stay.[945] The choice of cooeperating was theirs but theirs also the power to refuse to cooeperate, if they so desired, and no questions asked.  The day had passed when Arkansans or Texans could decide the matter arbitrarily.  Watie was expected to prefer to continue the irregular warfare that he and Adair, his colonel of scouts, had so successfully been waging for a goodly time now.  Formerly, they had waged it to Steele’s great annoyance;[946] but Maxey felt no repugnance to the services of Quantrill, so, of course, had nothing to say in disparagement of the work of Watie.  It was the kind of work, he frankly admitted he thought the Indians best adapted to.  The Choctaws under Tandy Walker were found quite willing to cross the line and they did excellent service in the Camden campaign, which, both in the cannonade near Prairie d’Ane on the thirteenth of April and in the Battle of Poison Spring on the

[Footnote 944:  Official Records, vol. xxxiv, part ii, 1034, 1036.]

[Footnote 945:  Maxey to Smith, April 3, 1864, Ibid., part iii, 728-729.]

[Footnote 946:  For Steele’s opposition to Adair’s predatory movements, see Confederate Records, chap. 2, nos. 267, 268.]

eighteenth of April, offered a thorough test of what Indians could do when well disciplined, well officered, and well considered.  The Indian reinforcement of Marmaduke was ungrudgingly given and ungrudgingly commended.[947] The Camden campaign was short and, when about over, Maxey was released from duty with Price’s army.  His own district demanded attention[948] and the Indians recrossed the line.

Price’s call for help had come before Maxey had taken more than the most preliminary of steps towards the reorganization of his forces and not much was he able to do until near the end of June.  Two brigades had been formed without difficulty and Cooper had secured his division; but after that had come protracted delay.  The nature of the delay made it a not altogether bad thing since the days that passed were days of stirring events.  In the case of Stand Watie’s First Brigade no less than of Tandy Walker’s Second were the events distinguished by measurable success.  The Indians were generally in high good humor; for even small successes, when coupled with appreciation of effort expended, will produce that.  One adventure of Watie’s, most timely and a little out of the ordinary, had been very exhilarating.  It was the seizure of a supply boat on the Arkansas at Pheasant Bluff, not far from the mouth of the Canadian up which the boat was towed until its commissary stores had been extracted.  The boat was the Williams, bound for Fort Gibson.[949]

[Footnote 947:  Williamson to Maxey, April 28, 1864, Official Records, vol. xxxiv, part i, 845.]

[Footnote 948:  It had not been Smith’s intention that he should go out of his own district, where his services were indispensable, until Price’s need should be found to be really urgent [Boggs to Maxey, April 12, 1864, Ibid., part iii, 760-761].]