"Man Must Die Sometime...": The Engagement at Honey Springs

Today is the sesquicentennial of the engagement at Honey Springs in the Indian Territory. The Honey Springs Battlefield is preserved today by the State of Oklahoma and is well worth visiting. About 2,800 Union soldiers and between 3,400-5,100 Confederate soldiers were at the battle according to an Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture article. Besides being a significant Union victory, the engagement was notable for the fact that white troops, Native American units, and an African-American regiment (the 1^st Kansas) were involved in the battle.

A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy: The Autobiography of Chief G. W. Grayson, edited by W. David Baird, is a favorite Oklahoma history book of mine. George Washington Grayson served in the Second Creek Mounted Rifles at Honey Springs and here is a portion of his account of the engagement:

“…with our colonel Chilly McIntosh in immediate command, we were ordered to occupy a certain position in a dense bottom of the creek, and to remain out of sight under cover of the foliage of the trees until ordered to take active part in the day’s work. Here we remained listening breathlessly at the rattle of small arms and an occasional exulting whoop that was one of the characteristics of the fighters of the southern forces, and anxious to take a hand in the affray, but could do nothing without orders. The morale of our men was the best, and they could and would have made things alarmingly unpleasant for whomever they might be pitted against.

On this occasion I remember hearing delivered by our colonel in Indian the finest war-speech I ever heard. Among other things said by him in [the] course of his talk in which the men were urged when the time came to do their full duty fearlessly and bravely, [was]

When you first saw the light, it was said of you ‘a man child is born.’ You must prove today whether or not this saying of you was true. The sun that hangs over our heads has no death, no end of days. It will continue indefinitely to rise and to set; but with you it is different. Man must die sometime, and since he must die, he can find no nobler death than that which overtakes him while fighting for his home, his fires and his country.” (pages 62-63).

An Eastern-centric Sesquicentennial?

The Wall Street Journal featured today a listing of the five best “Civil War Diaries, Blue and Gray” by Harold Holzer. The list is:

Beale, Howard K., ed., Diary of Gideon Welles (1960)

Jones, John B. A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital (1866)

Nevins, Allan and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds., The Diary of George Templeton Strong, 1835-1875 (1952)

Russell, William Howard. My Diary North and South (1863)

Woodward, C. Vann, ed., Mary Chesnut’s Civil War (1981)

These are all Civil War classics written by civilians, but I fear that this is just a foretaste of what is to come during the sesquicentennial. Reading only the above primary accounts would leave a reader with mostly an eastern-centric focus, and as you know, there was much more to the war than what happened in the east. I fear that the national media will place a heavy emphasis on the war in the east with only occasional, trivia like mentions of the war in the trans-Mississippi. To broaden out Mr. Holzer’s list somewhat, I have created my own, admittedly subjective and personal list. The six books that I have selected are all primary accounts written by soldiers, but they are not confined to the diary format; all relate, of course to the trans-Mississippi. Here are the first selections:

Alberts, Don E. Rebels on the Rio Grande: The Civil War Journal of A. B. Peticolas (Albuquerque: Merit Press, 1993).

A soldier illustrated account of the Confederacy’s invasion of New Mexico in 1862, A. B. Peticolas, an attorney in civilian life, served in the Fourth Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers during a campaign that covered hundreds of miles through the deserts of west Texas and finally into the mountains of northern New Mexico. Peticolas’ journal contains vivid accounts of fighting at Valverde and Glorieta. He also fully acknowledges the incredible human suffering caused by campaigning in a hostile environment.

Baird, W. David, ed., A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy: The Autobiography Of Chief G. W. Grayson (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988).

George Washington Grayson served in Creek Indian units throughout the war in the Indian Territory. Honey Springs, Flat Rock, 2^nd Cabin Creek, and other small actions are documented in this small volume. An unusual feature of this book is that both the antebellum and the postwar periods were discussed making for a well-rounded account. Grayson’s narration reveals that he was an intelligent man and a careful observer. I like the little, revealing touches in the book such as “I had loudly encouraged and cheered my men from the first, speaking always in Indian, until my voice gave way under the continued strain, and was now only a whisper and could scarcely be heard at all” (p. 103).