After the southern states seceded from the United States of America, Albert Pike negotiated treaties between the Five Civilized Tribes and the Confederate government, promising that the Confederacy would take over the obligations that the Union failed to fulfill and take over defense for the Indian Territory.

His first assignment was to construct a fort north of Bacone College on the Arkansas River near Muskogee.

[4] Pike's Native American troops participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge near Leetown, Arkansas in March 1862.

Pike then considered that his Indian Territory command post at Fort Davis, Cherokee Nation, was vulnerable to a Union attack.

Pike chose a site on a bluff on the west side of the Blue River near Nail's Crossing, where he established Fort McCulloch, named for General Benjamin McCulloch, who fell in battle at Pea Ridge.