CHOCTAW NATION CONFEDERATE SCRIP

 

Lot 6108 in our November 2025 Showcase auction is an interesting piece of scrip with a storied past. This $3 denominated piece dated May 16th, 1862 and bearing serial number 30 is signed and issued by Wm. Quesenbury, Major & Quarter Master, Indian Territory. In the Burgett tome, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Obsolete Notes and Scrip, it carries a Rarity-7 rating. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first public offering of any example from here, as multiple searches through various auction records have turned up nothing. Graded Very Fine 20 by PMG with a minor repair and previous mounting, the penned signature and printed elements retain plenty of sharpness. It carries a conservative pre-sale estimate of $1,250-$1,750.

After the southern states seceded from the United States of America, Albert Pike negotiated treaties between the Five Civilized Tribes and the Confederate government, promising that the Confederacy would take over the obligations that the Union failed to fulfill, as well as defense for the Indian Territory. Pike was appointed commander of the Department of the Indian Territory in November 1861. His first assignment was to construct a fort north of Bacone College on the Arkansas River near Muskogee. He named this site Cantonment Davis. However, he and his troops were ordered to leave the site to support the Confederate troops at Pea Ridge. They never returned to Cantonment Davis.

Pike's Native American troops participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge near Leetown, Arkansas in March 1862, which resulted in a defeat for the Confederate Army. Pike then considered that his Indian Territory command post at Fort Davis, Cherokee Nation, was vulnerable to a Union attack and ultimately abandoned it. He retreated to the Choctaw Nation in southern Indian Territory. Pike chose a site on a bluff on the west side of the Blue River near Nail's Crossing, where he established Fort McCulloch, named for General Benjamin McCulloch, who fell in battle at Pea Ridge.

The site, about three miles (4.8 km) southwest of the present-day town of Kenefic, Oklahoma in present day Bryan County OK, controlled military roads linking Fort Smith with Fort Washita, Fort Gibson and north Texas. The fort had earthworks, but no permanent buildings. Its importance diminished after Pike resigned his command in July 1862, but was not abandoned until the end of the war. Meanwhile, it served as a haven for pro-Confederate refugees. General Stand Watie used it briefly as a command post in 1865. The site of Fort McCulloch was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

To read the complete article, see:
Rare Civil War Era Indian Territory Confederate Issued $3 Sutler Scrip (https://stacksbowers.com/rare-civil-war-era-indian-territory-confederate-issued-3-sutler-scrip/)

To read the complete lot description, see:
Fort McCulloch, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. W. Quesenbury. 1862 $3. PMG Very Fine 20. Sutler Scrip. (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1MX86I/fort-mcculloch-choctaw-nation-indian-territory-w-quesenbury-1862-3-pmg-very-fine-20-sutler-scrip)

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