Albert Pike Albert Pike ( December 29 , 1809 – April 2 , 1891 ) was an American attorney , Confederate officer , writer , and Freemason . Biography . Pike was born in Boston , Massachusetts , son of Ben and Sarah ( Andrews ) Pike , and spent his childhood in Byfield and Newburyport , Massachusetts . His colonial ancestors included John Pike ( 1613 - 1688 / 1689 ) , the founder of Woodbridge , New Jersey . He attended school in Newburyport and Framingham until he was 15 . In August 1825 , he passed entrance exams at Harvard University , though when the college requested payment of tuition fees for the first two years which he had successfully challenged by examination , he chose not to attend . He began a program of self - education , later becoming a schoolteacher in Gloucester , North Bedford , Fairhaven and Newburyport . In 1831 , Pike left Massachusetts to travel west , first stopping in St . Louis and later moving on to Independence , Missouri . In Independence , he joined an expedition to Taos , New Mexico , hunting and trading . During the excursion his horse broke and ran , forcing Pike to walk the remaining 500 miles to Taos . After this he joined a trapping expedition to the Llano Estacado in New Mexico and Texas . Trapping was minimal and , after traveling about 1300 miles ( 650 on foot ) , he finally arrived at Fort Smith , Arkansas . Settling in Arkansas in 1833 , he taught school and wrote a series of articles for the Little Rock " Arkansas Advocate " under the pen name of " Casca . " The articles were popular enough that he was asked to join the staff of the newspaper . Later , after marrying Mary Ann Hamilton , he purchased part of the newspaper with the dowry . By 1835 , he was the " Advocate " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s sole owner . Under Pike ' s administration the " Advocate " promoted the viewpoint of the Whig party in a politically volatile and divided Arkansas . He then began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1837 , selling the " Advocate " the same year . He was the first reporter for the Arkansas supreme court and also wrote a book ( published anonymously ) , titled " The Arkansas Form Book " , which was a guidebook for lawyers . Additionally , Pike wrote on several legal subjects and continued producing poetry , a hobby he had begun in his youth in Massachusetts . His poems were highly regarded in his day , but are now mostly forgotten . Several volumes of his works were self - published posthumously by his daughter . In 1859 , he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard , Albert Pike has often been named as influential in the early Ku Klux Klan , being named in 1905 as " the chief judicial officer " of the Klan by a sympathetic historian of the early Klan , Walter Fleming . He was cited as the leader of the Arkansas Ku Klux Klan . However this has been a controversial subject with Masonic authors saying that it " is impossible to either substantiate or disprove " involvement in the Klan . Pike died in Washington , D . C . , aged 81 , and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery ( against his wishes — he had left instructions for his body to be cremated ) . In 1944 , his remains were moved to the House of the Temple , headquarters of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite . Military career . When the Mexican - American War started , Pike joined the cavalry and was commissioned as a troop commander , serving in the Battle of Buena Vista . He and his commander , John Selden Roane , had several differences of opinion . This situation led finally to an " inconclusive " duel between Pike and Roane on July 29 , 1847 near Fort Smith , Arkansas . Although several shots were fired in the duel , nobody was injured , and the two were persuaded by their seconds to discontinue it . After the war , Pike returned to the practice of law , moving to New Orleans for a time beginning in 1853 . He wrote another book , " Maxims of the Roman Law and some of the Ancient French Law , as Expounded and Applied in Doctrine and Jurisprudence " . Although unpublished , this book increased his reputation among his associates in law . He returned to Arkansas in 1857 , gaining some amount of prominence in the legal field and becoming an advocate of slavery , although retaining his affiliation with the Whig party . When that party dissolved , he became a member of the Know - Nothing party . Before the Civil War he was firmly against secession , but when the war started he nevertheless took the side of the Confederacy . At the Southern Commercial Convention of 1854 , Pike said the South should remain in the Union and seek equality with the North , but if the South " were forced into an inferior status , she would be better out of the Union than in it . " He also made several contacts among the Native American tribes in the area , at one point negotiating an $ 800 , 000 settlement between the Creeks and other tribes and the federal government . This relationship was to influence the course of his Civil War service . At the beginning of the war , Pike was appointed as Confederate envoy to the Native Americans . In this capacity he negotiated several treaties , one of the most important being with Cherokee chief John Ross , which was concluded in 1861 . Pike was commissioned as a brigadier general on November 22 , 1861 , and given a command in the Indian Territory . With Gen . Ben McCulloch , Pike trained three Confederate regiment s of Indian cavalry , most of whom belonged to the " civilized tribes " , whose loyalty to the Confederacy was variable . Although initially victorious at the Battle of Pea Ridge ( Elkhorn Tavern ) in March , Pike ' s unit was defeated later in a counterattack , after falling into disarray . Also , as in the previous war , Pike came into conflict with his superior officers , at one point drafting a letter to Jefferson Davis complaining about his direct superior . After Pea Ridge , Pike was faced with charges that his troops had scalped soldiers in the field . Maj . Gen . Thomas C . Hindman also charged Pike with mishandling of money and material , ordering his arrest . Both these charges were later found to be considerably lacking in evidence ; nevertheless Pike , facing arrest , escaped into the hills of Arkansas , sending his resignation from the Confederate Army on July 12 . He was at length arrested on November 3 under charges of insubordination and treason , and held briefly in Warren , Texas , but his resignation was accepted on November 11 and he was allowed to return to Arkansas . Freemasonry . He first joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1840 then had in the interim joined a Masonic Lodge and became extremely active in the affairs of the organization , being elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite ' s Southern Jurisdiction in 1859 . He remained Sovereign Grand Commander for the remainder of his life ( a total of thirty - two years ) , devoting a large amount of his time to developing the rituals of the order . Notably , he published a book called " Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry " in 1871 , of which there were several subsequent editions . Pike is still regarded in America as an eminent and influential Freemason , primarily only in the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction . Poetry . As a young man , Pike wrote poetry which he continued to do for the rest of his life . At 23 , he published his first poem , “ Hymns to the Gods . ” Later work was printed in literary journals like Blackwood ’ s " Edinburgh Magazine " and local newspapers . His first collection of poetry , " Prose Sketches and Poems Written in the Western Country " , appeared in 1834 . He later gathered many of his poems and republished them in " Hymns to the Gods and Other Poems " ( 1872 ) . After his death these appeared again in " Gen . Albert Pike ’ s Poems " ( 1900 ) and " Lyrics and Love Songs " ( 1916 ) .