[Footnote 426:  One of the best statements of the case by Pike is to be found in a letter from him to Stand Watie, June 27, 1862 [Ibid., 952].]

[Footnote 427:  For some of Cooper’s statements, illustrative of his position, see his letter to Pike, February 10, 1862 [Ibid., 896] and that to Van Dorn, May 6, 1862 [ibid., 824].]

[Footnote 428:  It was at the express wish of Stand Watie and Drew that Hindman placed Clarkson in the Cherokee country [Carroll to Pike, June 27, 1862, ibid., 952].]

Kansas?  And why, when the unionist Indian Expedition was threatening Fort Gibson, Tahlequah, and Cherokee integrity generally, did he not hasten northward to resist it?  Chief Ross, greatly aggrieved because of Pike’s delinquency in this respect, addressed[429] himself to Hindman and he did so in the fatal days of June.

In addressing General Hindman as Pike’s superior officer, John Ross did something more than make representations as to the claims, which his nation in virtue of treaty guaranties had upon the South.  He urged the advisability of allowing the Indians to fight strictly on the defensive and of placing them under the command of someone who would “enjoy their confidence.”  These two things he would like to have done if the protective force, which the Confederacy had promised, were not forthcoming.  The present was an opportune time for the preferring of such a request.  At least it was opportune from the standpoint of Pike’s enemies and traducers.[430] It fitted into Hindman’s scheme of things exactly; for he had quite lost patience, granting he had ever had any, with the Arkansas poet.  It was not, however, within his province to remove him; but it was within his power so to tantalize him that he could render his position as brigade and department commander, intolerable.  That he proceeded to do.  Pike’s quick sensibilities were not proof against such treatment and he soon lost his temper.

His provocations were very great.  As was perfectly

[Footnote 429:  Ross to Hindman, June 25, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 950-951.  A little while before, Ross had complained, in a similar manner, to President Davis [Ibid., 824-825].]

[Footnote 430:  Pike had his traducers.  The Texans and Arkansans circulated infamous stories about him.  See his reference to the same in a letter to Hindman, July 3, 1862 [Ibid., 955].]

natural, the Confederate defeat at Locust Grove counted heavily against him.[431] On the seventh of July, Hindman began a new attack upon him by making requisition for his ten Parrott guns.[432] They were needed in Arkansas.  On the eighth of July came another attack in the shape of peremptory orders, two sets of them, the very tone of which was both accusatory and condemnatory.  What was apparently the first[433] set of orders reached Pike by wire on the eleventh of July and commanded him to hurry to Fort Smith, travelling night and day, there to take command of all troops in the Indian Territory and in Carroll’s district.[434] Almost no organization, charged Hindman, was in evidence among the Confederate forces in the upper Indian country and a collision between the two Cherokee regiments was impending.  Had he been better informed he might have said that there was only one of them now in existence.