The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

by Annie Heloise Abel

Steele's conduct, his adoption of the Fabian policy, severely criticized in some quarters, in Indian Territory, in Arkansas, in Texas, had yet been condoned and, indeed, approved[⁸⁵⁰] by General Kirby Smith, the

Footnote 846: [(return)]

Cabell's brigade, as already indicated, had had to be sent back "to avoid the contagion of demoralization." [Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 983; Steele to Snead, September 11, 1863, ibid., 1012].

Footnote 847: [(return)]

Cloud had arrived at Fort Gibson, August 21 [Cloud to McNeil, August 22, 1863, ibid., 466].

Footnote 848: [(return)]

John McNeil was commanding the District of Southwestern Missouri. The orders originated with Schofield [ibid., part i, 15].

Footnote 849: [(return)]

Cabell had taken a position on the Poteau. Steele had been much averse to his running the risk of having himself shut up in Fort Smith [Steele to Cabell, September 1, 1863, ibid., part ii, 987].

Footnote 850: [(return)]

"The general commanding is satisfied that the Fabian policy is the true one to adopt when not well satisfied that circumstances warrant a different course..." [G.M. Bryan to Steele, September 8, 1863, ibid., 999]. Smith believed in "abandoning a part to save the whole" [Letter to General R. Taylor, September 3, 1863, ibid., 989]; but President Davis and men of the states interested had impressed it upon him that that would never do. It must have been with some idea of justifying Steele's procedure in mind that Smith wrote to Stand Watie, September 8th [ibid., 999-1000]. Watie had lodged a complaint with him, August 9th, against the Confederate subordination of the Indian interests. To that Smith replied in words that must have made a powerful appeal to the Cherokee chief, who had already, in fact on the selfsame day that he wrote to Smith, made an equally powerful one to his own tribe and to other tribes. Watie's appeal will be taken up later, the noble sounding part of Smith's may as well find a place for quotation here.

"I know that your people have cause for complaint. Their sufferings and the apparent ill-faith of our Government would naturally produce dissatisfaction. That your patriotic band of followers deserve the thanks of our Government I know. They have won the respect and esteem of our people (cont.)

person most competent to judge fairly; because he possessed a full comprehension of the situation in Steele's command. Smith knew and others might have known that the situation had been largely created by envy, hatred, and malice, by corruption in high places, by peculation in low, by desertions in white regiments and by defection in Indian.

The Confederate government was not unaware of the increasing dissatisfaction among its Indian allies. It had innumerable sources of information, the chief of which and, perhaps, not the most reliable or the least factional, were the tribal delegates[⁸⁵¹] in Congress. Late

Footnote 850: [(return)]

(cont.) by their steadfast loyalty and heroic bravery. Tell them to remain true; encourage them in their despondency; bid them struggle on through the dark gloom which now envelops our affairs, and bid them remember the insurmountable difficulties with which our Government has been surrounded; that she has never been untrue to her engagements, though some of her agents may have been remiss and even criminally negligent. Our cause is the same—a just and holy one; we must stand and struggle on together, till that just and good Providence, who always supports the right, crowns our efforts with success. I can make you no definite promises. I have your interest at heart, and will endeavor faithfully and honestly to support you in your efforts and in those of your people to redeem their homes from an oppressor's rule...

"What might have been done and has not is with the past; it is needless to comment upon it, and I can only assure you that I feel the importance of your country to our cause..."

That Smith was no more sincere than other white men had been, when addressing Indians, goes almost without saying. It was necessary to pacify Stand Watie and promises would no longer suffice. Candor was a better means to the end sought. Had Smith only not so very recently had his interview with the governors of the southwestern states, his tone might not have been so conciliatory. In anticipation of that interview and in advance of it, for it might come too late, some Arkansans, with R.W. Johnson among them, had impressed it upon Governor Flanagin that both Arkansas and Indian Territory were necessary to the Confederacy. In their communication, appeared these fatal admissions, fatal to any claim of disinterestedness:

"Negro slavery exists in the Indian Territory, and is profitable and desirable there, affording a practical issue of the right of expansion, for which the war began..." [July 25, 1863, Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 945].