Indian Territory, 1862 Part I: The Summer Expedition

 

When it comes to the Civil War in Indian Territory, historians tend to gloss over or sometimes ignore the events between the Battle of Pea Ridge and the expedition of summer 1863. However there were many important developments in the territory during this period that saw momentum shift continually between the Union and Confederacy and also escalated various forms of violence within the territory. These events were also influenced by actions across the border in Missouri and Arkansas. This series covers three periods of Indian Territory, 1862. The first section covers the plight of Indian refugees in Kansas and the attempt to establish a strong Union presence in the summer of 1862. The second centers around the Battle of Newtonia, which was actually in Missouri, but saw heavy involvement by Indian troops. The third covers the Federal incursion of late 1862, which finally established a strong Union presence in the territory.

 

The Refugee Crisis

In the early days of the war in 1861, the Confederacy obtained alliances with most of the Indian peoples in Indian Territory. The issue was that, like the borderlands to the east, the inhabitants were deeply divided as to what course they should take. While most of the leadership sided with the Confederacy (they shared many cultural traits such as slavery), many favored the Union and others did not want to get involved at all. In a series of battles, Confederate Indians, backed by white troops from neighboring states, assaulted pro-Union Indians. Thousands of refugees escaped to Kansas in the midst of winter. The suffering exiles wanted to get back to their homes. Many within the Federal government and army were keen on seeing that happen.

Kurz & Allison Part V: The Summer of ’63

 Mid-1863 saw several battles and campaigns that put military momentum solidly with the Union. Many consider this the turning of the tide, though it can be argued that the Union  was once on the verge of winning in mid-1862 and the Confederacy actually made some comebacks in 1864.

Battle of Chancellorsville

After restoring morale and efficiency within the Army of the Potomac, General Joseph Hooker attempted a flanking movement across the Rappahannock against Lee’s Confederate forces. He actually placed the heavily outnumbered Lee in a tricky situation near Chancellorsville at the start of May 1863. On May 2 General “Stonewall” Jackson executed an incredible flank march that routed the Union right. Jackson was hit by friendly fire (he would actually die of pneumonia instead of his wounds) while Hooker suffered a concussion that affected his judgment. The next day the Confederates were able to drive the Federals back across the river. Despite accomplishing one of his most celebrated victories, Lee believed that he could not afford any more such bloody battles.

Kurz focuses on the events of May 2. He shows the Union troops withdrawing towards the background, where artillery covers their retreat. The centerpiece, however, is the wounded Jackson. It looks like he’s been hit by a lucky enemy bullet rather than friendly fire. All the Confederate soldiers are ahead of him attacking the Federals. Also, Jackson was hit at night while reconnoitering ahead of his lines, not during  the height of the daylight action. Obviously Kurz wanted to show the infamous shooting while still displaying a battle vista.

Battle of Champion Hills

This is the first of two lithographs covering the Vicksburg Campaign. After a string of failures to take the last Rebel bastion on the Mississippi River, General Ulysses S. Grant finally put together his magnum opus. With the help of the Navy he was able to quickly slip his army from north to south of Vicksburg and cross back over the Mississippi (into the state of the same name). What followed was a string of battles where Grant defeated disunified Confederate forces. Champion Hill (called Champion Hills for the lithograph) was one of the more crucial encounters. On May 16 Grant struck General Louis Pemberton’s main force at the considerable height of Champion Hill. The Federals first flanked and then smashed through the Confederate lines, taking the nearby crossroads. The battle forced Pemberton towards Vicksburg with no escape route, ensuring a siege.

I am not as acquainted with this battle so I might miss a couple inaccuracies or neat references to real locations and figures. The Confederates in the foreground are notably more diverse in their clothing, especially the prisoners. Those on the right in front of the formidable Champion Hill sport a battle flag with inverted colors for St. Andrew’s Cross and the stars. The mounted figure leading his men on with his hat is General John Logan, who got into the Confederates’ flank. Logan was a political general from Illinois who enjoyed more success than others of his kind, possibly because his aggression worked well with Grant and Sherman’s battle plans.

The Battle of Gettysburg

The bloodiest (and almost largest) battle on North American soil, Gettysburg occurred from July 1 to 3. Lee, looking for a quick blow to end the war, invaded the North for the second time. Through a series of mistakes and circumstances, the two sides blindly struck each other north of the crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On the first day Confederates pushed the Federals south through the town. The Army of the Potomac, now under General George Meade, took the heights south of town and narrowly repulsed a series of attacks on the second day. The third day cemented the Confederate defeat when Lee’s major assault on the Union center turned into a bloodbath. This was the first and perhaps only massive tactical defeat for Lee.

As with most artists who choose one part of the battle, Kurz focuses on Pickett’s Charge, the ill-devised July 3 assault on Cemetery Ridge. This is definitely one of his more cluttered works and I have to say not as striking. Masses of men from both sides advance from the sides of the lithograph. A wrecked Union battery shows the work of the incredible pre-assault bombardment (which was actually ineffective thanks to untested ordnance). A clump of Confederate prisoners are escorted off while a thick line of men snakes over the stone wall. The fence along Emmitsburg Road can be made out behind a shell-struck group of Rebels. If the dying officer on horseback is supposed to be General Lewis Armistead, Kurz forgot he was on foot for the whole charge.

Siege of Vicksburg

The Siege of Vicksburg lasted from May 18 to July 4. Grant made several attempts to take the city by force, all of which failed. Bombardments, though terrifying to the civilians, also did not wear down Confederate resistance. It was starvation that finally forced the loss of the city. Pemberton was supposed to get relief from General Joseph Johnston to the east, but Johnston dallied. Relief attempts from the Trans-Mississippi came too late and ended in defeat anyways. On July 3 Pemberton opened up talks of surrender, which were finalized the following day. Combined with the defeat at Gettysburg, this was a disaster for the Confederacy, giving the Union unrestricted access along the Mississippi River.

This is one of the more placid works, though there is still some action. Shells burst among the entrenchments and Union gunboats patrol the Mississippi River. For once some of the soldiers are shown not fighting. Many are actually lounging about, in great contrast to all the activity on the left side of the lithograph. In the right foreground an officer directs Grant’s attention (to what we don’t know). A Confederate party carrying a white flag emerges from the trees. It could be a flag of surrender, but the tiny red cross in one corner indicates it may be something else.

Stand Watie's Raid and the Second Battle of Cabin Creek

 

This is the last of a series looking at the battles that involved the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment. After their participation in the Camden Expedition (read here), they returned to garrison and fatigue duties. With a year still left in the war and their placement in war-torn Indian Territory, it was inevitable that they would experience more violence in some form. This occurred during a major raid of northern Indian Territory, conducted by Cherokee Colonel Stand Watie and the Texan General Richard Gano. This raid climaxed with an assault on a wagon train at Cabin Creek, the sight of a 1^st Kansas victory. Though this blog post is centered around the Second Battle of Cabin Creek, the 1^st Kansas was only present in two smaller, related incidents. The first was a fight and massacre at Flat Rock Creek and the second a brief encounter after the raid in which the infantry did not engage. For the historical background of Cabin Creek, I refer you to my post on the July battle there.

Back in Indian Territory, the men in the 1^st Kansas Colored found themselves working in hay collecting detachments. This hay fed the horses, mules, cows, and other animal essential for transporting supplies or providing food and milk. These detachments were constant targets of raids and many small fights ensued. In these casualty-light skirmishes, either the Federals drove off the mounted raiders with a few volleys or the Confederates got to the hay and set it on fire. Since the assailants came in small bands, the Federals were not prepared for any sizeable raiding force. This is one factor that would lead to disaster in September of 1864.[1]

 

Wagons for Indian Territory

Stand Watie

In three years of war, Indian Territory was in a bad place. Battles, raids, internecine violence, and theft had absolutely devastated the countryside. Most of the Indians still living in the warzone were soldiers themselves. The families of pro-Union soldiers sought refuge in Kansas and those on the other side went to Texas. Neutral Indians either tried to lay low or took refuge with the others. Thousands of pro-Union refugees remained in Indian Territory and clustered around Fort Gibson. This boosted the logistical drain on the Union’s Trans-Mississippi forces and necessitated continual supply runs. In the summer of 1864 the Arkansas River flooded, enabling steamboats to travel in. This was a swifter alternative to long, dragging wagon trains.[2]

Both sides found themselves in straitened circumstances, but the Confederates had the worst of it. Their morale throughout Indian Territory was at an all-time low. Desertions occurred at an alarming rate, and so many of the quitters were going over to join the Union side that one general groused it would be better to simply hunt them down and kill them as soon as they ran off. [3] Desperate to turn things around, Colonel Stand Watie, the head of the pro-Confederate Cherokees, had been pushing for a major raid since the start of the 1864. One officer, reporting the Indian’s request “to create a diversion with the enemy” between Forts Smith and Gibson, commented, “This has been a favorite expedition with Colonel Watie for some time.”[4]

Kurz & Allison Part IV: Late 1862

Surprisingly, Louis Kurz skipped battles from the summer of 1862, even though this period included the ascent of Robert E. Lee as head of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Perhaps as a former Union soldier living in a Northern city, Kurz felt no special need or pressure to present such moments as the Second Battle of Bull Run. This part of the series covers the battles of late 1862.

Battle of Antietam

After scoring a series of victories over the summer, Lee attempted an invasion of the North in hopes of riding his momentum to a decisive victory. However his army was severely understrength and once the Union Army under General George McClellan marched in force against him, he found himself desperately holding off waves of Federal attacks near Antietam Creek (outside Sharpsburg, Maryland) on September 17. The battle was tactically indecisive, but saw the end of his first northern invasion. It is bloodiest single day of combat in American history. Many also credit it with strengthening Lincoln’s political hand so that he could deliver the Emancipation Proclamation.

Kurz & Allison Part III: Early 1862

In part three of this series I look at five Louis Kurz lithographs depicting battles from the first few months of 1862. The emphasis appears to be on Union victories, which is no surprise given Kurz’s background and Chicago location.

Battle of Fort Donelson

Fort Donelson was one of the two forts guarding access the Tennessee River. Since the navy was unable to ground it into submission as it did Fort Henry, General Ulysses S. Grant had to start siege operations. The heaviest fighting came when the Confederates attempted to break out. They actually had a chance to escape, but their trio of incompetent commanders passed on it. The fort surrendered on February 16 and the Union now had a major invasion route into the South.

The Florida Expedition Part IV: The Death of the Florida Expedition

The Retreat

Colonel Barton claimed that his men had “not a single round of ammunition remaining.”[1] The artillery was in desperate straits as well. Langdon was down to 7 unwounded artillerists to draw his remaining guns off. Langdon ran for Seymour. All about him the firing was so intense that men were “being struck every instant.” Reaching his commander, he asked for men to help draw back the guns, as the caissons were far in the rear. There were no men to spare.[2]

Seymour tried to inspire his men to further defense. To instill caution in the enemy and slow them down, he suggested that the men give out loud cheers to give the impression that they were not so vulnerable. Captain Dana was about to order the cheers when a limping soldier passed by. Overhearing what the commander wanted, he issued a “hurrah for gen. Seymour and with the last word a stream of blood spurted from his mouth and he fell on his face dead.”[3]

The 54^th Massachusetts had refused the initial order to retreat as it came from the unpopular James Montgomery. Colonel Hallowell intervened and gave the order himself. This time they complied. They enacted Seymour’s cheering plan. The black troops gave nine shouts of victory, then in an act of audacious defiance about-faced and marched away from the Confederates at a regular pace. Every couple hundred yards they turned and delivered a volley. One staff officer of Seymour’s liked to believe that the cheering strategy gave the enemy doubts and produced the lack of a strong pursuit, but in reality darkness and exhaustion affected the enemy infantry.[4] Captain Robert Newell had a more chaotic take on the retreat. “There were a number of stragglers on my right and left, who had rushed forward & been fighting on their own account, several of these were hit, and I shall never forget the cry of agony of one poor fellow who was hurrying to catch up to the rest & fell forward on his hands & knees disabled, for the men expected no mercy if taken remembering Fort Wagner, & made desperate exertions to get away.”[5]

The Scalpings at Pea Ridge

The involvement of American Indians in the Civil War is a subject that has gradually gotten more attention in recent years. One incident with them, however, has long had a place in the American consciousness, albeit an incident reduced to an amusing or exotic anecdote to a lesser-known major battle in the West. The Battle of Pea Ridge, fought from March 7-8, was the largest battle west of the Mississippi River and also the largest to involve Indian units. Nearly 900 Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians marched out of Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) to fight alongside Confederate units. After the Battle of Pea Ridge these Indian troops became the center of a controversy: the mutilation and scalping of killed and wounded Federal soldiers.

Historians have identified the culprits of these mutilations as the two Cherokee Regiments, the 1^st Cherokee Mounted Rifles under Colonel John Drew and the 2^nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles under Colonel Stand Watie. To understand why these Indians joined ranks with the Confederates, one would have to go back decades to the removal of Cherokees from their land in northwestern Georgia. The controversial treaties and resultant Trail of Tears towards the designated Indian Territory created antagonistic political divisions within the Cherokee Nation. On one side was Stand Watie and the Southern Rights Party. The Southern Rights Party consisted mostly of mixed-blood Cherokees who supported black slavery (which was practiced in the Cherokee Nation). With ties to white southern families and wealthier social status, they held significant political influence and were naturally inclined to pitch in with the Confederacy. On the other side was the National or Pin Party. Its members were more likely to be full-blooded Cherokees and more hostile to the idea of slavery. Ironically Stand Watie, the most prominent member of the Southern Rights Party, was three-quarters Cherokee while President John Ross, who relied on the support of the Pins and opposed an alliance with the Confederacy, was mostly white and a slaveholder himself. These two factions had in the past engaged in vicious blood feuds within Indian Territory. Wishing to end the fractious bloodshed and preserve his people, John Ross was able to soothe tensions with a general amnesty.[1] The divisions remained, however, and the Southern Rights Party eventually maneuvered the Cherokee Nation into the Confederate camp.