A really good question that has been "bugging" several of us for some time! I'm writing an article for the new "Encyclopedia of Oklahoma" in which the order of battle will reflect about half the usually cited number (but I've not completed all the investigation so can't give a definite number).

There were two regiments of Cherokee, two of Creek, and the original 1st Choctaw & Chickasaw Regiment. Each of these had ca. 350 men, as did the three Texas regiments. According to one source the two squadrons were organized on the British system and had about 150 officers and men. And the artillery unit had five officers and fifty-nine non-coms and enlisted men (in its inital orgaization). This gives us a total of approximately 3,150 under Cooper's immediate command.

Cabell was bringing from Fort Smith a brigade of about the same strength. It is my opinion that when Blunt wrote he was facing 6,000 Confederates, he meant the combined forces that were planning to attack Fort Gibson.

According to both Blunt's report and the memoirs of Cabell's chief of staff, the Arkansas brigade arrived on the battlefield late in the day. Blunt reports that his men were exhausted and low on ammunition but were willing to fight if Cabell persisted. Therefore, it is perhaps understandable for Blunt to have reported that he faced 6,000 men at Honey Springs.

[There are several possible reasons for later confusion on the number of men under Cooper's command. E.g. In Waugh's "Sam Bell Maxey and the Confederate Indians" we read when Maxey established his winter camp at old Fort Towson, Cooper had ". . .659 present for duty and 5,585 absent." Prior to that he wrote "on paper [Maxey] had an impressive force -- an army of 8,875 men." --- but these 1864 figures include Arkansas and Texas regiments as well as all of Cooper's organization, counting Indian regiments organized after the battle here, and he did not have the entire (1863) Indian Brigade at Honey Springs.]

I've not yet interviewed Dr. Fischer on this matter, as I wanted to have more statistics at hand, but I'm planning to broach the subject after the annual Memorial Service on the 20th inst.