkhorn, and I avail myself of this occasion to forward copies of certain orders and directions since issued by me, which will put the department in possession of the plans I am endeavoring to carry out in order to hold possession of this Indian country and keep the several Indian tribes loyal to the Confederate States.
  When I consented to accept the military command of this country, while I knew that to command the Indians would make my name detestable in the Northern States, I was also well aware that I could not expect to gain by it any great reputation in our own country. The Indian troops are of course entirely undisciplined, mounted chiefly on ponies, and armed very indifferently with common rifles and ordinary shot-guns. When they agreed to furnish troops they invariably stipulated that they should be allowed to fight in their own fashion. They will not face artillery and steady infantry on open ground, and are only used to fighting as skirmishers when cover can be obtained.
  All the treaties with the Indians had also stipulated that they should not be taken out of their own country to fight without their consent. They are incredulous people, and those who fought against us under Hopoeithleyohola were chiefly alienated by the belief, induced by that crafty old man, that we would get them to become soldiers, take them out of their own country, first into Arkansas, then into Missouri, then across the Mississippi, and when their young men were thus all gone would take and divide out their lands.
  It pleased General Van Dorn in February to order me to march all the Indian troops into Missouri and there encamp at or near Neosho. I received it after the enemy, pursuing General Price, had invaded Arkansas, and was thus relieved of the necessity of disobeying it. When information of this movement of the enemy reached Fort Smith and General McCulloch, disobeying the order to march to Pocahontas, ordered his command to Fayetteville, I sent orders to the two Cherokee regiments and the Creek regiments to advance toward Fayetteville and receive orders from General McCulloch. I knew that he understood the Indian character and their mode of fighting and would not dream of using them as part of an army in the open field, nor did I suppose that they would be taken into Arkansas, since that step would be a confession of our weakness, and we, instead of protecting them by white troops in their own country and asking them only, as had been agreed, to help to hold that, would thereby require them to leave their own country and go into ours to fight our battles. I supposed they would be used along the frontier to harass the rear and right flank of the invading force, cut up his foraging parties, and render such service as their habits and manner of making war warranted Us in expecting from them.
  It is much to be regretted that they were taken into the open field, to see half of our troops never brought into action, large bodies of cavalry taking shelter in the woods at the discharge of a shell or two, and at other times wholly inactive, confusion and disorder prevailing nearly everywhere, and at last our army retreating, leaving 2,000 men, without notice of the retreat, to shift for themselves, and, pursued and routed, to flee in squads into the hills. I regret that no other allusion is made by General Van Dorn in his report of 27th March of the action at Elkhorn to the Indian troops engaged than the simple statement that he had ordered me to join him with my force. I did not expect that any credit would ever be given them in orders for any gallantry displayed, since that would be contrary to all precedent, but surely it would have been wise and politic to mention their presence, and not to have assigned to others the whole credit of what they at least aided in doing.
  Having the right to refuse to leave their own country, the Creeks said that what Hopoeithleyohola had told them was true, and as an excuse for not going demanded to be paid off before they would march. The Choctaws and Chickasaws were willing enough to cross the line, but, influenced by merchants whom they owed, they too demanded to be paid, and the result was that I left them all behind, and overtaking the Cherokee regiments, fell in the rear of the army with them alone and two companies of mounted Texans. That these, with not more than 150 or 200 of Colonel Sims' Texan regiment, charged face to face and took a battery of three guns supported by regular cavalry, having 2 men killed and I wounded in the charge, and killing some 35 to 40 of the enemy, is certainly true. No other battery was taken in that action, and Cherokees and no others by my orders drew the guns into the woods. It is true that when a second battery opened on them they hastily retired into the woods, but they went no farther and remained there, holding the extreme right and keeping another battery and a large body of infantry in check, who would otherwise have been at liberty by a short march to take the other forces in flank or rear, until the action ceased.
  It is equally certain that Colonel Drew's regiment of Cherokees was the last that left that field, and that when the Choctaw and Chickasaw regiment came up with the train which, abandoned by General Van Dorn, was pursuing its headlong flight toward Van Buren it passed all the troops that were with the train and with the Cherokees interposed between them and the enemy.
  It is equally certain that it was a body of Colonel Watie's Cherokees that went with ammunition that night to find the remainder of the army at the main battle ground.
  It was not reasonable to expect much of a small body of Indians, 900 men, among 18,000 or 20,000 in a regular engagement, where the enemy had to be attacked in a position selected by himself on ground to which he had dexterously enticed us and where he had been encamped and preparing to welcome us for three weeks. Surely it would have been both magnanimous and wise to acknowledge what they did do.
  I also inclose a copy of an order from General Van Dorn, by which I am advised that I am expected to maintain myself in the Indian country independent of his army.
  The Indian troops having been in the service for several months without pay, and not being supplied with clothing, tents, and blankets, I had made great exertions to collect supplies for them. In their thin clothing part of them, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, had, under Colonel Cooper, pursued Hopoeithleyohola in the snow and cold, and fought him twice, first in the dark night and then in open daylight, killing in the last action nearly 400 of his men, and compelling him to retreat and abandon the country, leaving only a few hundred men in care of the women and wounded, to be afterward routed by Colonel Mcintosh.
  I had also procured a sufficient number of pieces of artillery and a tolerable supply of ammunition, and persons were engaged at heavy expense to themselves and by means of most active exertions in raising two of the regiments for service in this country that had been promised the Indians by way of chief inducement for them to take up arms. I had the positive promise of the late Secretary of War that 2,000 stand of small-arms should be forwarded for these regiments out of the very first received from abroad.
  The principal parts of my ordnance stores and supplies had reached Fort Smith before the actions at Elkhorn. I had myself carried 3,000 pounds of cannon powder there about the middle of February. I directed Maj. George W. Clark, the depot quartermaster, to forward all as rapidly as possible to North Fork. Instead of doing so, he by telegram asked instructions from General Van Dorn, who by telegram, without notifying me of the order, directed him to send nothing for my command into the Indian country.
  Up to this time I have with great exertion, and owing in a great measure to the kindness of General Price, received at this point eighteen pieces of artillery, twelve of which are Parrott guns, 100 rockets, what rifle powder I had procured, a small quantity of buck-shot, a supply of percussion caps, a little lead, about 1,900 pairs of shoes out of 8,000, some 900 suits of clothing out of 7,000, a small portion of the socks and drawers I had obtained, about 1,000 shirts out of 4,000, about 75 tents out of 1,000, and none at all of the small-arms I had purchased in Arkansas and North Carolina.
  Part of my tents and small-arms were issued to volunteers going up to join Price before the actions. Other tents were issued to the Louisiana regiment to replace theirs, wantonly burned during the retreat of the train by order of somebody not of the regiment. Of everything else of mine, even my private stores, whatever any one wanted was taken at Fort Smith and Van Buren after the retreat. Hardly a box comes here that has not been opened and part of the contents abstracted. All my cannon powder, the caissons of the Parrott guns, and many other things were sent off to Little Rock and have never been returned. Part of the artillery was sent to Pocahontas, all the medicines procured for the command (the first that had been procured) were ordered off, but the medical director with some difficulty rescued them. Much of what I have received, including all the percussion caps, was ready for shipment to Little Rock, and part of it actually on board boat, when it was rescued by Assistant Adjutant-General Hewitt. At the same time trains coming here were ordered to be loaded with wet brown sugar in hogsheads that cost 10 cents a pound in Fort Smith. That could be sent me. Captain Hewitt took the responsibility of sending it down the river, for which I cannot too much thank him.
  Besides the Indian troops, I now have at this post two regiments of Texan mounted men, under Gels. Robert H. Taylor and Almarine Alexander, one company of the same and one from Arkansas with the Nineteenth Regiment and one company of infantry from Arkansas, commanded by Col. C. L. Dawson, and two companies of artillery, commanded by Capts. William E. Woodruff, jr., and Henry C. West.
  The number of sick, owing to bad weather and bad cooking, is very large, so that in all there are but a little over 1,000 men present for duty.
  I am dividing the fragments of my supplies as fast as I receive them proportionally between the white and Indian troops. The latter continue loyal. There is no enemy now in the country, and it is perfectly safe to travel in it anywhere. Having received the moneys promised them by treaties, all the tribes have confidence in the ability of the Government to perform its premises and in its good faith. The Cherokee and Creek troops are in their respective countries. The Choctaw troops are in front of me, in their country, part on this side of Boggy and part at Little Boggy, 34 miles from here. These observe the roads to Fort Smith and by Perryville toward Fort Gibson. Part of the Chickasaw battalion is sent to Camp Mcintosh, 11 miles this side of the Wichita Agency, and part to Fort Arbuckle, and the Texan company is at Fort Cobb.
  I have ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Jumper with his Seminoles to march to and take Fort Larned, on the Pawnee Fork of the Arkansas, where are considerable stores and a little garrison. He will go as soon as their annuity is paid.
  The Creeks under Colonel McIntosh are about to make an extended scout westward. Stand Watie, with his Cherokees, scouts along the whole northern line of the Cherokee country from Grand Saline to Marysville, and sends me information continually of every movement of the enemy in Kansas and Southwestern Missouri.
  The Comanches, Kiowas, and Reserve Indians are all peaceable and quiet. Some 2,000 of the former are encamped about three days' ride from Fort Cobb, and some of them come in at intervals to procure provisions. They have sent to me to know if they can be allowed to send a strong party and capture any trains on their way from Kansas to New Mexico, to which I have no objection. To go on the war-path somewhere else is the best way to keep them from troubling Texas. I hear no complaints now from the Texan frontier, but Agent Leeper informs me that some Anadarkos have lately been over there and stolen some horses. I mean soon to invite the Reserve and Comanche chiefs to visit me, and let them see the troops here and the great guns and witness the effect of a rocket or two, that they may know we have the power either to protect or punish them.
  I propose also to send at intervals bodies of cavalry of 150 or 200 men each into the Cherokee and Creek country and perhaps to the west, to assure those tribes that the Confederate States are ready to assist them and do not mean to abandon their country.
  At this point I hold the roads to Fort Smith and Fort Gibson, to Forts Washita, Arbuckle, and Cobb, and to Sherman, Bonham, and Preston, in Texas, all of which here cross the Blue by a bridge. The field works planned here will command the roads and the country around. A way of retreat to Red River at different points will be opened to me, and I can procure ample supplies of forage and subsistence. I could not have procured either on the Arkansas or Canadian.
  I hope to be able by means of the works here and with the artillery I have, even if my other forces are not increased, to hold the Indian country against any force that can invade it. A force invading Texas from the north cannot leave us in its rear. If I can prevent the Indian country from being occupied by the enemy I shall be content. To do so I am striving to have my small force here drilled and disciplined, to which and to working with the spade and pick-axe the volunteers I have are much averse, but I think I shall overcome their aversion to it and still not lose their good-will. I had some trouble at first, but what discontents existed have disappeared, and all seem willing to do their duty.
  I have sent requisitions to Memphis and New Orleans, and hope to be able to supply the deficiencies in the ammunition and quartermaster stores procured by me for the command. I hardly expect to receive any more infantry from Arkansas, since the two regiments raised for the service have been marched to General Van Dorn.
  Money is absolutely requisite. The people who have provisions and other supplies are very unwilling to sell and take certified accounts. With Confederate notes I can purchase an abundance at fair prices.
  A sum of money intended for the service ($160,000, I believe), which was at Little Rock, has been taken for the service of General Van Dorn's command, and my department quartermaster and commissary have no funds at all. I have advanced for different purposes $20,000 of my own means and have drawn no pay. What funds of my own remain will soon be exhausted, and then I shall have infinite trouble if funds do not reach us soon.
  The President will, I hope, allow me all the discretion in his power. I will not abuse it. If much is not left me in many matters I can do little good with the Indians. I have very little assistance and the Indian officers know nothing about forms and little about reports and returns. Above all, if the control and disposition of their troops is not left to me and if they are not encouraged by the presence of a small force of white troops the consequences may be very serious. The superintendent and agent do little that avails anything, and all that concerns our relations with the Indians devolves on me. I am willing to be responsible for the peace of the country if I have the necessary powers and discretion; without them I should be powerless. Infinite trouble has been caused and great inefficiency of administration here by the necessity of transacting all the quartermaster and commissary business through officers at Fort Smith, who were regarded by another general as under his orders, and by the making of contracts at Richmond, which gave one man the monopoly of supplying all the fresh beef and bacon for two armies; a contract under which of course no beef was furnished when it began to get scarce and we needed it most and not a pound of bacon has been heard off The reason for the latter is obvious: the contract prices of bacon being 15 cents and it being now worth 26; while the beef delivered, being delivered by a hundred head at a time, costs the Government 10 or 12 cents a pound, when an abundance could have been had at 3 1/2. It is necessary the quartermaster and commissary of this department should purchase their own supplies and draw their funds direct from Richmond. I protest against their having to estimate through Maj. George W. Clark at New Orleans. I am endeavoring to put an end to swindling by contract, and prefer to purchase corn, flour, and meat of the provider himself. It is fortunate also that we are no longer compelled to rely for transportation on scarecrows, that could be used nowhere else, paid for by the Government as mules, and considered good enough for the Indian service. I hope to be able to correct abuses in time. They have existed here long enough.
  I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ALBERT PIKE! Brig. Gen.,
Comdg. Department of Indian Territory.     Top

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN TERRITORY,
Fort McCulloch, June 9, 1862.

  GENERAL: I forward to your chief of staff, by private hand, a return of the troops in this division, as far as reports have been received from the different commands, as all the stationery and most of the blanks procured for this command in Richmond were stopped on the way somewhere, and appropriated by some one unknown, including much of the private property of the brigadier-general commanding. The Indian regiments have for the most part no paper on which to make reports or returns. What little stationery we have has been picked up in Texas, and we are printing our own blanks.
  The brigadier-general directs me to say that the only force of white men now in the camp or in the Indian country is from Arkansas--one company of cavalry and one company of artillery, with about 40 men for duty; and from Texas two companies of cavalry. On the 25th of the month, when the wheat harvest will have been reaped, there will be, in addition, two regiments and one company of cavalry, and one company of artillery, about 80 strong. Field-works have been commenced at this post, because they are indispensable to the holding of any position in this open country. If completed, 5,000 men could hold the place against 15,000; but they are only commenced, and, for want of troops to work upon them, are now suspended.
  The general commanding directs me to inform you that General Sturgis has been removed from the command of the Federal troops in Kansas, on account of his tardiness in not invading the Indian country and reducing it to obedience, and General Blunt appointed to command there for that purpose. As this was done long enough ago for the information to reach here, it is fair to presume that the movement must very soon be made.
  The two Cherokee regiments are near the Kansas line, operating on that frontier. Col. Stand Watie has recently had a skirmish there, in which, as always, he and his men fought gallantly, and were successful. Col. D. N. McIntosh's Creek Regiment is under orders to advance up the Verdigris, toward the Santa Fe road. Lieut. Col. Chilly McIntosh's Creek Battalion, Lieut. Col. John Jumper's Seminole Battalion, and Lieut. Col. J. D. Harris' Chickasaw Battalion are under orders, and part of them now in motion toward the Salt Plains, to take Fort Larned, the post at Walnut Creek, and perhaps Fort Wise, and intercept trains going to New Mexico. The First Choctaw (new) Regiment, of Col. Sampson Folsom, and the Choctaw Battalion (three companies), of Maj. Simpson [N.] Folsom, are at Middle Boggy, 23 miles northeast of this point. They were under orders to march northward to the Salt Plains and Santa Fe road; but the withdrawal of Colonel Dawson's regiment prevents that, and the regiment is now ordered to take position here, and the battalion to march to and take position at Camp Mcintosh, 17 miles this side of Fort Cobb, where, with Hart's Spies, 40 in number, it will send out parties to the Wichita Mountains and up the False Wichita, and prevent, if possible, depredations on the frontier of Texas.
  The First Choctaw and Chickasaw Regiment, of Col. Douglas H. Cooper, goes out of service on the 25th and 26th of July. It is now encamped 11 miles east of here. Of the Texas troops, nearly or quite one-third, being over thirty-five years of age, will be entitled to be discharged unconditionally on the t6th of July, and all of them will demand to be so. The country to the westward is quiet, all the Comanches this side of the Staked Plains being friendly, and the Kiowas having made peace, and selected a home to live at on Elk Creek, not far from the site of Camp Radziwintski, south of the Wichita Mountains.
  The Indian troops have been instructed, if the enemy invades the country, to harass him, and impede his progress by every possible means, and, falling back here as he advances, to assist in holding this position against him.
  The general commanding directs me to say that the withdrawal of artillery and infantry from this post will be known all over the Indian country within ten days; will be interpreted to mean abandonment of the country, and may be expected to have a very injurious effect. As the conscription act forbids the raising of any new bodies of troops, and as recruits for the two Texas regiments in the Indian country are not likely to be speedily obtained, the brigadier-general commanding does not expect any considerable addition to his forces from that quarter.
  What will be the probable result, if the country is invaded by a force of 15,000 or 20,000 men, under the circumstances, it is not difficult to foresee.
  By order of Brig. Gen. Albert Pike, commanding department:

O. F. RUSSELL,
Assistant Adjutant-General.    Top

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN TERRITORY,
Fort McCulloch, June 27, 1862.

Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War :

  SIR: I am advised that Major-General Hindman has taken possession of two thousand rifles forwarded to me in pursuance of the promise of your predecessor, and has used them to arm troops of his command. This has been done without any notice given to me.
  I also learn from the quartermaster at Fort Smith that the same officer has caused to be sent to Little Rock from Fort Smith a small quantity of powder which I had caused to be procured by the quartermaster, I having none for artillery, and also some boxes of cartridges procured by me and on the way to this post.
  Seven hundred guns purchased by my agent, John Quillin, with $5,000 furnished him by me of moneys received by me from and receipted for to the Ordnance Bureau, were also lately seized at Little Rock by Brig. Gen. John S. Roane, and no receipt whatever sent me, General Roane did, however, advise me by letter that he had taken them.
  General Van Dom had endeavored in March to send all my supplies from Fort Smith to Little Rock. Fragments of them were received, but I lost the caissons of twelve Parrott guns, every ounce of my cannon powder [3,000 pounds), an(l nearly all the clothing, shoes, and tents provided me for the Indian troops. My whole supply of medicines would have gone but for General Price, and all my powder for small-arms, but for the rescue of it by my assistant adjutant-general. A battery of bronze guns at Little Rock was taken and sent to Memphis, and a large quantity of small-arms, including three hundred and eleven purchased with money furnished by me in North Carolina, and those purchased by Maj. N. B. Pearce with $3,000 placed by me in his hands, with others purchased by Colonel Dawson, and eighty shot-guns receipted for by me to the military store-keeper at Little Rock, have been taken and distributed at Fort Smith and Little Rock.  As there seems to be no probability that this system of despoiling this command will ever end, I beg to be informed whether other officers have a right, with or without even a notice to me and always without forwarding receipts, to seize upon and appropriate arms, ammunition, and supplies procured by me on my requisitions and receipts, and even purchased with moneys drawn by me from the Treasury and for which I must account.
  I am particularly desirous to know this, because in March no small quantity of my own private stores and property failed to reach me, disappearing in the general scramble, and of which I am sadly in want.
  I may also add that two boxes of stationery, purchased by me in Richmond for the brigade quartermaster; a box of stationery, &c., purchased by Captain Fitzhugh, Engineer Corps; a box of quartermasters' blanks and a box of commissary blanks were forwarded from Richmond in December by freight train and express, consigned to Maj. George W. Clark at Fort Smith, and have never reached this command, leaving us wholly without supplies of that kind. I suppose they inured also to the benefit of some other command.
  It seems to me that this mode of availing one's self of the fruits or another's labor and pains and prudent forethought is simply intolerable and indecent. I know that it is exceedingly unjust, and that it has sadly crippled this command, and made it and the Government contemptible in the eyes of the Indians, thus robbed of the supplies intended for them. I do not know what remedy there is for it.
  I am, very respectfully, yours,

ALBERT PIKE,
Brigadier-General, Comdg. Department of Indian Territory.      Top