At the Battle of Pea Ridge the 1st and 2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles, under the command of Albert Pike, attacked a small column of two companies of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Trimble. In the attack, Trimble was severely wounded and his men sent fleeing. After the skirmish, an incident occurred that made Pike and the Cherokees infamous.
Confusion prevailed as the disorganized Confederates celebrated their victory; Pike’s Cherokees wandered around the site, where a few of them scalped at least eight of Trimble’s cavalryman and mutilated several others. There were no eyewitnesses to leave a record of the incident, but it is quite likely that many of the victims were still alive when they were scalped.
Pike was horrified when he learned of the scalping, and issued orders to his troops to refrain from such incidents in the future. He also court-martialed a soldier for killing a Union soldier.
The perpetrators of the scalping and mutilations were never identified; the Unionists and Confederates among the Cherokees blamed each other for the incident. Albert Pike resigned his Confederate commission in July 1862, and was later indicted in federal court for inciting war atrocities.
Image Courtesy Shiloh Museum of Ozark History / Washington County Historical Society Collection (S-96-2-665)
