Pike was commissioned in the Confederate army as a brigadier general, but his wartime career lasted less than two years. His men were accused of scalping Union troops, and he was eventually forced to resign. He received a reprieve from President Andrew Johnson and moved to Washington, D.C., where he died in 1891.

The statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general and Freemason leader, was vandalized and taken down on Juneteenth in 2020. It is the only statue of a Confederate general in Washington, D.C.