enemy. I again ordered him taken in custody and conducted to Little Rock. My convict on that he was a traitor was confirmed by the discovery, among the very troops thus detained by him and among citizens in the adjacent part of Texas, of a secret society, formed to aid in restoring the Yankee Union. Forty-six of these traitors were summarily put to death by the people of Northeastern Texas. Two of them declared that Mr. Pike was looked to as a sympathizer and the probable leader of their organization.

A letter from General Holmes to the Secretary of War, dated November 15, 1862, and now on file in the Adjutant-General's Office, is referred to in this connection.*

This society having been broken up, and Mr. Pike's influence among either whites or Indians amounting to very little, he was turned loose, and has since been permitted to go at large.

Colonel Cooper moved forward to the Arkansas and united with Stand Watie. At the same time I pushed across the mountains from Fort Smith two regiments of Missourians, under Brigadier-General Rains, and three regiments of Arkansians, under Colonel C. S. Carroll. The enemy's communication with Missouri and Kansas being thus threatened and Cooper moving up in his front, he retreated hastily toward and beyond the Kansas line. Thus the loyal Cherokee were restored to their country and enabled to assemble a convention, depose Ross, and make Stand Watie chief of the nation.

Shortly afterward I arrived at Tahlequah, the Cherokee capital,having been detained until then at Little Rock by the appearance of a large fleet of gunboats and transports at the mouth of the Arkansas and in the Lower White River.

The hostile or Pin Indians yet infested the upper part of the Cherokee country, carrying on a guerrilla war and committing numberless atrocious outrages. Houses were burned, fields laid waste, and women and children massacred by these merciless savages. Between 1,000 and 2,000 helpless Cherokees fled across the line into Arkansas, where I caused them to be subsisted at Government expense. Delaying only long enough to concentrate the troops and arrange for supplies, I moved forward to the north border of Arkansas and thence into Missouri, clearing the Cherokee country entirely of hostile Indians, driving back the enemy's advanced parties, and eventually compelling the main body to retreat to the vicinity of Fort Scott.

Within fifteen days an extent of territory 100 miles long and 50 miles wide was regained to the Confederacy and a strong line secured in South Missouri, fully protecting Northwestern Arkansas and the Indian country.

The Indian expedition under Blunt, which had retreated before my troops, was a mixed force of whites and Indians. They were much demoralized, running away almost without firing a gun whenever attacked. My mounted men, though less numerous, were more than a match for them. I resolved, therefore, to lead my cavalry at once against Blunt, and, having routed him and driven him into Kansas, to turn eastward and attack Springfield, my infantry under General Rains also moving upon it from the south. Brigadier-General Totter had there 6,000 men, mostly of the Missouri Militia. He was calling for re-enforcements, and it was to be anticipated that Blunt would unite with him. I would probably be soon outnumbered and driven back to the Arkansas River unless able to carry out the plan above mentioned. The preliminary orders were issued an preparations were

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*See "Correspondence, etc.," p. 918.

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