General Cooper, with his regiment and battalion of Choctaws
and Chickasaws, and" by "Colonel McIntosh with 200 men of his regiment
of Creeks."[67] The delinquent wayfarers were both fortunate and
unfortunate in thus tardily arriving upon the scene. They had missed
the fight but they had also missed the temptation to revert to the
savagery that was soon to bring fearful ignominy upon their neighbors.
To the very last of the Pea Ridge engagement, Stand Watie's men were
active. They covered the retreat of the main army, to a certain
extent. They were mostly half-breeds and, so far as can be definitely
ascertained, were entirely guiltless of the atrocities charged against
the others.

General Pike gave the permission to fight "in their own fashion"
specifically to the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles, who were, for the
most part, full-blooded Indians; but he later confessed that, in his
treaty negotiations with the tribes, they had generally stipulated
that they should, if they fought at all, be allowed to fight as they
knew how.[68] Yet they probably did not mean, thereby, to commit
atrocities and the Cherokee National Council lost no time, after the
Indian shortcomings

[Footnote 67: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 292.]

[Footnote 68:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 819.]

at the Battle of Pea Ridge had become known, in putting itself on
record as standing opposed to the sort of thing that had occurred,

_Resolved_, That in the opinion of the National Council,
the war now existing between the said United States and the
Confederate States and their Indian allies should be conducted on
the most humane principles which govern the usages of war among
civilized nations, and that it be and is earnestly recommended to
the troops of this nation in the service of the Confederate States
to avoid any acts toward captured or fallen foes that would be
incompatible with such usages.[69]

The atrocities committed by the Indians became almost immediately
a matter for correspondence between the opposing commanders. The
Federals charged mutilation of dead bodies on the battle-field and the
tomahawking and scalping of prisoners. The Confederates recriminated
as against persons "alleged to be Germans." The case involving the
Indians was reported to the joint committee of Congress on the
_Conduct of the Present War_;[70] but at least one piece of
evidence was not, at that time, forthcoming, a piece that, in a
certain s