On Christmas Day 1861, a force of Creek and Seminole warriors emerged from the rugged hills of Indian Territory and spread across the frozen Texas landscape. They formed a long column and quietly watched from a distance as newly arrived Confederate soldiers pitched tents and organized camp in the bitter cold. A mounted officer rode out to meet the warriors: Major George Washington Chilton of the Third Texas Cavalry. Chilton was a sharp-tongued secessionist of 33, stood over six feet tall, and carried himself with an erect, almost Indian-like posture, according to soldier A.
W. Sparks. With graceful gestures and an eloquent, intelligent manner, he could captivate listeners and move them to laughter or tears at will. But the situation Chilton and his troops faced was no laughing matter.
The Creek and Seminole tribes sympathized with the Union, led by an old federal ally, Chief Opothleyahola. The warriors had good reason to be wary of southerners. Chilton’s force was part of a command under Colonel James McIntosh, a West Point graduate and former frontier fighter whose own brother wore Union blue. Their mission was to subdue Union-loyal Native Americans and gain influence in the region.
Chilton rode forward, halted halfway toward the warriors, and gestured for one of them to approach. The request was answered immediately, but the exchange went nowhere. As Sparks reported: “The Indians refused to speak American, which quickly convinced Major Chilton they were hostile, so he ended the meeting, and that silent column disappeared into the mountains as mysteriously as it had appeared. ”
Smoke rising from campfires in the nearby mountains signaled that the warriors had not withdrawn as some believed.
They were positioned along the rocky slope of a rugged hill, ready to fight. The next day, December 26, McIntosh formed a battle line of cavalry supported by infantry. Chilton and his men held the center. They advanced across difficult terrain, slowly crawling toward the base of the final hill, where enemy sharpshooters opened fire.
Sparks recalled the scene: a thousand frantic war cries answered, a thousand maddened horses rushed up the steep slope, and a thousand rifles rained a hail of bullets into the astonished Indian ranks, filling their hearts with terror. “They made no effort to stand their ground, and victory was achieved before the battle truly began. ”
The victorious Confederates named the engagement Chustenahlah, after a nearby mountain stream. The defeated Creek and Seminole warriors fled with their families.
The journey cost the Native people dearly as they struggled across Indian Territory—now Oklahoma—toward Kansas in the depths of winter. According to Sparks, the Confederates captured 250 women and children, 40 to 50 people of African descent, and a large quantity of livestock, supplies, and valuables. One item caught Sparks’s attention: a silver medal dated 1694 commemorating a peace treaty between the Creek Nation and the British government. The author does not know what became of the medal but hoped it was returned to its original owners.
Confederate casualties were light. Chilton, acting with conspicuous bravery, was grazed on the head by a rifle bullet but ignored the wound and remained in his position until the last shot was fired, according to Sparks. Born in Kentucky, Chilton often found himself at the center of events. His father, Thomas Chilton, was a Baptist minister and lawyer who served briefly in the House of Representatives and helped frontier legend Davy Crockett write his autobiography.
The elder Chilton eventually moved the family from Kentucky to Alabama and finally to Texas. Chilton followed his father’s path and studied law. He served in a cavalry company during the Mexican War before settling in Tyler, Texas, in the northeastern corner of the state. He quickly became active in politics as a Democrat.
When called upon to speak, his simple, conversational style contrasted sharply with the fiery orators who attacked their audiences with ornate speeches. His handsomeness was publicly remarked upon and made the young women of Texas blush. But Chilton was also an aggressive, militaristic man with a quick temper. He was an outspoken pro-slavery zealot who owned five slaves.
Their ages and genders, as recorded in the federal census slave schedule, suggest he was supporting a family: a man of 35, a woman of 30, and three children between the ages of 4 and 16. Like many southerners, Chilton believed that a life of slavery was better for Black people than a life of savagery in Africa. He undoubtedly agreed with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens’s declaration that the foundations of the new government were laid, and its cornerstone rested on the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, and that slavery—subordination to the superior race—was his natural and moral condition. Chilton was, in fact, a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret organization devoted not only to protecting the institution of slavery but to expanding it southward into an empire of enslavement.
After the war broke out, Chilton directed his considerable energy toward recruiting. The Dallas Herald reported: “The rapidity and firmness with which this man responded to the recent call to arms is the conduct of a true soldier. ” Chilton raised 100 men and marched them 120 miles in just six days. “We believe this is unparalleled in the history of volunteer armies,” the paper wrote.
“This man’s genius leads him to immediate accomplishment, and his energy will ensure success. ”
Chilton and his volunteers joined the Third Texas Cavalry. Soldiers elected their own officers, a common practice in both armies, and they voted Chilton in as their major. After the success at Chustenahlah, the Confederates withdrew to Van Buren, Arkansas, for the winter.
Sparks recounted that Major Chilton generously bought a barrel of fine whiskey, which the young men of the regiment consumed in repeated drafts until drunk. “Joy and merriment overwhelmed them, and many did not return home until morning, some not for two or three days,” he wrote. “But in the case of the latter, whether their absence was due to the effects of Arkansas liquor or the charms of Arkansas women, this witness cannot answer. ”
Chustenahlah was the high point of Chilton’s military service.
In May 1862, five months after the battle, the regiment reorganized after its original one-year enlistment expired. Chilton was not re-elected major and chose to leave the army. He returned the following year, in 1863, as a captain and ordnance officer on the staff of Brigadier General Hamilton P. Bee.
He spent most of the rest of the war in Texas, away from front-line combat. An incident in early 1863 stained his military record. On the night of March 14, he led about 150 soldiers on an unauthorized pursuit of three Texans who had remained loyal to the Union and served in the First Texas Federal Cavalry. Chilton and his detachment crossed the international border into Mexico and captured the three soldiers.
One of them, William W. Montgomery, was hanged. The British observer Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Fremantle, widely traveled, saw Montgomery’s body shortly after arriving in Texas. It had been buried shallowly, but the head and arms were above ground, hands tied together, the rope still around the neck, part of it still dangling from a small mesquite tree.
He recorded it in his diary on April 2. “Dogs or wolves had probably scratched the dirt from the corpse, and no flesh remained on the bones,” Fremantle wrote. “This was my first experience with mob law within three hours of my arrival in America. ”
Word of the incursion and hanging reached Mexican authorities.
They protested the act, and Chilton received a severe reprimand. He remained in uniform until July 1865, when he signed an oath of allegiance to the federal government. Texas elected Chilton to Congress in 1866, but the Radical Republicans, who held the majority, denied Chilton and the rest of the state delegation their seats as punishment for the war. Meanwhile, the Radicals decided to investigate Montgomery’s death as murder.
The incident was greatly exaggerated, including a claim that Chilton had ordered the victim’s head and right arm cut off and sent to his home as war trophies. The Montgomery execution haunted Chilton for the rest of his life. At some point, he turned to alcohol and began drinking excessively in periodic binges.
He died in 1884 at the age of 56, leaving behind his wife, a daughter, and a son named Horace, who would become a future senator.