Choctaw in the American Civil War Choctaw in the American Civil War participated in two major arenas - East and West . General Arnold Spann organized the first battalion of Choctaws in Mississippi , and Albert Pike conducted treaty terms and later commanded a combined force of Choctaw ; Cherokee ; Chickasaw ; Creek ; and Seminole troops . Background . At the beginning of the American Civil War , Albert Pike was appointed as Confederate envoy to Native Americans . In this capacity he negotiated several treaties , one such treaty was the Treaty with Choctaws and Chickasaws conducted in July 1861 . The treaty covered sixty - four terms covering many subjects like Choctaw and Chickasaw nation sovereignty , Confederate States of America citizenship possibilities , and an entitled delegate in the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America . Soon Confederate battalions were formed in Indian Territory and later in Mississippi in support of the southern cause . The Choctaws , who were expecting support from the Confederates , got little . Webb Garrison , a Civil War historian , describes their response : when Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike authorized the raising of regiments during the fall of 1860 , Creeks , Choctaws , and Cherokees responded with considerable enthusiasm . Their zeal for the Confederate cause , however , began to evaporate when they found that neither arms nor pay had been arranged for them . A disgusted officer later acknowledged that " with the exception of a partial supply for the Choctaw regiment , no tents , clothing , or camp and garrison equippage was furnished to any of them . " East . The Confederacy wanted to recruit Indians east of the Mississippi River in 1862 , so they opened up a recruiting camp in Mobile , Alabama " at the foot of Stone Street . " The " Mobile Advertiser and Register " would advertise for a chance at military service . General Arnold Spann organized the first battalion of Choctaws in Mississippi in February 1863 . After a train wreck , referred to as the Chunky Creek Train Wreck of 1863 , near Hickory , Mississippi , the Choctaw Battalion , which had been organized days earlier , led rescue and recovery efforts . Spann described the scene , " the engineer was under military orders , and his long train of cars was filled with Confederate soldiers , who , like the engineer , were animated with but one impulse — to Vicksburg ! To victory or death ! Onward rushed the engineer . All passed over except the hindmost car . The bridge had swerved out of plumb , and into the raging waters with nearly one hundred soldiers the rear car was precipitated . ' Help ! ' was the cry , but there was no help . " Boggan writes of the rescue , " help came quicker than expected . The First Battalion of Choctaw Indians , under the command of Major S . G . Spann , was based at a Confederate military training camp near the crash scene . Led by Jack Amos and Elder Williams , the Indians rushed to the scene , stripped , and plunged into the flooded creek . Many of the passengers were rescued due to their heroic acts . " Noted Choctaw Historian Clara Kidwell writes , " in an act of heroism in Mississippi , Choctaws rescued twenty three survivors and retrieved ninety bodies when a Confederate troop train plunged off a bridge and fell into the Chunky River . " Major S . G . Spann , Commander of Dabney H . Maury Camp of Meridian , Mississippi , wrote about the deeds of the Choctaw years after the Civil War had ended . Mississippi Choctaws captured . Mississippi Choctaws were captured in Ponchatoula , Louisiana , and several died in a Union prison in New York . Spann describes the incident , " [ Maj . J . W . Pearce ] established two camps — a recruiting camp in Newton County and a drill camp at Tangipahoa — just beyond the State boundary line in Louisiana in the fall of 1862 . New Orleans at that time was in the hands of the Federal Gen . B . F . Butler . Without notice a reconnoitering party of the enemy raided the camp , and captured over two dozen Indians and several noncommissioned white officers and carried them to New Orleans . All the officers and several of the Indians escaped and returned to the Newton County camp ; but all the balance of the captured Indians were carried to New York , and were daily paraded in the public parks as curiosities for the sport of sight - seers . West . In Choctaw Nation , Jackson McCurtain , who would later become a district chief , was elected as representative from Sugar Loaf County to the National Council in October 1859 . On June 22 , 1861 , he enlisted in the First Regiment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles . He was commissioned Captain of Company G under the command of Colonel Douglas H . Cooper of the Confederate Army . In 1862 he became a Lieutenant Colonel of the First Choctaw Battalion . Organization . The Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations were to organize ten companies . The units would participate in eight battles . Aftermath . The fate of the Mississippi Choctaw captured in Louisiana after the end of the war is unknown .