CHAP. XXV.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.---CONFEDERATE. 975

FORT WASHITA, CHOCTAW NATION,

August 3, 1862.

General S. COOPER, C. S. Army,

Adjutant- General:

GENERAL: When I came to this country, in February, I brought with me from Richmond $681,000, annuities, interest, and other moneys due the Indians under treaties; $445,734, funds for the department quarter-master; part of $25,000 for the purchase of arms, and $5,000 for engineer service. The $5,000 for engineer service I turned over to Capts. R. H. Fitzhugh and Thomas J. Mackey, Engineer Corps, and have forwarded their receipts. I inclose an account of the expenditure of the $25,000 for purchase of arms, and have the residue unexpended in my hands, ready to be paid over. The $445,734 I paid over to the quartermaster, and have forwarded his receipt. The treaty moneys I have paid over to the chiefs and other parties entitled, except $7,000 in specie, which should have been paid to the Seminole agent, who has resigned; $13,000 to be expended for purposes of education among the Seminoles, from time to time, at the discretion of the President, which sum was sent out by oversight; $14,400, in Treasury notes, to be expended by the Superintendent, who has resigned, for the benefit of the Osages, Quapaws, Senecas and Shawnees, and some $15,000 of4he moneys due under the Comanche and Reserve Indian treaty. All these moneys are in my hands, except a small portion of the specie necessarily expended in the military and civil service, for which I have ample vouchers. The Treasury notes are sealed up in packages, and I am ready to account for every dollar of the whole, and pay over at any instant the balances expended.

Officers from General Hindman's headquarters are in Texas spreading the infamous report that I am a defaulter in the sum of $125,000, and my quartermaster to an unknown amount. The incredible villainy of a slander so monstrous, and so without even any ground for suspicion, is enough to warn every honest man not to endeavor to serve his country. I have resigned my appointment as brigadier-general, and asked of General Hindman leave of absence. He has replied by ordering me to Little Rock. I would much rather enter within the sphere of an Asiatic or African despotism.

I respectfully request that I may be immediately ordered to Richmond, to settle my accounts, and I am, general, very respectfully, yours,

ALBERT PIKE,

Brigadier-General, Provisional Army, C. S. A.

FORT WASHITA, August 3, 1862.

Major R. C. NEWTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

MAJOR: Upon receiving, at Boggy Depot, on the 22d of July instant, the order of Major-General Hindman to send my best battery, with a squad[on or company of cavalry, to Colonel Charles A. Carroll, at Fort Smith, was very willing, as I had resigned, to see him take the last available gun and the last armed man from Arkansas out of the Indian country, and I accordingly sent orders to Captain West, who was a day's march ahead of me, to proceed, with his and Howell's half companies, to Fort Smith, and gave the same order to Captain Corley's company, from Helena, which overtook me at Boggy, just after I received the order. The day after, I reflected that the order to send my best battery implied