those who have promised to protect us. It is a mistake that the occupation of the Cherokee country by the enemy is of small consequence to the Choctaw people. If the Cherokee Nation is abandoned to the enemy, the Creek country falls the next victim, and is speedy turn your own Nations will share the same fate. I shall be glad to hear from you on the subject,and receive any suggestions as to the course most proper to pursue in the present discouraging state of affairs. I have written a full statement of the condition of things in the Indian country to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and to Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith, and hope to hear from them in a few weeks.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

STAND WATIE,

Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation.

Note of agreement between E. Kirby Smith,lieutenant-general commanding Trans-Mississippi Department, and H. Flanagin, Governor of the State of Arkansas.*

H. Flanagin, with the concurrence of the military board, is to raise a volunteer force, to be between the ages of forty and fifty years, for service in the field, to be for the present under his immediate command, and hereafter to be under the immediate command of such brigadier-generals as shall be appointed by the State authorities; all to be subject to the command of generals commanding the department and the district, or other general officers, according to the Confederate States regulations.

General Smith agrees to not interfere with members of the command who are above forty years of age and subject to the conscription law; to supply such forces with arms and ammunition, quartermaster's and commissary stores, and not to remove said forces beyond the limits of the State except with the consent of the State authorities.

The arms will be furnished as soon as they can be obtained.

E. KIRBY SMITH,

Lieutenant-General, C. S. Army.

RICHMOND, VA., August 10, 1863.

Colonel T. P. DOCKERY:

COLONEL: The Secretary of War orders that you proceed at once to the Trans-Mississippi Department, report to Lieutenant General E. K. Smith, and receive any further instructions in addition to a modification of those which that general may give. You will reassemble the scattered and furloughed troops which have passed west of the Mississippi, of the brigade recently commanded by you at the surrender of Vicksburg, at Camden, in Arkansas, or such other point as may be designated by General Smith. On such reassembling, you will take command and proceed to organize and equip them as soon and as perfectly as may be practicable. You will discriminate between such as before the final departure from Vicksburg were, by the act or with the complicity of the enemy, contrary to the terms of the capitulation, transferred to the west bank of the Mississippi, and those who afterward by straggling or after furlough

---------------

*Indorsed August 10, 1863.

---------------