telling me to maintain myself independent of his army, when he was abandoning the Indian frontier and Northwestern Arkansas, and that of General Hindman in taking away all the infantry and our only full and efficient artillery company, were totally unwarrantable and a great outrage upon the Indians, whose country was thus left a prey to the enemy. How had their "necessities" any claims paramount to the necessities of the Indians, when these acts of those generals dishonored the Government by violating its solemn pledges, exposing its allies to ruin, and by persuading the doubtful among them to submit to the North and make terms for themselves, which, when thus left unprotected and distinctly told that their welfare and safety were not to be deemed worth a moment's consideration if they came in conflict with those of Arkansas or with the personal aggrandizement of a general, they had a right to do. On receiving the second of the orders of July 8 I sent to General Hindman the reply (a copy of which is inclosed and marked D*). I also inclose a copy (marked E+) of the order of General Hindman placing Colonel Clarkson in command. It is copied from a copy furnished by Surgeon Russell to Colonel Cooper and sent by him to me. No other copy nor any notice of the appointment ever reached me; and that the President may see that I did not wish a controversy or a pretext for resigning, I inclose of letters marked F, G, and H,+ which were written and intended to be sent to the Secretary of War, but which were withheld when I received General Hindman's satisfactory letter of June 21. My resignation was soon more fully justified and the necessity for it proven.

On June 23 I ordered Colonel Cooper to the Arkansas and repeated the order on the 25th. I had long before given him a brigade, and I now placed him in command of all the forces north of the Canadian. Copies of these orders (marked J and K+) are inclosed, and will explain my intentions and views. I sent in addition to the Choctaw regiments two unattached companies of Texans, and promised to send him Stevens' regiment (formerly Taylor's) as soon as possible, and myself to follow with the other regiment (Alexander's) and the only available battery of artillery. He reached Fort Gibson on July 6, having delayed and gone out of the way to collect some money due him from an estate. I had never asked for on wanted these Texan mounted troops. I had plainly expressed to the President in March my opinion of the value of all such troops, and they are even more worthless and troublesome together than I supposed. Taylor's regiment had been called into the country in February by Colonel Cooper and the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. It succeeded in getting to the North Fork about the time of the action at Elkhorn, and when I went southward in April Colonel Taylor had with additional companies enough for another regiment, with still a company over. By the action of General Van Dorn, in violation of his own agreement with me, in taking away the regiments of infantry raised for me by Colonel Adams and Judge Gallagher, and by that of General Hindman, in taking Dawson's regiment and two unattached companies, I had been left with two mounted regiments and four unattached companies of Texans mounted, most of them originally Union men, and raised under express promise, that they should be stationed on the frontier at Forts Washita and Arbuckle, and not be required to go elsewhere to serve. With these I

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* See Inclosure Numbers 3 to Pike's letter of July 20, p. 857.

+ Not found.

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55 R R-VOL XIII