336 UNION AND CONFEDERATE INDIANS IN THE CICIL WAR.

hasty action, and at first favored neutrality, andin the summer of 1861 issued a proclamation,enjoining his people to observe a strictly neutralattitude during the war between the United States and the Southern States. In June, 1861, AlbertPike , a commissioner of the Confederate States,and General Ben. McCulloch, commanding theConfederate forces in western Arkansas and theDepartment of Indian Territory, visited ChiefRoss with the view of having him make a treatywith the Confederacy . But he declined to makea treaty, and in the conference expressed himselfas wishing to occupy, if possible, a neutral po-sition during the war. A majority of the Cher-okees, nearly all of whom were full-bloods, wereknown as Pin Indians, and were opposed to theSouth.

Commissioner Pike went away to make treatieswith the less civilized Indian tribes of the plains,and in the mean time the battle of Wilson’s Creekwas fought, General Lyon killed, and the Unionarmy defeated and forced to fall back from Spring-field to Rolla .

Chief Ross now thought that the South wouldprobably succeed in establishing her independ-ence, and expressed a willingness to enter intoa treaty with the Confederate authorities. Onhis return from the West in September, 1861,Commissioner Pike , at the request of Mr. Ross,went to Park Hill and made a treaty with theCherokees . The treaties made with each tribeprovided that the troops it raised should be usedfor home protection, and should not be taken outof the Indian Territory. Even before the treatywith Commissioner Pike, Chief Ross had com-menced to organize a regiment composed nearlyaltogether of Pin Indians. John Drew, a stanchsecessionist, was commissioned colonel, andWilliam P. Ross lieutenant-colonel, of this reg-iment. Colonel Stand Watie, the leader of thesecession party, had also commenced to raise aregiment of half-breeds for General McCulloch’sdivision. As already stated, there were twofactions among the Creeks, one of which was ledby Hopoeithleyohola and the other by D. N. andChitty McIntosh, who were sons of General Will-iam McIntosh , killed in 1825 by Hopoeithleyoholaand his followers in Georgia , for making thetreaty of Indian Springs. It is asserted by GeneralPike and others that with Hopoeithleyohola itwas not a question of loyalty or disloyalty to theUnited States , but simply one of self-preservation;

\ The position chosen by Hopoeithleyohola at ChustoTalasah, where he determined to make a stand and fightthe Confederate forces, was naturally a very strong oneto resist an attack made with small-arms. It was at agorge of a bend of Bird Creek, the bend being in theform of a horse-shoe, and four hundred yards in length.The creek made up to the prairie on the side approachedby the Confederate forces in an abrupt and precipitousbank about thirty feet high. On the opposite side ofthis precipitous bank was the inside of the horse-shoeor bend, which was densely covered with heavy tim-ber, cane, and tangled thickets. The position was alsostrengthened by felled trees and by the creek forming thebend or horse-shoe. The creek was deep and was ford-able only at certain places known to the Union Indians.

that when he found the Confederate authoritieshad commissioned D. N. McIntosh as colonel of aCreek regiment, and Chitty McIntosh as lieu-tenant-colonel of a battalion of Creeks, he feltcertain that the Indian troops thus being raisedwould be used to persecute and destroy him andhis followers. In November, 1861, he startedfor Kansas , and was pursued and overtaken bythe Confederate Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws,Cherokees , and Texans under Colonel Douglas H.Cooper. A fight took place in the night, andColonel Drew’s regiment of Cherokees , which hadbeen raised by Chief Ross, went over to Hopoeith-leyohola, and fought with him in the next day’sdesperate battle (known as the battle of ChustoTalasah), in which five hundred of the Union In-dians were reported by Colonel Cooper to havebeen killed and wounded. \ The ConfederateIndians of Colonel Stand Watie ’s regiment, andthose of Colonel Drew’s regiment who had re-turned to the Confederate service under Pikeand Cooper, also participated in the battle ofPea Ridge in March, 1862, where they werecharged with scalping and mutilating the Federaldead on the field. General Pike , hearing of thescalping, called on the surgeon and assistant-surgeon of his field-hospital for reports, and intheir reports they stated that they found one ofthe Federal dead who had been scalped. GeneralPike then issued an order, denouncing the outragein the strongest language, and sent a copy of theorder to General Curtis. General Pike claimedthat part of the Indians were in McCulloch’scorps in the first day’s battle; and that the scalp-ing was done at night in a quarter of the field notoccupied by the Indian troops under his immediatecommand. After Pea Ridge the operations of theConfederate Indians under General Cooper andColonel Stand Watie were confined, with a fewexceptions, to the Indian Territory. In connec-tion with white troops from Texas , they partici-pated in several engagements with the FederalIndian brigade under Colonel Phillips, after herecaptured Fort Gibson in the spring of 1863;and they made frequent efforts to capture Federalsupply trains from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson andFort Smith , but were always unsuccessful. Theyfought very well when they had an opportunity totake shelter behind trees and logs, but could noteasily be brought to face artillery, and a singleshell thrown at them was generally sufficient todemoralize them and put them to flight.

In this bend Hopoeithleyobola’s forces were posted afterthey were obliged to fall back in the preliminary skir-mish. A house and crib at the mouth of the bend servedas a shelter for a while, from which his sharp-shooterskept back the Confederates. The Union Indians, how-ever, were finally driven from this position back intothe bend, contesting the ground with much obstinacy.The Confederate troops made repeated efforts to dislodgethem from the bend, but without success. Every timea detachment of Hopoeithleyohola’s warriors showedthemselves in an opening or in the prairie, the Confed-erates charged them to the timber, when a volley fromthe concealed Union Indians threw the charging columninto confusion and sent it back in a hasty retreat. Nightcoming on put an end to the fight.—"W. B.