junction of the Verdigris and Arkansas Rivers and not far from
Fort Gibson.[35] The fortifications erected there received the name of
Cantonment Davis and upon them, in spite of Pike's decidedly moderate
estimate in the beginning, the Confederacy was said by a contemporary
to have spent "upwards of a million dollars."[36] In view of the
ostensible object of the very formation of the department and of
Pike's appointment to its command, the defence of Indian Territory,
and, in view of the existing location of enemy troops, challenging
that defence, the selection of the site was a reasonably wise one;
but, as subsequent pages will reveal, the commander did not retain it
long as his headquarters. Troubles came thick and fast upon him and he
had barely reached Cantonment Davis before they began. His delay in
reaching that place, which he did do, February 25,[37] was caused
by various occurrences that made it difficult for him to get his
materials together, his funds and the like. The very difficulties
presaged disaster.

Pike's great purpose--and, perhaps, it would be no exaggeration to
say, his only purpose--throughout the

[Footnote 33: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 764.]

[Footnote 34:--Ibid, 770.]

[Footnote 35:--Ibid, 764.]

[Footnote 36: Britton, _Memoirs of the Rebellion on the Border_,
72.]

[Footnote 37: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 286.]

full extent of his active connection with the Confederacy was to save
to that Confederacy the Indian Territory. The Indian occupants in and
for themselves, unflattering as it may seem to them for historical
investigators to have to admit it, were not objects of his solicitude
except in so far as they contributed to his real and ultimate
endeavor. He never at any time or under any circumstances advocated
their use generally as soldiers outside of Indian Territory in regular
campaign work and offensively.[38] As guerrillas he would have used
them.[39] He would have sent them on predatory expeditions into Kansas
or any other near-by state where pillaging would have been profitable
or retaliatory; but never as an organized force, subject to the rules
of civilized warfare because fully cognizant of them.[40] It is
doubtful if he would ever have allowed them, had he consulted only his
own inclination, to so much as cross the line except under stress of
an attack from without. He would never have sanctioned their joining
an unprovoked invading force. In the treat