Col. John M. Harrell, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 10.2, Arkansas
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[126] —if the ship were sinking, everybody to the pumps. Pike, the poet and dreamer, believed that his Indians might still fare sumptuously in the salon while the sailors were throwing over cargo to keep the vessel afloat. He smoked his meerschaum and wrote his address to explain that it was not he, but General Hindman, who disturbed their repose. Albert Pike had an established reputation as a poet and lawyer—had long served the Indians as their attorney at Washington. Six feet three in height, with hair that floated over his shoulders, and handsome features, convivial and profuse with money, he was a picturesque character at all times.

General Pike, as has been stated, went to Little Rock and reported in person to General Holmes. Thus this unpleasant occurrence ended. He subsequently withdrew entirely from the Indian country and went to Washington, in Hempstead county, the temporary State capital after the fall of Little Rock. There being a vacancy on the bench of the State Supreme court, he was elected associate justice. General Pike's letters in vindication of his course are numerous and lengthy, challenging Hindman's authority to command in matters not strictly military, and reiterating complaints of arms, ammunition and supplies misappropriated. Hindman's acknowledgment to the President that he acted without authority, that he had found the State without officers or law, and, having the requisite force, had instituted a government ad interim, avoided these complaints against him.

President Davis, in answer to a letter from Governor Rector, in which the latter was joined by the governors of Texas, Missouri and Louisiana, wrote, September 15th, a communication, from which the leading paragraphs are here quoted:

The delay which occurred in making arrangements for the proper organization of the Trans-Mississippi department arose from causes, some of which are too obvious to require mention, and others of a nature which cannot now