Daily Times
Leavenworth, Kansas
June 21, 1861
We find the following statements in New Orleans Crescent of Friday last. Of course many of the assertions contained therein are exaggerations:
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We had the pleasure yesterday of an interview with Mr. John A. Peel, who has just returned from Ouachita, in Indian Territory. Fort Ouachita [sic—Fort Washita], he informs us, and all the other forts in the Territory, were evacuated by the federal forces before the arrival of the Texas troops under Col. Young.
The company to which Mr. Peel belonged, the Dead Shot Rangers, from Jefferson, Texas, captured fourteen wagons belonging to Emory’s command, which had been left behind. A company from Fanin county also captured several wagons. Emory, finding the Texans in close pursuit of him, threw away guns, amunition and Government stores, into the Ouachita, first destroying the guns by breaking the locks and taking them to pieces. The enemy left at Fort Ouachita a large quantity of clothing, some provisions, and one field piece. At Fort Arbuckle, also, they abandoned various Government stores and supplies, most of which were stolen and carried away by the Indians before the Texans got there.
After taking possession of Fort Arbuckle, it was garrisoned by a company of Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians under Capt. McKinney. Fort Ouachita was garrisoned by the Deadshot Rangers under Capt. Mayberry.
Mr. Peel also informs us that the Chickasaws held a council on the 24th of May, and formally dissolved their connection with the United States Government, and issued a manifesto to the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Seminoles, and to the Reserve Indians, advising them to secede from the old Union and to petition the Southern Confederacy to be received as a
distinct organized Territory, instead of an Indian Territory. The friendly Indians are all in favor of it. They had ordered off all the Yankee missionaries in the country. The Indians also took up two abolitionists from Northern Texas, one of whom was a preacher, and hung them. The forts were all to be garrisoned in twenty days, in accordance with a treaty made with the Reserve Indians.
Mr. Peel also informs us that the Chickasaws held a council on the 24th of May, and formally dissolved their connection with the United States Government, and issued a manifesto to the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Seminoles, and to the Reserve Indians, advising them to secede from the old Union and to petition the Southern Confederacy to be received as a
distinct organized Territory, instead of an Indian Territory. The friendly Indians are all in favor of it. They had ordered off all the Yankee missionaries in the country. The Indians also took up two abolitionists from Northern Texas, one of whom was a preacher, and hung them. The forts were all to be garrisoned in twenty days, in accordance with a treaty made with the Reserve Indians.
Mr. Peel further states, in illustration of the spirit of the Texas troops, that within forty-eight hours after the news came across the Texas border that the Kansas bandit Montgomery was coming down, there were 10,000 men under arms, who started immediately to meet him. He says that, instead of there being any abolitionists in Northern Texas, the people are unanimous for fighting, and all classes, including preachers, were eager for the fray.