The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

by Annie Heloise Abel

Footnote 906: [(return)]

—Ibid., vol. xxii, part ii, 1101-1102.

Footnote 907: [(return)]

—Ibid., vol. xxxiv, part ii, 845, 848.

Footnote 908: [(return)]

So Smith explained [ibid., 845, when Steele objected to staying in the Indian Territory in a subordinate capacity [ibid., vol. xxii, part ii, 1108]. Steele was transferred to the District of Texas [ibid., vol. xxxiv, part ii, 961]. The withdrawal of Steele left Cooper the ranking officer and the person on whom such a command, if created, would fall [ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 968-969].

Footnote 909: [(return)]

Boudinot to Davis, February 11, 1864, ibid., 968.

Footnote 910: [(return)]

Seddon to Davis, February 22, 1864, ibid., 968-969.

Footnote 911: [(return)]

Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, vol. i, 477-479; Official Records, vol. xxxiv, part iii, 824-825. Davis addressed the chiefs and not the delegation that had brought the resolutions [ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 1030-1031]. John Jumper, Seminole principal chief, was a member of the delegation.

as a separate department Indian Territory could not count upon the protection of the forces belonging to the Trans-Mississippi Department that was assured to her while she remained one of its integral parts. A distinct military district she should certainly be.

When Davis wrote, the ambition of Cooper had, in a measure, been satisfied; for he had been put in command of all "the Indian troops in the Trans-Mississippi Department on the borders of Arkansas."[⁹¹²] It was by no means all he wanted or all that he felt himself entitled to and he soon let it be known that such was the state of affairs. He tried to presume upon the fact that his commission as superintendent of Indian affairs had issued from the government, although never actually delivered to him, and, in virtue of it, he was in military command.[⁹¹³] The quietus came from General Smith, who informed Cooper that his new command and he himself were under Maxey.[⁹¹⁴]

It was hoped that prospective Indian brigades would be a powerful incentive to Indian enlistment and so they proved. Moreover, much was expected in that direction from the reassembling of the general council at Armstrong Academy, and much had to be; for the times were critical. Maxey's position was not likely to be a sinecure. As a friend wrote him,