Indian Territory Heroes

This page is dedicated to the memory of the Indian Territory Generals of the Confederacy who fought so bravely, led so valiantly, and lived so honorably. We seek to remember and celebrate their lives. In the end, their cause was lost, but we will forever remember the nobility of their struggle.

"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know what it is today."  ~General Robert E. Lee~
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Brigadier General Stand Watie

Stand Watie, a three-quarter Cherokee Indian, was born December 12, 1806, near the site of the present day city of Rome, Georgia. He learned to speak English at a mission school, and became a planter and assisted in the publication of the Cherokee newspaper, the "Phoenix." In 1835 he and others signed the treaty by which the remaining Cherokees in Georgia agreed to their removal to what is now Oklahoma. This act split the Indians into factions and made Watie the leader of the minority or "treaty" party.

At the beginning of the War Between the States the Cherokees attempted, unsuccessfully, to remain neutral, but ultimately divided along the same lines as before. The majority declared for the Union and the minority group, under Watie, pledged allegiance to the Confederacy. Watie raised a company early in 1861; he later in the year was appointed colonel of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles, and brigadier general to rank from May 6, 1864. The Indians were engaged in the battles of Wilson's Creek and Elkhorn Tavern, and were principally used in raids and as skirmishers in the Territory and along its borders. They were found to be excellent soldiers in the sudden offensive action. Gen. Watie fought bravely to the end, the last general of the Confederacy to "strike the colors" on June 23, 1865, at Doaksville in Choctaw Nation.

After the war he resumed the life of a planter and also engaged in various business enterprises. He died at his home on Honey Creek, in what is now Delaware County, Oklahoma on September 9, 1871 and is buried in Old Polson Cemetery near Grove, Oklahoma.

Brigadier General Douglas H. Cooper

Douglas Hancock Cooper, a native of Mississippi, was born on November 1, 1815, probably in Amite County, where his father, a physician and Baptist preacher, was discharging his ecclesiastical duties at the time.

After attending the University of Virginia from 1832 to 1834, the son returned to Mississippi and engaged in planting in Wilkinson County. During the Mexican War he served as captain of the 1st Mississippi Rifles, and in 1853 was appointed by President Franklin Pierce U.S. agent to the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory

In 1861 he was deputed by the Confederate government to secure the allegiance of the Indians, and was commissioned colonel of the 1st Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles. He commanded the Indians at Elkhorn and at Newtonia, Missouri, and was subsequently promoted brigadier general to rank from May 2, 1863. He also was in command of Confederate forces in the largest battle fought in Indian Territory: Honey Springs, July 17, 1863. His last important military service was rendered as commander of the Indian brigade in General Sterling Price's second invasion of Missouri.

After the war General Cooper prosecuted the claims of the Choctaws and Chickasaws against the Federal government, claims arising out of nonperformance by the government in connection with the removal of the tribes from their original lands. He died at Old Fort Washita in the Chickasaw Nation (present day Bryan County) April 29, 1879 and is buried at Old Fort Washita.

General Frank Crawford Armstrong

Frank Crawford Armstrong was born on November 22, 1835 at Choctaw Agency, Indian Territory (now the virtually abandoned village of Scullyville) where his father, an officer in the U.S. Army, was stationed at the time. The latter died when Armstrong was a boy. His mother took as her second husband, General Persifor Frazer Smith, U.S.A., one of the heroes of the Mexican War, whom young Armstrong accompanied on a military expedition into New Mexico in 1854.

After graduation from Holy Cross Academy in Massachusetts, he was commissioned directly into the regular army the following year. He took part in the battle of First Manassas on the Union side, but resigned on August 13, 1861. His first Confederate service was on the staffs of Generals Mcintosh and Ben McCulloch; and he was a few feet away when the latter met his death at Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern).

Subsequently elected colonel of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry, he was soon after given command of the cavalry in the forces under General Sterling Price. During the balance of the war Armstrong operated under the command of such leaders as Forrest, Wheeler, Stephen D. Lee, and Chalmers. His last battle was that of Selma, Alabama, when the remnant of Forrest's corps surrendered. He had meantime been promoted brigadier general to rank from January 20, 1863.

At the close of hostilities he entered the Overland Mail Service in Texas, was United States Indian Inspector from 1885 to 1889, and Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1893 to 1895.

General Armstrong died at Bar Harbor, Maine, September 8, 1909, and is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Georgetown, District of Columbia.


Major General Samuel Bell Maxey

Samuel Bell Maxey was born in Kentucky in 1825, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, fifty-fifth in 1846. The class of 1846 included George B. McClellan, Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, George E. Pickett and many other future Generals of the War for Southern Independence.

Maxey served as a brevet 2nd lieutenant of the U.S. 7th Infantry in 1846 and the 8th Infantry In February 1847 and transferred back to the 7th Infantry in July 1847. In August 1847 he was brevet to 1st lieutenant for gallant conduct during the battles of Conteras and Churubusco during the Mexican War.

He resigned his commission in 1849 to study law and migrated to Paris, Texas, with his father in 1857 and was elected to the Texas senate in 1861.

Upon Texas secession from the Union, Maxey resigned his Texas senate seat and organized the "Lamar Rifles" which soon became part of the 9th Texas Infantry. That regiment, with Maxey in Command, joined General Albert Sidney Johnston's forces in Kentucky.

Maxey, promoted to Brigadier General in 1862, served in east Tennessee at Port Hudson and during the Vicksburg Campaign. In December 1863 Maxey was made Confederate Commander in Indian Territory and appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs for the pro-Confederate nations.

Maxey was promoted to Major General by General Kirby Smith in 1864, but was never confirmed to that rank by Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.

He last commanded a division of dismounted cavalry in 1865. After the war, Maxey resumed his law practice and became a U.S. Senator from Texas in 1875 and served for twelve years. 

Samuel Bell Maxey died at Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1895.
-Samuel Bell Maxey bio submitted by Don Ballard - January 27th 2000

Brigadier General Albert Pike

Albert Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 29, 1809. He was a many-sided character who is best remembered for his accomplishments as a brilliant teacher, poet, author, lawyer, editor, and exponent of Freemasonry, rather than as a brigadier general of the Confederacy, which he only incidentally became.

He received his early education at Newburyport and Framingham, and in 1825 entered Harvard College, supporting himself at the same time by teaching. He only went as far as the junior class in college, when his finances compelled him to continue his education alone, teaching, meanwhile, at Fairhaven and Newburyport, where he was principal of the grammar school, and afterward had a private school of his own. In later years he had attained such distinction in literature that the degree of master of arts was bestowed upon him by the Harvard faculty.

In 1831 he went west with a trading party to Santa Fe. The next year, with a trapping party, he went down the Pecos River and into the Staked Plains, whence with four others he traveled mostly on foot until he reached Fort Smith, Arkansas. His adventures and exploits are related in a volume of prose and verse, published in 1834. While teaching in 1833 below Van Buren and on Little Piney River, he contributed articles to the Little Rock Advocate, and attracted the attention of Robert Crittenden, through whom he was made assistant editor of that paper, of which he was afterward for two years the proprietor.

He was admitted to the bar in 1835 and studied and practiced law until the Mexican War, when he recruited a company of cavalry and was present at the battle of Buena Vista under the command of the famous Colonel Charles May. In 1848 he fought a duel with Gen. John S. Roane on account of something said by him in his story of that battle, which the governor considered as reflecting unjustly on the Arkansas regiment.

In 1849 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States at the same time with Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. In 1853 he moved to New Orleans, having prepared himself for practice in the courts of Louisiana by reading the "Pandects," of which he translated the first volume into English. He also made translations of many French authorities. He wrote, besides, an unpublished work of three volumes upon "The Maxims of the Roman and French Law."

An avowed Whig and anti-secessionist, he was a prominent lawyer and large land owner in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1861, and cast his lot with the South rather than desert his friends and his property. He was appointed as the Confederate Commissioner to the tribes of Indian Territory. As such he brought the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Chickasaws and part of the Cherokees into alliance with the Confederate States.

On August 15, 1861, he was commissioned Brigadier General in the army of the Confederate States, and at the battle of Pea Ridge he commanded a brigade of Indians. Pike's Civil War career was unfortunate, to say the least, and ultimately resulted in his arrest by General Hindman and the remark by General Douglas Cooper that he was "either insane or untrue to the South."

With the Indian troops Pike fought at Elkhorn Tavern, and their dubious conduct reflected, perhaps unjustly, on Pike. He later alleged they had been recruited only for service in defense of their own territory. In his defense, it must also be noted that Pike had little opportunity to work with or drill his Indian troops. When the deaths of Generals McCulloch and McIntosh left him as the senior surviving Confederate officer at Leetown, Pike was ineffective in rallying or reorganizing his troops. After much acrimony Pike resigned his Confederate commission on July 12, 1862; and his resignation was accepted on November 5, 1862.

Pike lived in semi-retirement during the balance of the war, and after it ended, he was regarded with suspicion by both parties to the conflict. He was indicted for treason by the United States authorities, but was subsequently restored to his civil rights. After the war he resided in Memphis, Tennessee, and edited the Memphis Appeal in 1867. The next year he moved to Washington, D. C., and practiced in the courts until 1880. During the remainder of his life he devoted his attention to writing legal treatises and expounding the morals and dogma of the Masonic Order.

He was the highest Masonic dignitary in the United States, and was author of several valuable Masonic works. He died in the house of the Scottish Rite Temple, Washington, DC on April 2, 1891, and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery there.