Pike, Albert, 1809-1891

General Albert Pike (1809-1891), grand commander of the Supreme Grand Council, Southern Jurisdiction, of the Scottish Rite, 1859-1891.

After his work as commissioner to the Indian tribes west of the Arkansas, Pike was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in November, 1861. He recruited Native American troops on the promise that they would only serve in their own country. Almost immediately, this pledge was broken when Cherokees were called upon at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 7 and 8, 1862.

Author and lecturer on freemasonry.

Albert Pike (1809-1891) came to Arkansas in 1833 and worked as a school teacher and newspaper editor before studying the law. He was active in the politics of the state before the Civil War and served as commander of Confederate troops in the Indian Territory during the war. Following the Civil War, he practiced law in New York City, Memphis, and Little Rock, before moving to Washington, DC in 1870. Pike was also a major leader in the Masons, writing extensively about the history and rituals of the Scottish Rite.

Lawyer, soldier, author.

American author and lecturer.

Lawyer and Confederate army officer.

Author.

Though a General, Pike was also a nationally known poet both before and after the Civil War. Among his books of collected verse are "Prose Sketches and Poems" (1834), "Hymns to the Gods," (1839) and numerous other works. Recognized as on of the most influential Masons of all time, Pike also wrote the Masonic Manual "Morals and Dogma" making Pike on of the most read of all American authors.

The original third verse, as written by Stephen Collins Foster, reads, "The head must bow and the back will have to bend, / Wherever the darky may go; / A few more days, and the trouble all will end, / In the field where the sugar-canes grow; / A few more days for to tote the weary load, / No matter, 'twill never be light; / A few more days till we totter on the road, / Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight." The inspiration for the song may have been Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin", published in 1851. Foster's first draft in his song workbook is entitled "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night."