War in Indian Territory vs Other Theaters?

The popular belief is that they wore no uniforms at all or captured Union ones, but its rather complicated.

There were several times Texas made uniforms, "Penitentiary uniforms" usually made out of white kersey wool, or brown-to-white colored jean cloth uniforms made it to them on several occasions, but them being behind enemy lines so often, as the lines were fluid and the same "I want something from home syndrome" as I call it that was a widespread thing. Basically it was the soldiers, on both sides early in the War, but extremely common throughout the Confederate Army as a whole where they would throw away an issue uniform and wear clothes sent from home, even if in rags, over something issued to them. That habit did however die by the last year of the War as on the Homefront cloth was either unavailable to the public, or they were within Union lines and they couldn't get it to their loved ones in the field. Thus by the end of the War Confederate soldiers as a whole were usually better uniformed than at any other time, and sometimes looked pretty regulation, depending on where their uniforms were coming from.

For Confederate Indians, I'd say they got issued at least one uniform during the War, but for the most part they wore stuff from home, a lot of it quite colorful, (they liked multi colored vertical striped fabric as a fashion, but made into the same kinds of sack coat, and frock coats as whites wore), and I believe the fabric itself was woven at home, so I'd say they had that most of the time. While they did get supplies, it was seldom due to many, many factors, but not out of lack of effort on some quartermaster's parts. I've read some sources that state uniforms had been stockpiled at Middle Boggy Depot along with other supplies, for Confederate Indian troops in the Territory, but it can be presumed that this was only a short period of regular supply, as Union troops defeated the tiny garrison in a small forgotten fight near the depot, and subsequently, burned the Confederate Depot there.

Heck in "A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy" Grayson makes mention of one soldier under his command firing his flintlock squirrel rifle off in Grayson's face in 1864 leaving him with a powder burn scar on his face under his eye for the rest of life. This is indicative that modern arms were never in abundance for everyone, when they were getting rifles from Texas and Federal "sources". So one can infer that where uniforms are concerned a similar dynamic happened, in essence they got some, but never enough.

According to several sources when Watie's troops took the J.R. Williams on the Arkansas River, (if I remember right on the specific river), the ship had a large amount of black dinner coats, or tailcoats along with top hats, and this was looted to the effect of giving Watie's troops a distinctive uniform for a while late in the War.

I'm still researching the subject so, I don't have a clear hundred percent picture, but I can take solace from the fact I've never seen anyone else have a definitive study on it, so that makes me feel better.

Theres also the estimated 1.5 million in supplies they captured at 2nd cabin creek, besides the J R williams
 
Theres also the estimated 1.5 million in supplies they captured at 2nd cabin creek, besides the J R williams

Yes, but the forgotten part of that is a lot of those supplies got burned not to long after to escape Union pursuit. Plus there was a lot of supplies not munitions of war that somehow got looted by Indians who decided to go home not to long afterwards.

The main problem Watie, Cooper, Pike and others had was if they were defeated in battle, large numbers of their troops would switch sides, and if they won a battle a lot of them went home either forever, or a self awarded furlough till they felt like coming back. Indian troops could make wonderful soldiers, or be a headache from h*** depending on factors as simple as their mood.
 
Yes, but the forgotten part of that is a lot of those supplies got burned not to long after to escape Union pursuit. Plus there was a lot of supplies not munitions of war that somehow got looted by Indians who decided to go home not to long afterwards.

The main problem Watie, Cooper, Pike and others had was if they were defeated in battle, large numbers of their troops would switch sides, and if they won a battle a lot of them went home either forever, or a self awarded furlough till they felt like coming back. Indian troops could make wonderful soldiers, or be a headache from h*** depending on factors as simple as their mood.

Disagree a bit, Indian troops were little different then white troops, one has to look at individual units Waties Cherokee and many Choctaw.Chickasaw were very reliable, others such as Drews Cherokee weren't because of underlying loyalities........seem little different then some Arkansas and Tennessee units that had dubious loyalty and performance........
 
Why? They were defending their land, there was no mood from high command to support or reinforce a raid into Kansas from either Indian, Arkansas, or Missouri troops......Kansas was a backwater wasteland with nothing of value to invade....... Not to mention Kansas had gone through years of drought, little to even forage. Why Jayhawkers were stealing from Missouri who actually had something and weren't broke *** poor.

Actually the treaties they signed had said they weren't required to leave the IT, why when some went to PR it caused a little scuffle
If guerrillas or Cavalry troopers are going to be useful then they need to tie down enemy forces. One way to do that is to make deep penetration raids in enemy territory.
If all the Indian Braves can do is defend the IT then they are not allies of the Confederacy but Co-Belligerents . A Co-Belligerent us useful but not as useful as an ally that goes where needed. In fact the Confederate Indians did fight at Pea Ridge as mentioned but not all that successfully.
Leftyhunter
 
If guerrillas or Cavalry troopers are going to be useful then they need to tie down enemy forces. One way to do that is to make deep penetration raids in enemy territory.
If all the Indian Braves can do is defend the IT then they are not allies of the Confederacy but Co-Belligerents . A Co-Belligerent us useful but not as useful as an ally that goes where needed. In fact the Confederate Indians did fight at Pea Ridge as mentioned but not all that successfully.
Leftyhunter

I feel this is a problem of both the Union and Confederacy in that in many theaters battles were fought and operations conducted, but these were never coordinated in a grand strategy. This lack of coordination had an impact on the war. I am not sure Confederate leaders in Richmond understood how operations in the Indian Territory could be incorporated in to the over all Confederate grand strategy, if in fact an over all strategy existed.
 
I feel this is a problem of both the Union and Confederacy in that in many theaters battles were fought and operations conducted, but these were never coordinated in a grand strategy. This lack of coordination had an impact on the war. I am not sure Confederate leaders in Richmond understood how operations in the Indian Territory could be incorporated in to the over all Confederate grand strategy, if in fact an over all strategy existed.
True. One could argue it wasn't until eight odd years latter when the British established the Special Operations Executive that this problem was probably addressed.
Leftyhunter
 
While not comprehensive of the war in the Indian Territory, my thesis will give you a good bibliography to start. My conclusions are my own and are distinctly different from some of the espoused arguments in this thread. Your mileage may vary.
 

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