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Union and Confederate Indians in the civil War.
The
Cherokee, Creek,
Choctaw,
Chickasaw, and
Seminole tribes were the only Indian tribes who took an active part in the civil war. Before the war very few of the Indians of these tribes manifested any interest in the question of
slavery, and only a small number owned slave property.
Slavery among them was not regarded in the same light as among the whites, for in many instances the slaves acted as if they were on an equality with their masters.
But the tribes named occupied valuable territory, and the
Confederate authorities lost no time in sending agents among them to win them over.
When the
Confederate agents first approached the full-blood leaders of the
Cherokee and Creek tribes on the subject of severing their relations with the
United States, the Indians expressed themselves cautiously but decidedly as preferring to remain neutral.
Conspicuous among those who took a decided stand against organizing the Indians to oppose the
Federal Government was
Hopoeithleyohola, the old chief of the
Creek tribe.
The Confederate agents had succeeded in winning over
ex-Chief McIntosh, by appointing him colonel, but, perhaps, two-thirds of the people preferred to be guided by the advice of their venerable old chief,
Hopoeithleyohola.
In the fall of 1861,
Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, commanding the department of Indian operations under authority from the Confederate Government, made several ineffectual efforts to have a conference with the old chief for the purpose of effecting a peaceful settlement of the difficulties that were dividing the nation into two hostile camps.
Finding
Hopoeithleyohola unwavering in his loyalty to the
United States,
Colonel Cooper determined to force him into submission, destroy his power, or drive him out of the country, and at once commenced collecting forces, composed mostly of white troops, to attack him. In November and December, 1861, the battles of Chusto Talasah and Chustenahlah were fought, and the loyal
Indians finally were defeated and forced to retire to
Kansas in midwinter.
In the spring of 1862 the United States Government sent an expedition of five thousand men under
Colonel William Weer, 10th Kansas Infantry, into the
Indian Territory to drive out the Confederate forces of Pike and
Cooper, and to restore the refugee
Indians to their homes.
After a short action at
Locust Grove, near Grand
Saline,
Cherokee Nation, July 2d,
Colonel Weer's cavalry captured
Colonel Clarkson and part of his regiment of Missourians.
On the 16th of July
Captain Greeno, 6th Kansas Cavalry, captured
Tahlequah, the capital of the
Cherokee Nation, and on the 19th of July
Colonel Jewell, 6th Kansas Cavalry, captured
Fort Gibson, the most important point in the
Indian Territory.
The Confederate forces were now driven out of all that part of the
Indian country north of the
Arkansas River, and the loyal
Indians of the
Cherokee, Creek, and
Seminole nations were organized, by authority of the United States Government, into three regiments, each fully a thousand strong, for the defense of their country.
The colonel and part of the field and line officers of each regiment were white officers.
Most of the captains of companies were
Indians.
Colonel William A. Phillips, of
Kansas, who was active in organizing these Indian regiments, commanded the
Indian brigade from its organization to the close of the war. He took part with his Indian troops in the action at
Locust Grove, C. N., and in the battles of
Newtonia, Mo.,
Maysville, Ark.,
Prairie Grove, Ark.,
Honey Springs, C. N.,
Perryville, C. N., besides many other minor engagements.
In all the operations in which they participated they acquitted themselves creditably, and to the satisfaction of the
Federal commander in the
Indian Territory.
On the
Confederate side,
General Albert Pike and
Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, in the
fall and
winter of 1.861, organized three regiments of Indians from the
Choctaw,
Chickasaw,
Cherokee, Creek, and
Seminole nations or tribes, for service in the
Indian Territory.
These regiments, under
General Pike, participated in the
battle of Pea Ridge,
Ark., on the 7th and 8th of March, 1862.
In the five tribes named a battalion and parts of four regiments were raised for the
Confederate service, but these amounted in all to perhaps not over 3500 men.
At the close of
Mr. Buchanan's administration nearly all the
United States Indian agents in the
Indian Territory were secessionists, and the moment the
Southern States commenced passing ordinances of secession, these men exerted their influence to get the five tribes committed to the
Confederate cause.
Occupying territory south of the
Arkansas River, and having the secessionists of
Arkansas on the east and those of
Texas on the south for neighbors, the Choctaws and Chickasaws offered no decided opposition to the scheme.
With the Cherokees, the most powerful and most civilized of the tribes of the
Indian Territory, it was different.
Their chief,
John Ross, was opposed to
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hasty action, and at first favored neutrality, and in the summer of 1861 issued a proclamation, enjoining his people to observe a strictly neutral attitude during the war between the
United States and the
Southern States.
In June, 1861, Albert Pike, a commissioner of the
Confederate States, and
General Ben. McCulloch, commanding the Confederate forces in
western Arkansas and the Department of Indian Territory, visited
Chief Ross with the view of having him make a treaty with the
Confederacy.
But he declined to make a treaty, and in the conference expressed himself as wishing to occupy, if possible, a neutral position during the war. A majority of the Cherokees, nearly all of whom were full-bloods, were known as Pin
Indians, and were opposed to the
South.
Commissioner Pike went away to make treaties with the less civilized Indian tribes of the plains, and in the mean time the battle of
Wilson's Creek was fought,
General Lyon killed, and the
Union army defeated and forced to fall back from
Springfield to
Rolla.
Chief Ross now thought that the
South would probably succeed in establishing her independence, and expressed a willingness to enter into a treaty with the
Confederate authorities.
On his return from the
West in September, 1861,
Commissioner Pike, at the request of
Mr. Ross, went to
Park Hill and made a treaty with the Cherokees.
The treaties made with each tribe provided that the troops it raised should be used for home protection, and should not be taken out of the
Indian Territory.
Even before the treaty with
Commissioner Pike,
Chief Ross had commenced to organize a regiment composed nearly altogether of Pin
Indians.
John Drew, a stanch secessionist, was commissioned colonel, and
William P. Ross lieutenant-colonel, of this regiment.
Colonel Stand Watie, the leader of the secession party, had also commenced to raise a regiment of half-breeds for
General McCulloch's division.
As already stated, there were two factions among the
Creeks, one of which was led by
Hopoeithleyohola and the other by D. N. and
Chitty McIntosh, who were sons of
General William McIntosh, killed in 1825 by
Hopoeithleyohola and his followers in
Georgia, for making the treaty of
Indian Springs.
It is asserted by
General Pike and others that with
Hopoeithleyohola it was not a question of loyalty or disloyalty to the
United States, but simply one of self-preservation; that when he found the
Confederate authorities had commissioned
D. N. McIntosh as colonel of a Creek regiment, and
Chitty McIntosh as lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of Creeks, he felt certain that the
Indian troops thus being raised would be used to persecute and destroy him and his followers.
In November, 1861, he started for
Kansas, and was pursued and overtaken by the
Confederate Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Texans under
Colonel Douglas H. Cooper.
A fight took place in the night, and
Colonel Drew's regiment of Cherokees, which had been raised by
Chief Ross, went over to
Hopoeithleyohola, and fought with him in the next day's desperate battle (known as the battle of Chusto Talasah), in which five hundred of the
Union Indians were reported by
Colonel Cooper to have been killed and wounded.
1 The Confederate Indians of
Colonel Stand Watie's regiment, and those of
Colonel Drew's regiment who had returned to the
Confederate service under Pike and
Cooper, also participated in the
battle of Pea Ridge in March, 1862, where they were charged with scalping and mutilating the
Federal dead on the field.
General Pike, hearing of the scalping, called on the surgeon and assistants of his field-hospital for reports, and in their reports they stated that they found one of the
Federal dead Who had been scalped.
General Pike then issued an order, denouncing the outrage in the strongest language, and sent a copy of the order to
General Curtis.
General Pike claimed that part of the Indians were in
McCulloch's corps in the first day's battle; and that the scalping was done at night in a quarter of the field not occupied by the
Indian troops under his immediate command.
After
Pea Ridge the operations of the
Confederate Indians under
General Cooper and
Colonel Stand Watie were confined, with a few exceptions, to the
Indian Territory.
In connection with white troops from
Texas, they participated in several engagements with the
Federal Indian brigade under
Colonel Phillips, after he recaptured
Fort Gibson in the spring of 1863; and they made frequent efforts to capture Federal supply trains from
Fort Scott to
Fort Gibson and
Fort Smith, but were always unsuccessful.
They fought very well when they had an opportunity to take shelter behind trees and logs, but could not easily be brought to face artillery, and a single shell thrown at them was generally sufficient to demoralize them and put them to flight.
