reported the continued despoiling of his command and the persistent infringement of Pearce upon his authority, in consequence of which, the Indians were suffering from lack of forage, medicines, clothing, and food.[422] Pearce, in his turn, reported[423] to Hindman Pike’s obstinacy and intractability and he even cast insinuations against his honesty.  Pike was openly defying the man who claimed to be his superior officer, Hindman.  He was resisting his authority at every turn and had already boldly declared,[424] with special reference to Clarkson, of course, that

No officer of the Missouri State Guard, whatever his rank, unless he has a command adequate to his rank, can ever exercise or assume any military authority in the Indian country, and much less assume command of any Confederate troops or

[Footnote 419:  George W. Clark, Official Records, vol. xiii.]

[Footnote 420:  For an equally vigorous statement on this score, see Pike to Randolph, June 30, 1862 [Ibid., 849].]

[Footnote 421:—­Ibid., 846-847, 848-849, 850-851, 852.]

[Footnote 422:  Chilly McIntosh to Pike, June 9, 1862, Ibid., 853; Pike to Chilly McIntosh, July 6, 1862, Ibid., 853-854.]

[Footnote 423:  July 5, 1862 [Ibid., 963-965]; July 8, 1862 [Ibid., 965-967].]

[Footnote 424:—­Ibid., 844-845.]

compare rank with any officer in the Confederate service.  The commissioned colonels of Indian regiments rank precisely as if they commanded regiments of white men, and will be respected and obeyed accordingly.

With the same confidence in the justness of his own cause, he called[425] Pearce’s attention to an act of Congress which seemed “to have escaped his observation,” and which Pike considered conclusively proved that the whole course of action of his enemies was absolutely illegal.

In some of his contentions, General Pike was most certainly on strong ground and never on stronger than when he argued that the Indians were organized, in a military way, for their own protection and for the defence of their own country.  Since first they entered the Confederate service, many had been the times that that truth had been brought home to the authorities and not by Pike[426] alone but by several of his subordinates and most often by Colonel Cooper.[427] The Indians had many causes of dissatisfaction and sometimes they murmured pretty loudly.  Not even Pike’s arrangements satisfied them all and his inexplicable conduct in establishing his headquarters at Fort McCulloch was exasperating beyond measure to the Cherokees.[428] Why, if he were really sincere in saying that his supreme duty was the defence of Indian Territory, did he not place himself where he could do something, where, for instance, he could take precautions against invasions from

[Footnote 425:  Pike to Pearce, July 1, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 967.]