A Bostonian by birth, Albert Pike was already a successful newspaperman, poet/writer, and lawyer when the War Between the States broke out. Because he had lived and worked out West as both a schoolteacher and an attorney (he won a large lawsuit for the Creek Nation), Pike was asked to bring the Five Nations into the War on the side of the Confederacy. Commissioned a brigadier general in August of 1861, he was given command of the Department of Indian Territory and became the only Southern general to lead Native American troops into battle.

Pike did not, however, take well to the rigors of the military command structure and submitted his resignation in July of 1862. After it was accepted in November of that same year, Pike retreated to Arkansas and Texas, where he was looked on with suspicion by both governments for the remainder of the War.

Following the War, Pike worked as a lawyer and a journalist in both Memphis and Washington, DC. He was also a leading proponent of Freemasonry and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Washington.

"Everybody's Dixie"

This page is http://civilwarpoetry.org/authors/pike.htm
Last modified 16-April-2001