Saddles of the Trans-Mississippi (District of the Indian Territory)

The Indian Territory District comprised the areas of Indian Reservations established by the U.S Government prior to the war and known generally today as the State of Oklahoma. After a series of false starts and largely through the efforts of Albert Pike and several prominent Indian leaders, many of the inhabitants of several of the Indian nations threw their support and troops squarely on the side of the Confederacy. These included the Choctaws, Creek and other Indian tribes.

Established as a Department in Nov. 1861 under the command of Albert Pike, it was later consolidated into the Trans-Mississippi Department. From Dec 1863 through Feb. 1865 this “Territory” was under the command of S.B. Maxey and then D.H. Cooper.

Surviving Confederate Ordnance records referencing supply to the District are few but suggest the Indian District was last for consideration even in the Trans-Mississippi where adequate supply was often an afterthought. Virtually nothing is known about the ordnance facilities or horse equipment manufacturing done within the Indian Territories if in fact, there was much done at all. Several Ordnance officers were located in various places within the District but any records or accounts of their duties, activities, trials and successes apparently have not survived.