ense, might be taken to exonerate the whites. It came to the
knowledge of General Blunt during the summer and was the Indians' own
confession. It bore only indirectly upon the actual atrocities but
showed that the red men were quite equal to making their own plans in
fighting and were not to be relied upon to do things decently and
in order. Drew's men, when they deserted the Confederates after the
skirmish of July third at Locust Grove, confided to the Federals the
intelligence "that the killing of the white rebels by the Indians in"
the Pea Ridge "fight was determined

[Footnote 69: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 826.]

[Footnote 70: By vote of the committee, General Curtis had been
instructed to furnish information on the subject of the employment of
Indians by the Confederates [_Journal_, 92].]

upon before they went into battle."[71] Presumptively, if the
Cherokees could plot to kill their own allies, they could be found
despicable enough and cruel enough to mutilate the dead,[72] were the
chance given them and that without any direction, instruction, or
encouragement from white men being needed.

The Confederate defeat at Pea Ridge was decisive and, as far as Van
Dorn's idea of relieving Missouri was concerned, fatally conclusive.
As early as the twenty-first of February, Beauregard had expressed a
wish to have him east of the Mississippi[73] and March had not yet
expired before Van Dorn was writing in such a way as to elicit the
consummation of the wish. The Federals were in occupation of the
northern part of Arkansas; but Van Dorn was very confident they would
not be able to subsist there long or "do much harm in the west."
In his opinion, therefore, it was incumbent upon the Confederates,
instead of dividing their strength between the east and the west, to
concentrate on the saving of the Mississippi.[74] To all appearances,
it was there that the situation was most critical. In due time, came
the order for Van Dorn to repair eastward and to take with him all the
troops that might be found available.

The completeness of Curtis's victory, the loss to the Southerners, by
death or capture, of some of their best-loved and ablest commanders,
McCulloch, McIntosh, Hebert, and the nature of the country through
which the Federals pursued their fleeing forces, to say nothing of the
miscellaneous and badly-trained character of

[Footnote 71: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 486.]

[Footnote 72: The same charge was m