November 19, 1861; Yale, Oklahoma: The American Civil War affected the loyalties of many Indian tribes living along the Union and Confederate borders. Bitter divisions formed as Indians chose--or were forced to choose--sides. Opothleyahola, a revered Creek leader, attempted to remain loyal to the Union, assembling about 6,000 Union sympathizers among the Creeks and Seminoles in eastern Oklahoma. The Confederates, meanwhile, organized four Indian regiments. Commander of the Confederate Indian Department, Col. Douglas H. Cooper, commanded the Choctaw-Chickasaw regiment, and Col. Daniel Mclntosh commanded the Creek regiment. In November 1861, Cooper was determined either to turn Opothleyahola against the Union or force him out of the territory. Reinforced by about 500 men of the Ninth Texas Cavalry, Cooper and Mclntosh had a total of 1,400 men for the expedition.
Opothleyahola, contending with dwindling supplies and deteriorating weather, slowly moved his people north toward Kansas, where he hoped the Union Army would succor him. Cooper was headed toward the Cimarron River when he learned from a captured prisoner that Opothleyahola was said to be constructing a fort somewhere in the region. Cooper found the Creek camp, but the Indians were gone. The colonel spotted some stragglers, however, and followed them to their new camp, in the vicinity of present-day Yale, Oklahoma.
The Confederates' advance reached Opothleyahola's camp near sundown on 19 November. Right away, about 150 men of Cooper's regiment dismounted and approached the outer camp. As the troopers made their way across a twisting creek and swamp, about 250 warriors confronted them. The Creeks fired on the soldiers, killing Pvt. John H. Crow and hitting several horses, then set fire to the prairie on the Confederates' right. Capt. R. A. Young, seeing Indians advancing on his flank in the darkness, pulled his command back. The Creeks followed for a time, then broke off the action. Young estimated the whole fight lasted only about fifteen minutes.
Cooper set out to attack Opothleyahola's camp again the next morning, but the Creeks were gone. The brief engagement was the first fight to take place in Indian Territory during the Civil War.
