"Price could report optimistically that he had marched fourteen hundred and fifty-four miles, fought forty-three battles, and captured great quantities of Federal supplies. He did not say that he had lost five thousand stand of arms, all his cannon, and the greater part of his army."

"I have just returned from the West, where I have been for several months, having left Richmond for the purpose of visiting the Indians in the latter part of May last under orders from the War Department. This visit was the third which I have made to the Indian country since the organization of the Confederate Government, the first being made in the year 1862, and the second in the year 1863. The funds appropriated by Congress at its last session, and its last session but one, for the Indian service I took with me and disbursed according to the intention of that body in making such appropriations. While in the West I made a close examination, as was my duty, into the condition of the Indian country, and I discovered that many changes had been  p173 wrought therein since my visit last year, which will be understood by what follows. General Maxey, at whose headquarters in the Choctaw country I passed much of my time, was assigned to the command of the District of Indian Territory by General E. Kirby-Smith on the 11th of December, 1863, and commenced the discharge of his duties as such on the 24th of the same month. He has also been acting under orders from General Smith as superintendent of Indian affairs. He had in the district while I was there a brigade of Texas troops commanded by Colonel Gano, two or three unattached battalions and companies of Texans, and the Indian forces under General Cooper. Attempts were then being made — since, no doubt, carried into effect — to get all the able-bodied young Indians to enter the service. It was proposed to organize them with the other Indian troops into three brigades, to be called the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek brigades. The Cherokee brigade, composed of Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Osages, has been organized. The Creek brigade was about being so when I left, and the Choctaws anticipated no difficulty in being able to raise the number of men required to complete the organization of the Choctaw brigade.

"In the capacity of district commander, &c., General Maxey has attended to feeding the indigent refugee Indians of the various tribes within the limits of his command. The system of feeding these Indians out of the army commissariat was inaugurated, I believe, by General Hindman and it has been kept up to the present time. There was an urgent necessity for it at the time of its adoption, and, indeed, such has been the case ever since, as no provision has been made to feed them in any other way, and a failure in this respect would not only have entailed much suffering upon these people, but absolute starvation upon many, and produced an amount of disaffection within the several nations and tribes which would in the end no doubt have forever lost the Indian country to the South. In the beginning the task of feeding the indigent Indians was one of easy accomplishment, as the number requiring such Government aid were but few. Owing, however, to the occupation of the Cherokee country north of the Arkansas River, and the consequent insecurity of those portions of the Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole countries contiguous to the Arkansas River in the south, hundreds of families have been driven from their homes, and are  p174 now crowded in camps in the lower counties of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nation, generally in a state of the greatest destitution. From papers furnished me by General Maxey I have ascertained that these indigent refugees at present amount to some 15,000 or 16,000. Of course the labor of feeding them, although they are located close to Red River, and within easy reach of the grain region of Texas, has become one of great difficulty. A plan to supply them with provisions was adopted by General Maxey soon after he assumed command of the district which has been found to work well in the main, but is open to one very serious objection. In order to secure regularity in the obtaining the necessary supplies, their proper distribution, and to prevent frauds upon the Government, he has appointed a number of officers to supervise and attend to the matter, to wit, a superintendent of issues, an inspector of camps, and issuing agent, &c., but there is no law authorizing such appointments. It was necessary that some such system as the foregoing should have been adopted, however, and perhaps the difficulty just suggested could have been avoided had he made regular bonded agents of the commissary department, the superintendent of issues, inspector of camps, &c. The supplies, too, being drawn from the commissariat it is appropriate that they be managed by officers of the commissary department. I desire and respect­fully ask advice upon this point.

"An act was passed by Congress at its last session and approved May 24, 1864, providing for an exchange with the loyal Indians by the Secretary of the Treasury of not more than $150,000 of the Treasury notes held by them on the 1st day of July, 1864, in notes of the new issue authorized by the act of February 17, 1864, without deduction. This law was enacted after my departure from Richmond for the Indian country. As it was known by Congress at the time of its introduction that I was about making that visit, the law empowered the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to supervise said exchange and see that no frauds were committed. I received, too, yesterday an official copy of this act referred to me by yourself on the 3rd of June, several days after my departure, with an indorsement made by the President May 31, 1864, calling attention to the liability of the execution of this act being attended by fraud, and advising care and caution. I did not reach the Indian country for several  p175 days subsequent to the said 1st of July, and I learned that the Indians had, on or about that day, turned over to certain depositories of the Treasury in the Trans-Mississippi Department the Treasury notes held by them and taken certificates therefore.º They thus have been furnished with the strongest and most convincing evidence, to wit, certificates of depositories of the several amounts in their possession at the time specified in the law, and having no knowledge of the passage of the same at the time, they had no motive for, and consequently could not have perpetrated, frauds in making a deposit of the notes. The exchange referred to was not made with the Indians during my stay in the West, the agent of the Treasury for the Trans-Mississippi Department not having received the necessary instructions on the subject from the Secretary of the Treasury, owing, I presume, to the pressure of business on the Treasury Department, and the late changes therein. I wrote you a letter in regard to this fact on the 1st instant with the view of having it brought to the early attention of the Secretary of the Treasury, as prompt action on the subject is necessary in order to prevent dissatisfaction among the Indians. There is no Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The want of such an officer has given me much trouble and inconvenience, and been the cause of some complications in the administration of the affairs of this office.

"The President long ago, upon a suggestion similar to the above, instructed me to look for and recommend a suitable man for the position. The office is one of considerable importance and great care should be taken in the selection of the person to fill it. I have hitherto been unable to find one in every respect fitted for it, but hope to do so before the adjournment of the present Congress. The Superintendent of Indian Affairs has to be a bonded officer, as the greater portion of the funds intended for the Indian service has to pass through his hands. Finding it necessary to leave in the Trans-Mississippi Department funds to meet certain expenses with regard to the superintendency, etc, which I knew must accrue after my departure, and having no superintendent to take charge of them (and at the urging solicitation, too, of General Maxey), I determined to call upon General Smith for assistance in making the necessary arrangements to meet the difficulty. On the 6th of October last I wrote to him as follows:

"In response to this letter General Smith appointed Mr. Robert C. Miller, who had been highly recommended for position in the Indian service, an agent in quartermaster's department for the disbursement of certain moneys appertaining to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and ordered him to report to me. He gave the requisite bond, one fully covering the case, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties. This procedure was somewhat informal, but in my opinion strictly legal, and justified by the circumstances. All of the papers relating to this appointment which were forwarded by General Smith for ratification will be submitted by me in person. On the 23rd of August last, in my letter to you from Fort Towson, C. N., giving an account of the general condition of the Indians and the Indian country, I made the annexed statement in regard to arms for the Indian forces:

"On the 12th September General Maxey wrote to me as follows on this subject:

"The wants of the Indians in this respect, I would suggest, ought to be supplied if possible, and at an early day. By act of Congress approved February 15, 1862, the Indian country was divided into two judicial districts, called the districts of Cha-la-ki and Tash-co-homma, and courts for each of them established. These courts have never been organized. This is a misfortune just at this time, owing to the disturbed condition of the country, &c., and although it is a matter that belongs to the Department of Justice, I would respect­fully suggest that measures ought to be immediately taken to correct it. I make the suggestions with the less hesitation because the want of these courts, as well as the want of reliable small-arms, the scarcity of good clothing, the irregularity with which the troops are paid, matters over which I have no sort of control and with which I have nothing to do as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, are the grounds and the only grounds of dissatisfaction on the part of many of the Indians with me, and have been made frequent subjects of complaint. The Indians in alliance with the Confederate States, especially those composing the five principal nations, were never more loyal than at the present time. This of course is generally known to be true of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and that portion of the Cherokee Nation which has followed during this struggle the fortunes of the gallant Stand Watie; but the Creeks and Seminoles, about whose faithfulness some doubts may perhaps have been entertained, are in respect behind the others in devotion to the Southern cause and Southern principles. On the 9th of August last I met all the principal men of these two nations and many of their warriors in council at Fort Washita, in the Chickasaw country. To show the sentiment of these people I give below extracts from the talks of the chiefs on that occasion.  p178 Samuel Chekote [Checote], principal chief of the Creeks, among other things in his address to me, said:

"After alluding briefly to the sufferings of his people during the last year because of their having been driven from their homes by the enemy, he continues:

"Helma Micco or John Jumper, the principal chief of the Seminoles, a pure patriot, thus eloquently wrote me:

"The Indian troops, it may be well to remark in conclusion, have been doing recently good service, and have met with many successes. The achievements of the Choctaw Brigade in Arkansas and the Cherokee Brigade in the Indian country, have merited and obtained the high commendation in special orders of the general commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department. Before my departure from the Indian country, many of them, the Choctaws, Cherokees, and Seminoles, had re-enlisted with great uaminity [unanimity] for the war, and I doubt not that their example has been followed by all their brethren in the service."