of organization.

It will be remembered that, in November of the preceding year, the
Department of Indian Territory had been created and Brigadier-general
Albert Pike assigned to the same.[30] His authority was not explicitly

[Footnote 26: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 767,
774.]

[Footnote 27: Van Dora's protection, if given, was given to little
purpose; for the mines were soon abandoned [Britton, _Memoirs of the
Rebellion on the Border, 1863_, 120].]

[Footnote 28: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 734.]

[Footnote 29:--Ibid., 745.]

[Footnote 30:--Ibid., 690.]

superseded by that which later clothed Van Dorn and yet his department
was now to be absorbed by a military district, which was itself merely
a section of another department. The name and organization of the
Department of Indian Territory remained to breed confusion, disorder,
and serious discontent at a slightly subsequent time. Of course, since
the ratification of the treaties of alliance with the tribes, there
was no question to be raised concerning the status of Indian Territory
as definitely a possession of the Southern Confederacy. Indeed, it
had, in a way, been counted as such, actual and prospective, ever
since the enactment of the marque and reprisal law of May 6, 1861.[31]