alone stood by to counsel and direct us,and placed his little suffering army in the most advantageous positions to check the enemy and protect the whole country. This is the general above all others we desire to be placed in command of the Department of the Indian Territory.

We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

TANDY WALKER ET AL.

[Inclosure Numbers 8.]

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America:

SIR: We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, citizens of the Indian country, in treaty relation with the Southern Confederacy, and others of the army for the same country, would most earnestly and respectfully beg leave to represent to you, as the honorable Secretary of War for the Southern Confederacy, the very imminent danger in which we consider our whole country placed, consequent, as we think, upon the mismanagement or inefficiency of some who have had the military control over us. Though for the past eighteen months, or longer, an army of considerable force has been stationed amongst us, yet so far it has failed to prevent the invasion and destruction of a great part of our country, and now the whole is most seriously threatened. The entire [country] of the Cherokee Nation is laid waste, its most valuable improvements in ashes, and its loyal citizens, many of them, reduced from competency or affluence to poverty, driven from their homes, many of them without a bed to lie on or a change of clothing to put on. The Creek Nation now, since the late retreat of our army on the 25th, 26th, 27th,and 28th of August, to a point in the Choctaw Nation 80 miles south of the Creek southern boundary, and about 50 miles from Red River, is left in the same condition. Its people are rushing into the Chickasaw country be thousands, leaving good crops behind to fall into the hands of the Federal troops, and they coming where there are no supplies but at high prices, while they have nothing with which to pay. But this is not all. It needs but another forward move on the Federal army to engulf us all. We are now driven to the last point, for certainly there is no place for Indians south of Red River. Nor is this state of affairs, as we think, because the military force of the country has not been sufficient nor the men of the army not both good and true, nor because the body of the officers are not as good as the best, but simply and clearly for the want of a suitable commander-in-chief, we mean in this division, not the Trans-Mississippi District; and, sir, it is for the supply of that officer we would respectfully supplicate.

We have severed our connection from the Government and people of the United States, and, in affection and confidence in the friendship and ability of the Southern Confederacy, have allied ourselves to it. We have placed our all as a sacrifice on the altar of its cause, more than any other people, for with its failure all is gone, and we are left without even a place to flee to in the Western wilds, or those that may escape the sword of the destroyer to be merged among our enemies-no more than any other people, for with its failure all is gone,and we are left without even a place to flee to in the Western wilds, or those that may escape the sword of the destroyer to be merged among our enemies-no more nations of the earth.

We look to you, sir, for promised protection and defense; we have no other arm on which to lean; we trust in the integrity of the Southern heart. We shall not be deceived. Sir, our country is our mother, and every child has a right to cry out when its mother is stabbed to the heart. This, we hope, will plead for us, and excuse for thus intruding ourselves upon you. Without specially complaining of any one who has been chief in command in our country, we simply say they have not shown themselves worthy of our confidence, nor has our cause prospered in their hands. But, sir, we have the man amongst us who possesses our