[Footnote 508:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 861, 864, 868.]

[Footnote 509:  Holmes to the Secretary of War, November 15, 1862 [ibid., 918].]

[Footnote 510:  For an account of Pike’s movements, see Confederate Military History, vol. x, 126.]

[Footnote 511:  Abel, American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist, 356.]

[Footnote 512:  Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862, “Appendix.”]

news that President Davis had refused positively to accept Pike’s resignation.[513] What better proof could anyone want that Pike was sustained at headquarters?  What that view of the matter may have meant in emboldening him to his later excessively independent actions must be left to the reader’s conjecture.  It never occurred to Pike that if his resignation had been refused, it had probably been refused upon the supposition that, with Hindman out of the way, all would be well.  One good reason for thinking that that was the Richmond attitude towards the affair is the fact that no record of anything like immediate and formal action upon the resignation is forthcoming.  Pike heard that it had been refused and positively, which was very gratifying; but it is far more likely that it had been put to one side and purposely; in order that, since Pike was unquestionably the best man for Indian Territory, all difficulties might be left to adjust themselves, the less said about Hindman’s autocracy the better it would be for all concerned.

But it was soon apparent that Hindman was not to be put out of the way.  It was to be still possible for him to work mischief in Indian Territory.  With some slight modifications, the Trans-Mississippi District had been converted into the Trans-Mississippi Department and, on the twentieth of August, orders[514] issued from

[Footnote 513:  There is something very peculiar about the acceptance or non-acceptance of Pike’s resignation.  Randolph wrote to Holmes, October 27, 1862, these words:  “...  General Pike’s resignation having been accepted, you will be left without a commanding officer in the Indian Territory...” [Official Records, vol. xiii, 906].  A letter endorsement, made by Randolph, on or later than September 19th, was to this effect:  “General Pike’s resignation has not yet been accepted” [Ibid., liii, supplement, 821], and another, made by him, November 5th, to this:  “Accept General Pike’s resignation, and notify him of it” [Ibid., 822].]

[Footnote 514:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 877.]

Little Rock, arranging for an organization into three districts, the Texas, the Louisiana,[515] and the Arkansas.  The last-named district was entrusted to General Hindman and made to embrace Arkansas, Missouri, and the Indian Territory.  Hindman took charge at Fort Smith, August twenty-fourth and straightway planned such disposition of his troops as would make for advancing the Confederate line northward of the