The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

by Annie Heloise Abel

I would not exchange one regiment of negro troops for ten regiments of Indians, and they can be obtained in abundance whenever Texas is reached.

In ten days from this date, if I have the success I expect, the Indian Territory south of the Arkansas River will be in our possession ...[⁸³⁵]

Blunt's mind was made up. He was determined to go forward with the force he already had. Ill-health[⁸³⁶] retarded his movements a trifle; but on the twenty-second of August, two days after the massacre by guerrillas had occurred at Lawrence, he crossed the Arkansas. He was at length accepting General Steele's challenge but poor Steele was quite unprepared for a duel of any sort. If Blunt distrusted the Indians, how very much more did he and with greater reason! With insufficient guns and ammunition, with no troops, white or red, upon whom he could confidently rely, and with no certainty of help from any quarter, he was compelled to adopt a Fabian policy, and he moved slowly backward, inviting yet never stopping to accept a full and regular engagement. Out of the Creek country he went and into the Choctaw.[⁸³⁷] At Perryville, on the road[⁸³⁸] to

Footnote 835: [(return)]

Blunt to Schofield, August 22, 1863, Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 465.

Footnote 836: [(return)]

—Ibid., 466. There seems to have been a good deal of sickness at Fort Gibson and some mortality, of which report was duly made to Steele [ibid., 956; Confederate Records, chap. 2, no. 268, pp. 192-193].

Footnote 837: [(return)]

Steele had crossed the line between the Creeks and Choctaws, however, before Blunt crossed the Arkansas. On August sixteenth, he had his camp on Longtown Creek and was sending a detachment out as far south as within about ten miles of Boggy Depot [Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 968]. A few days later, he made his camp on Brooken Creek, a little to the eastward [ibid., 972]. By that time, Steele was evidently quite reconciled to the thought that Fort Smith might at any moment be attacked and, perhaps, in such force that it would be needless to attempt to defend it. Cabell was to move to a safe distance, in the neighborhood of Scullyville, from whence, should there be reasonable prospect of success, he might send out reënforcements. In the event of almost certain failure, he was to draw off betimes in the direction of Riddle's station, where flour was stored [ibid.].

Footnote 838: [(return)]

On the subject of roads and highways in Indian Territory, see ibid., (cont.)

Texas, his men did have a small skirmish with Blunt's and at both Perryville and North Fork, Blunt destroyed some of his stores.[⁸³⁹] At North Fork, Steele had established a general hospital, which now passed from his control.

Following the unsuccessful skirmish at Perryville, the evening of August 25, Steele was "pushed rapidly down the country,"[⁸⁴⁰] so observed the wary Bankhead to whom fresh orders to assist Steele had been communicated.[⁸⁴¹] Boggy Depot to the Texan commander seemed the proper place to defend[⁸⁴²] and near there he now waited; but Steele on East Boggy, full sixty miles from Red River and from comparative safety, begged him to come forward to Middle Boggy, a battle was surely impending.[⁸⁴³] No battle occurred, notwithstanding; for Blunt had given up the pursuit. He had come to know that not all of Steele's command was ahead of him,[⁸⁴⁴] that McIntosh with the Creeks had gone west within the Creek country, the Creeks having refused to leave it,[⁸⁴⁵] and that Cabell had gone east,