Steve, you may be thinking of Pike's argument over his quartermaster having to report to Hindman's assistant quartermaster in Ft Smith. Both majors, Pike's quartermaster was senior in rank and superior in position -- as a department quartermaster. Also, Hindman said that Pike's department quartermaster would report directly to Hindman's asst quartermaster without going through Pike, thereby, in Pike's view, being one of many actions that undermined his command. Others include placing Clarkson in command of troops in the northern Indian Territory (until Pike arrived) when Pike had just placed Cooper, Clarkson's senior I believe, in the same command.

Perhaps someone will post the 'status' of the Indian Territory as 'department' and/or 'district' and when the designations officially changed or how(if) the general orders are contradictory with a department within a department.

I sympathize with Pike. He was an idealist with a strong personal commitment to the promises he made in the treaties. He tried to be the benevolent military commander and Indian superintendent to the Five Civilized Tribes, who didn't seem to particularly like him, but to the Reserve and Staked Plains tribes he was iconic, though no one else seemed to appreciate it.

From a military point of view, others, including Cooper and Watie, understood the regional situation much better than Pike. Pike expected a large Union Army to follow up after Pea Ridge and to advance into Texas so he fell back to Blue River (Nail's Bridge) and established Ft McCulloch. Pike didn't seem to understand that the US had bigger concerns in Kentucky and Tennessee and the goal of controlling the Mississippi which was draining US troops from the region. US commanders wanted to take Ft Smith and invade Texas etc. but were told to fall back and send all available troops east. The Confederate need in the region was guerrilla warfare to make the Federals retain troops to defend Kansas and Missouri, not to make a stand at a defensible location (Ft McCulloch).

Pike was single minded in 'saving' the Indian Territory when Richmond was concerned with losing Arkansas (either militarily or by secession from the Confederacy). Hindman, at worst a self-serving politician, saved Arkansas (temporarily) and rather amazingly, in my view, conjured up an army to command.

I appreciate Danny posting the actual ORs. This is such a broad topic, its hard to post or cite sources for each statement. Perhaps we can dissect the topic and address specific issues where there are contrasting views or to identify specific sources. Volume 13 of the ORs contains this time period in the region with many of Pike's lengthy letters to Richmond but also the Union and Confederate correspondence regarding the broader picture.