FEBRUARY 2007
GENERAL ALBERT PIKE
A Most Unusual Confederate General
By a friend
Albert Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 29, 1809. He was the oldest child of Benjamin Pike and Sarah Andrews Pike. He could trace his ancestry in America back to John Pike (From Landford, England) and Dorothy Day Pike in Salisbury, Massachusetts in 1635.
Pike spent his early years in Byfield and Newburyport, Massachusetts. He attended schools in Newburyport and Framington, Massachusetts. In 1824 he began teaching school in Glouchester, Fairhaven, and Newburyport. In 1825, he attended Harvard for a year, but was unable to continue to pay the tuition. He continued to teach until 1831, and also began to write poetry, for which he would later become well known. He became an accomplished linguist, speaking Sanskrit , Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French. He later was able to show some proficiency in 16 different languages.
Pike's life changed dramatically in 1831, when he got the urge to go west. He traveled to Cincinnati, Nashville, Paducah, KY, and on to Ohio and Mississippi. By March he was in Independence, Missouri. He joined an expedition of trappers and explorers in St. Louis and set out for Santa Fe, New Mexico. He lost his horse and had to walk a good deal of the way. From there he traveled to west Texas , following the Pecos and Brazos Rivers, then into Oklahoma, and finally to Ft. Smith, Arkansas.
By 1833, he was a teacher in Poe County, Arkansas. He soon began to write of his adventures in the ARKANSAS ADVOCATE in Little Rock, Arkansas. He used there penname: "Casca." In the same year, he published : PROSE SKETCHES AND POEMS WRITTEN IN THE WESTERN COUNTRY, which was published in Boston.
On October 10, 1834, he married Mary Ann Hamilton. They would have six children. With the help of his wife's money, he purchased a share of the ARKANSAS ADVOCATE. He soon became the sole owner.
In 1835, he began his career as a lawyer. By 1840, was soon the first reporter of the Arkansas State Supreme Court. He also wrote for BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURG MAGAZINE. (He had sold the ADVOCATE in 1837). He later published : REPORTS OF CASES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS (1840-45).
When the Mexican War began, Pike joined Archibald Yell's regiment of volunteer cavalry, commanding Co. E. In 1847, he was at Buena Vista. However, he soon quarreled with his superiors. This led to a duel with Lieutenant Colonel John Roane in 1848. During the duel, four shots were fired, by neither man was hit.
Pike returned to Arkansas and soon began to be involved in politics. He was a Whig (Later, in 1857, becoming a member of the Know Nothing party). He was admitted to practice law before the Supreme Court.
In 1850, Pike became associated with Scottish Rite Masonry. By 1859, he was the highest ranking Mason in America, with the title of Grand Commander of the Supreme Grand Council, Southern District. He would retain that title for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, in 1853, Pike removed his law practice to New Orleans. Here he remained until moving back to Little Rock in 1857. During this time he wrote, but didn't publish: THE MAXIMS OF THE ROMAN AND SOME OF THE ANCIENT FRENCH LAW. He did publish: NUTE, a collection of poems, in 1854. Five years later, his scholarship was recognized by Harvard. He was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree.
In 1859, he became a lawyer for Choctaw and Creek Indians. (A law partner of his was Charles Adams, grandfather of Helen Keller). He also was an advocate of building a railroad from the west coast.
When the Civil War began, Pike opposed secession. However, after hostilities commenced, he embraced the southern cause. His contacts with Indian tribes allowed him to assist Confederate general Benjamin McCullouch in recruiting Indians, and negotiating treaties between the Confederacy and the Choctaws , Creeks, and Cherokees. On November 22, 1861, Albert Pike was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. (With seniority as of August 15, 1861). He raised a brigade of Indians, consisting of Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees, with the understanding that they would serve in the Confederate Department of Indian Territory.
This understanding with the Indians was broken in March of 1862, when they were ordered into battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Pike's Indians behaved badly during this battle. They scalped enemy soldiers and retreated ingloriously when Union artillery was employed against them. In the battle, General McCullouch was killed, and Pike became the commander of the Department of Indian Territory. However, his conduct and those of his Indians were criticized by General Thomas Carmicheal Hindman, then commanding the Confederate Department of the Trans-Mississippi.
Reacting to the criticism, in July of 1862, Pike published a circular titled: "Letter to the President of the Confederate States," defending his actions. He also offered his resignation on July 12th. This was responded to on August 9, 1862 by Jefferson Davis, who rebuked Pike for publishing the circular. Pike then tried to file charges against Hindman, and went on extended leave. At this point, on the recommendation of Colonel Douglas Hancock Cooper, Hindman had Pike arrested. He was confined in Warren, Texas. On November 19, 1862, Pike wrote a letter to Davis complaining about his arrest. By then, Davis had accepted Pike's resignation. Effective November 5, 1862, Pike was relieved of his command by Colonel Cooper, and was officially out of the Confederate Army. He was then released, and allowed to return to Arkansas.
Back in Little Rock, Pike resumed his law practice. In September of 1863, Little Rock was evacuated by the Confederates. During the Union occupation, Pike's home was protected from destruction by Union General William Benton, who was a Masonic official in Iowa. In 1865, Pike became an associate justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court.
When the war ended, the US Government chose to confiscate Pike's property. He was looked upon with great suspicion by both sides. Pike moved to New York City, but fearing arrest for treason (He had been indicted in Arkansas), he then moved to Canada. After an appeal, President Andrew Johnson on August 20, 1865 issued an order permitting Pike to return to the US. He would be unmolested in return for taking an oath of allegiance. Johnson issued him a full pardon on April 22, 1866.
Pike moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He took up the practice of law, and in 1867, became the editor of the MEMPHIS APPEAL. Some sources maintain that he had a connection to the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1868, he moved his law practice to Washington, DC. He also became the editor of: THE PATRIOT, dealing with the cases of the Supreme Court, and the district courts. Pike was well known by this time as a poet. (Perhaps his best known work to this time was an early poem written in 1839, called: "Hymns to the Gods."). In 1872, he published a collection of poems called: HYMNS TO THE GODS AND OTHER POEMS." This previous year, he had published a Masonic text: MORALS AND DOGMA OF THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY.
In 1876, Pike's wife, Mary Ann Hamilton, died. Of his six children, one son had already died in the service of the Confederacy. Another drowned in the Arkansas River. Three would survive him.
In 1880, Albert Pike retired and devoted his energy to Masonic studies. In his later years, he claimed to have visions of the future. He was regarded as a kind of mystic. Some sources claim that he practiced Satanism. His unusual appearance added to this image. He was a large man, with long hair, and a very long beard.
On April 2, 1891, Albert Pike died, appropriately enough, in the Scottish Rite Temple in Washington, DC. Thus ended the life of a teacher, a linguist, an explorer, a trapper, a poet, a lawyer, a politician, a newspaper man, an author, a prophet, and a most unusual Confederate general.
It had been his wish to be cremated and have his ashes spread in the vicinity of the Home of the Supreme Council. Instead, he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington. Here he remained until 1944, when his body was removed to the Scottish Rite Temple.
After his death, collections of his poems continued to be published. In 1900,there was: GENERAL ALBERT PIKE'S POEMS. In 1916 came: LYRICS AND LOVE SONGS, published by his daughter, Lillian Pike Roome.
A statue of Pike was erected in Washington by the Supreme Council, Southern District of the Masonic Order. It is the only statue of a Confederate general sitting on federal property in Washington, DC.
In his writings before his death, Pike foresaw the coming of three world wars. His predictions for the first two were amazingly accurate. In the first, he saw the destruction of the Russian Czarist empire and the rise of international communism. In the second, he saw the rise and fall of fascism, and the establishment afterwards of the state of Israel. His prediction for the third was the mutual destruction of Israel and the Muslim world. It is hard to discount this prediction based on recent events.
