At Foster's Farm, seven thousand Confederate troops moved in close order along Ford Road toward Elkhorn Tavern when a small Union force of six hundred Iowa cavalrymen unexpectedly emerged from the trees. Neither side expected to fight there. Three Union cannon opened fire on the Confederate formation, but within minutes three thousand cavalrymen from Texas and Arkansas turned off the road, swept over Wiley Foster's wheat field, and shattered the Federals, who fled back through the trees as the Confederates captured the cannon. James C. Bates of the 9th Texas Cavalry recalled rushing forward through grape and canister until the Yankees were routed and running in every direction. Albert Power, nineteen years old and serving with the 3rd Iowa Cavalry Regiment, fought there and years later received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor at Foster's Farm; he survived the war, returned to Iowa, and lived to age eighty. Two regiments of Cherokee riflemen joined the Confederate charge on this field, reflecting the divided loyalties within the Five Civilized Nations after their removal to Indian Territory in the eighteen thirties; while Chickasaws and Choctaws quickly allied with the Confederacy, loyalties among Creeks, Seminoles, and Cherokees were sharply split, and four months later some of the same Cherokee who fought there for the Confederacy changed sides and fought for the Union.