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Re: General Douglas H. Cooper
In Response To: Re: General Douglas H. Cooper ()

Dr Shea responded to my post on the IT message board at
http://history-sites.com/cgi-bin/bbs53x/itcwmb/webbbs_config.pl?read=5243

I posted the following on the ITCW message board at
http://history-sites.com/cgi-bin/bbs53x/itcwmb/webbbs_config.pl?read=5244

***

Excerpts from correspondence from Brig Gen Albert Pike, commanding the Dept of the Indian Territory, to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
Series 1, vol 13, Part 1, Page 819

    HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN TERRITORY,
    Fort McCulloch, May 4, 1862.

    SIR: I inclose a copy, marked A* (with notes since added), of the part taken by myself and the small body of Cherokees under my command in the action of 6th and 7th March near Elkhorn, and I avail myself of this occasion to forward copies of certain orders and directions since issued by me, which will put the department in possession of the plans I am endeavoring to carry out in order to hold possession of this Indian country and keep the several Indian tribes loyal to the Confederate States.*

    ...

    All the treaties with the Indians had also stipulated that they should not be taken out of their own country to fight without their consent. They are incredulous people, and those who fought against us under Hopoeithleyohola were chiefly alienated by the belief, induced by that crafty old man, that we would get them to become soldiers, take them out of their own country, first into Arkansas, then into Missouri, then across the Mississippi, and when their young men were thus all gone would take and divide out their lands.

    ...

    Having the right to refuse to leave their own country, the Creeks said that what Hopoeithleyohola had told them was true, and as an excuse for not going demanded to be paid off before they would march. The Choctaws and Chickasaws were willing enough to cross the line, but, influenced by merchants whom they owed, they too demanded to be paid, and the result was that I left them all behind, and overtaking the Cherokee regiments, fell in the rear of the army with them alone and two companies of mounted Texans. That these, with not more than 150 or 200 of Colonel Sims' Texan regiment, charged face to face and took a battery of three guns supported by regular cavalry,having 2 men killed and 1 wounded in the charge, and killing some 35 to 40 of the enemy, is certainly true. No other battery was taken in that action, and Cherokees and no others by my orders drew the guns into the woods. It is true that when a second battery opened on them they hastily retired into the woods, but they went no farther and remained there, holding the extreme right and keeping another battery and a large body of infantry in check, who would otherwise have been at liberty by a short march to take the other forces in flank or rear, until the action ceased.

    ...

    I am, very respectfully, you obedient servant,

    ALBERT PIKE,

    Brigadier General, Commanding Department of Indian Territory.

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