Colonel Cooper was less than confident in the battle readiness of his troops, especially those among John Drew's First Cherokee Mounted Rifles with whom he knew considerable Union sentiment existed. When he learned that Opothle Yahola and his Creek followers had taken refuge within the Cherokee Nation, he was even more concerned. Withdrawing his troops to Spring Hill, he allowed them to rest and recuperate before once again setting out against Opothle Yahola. Knowing that the next battle would be fought within the Cherokee Nation in a district where loyalty to John Ross was strong, he set forth upon a decisive plan to ensnare and eliminate his opposition.
As Cooper's forces were preparing for yet another conflict, Captain James McDaniel and his Confederate troops were encamped within close proximity of Opothle Yahola and his renegade band of blacks and Indians. McDaniel's troops were in constant communication with the Opothle Yahola's soldiers and, when asked by Drew to report on the location of the renegades, McDaniel informed Drew that he could not do so. He further informed Drew that his sentiments lie with his fellow Keetoowah on the other side and not with the Confederacy. In spite of poor communication with Cooper, McDaniels "always sent a secret message to the Loyal League [Keetoowah], in the rebel service [Drew's Regiment] informing them of his real movements."140
In late November, rumors that McDaniels and his fellow Keetoowah were associating with the enemy swept through Fort Gibson where William Potter Ross and Lewis Downing were currently stationed. When Chaplain Downing left for Camp Coody to deliver supplies to Drew's troops, a large number of his regiment sought to accompany him to the place where the impending battle was to occur. However, only a small group of men were chosen to accompany Downing in his return to Camp Coody where the rest of the Drew's Battalion lie in wait for the impending battle. 141 Though Colonel Drew again knew precious little of Downing's activities, "the Yankee abolitionist"142 Opothle Yahola and his followers were kept well abreast of Downing's movements.143
On November 27, Colonel Cooper and his refreshed troops set forth from Spring Hill to Bird's Creek to overtake and destroy Opothle Yahola and his followers. Colonel William Sims' Ninth Texas Cavalry Regiment was given the order to ride up the Verdigris River towards Camp Coody where they were to rendezvous with Drew's First Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles. The combined troops were to move on the Union Indians from different angles in order to trap the renegades. When learning of Cooper's plans, Colonel Drew announced that his troops would rendezvous with Cooper's column on the road to James McDaniel's house.144
In early December, rumors once again began to spread throughout the district that Captain James McDaniel and his company of Keetoowah had deserted to the enemy. Drew, attempting to verify the rumor, sent a messenger to Camp McDaniel and ordered Captain McDaniel and his troops to return to Camp Coody and the Confederate Cherokee. The courier returned with the message that Opothle Yahola and his forces had created a breastwork of logs and made their stand at Bird Creek near McDaniel's home. It was also quite apparent to the courier that an entire company of Drew's Regiment had deserted the Confederacy and had joined with Opothle Yahola and his renegade exodus.145
Upon receiving final confirmation of orders to meet with Colonel Cooper and Colonel Sims at Chief David Vann's homestead, Drew's Cherokee forces hurried to make their rendezvous with the Army of the Confederate States on December 7, 1861. Mysteriously, Colonel Drew and his Keetoowah soldiers "misunderstood" their orders and somehow made their camp less than six miles northeast of the position held by Opothle Yahola and his troops. On several occasions, there were short engagements with the enemy.
At one point, Captain George Scraper and his Keetoowah men captured eight or ten Union Indians. Another small scouting party of Cherokee loyalists detected nearly a dozen Cherokee from the other side. When asked by the Union Indians on which side they belonged, Captain Pickens Benge replied that "he belonged to the Cherokee regiment who were soldiers of the South."146 For whatever reasons, these enemy soldiers were allowed to escape with their lives, and made a hasty retreat back to their camp.
That night, some of the Keetoowah who were on guard duty at Camp Melton were surprised to see Captain James McDaniel approaching, giving them the hailing signs of their secret society. Allowed to pass the pickets, McDaniel met with the Keetoowah of Drew's First Regiment of the Confederate States of America (probably Lewis Downing, Budd Gritts, Smith Christie, and Thomas Pegg). At this meeting of Union and Confederate Keetoowah, they planned what their course of action would be over the next several days. The Keetoowah under Drew's command confessed that they were serving in the Confederate Army both against their will and in opposition to the laws of the Keetoowah Society.147 On that night, moved by the "Kituwah spirit," the men in Drew's regiment decided to take their guns, horses, and ammunition and join their brethren on the other side of the line that separated North from South.148
The following morning, Colonel Drew announced that Chief Opothle Yahola had sent a message to Colonel Cooper of the Army of the Confederate States of America, "expressing a desire to make peace." After a short meeting between Colonel Drew, Colonel David McIntosh, and Colonel Cooper, members of Drew's regiment were sent to the opposing camp, expressing the concern that "they did not desire the shedding of blood among Indians." The peace delegation sent from Drew's delegation was composed entirely of Keetoowah officers (Chaplain Lewis Downing, Major Thomas Pegg, Captain John Porum Davis, and Captain George Scraper). They were led to Chief Opothle Yahola's camp by the Creek scouts who earlier had been captured by Captain Scraper.149 Upon reaching the Mvskoke camp, the Cherokee met a fearsome presentation, There were hundreds of warriors painted for battle who made threats toward the Cherokee soldiers and threatened a night attack.150 Surely, this was an elaborate ruse.
Meanwhile, in Drew's camp, the remaining Keetoowah spread the rumor among the troops of an impending assault by an overwhelming force of African Americans and Native Americans under the leadership of the fierce warrior Opothle Yahola. The Pins among Drew's Confederate Cherokee had little sympathy for the Confederacy. They were also quite reluctant to fight against their fellow Pins among the Union Creek and Seminole whose only offense was loyalty to "the old ways" and to the tenets of the "white path of righteousness." Throughout the early night, messengers passed through the pickets of the opposing sides, using the hailing signs that were such an ancient part of the indigenous culture.
Unwilling to fight against their brother Keetoowah in the opposing camp, three-quarters of Drew's regiment tied cornhusks in their hair and made their way across the cornfield to the other side. As they passed one another, the Keetoowah brothers would ask "Who are you?" The reply from the other side would come, "Tahlequah -- who are you?" Defenses were lowered and unity restored with the words, "I am Keetoowah's son." 151 In the midst of political division, class conflict, racial animosity, and even brotherly disunion, the breach was sealed by the words "I am Keetoowah's son."
Captain James Vann, Captain Albert Pike (Cherokee), Captain George Scraper, Lieutenants White Catcher, Eli Smith, Samuel Foster, John Bear Meat, and Nathaniel Fish and most of their troops joined with Opothle Yahola. The entire peace conference had been an elaborate ruse to allow the officers of Drew's regiment to be away from camp so that most of the regiment could desert and join their fellow Keetoowah without a fight. The plan, perfected in the secret meeting the night before, had worked perfectly. The Keetoowah were united once again. In all, some six hundred Confederate soldiers would desert and join Chief Opothle Yahola's forces, and eventually the Army of the United States of America.152
Michael Roethler, in his dissertation "Negro Slavery among the Cherokee Indians: 1540-1866," poses an interesting question seldom explored in other stories of the Drew's regiment. He states, "By the time of the defection Drew's regiment contained many Negro slaves who, for the most part, had freely joined the army with their masters. The Indian slaves served well in the border warfare, and there was no recognized difference of social status between the red and black soldier." 153Given that, as late as 1863, Drew's command contained "many Negro slaves who, for the most part, had freely joined the army with their masters," it is likely that Drew's command in 1861 contained many Negro slaves. Among the Keetoowah, for whom bonds of culture and community transcended lines of clan, of Nation, and possibly even of "race," there were probably African Americans. Among the Baptists who made up Drew's command, there were most certainly African Americans. When asked who he was as he crossed lines to join his brethren, the black soldier would most likely answer, "I am Keetoowah's son!"
140 Cherokee Nation, Memorial of the Delegates of the Cherokee Nation to the President of the United States and the Senate and the House of Representatives in Congress, 5. 141 William Potter Ross to John Drew, November 29, 1861, in Foreman Papers, Gilcrease Institute of Art and History, Tulsa Oklahoma. 142 This is how the Southern newspapers portrayed Opothle Yahola and his "four thousand" warriors as they fled across the Cherokee Nation for Kansas. (Monaghan, 225) 143 United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. VIII, 7. 144 Ibid. 145 Ibid. 146 Pickens Benge quoted in Gaines, 45. 147 United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. VIII, 7-8. 148 Delegates of the Cherokee Nation, Memorial of the Delegates of the Cherokee Nation to the President of the United States and the Senate and the House of Representatives in Congress (Washington, D.C., 1866), 5-6. 149 United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. VIII, 7-8. 150 Bearss, "The Civil War Comes to Indian Territory, 1861, The Flight of Opothleyoholo," 21. 151 Mooney, 226. 152 United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. VIII, 7. 153 Michael Roethler, "Negro Slavery among the Cherokee Indians, 1540-1866" (Ph.D. diss., Fordham University, 1964), 212.