This is an excerpt, speaking specifically of Pike, from Hindman's report covering the time period. This text below begins after Locust Grove, the loss of Clarkson, the ammunition of Clarkson and Watie, and the defection of Drew's Regiment. Hindman had ordered Pike to move north from Ft McCulloch...

Report of Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman, C. S. Army, of operations May 31-November 3, 1862.

Series I. Vol. 13. Page 40

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On July 21 he had succeeded in getting as far as Boggy Depot, a distance of 25 miles. In the mean time he had forwarded his resignation of the officer of brigadier-general, and applied to me to relieve him from duty. In his letter of July 21, when he had approached 25 miles nearer the enemy, he said:

I repeat my request to be immediately relieved of this command. If I do not receive an order to that effect in fourteen days I shall leave the command in the hands of Col. Cooper.

In his letter of July 3, speaking of the unfavorable impression existing as to his conduct in the battle of Elkhorn, he said;

There has been a regular deluge of lies poured out about me in Arkansas and Texas, and the men of the regiments of Darnell and Dawson, who owe me nothing but favors and kindness, have sown them broadcast, over these two State to such an extent that I should be very obtuse not to know the immense disadvantages under which I labor in endeavoring to effect anything. The poison is in the minds of the men of my own command, and I should be sincerely rejoiced to have the opportunity of retiring to private life.

In the same letter, speaking of certain suggestions he had made to the President at an early day of the war in relation to Indian affairs, he said:

The response to my recommendation was my own appointment, which I did not anticipate and did not wish, and I am altogether too corpulent to ride much on horseback, and, besides, am subject to neuralgia in the back, which, seizing me suddenly, utterly disables me for days at a time. I only consented to take the d---d command because I had made the treaties, felt personally responsible for the security of the country here, and knew it was supposed I could manage better with the Indians than any one else. I am sure I wish somebody else would take it.

Under these circumstances it seemed that the interest of the service would be promoted and his own desires gratified by complying with Gen. Pike's request. I therefore forwarded his resignation to Richmond, with my approval, and at the same time relieved him from duty.

On the receipt of my order to that effect he issued and distributed a printed circular, addressed to the Indians and equally likely to reach the enemy, in which, under pretense of defending the Confederate Government, he evidently sought to excite prejudice against it, and endeavored thoroughly to disgust and dishearten our Indian allies by suppressing or perverting facts where their publication would be beneficial to our cause and openly proclaiming them when they should have been concealed. This extract will illustrate the character of the paper:

I tried in vain to get men enough from Arkansas and Texas to prevent an invasion of the Cherokee country. You can see now at Cantonment Davis all the white troops I was allowed to have. You will plainly see that with them, if they had all been in the Cherokee country, 2,000 or 3,000 of the enemy could at any time have driven them away; and while they were there, if I could have fed them there, what would have kept the Northern troops and hostile Creeks and other Indians from coming down to the Deep Fork and North Fork of the Canadian and driving out our friends from the Creek and Seminole country?

Col. (now Brig. Gen. ) D. H. Cooper, who was next in rank and had succeeded to the command, deemed it his duty to place Gen. Pike in arrest, and so informed me, inclosing a copy of the circular, and expressing the opinion that the author was insane or a traitor. I approved his action, and ordered Gen. Pike sent to Little Rock in custody. I also forwarded Col. Cooper's letter to Richmond, with an indorsement, asking to withdraw my approval of Gen. Pike's resignation, that I might bring him before a court-martial on a charges of falsehood, cowardice, and treason. He was also liable to the penalties prescribed be section 29 or the act of Congress regulating intercourse with the Indians and to preserve peace on the frontiers, approved April 8, 1862, as follows:

If any person shall send, make, or carry, or deliver any talk, speech, message, or letter to any Indian nation, tribe, band, chief, or individual, with intent to * * * make such nation, tribe, band, chief, or Indian dissatisfied with their relations with the Confederate States or uneasy or discontented, the person so offending shall, on conviction, be punished by fine not exceeding $10,000 nor less than $2,000, and by imprisonment not less than two nor more than ten years, and the intent above mentioned shall be conclusively inferred from knowledge of the contents of any such talk, speech, message, or letter in writing.

But his resignation had been accepted, after which Mr. Pike reappeared at Fort McCulloch, issued an order as brigadier-general commanding, and prevented the march of troops from there toward the enemy. I again ordered him taken in custody and conducted to Little Rock. My convict on that he was a traitor was confirmed by the discovery, among the very troops thus detained by him and among citizens in the adjacent part of Texas, of a secret society, formed to aid in restoring the Yankee Union. Forty-six of these traitors were summarily put to death by the people of Northeastern Texas. Two of them declared that Mr. Pike was looked to as a sympathizer and the probable leader of their organization.

A letter from Gen. Holmes to the Secretary of War, dated November 15, 1862, and now on file in the Adjutant-Gen.'s Office, is referred to in this connection.*

This society having been broken up, and Mr. Pike's influence among either whites or Indians amounting to very little, he was turned loose, and has since been permitted to go at large.

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