My Family During the Civil War

                             Mississippia Paul Hull

          As late as 1858, my great great grandparents, Smith and Ellen Paul, were living right next to Fort Arbuckle, one of the principal forts on the frontier. (see posts of March 19, March 25, and April 2, 2011) They had moved there in 1851 for the safety the fort provided from roving bands of  hostile Indians. As a war between North and South became more eminent, living next to a fort wasn't such a good idea, so in 1859 Smith Paul moved about twenty miles north, to a fertile valley located where Rush Creek joins the Washita River. I don't actually know whether Smith Paul was that prescient about the events to come, or if his decision was just a coincidence, but by the time the Civil War started, he had established another farm at a fairly safe distance from the fort.  

          The land that Smith Paul chose for his new farm was remarkably productive. According to my great aunt Sippia, who was 9 years old at the time, her father's farm produced 30 to 40 bushels of corn per acre without cultivation. Smith Paul built a double log cabin for his family. A "double log cabin" was simply two log cabins built close together, with doors opening into a small space between them. Aunt Sippia said that "These houses though they were crude were comfortable." For several years Smith Paul was the only white man living in the area.  

          In 1861, Confederate troops invaded Indian Territory from Arkansas to the east, and from Texas to the south. Federal troops immediately abandoned Forts Washita, Arbuckle, and Cobb with the help of the Delaware chief, Black Beaver. (see post of April 17, 2011)

          For the course of the War, Indian Territory belonged to the South. It is ironic that the Indians would take the side of the same greedy settlers who had driven them from their homes just 24 years before, and if it had been up to the full bloods, Indian Territory might have remained neutral. Cherokee Chief John Ross sent a letter to Chickasaw Governor Cyrus Harris warning him not to enter into "a family misunderstanding" between the whites "in which…we have no direct and proper concern," but many of the mixed bloods owned slaves and shared a life style similar to southern plantation owners. Also most of the Indians blamed the federal government under Andrew Jackson for the suffering caused by the Removal, and more recently several bills had been submitted to Congress proposing to open Indian Territory to white settlement.  

          The Confederacy coveted Indian Territory for its rich farm land, and also for its strategic location between east and west. Confederate representatives promised to continue the tribes' annuities and to guarantee their independence, and possibly of more significance, they now occupied the forts. Aunt Sippia said simply:  

          When the war broke out the Government removed the troops from Fort Arbuckle, taking away the protection of the Indians, so the Chickasaws were compelled through force of circumstances to enlist with the Confederates. 

          Aunt Sippia goes on:  

          When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the friendly Plains Indians came around the locality where my father had his farm. They were Comanche, Caddo, Cheyenne, Osages, and I think some Delaware. One mixed band located at Cherokee Town, another on my father's farm, a band of Osage across the river and a band of Caddo Indians under old lady White Bead, five miles up the river. And the government realized that they must do something for these Indians, so they appointed my father as an agent, to issue them rations. This was one reason that my father did not have to go to war.  

          Smith and Ellen's family included Ellen's older brother Ja-pawne; her daughter Katherine, who was married to an easterner named Tom Waite; a son Tecumseh, who was married to a Chickasaw woman, Mary McKinsey, and two other sons too young to be conscripted into the army. Uncle Ja-Pawne, along with the two older siblings, took their families to Kansas, where they lived with the Sauk and Fox tribe for the duration of the war. Hull may have had Northern sympathies - I don't know. Uncle Ja-Pawnee and Tecumseh, I'm pretty sure, left because they wanted no part in the white man's battles.    

          Although there wasn't much fighting in Indian Territory during the Civil War, at least not as far west as Smith Paul's farm, our family certainly felt the effects of the war. First, the absence of federal troops at Fort Arbuckle exposed them again to raids from hostile tribes. Aunt Sippia: 

          During the time that my father was agent over the friendly plains Indians, there were wild Indians from Texas and what is now western Oklahoma, that came into this section of the country killing and robbing people. We were always afraid they were coming to molest us, but they never did. However, they did come near enough at one time to scalp one of the Courtney boys, whose father had a farm on "Courtney Flats." There were times when we would hear they were coming and would hide out in the corn fields and in the woods during the day and night.          

          The friendly tribes living nearby offered protection and also meat, since Smith Paul was not yet raising cattle. Aunt Sippia recalled: 

          I remember well when the buffalo roamed this country. The friendly Indians always kept us in buffalo meat. The deer, wild turkey, prairie chicken and quail were in great abundance. There was never any need for us to be without fresh meat. 

          According to Aunt Sippia, the family's main hardship during the war was the lack of manufactured goods.  

          During the Civil War we had to spin and weave all of our cloth, to make our clothes, and knit our hose. I was anxious to do what every one else did and they let me, although I was only about nine years old, I wove enough cloth to make me a dress, even though it looked rather knottie, they made me a dress out of it. The cotton from which we spun the thread had to be picked from the seeds with our fingers. We usually did this work at night. The pecans grew in this locality in great abundance as they do today, and we ate nuts and picked the cotton off the seeds and my mother would tell us Indian legends. We learned by putting the cotton down by the fire and getting it warm it was much easier to get the seeds out. It was during those early days that a man came through the country with what he called a miniature gin, similar to a clothes ringer of today, and this helped us to get the seeds out faster. Of course people came in to see how it worked and every one wanted to try and turn the handle and my brother boy-like turned it and broke the handle off. My mother used to make straw hats for the boys out of wheat straw and in the winter they would catch coons and she would make them caps out of the skins. My father would make us shoes out of cow-hide, he could do a little of everything, but this was only in war times. How I disliked them, and how glad I was when we could buy shoes ready made. 

Footnote: The quotations from Aunt Sippia, Mississippia Paul Hull, are from a talk she made in 1929. She was my great grandfather Sam Paul's younger sister.