thleyohola was given a few weeks'
respite. As soon, however, as the Union army retreated to Rolla and
Sedalia, Col. Cooper resumed his operations against Hopoeithleyohola,
who at Chusto-Talasah, Dec. 9, inflicted such a severe defeat upon him
that Cooper retreated in a crippled condition to Fort Gibson. There Col.
James Mcintosh, commanding the Confederate forces at Van Buren, Ark.,
went to his assistance with some 1,600 mounted Texans and Arkansans, and
the combined force closed in upon the Union Indians at Shoal Greek.

284

Hopoeithleyohola and his Lieutenant, Haleck-Tustenugge, handled their
men with the greatest skill and courage in an obstinate battle, but
after four hours of resistance the overpowered Union Indians were
driven, pursued by Stand Waitie's murderous half-breeds, who took no
men and but few women and children prisoners. Back over the wide,
shelterless prairie, bitten by the cruel cold and pelted by the storms
of an unusually severe Midwinter, Hopoeithleyohola led his defeated
band to a refuge in far-away Kansas. The weather was so severe that Col.
Cooper reports some his men as frozen to death as they rode along, but
the scent of blood was in the half-breed Stand Waitie's nostrils, and he
pressed onward remorselessly.

More than 1,000 men, women and children of Hopoeithleyohola's band
left their homes to whiten and mark the dismal trail, and the aged Chief
himself died shortly after reaching Fort Scott, where he was buried with
all the honors of war.

Upon the fertile Indian Territory descended the war storm which
blighted the work of the missionaries, and completely ruined the
fairest prospects in our history for civilizing and Christianizing
the aborigines. When the storm ended, one-quarter of the people had
perished, the fences, houses, mills, schoolhouses and churches were all
burnt, and the hundreds of thousands of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs
had disappeared so completely that the Government was compelled to
furnish the Indians with animals to stock their farms anew.

285

Sterling Price had reached his zenith in the capture of Lexington, Sept
20, 1861. In substantial results it was the biggest achievement of the
war that far. Bull Run had been, indeed, a much larger battle, but at
Lexington Price had captured 3,000 prisoners, including five Colonels
and 120 other commissioned officers; 1,000 horses and mules; 100 wagons;
seven pieces of artillery; 3,000 stands of arms; $900,000 in