The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

by Annie Heloise Abel

Footnote 42: [(return)]

Aside from the early requests for white troops, which were antecedent to his own appointment as brigadier-general, Pike's insistence upon the need for the same can be vouched for by reference to his letter to R.W. Johnson, January 5, 1862 [Official Records, vol. liii, supplement, 795-796].

Footnote 43: [(return)]

Pike to Benjamin, November 27, 1861, ibid, vol. viii, 697.

Footnote 44: [(return)]

Official Records, vol. viii, 8, 17-18.

regiments, two battalions, and some detached companies. The four regiments were, the First Regiment Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, the First Creek Regiment under Colonel D.N. McIntosh, the First Regiment Cherokee Mounted Rifles under Colonel John Drew, and the Second Regiment Cherokee Mounted Rifles under Colonel Stand Watie. The battalions were, the Choctaw and Chickasaw and the Creek and Seminole, the latter under Lieutenant-colonel Chilly McIntosh and Major John Jumper.

Major-general Earl Van Dorn formally assumed command of the newly created Trans-Mississippi District of Department No. 2, January 29, 1862.[⁴⁵] He was then at Little Rock, Arkansas. By February 6, he had moved up to Jacksonport and, a week or so later, to Pocahontas, where his slowly-assembling army was to rendezvous. His call for troops had already gone forth and was being promptly answered,[⁴⁶] requisition having been made upon all the state units within the district, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, also Texas. Indian Territory, through Pike[⁴⁷] and his subordinates,[⁴⁸] was yet to be communicated with; but Van Dorn had, at the moment, no other plan in view for Indian troops than to use them to advantage as a means of defence and as a corps of observation.[⁴⁹] His immediate object, according to his own showing and according to the circumstances that had brought about the formation of the district, was to protect Arkansas[⁵⁰] against

Footnote 45: [(return)]

Official Records, vol. viii, 745-746.

Footnote 46: [(return)]

—Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 776-779, 783-785, 790, 793-794.

Footnote 47: [(return)]

—Ibid., vol. viii, 749, 763-764.

Footnote 48: [(return)]

—Ibid., 764-765.