Your right it wasnt Gen. Smith that was President Davis point man to the Indians in the Indian Territory. A good account of that occuerence is "The Civil War in the West" by Alvin Josepy jr. Davis chose Alpert Pike a lawyer with excellent ties to the Indians and Ben McCulloch who latter became a CSA general to try to recruit and organize the Indians on behalf of the CSA. Another book that covers the same basic subject is "The Pararie is on fire". Pike also became a CSA general and led Indians at the battle of Pea Ridge in Ar. My main point being that the CSA tried its best to recruit Indians to supplement their manpower needs and had partial sucess has did the Union.

Grant had his off days such has his Overland campaign but so did Lee at Gettysburg and Antitam. There were in hindsight a lot of mistakes by almost all generals on both sides. Forrest may of been the best general of the CW but he was never given command of a large army corps early in the war when he may of been able to make a difference. There are a million would of could of's in the CW.

Take Care,
Leonard