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Title: The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

Author: Annie Heloise Abel

Release Date: June 6, 2004 [EBook #12541]

Language: English

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[Illustration: Facsimile of Negro Bill of Sale]

THE AMERICAN INDIAN AS PARTICIPANT IN THE CIVIL WAR

BY
ANNIE HELOISE ABEL, Ph.D.
_Professor of History, Smith College_

1919

To
My former colleagues and students at Goucher
College and in the College Courses for
Teachers, Johns Hopkins University
this book is affectionately dedicated




CONTENTS

I    THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE, OR ELKHORN AND ITS
       MORE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS                          13
II   LANE'S BRIGADE AND THE INCEPTION OF THE INDIAN    37
III  THE INDIAN REFUGEES IN SOUTHERN KANSAS            79
IV   THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST INDIAN EXPEDITION   91
V    THE MARCH TO TAHLEQUAH AND THE RETROGRADE
       MOVEMENT OF THE "WHITE AUXILIARY"              125
VI   GENERAL PIKE IN CONTROVERSY WITH GENERAL HINDMAN 147
VII  ORGANIZATION OF THE ARKANSAS AND RED RIVER
       SUPERINTENDENCY                                171
VIII THE RETIREMENT OF GENERAL PIKE                   185
IX   THE REMOVAL OF THE REFUGEES TO THE SAC AND FOX
       AGENCY                                         203
X    NEGOTIATIONS WITH UNION INDIANS                  221
XI   INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1863, JANUARY TO JUNE
       INCLUSIVE                                      243
XII  INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1863, JULY TO DECEMBER
       INCLUSIVE                                      283
XIII ASPECTS, CHIEFLY MILITARY, 1864-1865             313
APPENDIX                                              337
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                 353
INDEX                                                 369




ILLUSTRATIONS

FACSIMILE OF NEGRO BILL OF SALE                         4
SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE MAIN THEATRE OF BORDER WARFARE
  AND THE LOCATION OF TRIBES WITHIN THE INDIAN COUNTRY 39
PORTRAIT OF COLONEL W.A. PHILLIPS                      93
FACSIMILE OF MONTHLY INSPECTION REPORT OF THE SECOND
  CREEK REGIMENT OF MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS                245
FACSIMILE OF MONTHLY INSPECTION REPORT OF THE FIRST
 CREEK REGIMENT OF MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS                 315




I. THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE, OR ELKHORN, AND ITS MORE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS


The Indian alliance, so assiduously sought by the Southern Confederacy
and so laboriously built up, soon revealed itself to be most unstable.
Direct and unmistakable signs of its instability appeared in
connection with the first real military test to which it was
subjected, the Battle of Pea Ridge or Elkhorn, as it is better known
in the South, the battle that stands out in the history of the War
of Secession as being the most decisive victory to date of the Union
forces in the West and as marking the turning point in the political
relationship of the State of Missouri with the Confederate government.

In the short time during which, following the removal of General
Frémont, General David Hunter was in full command of the Department of
the West--and it was practically not more than one week--he completely
reversed the policy of vigorous offensive that had obtained under men,
subordinate to his predecessor.[1] In southwest Missouri, he abandoned
the advanced position of the Federals and fell back upon Sedalia
and Rolla, railway termini. That he did this at the suggestion
of President Lincoln[2] and with the tacit approval of General
McClellan[3] makes no

[Footnote 1: _The Century Company's War Book_, vol. i, 314-315.]

[Footnote 2: _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 553-554.
Hereafter, except where otherwise designated, the _first series_
will always be understood.]

[Footnote 3:--Ibid., 568.]

difference now, as it made no difference then, in the consideration
of the consequences; yet the consequences were, none the less, rather
serious. They were such, in fact, as to increase very greatly the
confusion on the border and to give the Confederates that chance of
recovery which soon made it necessary for their foes to do the work of
Nathaniel Lyon all over again.

It has been most truthfully said[4] that never, throughout the period
of the entire war, did the southern government fully realize the
surpassingly great importance of its Trans-Mississippi District;
notwithstanding that when that district was originally organized,[5]
in January, 1862, some faint idea of what it might, peradventure,
accomplish did seem to penetrate,[6] although ever so vaguely, the
minds of those then in authority. It was organized under pressure from
the West as was natural, and under circumstances to which meagre and
tentative reference has already been made in the first volume of this
work.[7] In the main, the circumstances were such as developed out of
the persistent refusal of General McCulloch to coöperate with General
Price.

There was much to be said in justification of McCulloch's obstinacy.
To understand this it is well to recall that, under the plan, lying
back of this first

[Footnote 4: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 781-782;
Edwards, _Shelby and His Men_, 105.]

[Footnote 5:--Ibid., vol. viii, 734.]

[Footnote 6: It is doubtful if even this ought to be conceded in view
of the fact that President Davis later admitted that Van Dorn entered
upon the Pea Ridge campaign for the sole purpose of effecting "a
diversion in behalf of General Johnston" [_Rise and Fall of the
Confederate Government_, vol. ii, 51]. Moreover, Van Dorn had
scarcely been assigned to the command of the Trans-Mississippi
District before Beauregard was devising plans for bringing him
east again [Greene, _The Mississippi_, II; Roman, _Military
Operations of General Beauregard_, vol. i, 240-244].]

[Footnote 7: Abel, _American Indian as Slaveholder and
Secessionist_, 225-226 and _footnote_ 522.]

appointment to the Confederate command, was the expectation that he
would secure the Indian Territory. Obviously, the best way to do that
was to occupy it, provided the tribes, whose domicile it was, were
willing. But, if the Cherokees can be taken to have voiced the opinion
of all, they were not willing, notwithstanding that a sensationally
reported[8] Federal activity under Colonel James Montgomery,[9] in the
neighborhood of the frontier posts, Cobb, Arbuckle, and Washita, was
designed to alarm them and had notably influenced, if it had not
actually inspired, the selection and appointment of the Texan
ranger.[10]

Unable, by reason of the Cherokee objection thereto, to enter the
Indian country; because entrance in the face of that objection would
inevitably force the Ross faction of the Cherokees and, possibly
also, Indians of other tribes into the arms of the Union, McCulloch
intrenched himself on its northeast border, in Arkansas, and there
awaited a more favorable opportunity for accomplishing his main
purpose. He seems to have desired the Confederate government to add
the contiguous portion of Arkansas to his command, but in that he
was disappointed.[11] Nevertheless, Arkansas early interpreted his
presence in the state to imply that he was there primarily for her
defence and, by the middle of June, that idea had so far gained
general acceptance that C.C. Danley, speaking for the Arkansas
Military Board, urged President Davis "to meet

[Footnote 8: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 679.]

[Footnote 9: The name of Montgomery was not one for even Indians to
conjure with. James Montgomery was the most notorious of bushwhackers.
For an account of some of his earlier adventures, see Spring,
_Kansas_, 241, 247-250, and for a characterization of the man
himself, Robinson, _Kansas Conflict_, 435.]

[Footnote 10: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 682.]

[Footnote 11: Snead, _Fight for Missouri_, 229-230.]

the exigent necessities of the State" by sending a second general
officer there, who should command in the northeastern part.[12]

McCulloch's relations with leading Confederates in Arkansas seem
to have been, from the first, in the highest degree friendly, even
cordial, and it is more than likely that, aside from his unwillingness
to offend the neutrality-loving Cherokees, the best explanation for
his eventual readiness to make the defence of Arkansas his chief
concern, instead of merely a means to the accomplishment of his
original task, may be found in that fact. On the twenty-second of May,
the Arkansas State Convention instructed Brigadier-general N. Bart
Pearce, then in command of the state troops, to coöperate with the
Confederate commander "to the full extent of his ability"[13] and,
on the twenty-eighth of the same month, the Arkansas Military Board
invited that same person, who, of course, was Ben McCulloch, to
assume command himself of the Arkansas local forces.[14] Sympathetic
understanding of this variety, so early established, was bound to
produce good results and McCulloch henceforth identified himself most
thoroughly with Confederate interests in the state in which he was, by
dint of untoward circumstances, obliged to bide his time.

It was far otherwise as respected relations between McCulloch and
the Missouri leaders. McCulloch had little or no tolerance for the
rough-and-ready methods of men like Claiborne Jackson and Sterling
Price. He regarded their plans as impractical, chimerical, and their
warfare as after the guerrilla order, too much like

[Footnote 12: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement,
698-699.]

[Footnote 13:--Ibid., 687.]

[Footnote 14:--Ibid., 691.]

that to which Missourians and Kansans had accustomed themselves
during the period of border conflict, following the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill. McCulloch himself was a man of system. He
believed in organization that made for efficiency. Just prior to the
Battle of Wilson's Creek, he put himself on record as strongly opposed
to allowing unarmed men and camp followers to infest his ranks,
demoralizing them.[15] It was not to be expected, therefore, that
there could ever be much in common between him and Sterling Price. For
a brief period, it is true, the two men did apparently act in fullest
harmony; but it was when the safety of Price's own state, Missouri,
was the thing directly in hand. That was in early August of 1861.
Price put himself and his command subject to McCulloch's orders.[16]
The result was the successful engagement, August 10 at Wilson's Creek,
on Missouri soil. On the fourteenth of the same month, Price reassumed
control of the Missouri State Guard[17] and, from that time on, he and
McCulloch drifted farther and farther apart; but, as their aims were
so entirely different, it was not to be wondered at.

Undoubtedly, all would have been well had McCulloch been disposed to
make the defence of Missouri his only aim. Magnanimity was asked of
him such as the Missouri leaders never so much as contemplated showing
in return. It seems never to have occurred to either Jackson or
Price that coöperation might, perchance, involve such an exchange of
courtesies as would require Price to lend a hand in some project that
McCulloch might devise for the well-being of his own particular

[Footnote 15: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 721.]

[Footnote 16:--Ibid., 720.]

[Footnote 17:--Ibid., 727.]

charge. The assistance was eventually asked for and refused, refused
upon the ground, familiar in United States history, that it would be
impossible to get the Missouri troops to cross the state line. Of
course, Price's conduct was not without extenuation. His position
was not identical with McCulloch's. His force was a state force,
McCulloch's a Confederate, or a national. Besides, Missouri had yet
to be gained, officially, for the Confederacy. She expected secession
states and the Confederacy itself to force the situation for her.
And, furthermore, she was in far greater danger of invasion than
was Arkansas. The Kansans were her implacable and dreaded foes and
Arkansas had none like them to fear.

In reality, the seat of all the trouble between McCulloch and Price
lay in particularism, a phase of state rights, and, in its last
analysis, provincialism. Now particularism was especially pronounced
and especially pernicious in the middle southwest. Missouri had always
more than her share of it. Her politicians were impregnated by it.
They were interested in their own locality exclusively and seemed
quite incapable of taking any broad survey of events that did not
immediately affect themselves or their own limited concerns. In the
issue between McCulloch and Price, this was all too apparent. The
politicians complained unceasingly of McCulloch's neglect of Missouri
and, finally, taking their case to headquarters, represented to
President Davis that the best interests of the Confederate cause in
their state were being glaringly sacrificed by McCulloch's too literal
interpretation of his official instructions, in the strict observance
of which he was keeping close to the Indian boundary.

President Davis had personally no great liking for

Price and certainly none for his peculiar method of fighting. Some
people thought him greatly prejudiced[18] against Price and, in the
first instance, perhaps, on nothing more substantial than the fact
that Price was not a Westpointer.[19] It would be nearer the truth to
say that Davis gauged the western situation pretty accurately and knew
where the source of trouble lay. That he did gauge the situation and
that accurately is indicated by a suggestion of his, made in early
December, for sending out Colonel Henry Heth of Virginia to command
the Arkansas and Missouri divisions in combination.[20] Heth had no
local attachments in the region and "had not been connected with any
of the troops on that line of operations."[21] Unfortunately, for
subsequent events his nomination[22] was not confirmed.

Two days later, December 5, 1861, General McCulloch was granted[23]
permission to proceed to Richmond, there to explain in person, as he
had long wanted to do, all matters in controversy between him and
Price. On the third of January, 1862, the Confederate Congress
called[24] for information on the subject, doubtless under pressure of
political importunity. The upshot of it all was, the organization of
the Trans-Mississippi District of Department No. 2 and the appointment
of Earl Van Dorn as major-general to command it. Whether or no, he was
the choice[25] of General A.S. Johnston, department commander, his
appointment bid fair, at the

[Footnote 18: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement,
816-817.]

[Footnote 19: Ibid., 762.]

[Footnote 20:--Ibid., vol. viii, 725.]

[Footnote 21:--Ibid., 701.]

[Footnote 22: Wright, _General Officers of the Confederate Army_,
33, 67.]

[Footnote 23: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 702.]

[Footnote 24: _Journal of the Congress of the Confederate
States_, vol. i, 637.]

[Footnote 25: Formby, _American Civil War_, 129.]

time it was made, to put an end to all local disputes and to give
Missouri the attention she craved. The ordnance department of the
Confederacy had awakened to a sense of the value of the lead mines[26]
at Granby and Van Dorn was instructed especially to protect them.[27]
His appointment, moreover, anticipated an early encounter with the
Federals in Missouri. In preparation for the struggle that all knew
was impending, it was of transcendent importance that one mind and one
interest should control, absolutely.

The Trans-Mississippi District would appear to have been constituted
and its limits to have been defined without adequate reference to
existing arrangements. The limits were, "That part of the State of
Louisiana north of Red River, the Indian Territory west of Arkansas,
and the States of Arkansas and Missouri, excepting therefrom the tract
of country east of the Saint Francis, bordering on the Mississippi
River, from the mouth of the Saint Francis to Scott County,
Missouri...."[28] Van Dorn, in assuming command of the district,
January 29, 1862, issued orders in such form that Indian Territory was
listed last among the limits[29] and it was a previous arrangement
affecting Indian Territory that was most ignored in the whole scheme
of organization.

It will be remembered that, in November of the preceding year, the
Department of Indian Territory had been created and Brigadier-general
Albert Pike assigned to the same.[30] His authority was not explicitly

[Footnote 26: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 767,
774.]

[Footnote 27: Van Dora's protection, if given, was given to little
purpose; for the mines were soon abandoned [Britton, _Memoirs of the
Rebellion on the Border, 1863_, 120].]

[Footnote 28: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 734.]

[Footnote 29:--Ibid., 745.]

[Footnote 30:--Ibid., 690.]

superseded by that which later clothed Van Dorn and yet his department
was now to be absorbed by a military district, which was itself merely
a section of another department. The name and organization of the
Department of Indian Territory remained to breed confusion, disorder,
and serious discontent at a slightly subsequent time. Of course, since
the ratification of the treaties of alliance with the tribes, there
was no question to be raised concerning the status of Indian Territory
as definitely a possession of the Southern Confederacy. Indeed, it
had, in a way, been counted as such, actual and prospective, ever
since the enactment of the marque and reprisal law of May 6, 1861.[31]

Albert Pike, having accepted the appointment of department
commander in Indian Territory under somewhat the same kind of a
protest--professed consciousness of unfitness for the post--as he had
accepted the earlier one of commissioner, diplomatic, to the tribes,
lost no time in getting into touch with his new duties. There was much
to be attended to before he could proceed west. His appointment had
come and had been accepted in November. Christmas was now near at hand
and he had yet to render an account of his mission of treaty-making.
In late December, he sent in his official report[32] to President
Davis and, that done, held himself in readiness to respond to any
interpellating call that the Provincial Congress might see fit to
make. The intervals of time, free from devotion to the completion
of the older task, were spent by him in close attention to the
preliminary details of the newer, in securing funds and in purchasing
supplies and equipment

[Footnote 31: Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the
Confederacy_, vol. i, 105.]

[Footnote 32: The official report of Commissioner Pike, in manuscript,
and bearing his signature, is to be found in the Adjutant-general's
office of the U.S. War Department.]

generally, also in selecting a site for his headquarters. By command
of Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, Major N.B. Pearce[33] was
made chief commissary of subsistence for Indian Territory and Western
Arkansas and Major G.W. Clarke,[34] depot quartermaster. In the sequel
of events, both appointments came to be of a significance rather
unusual.

The site chosen for department headquarters was a place situated near
the junction of the Verdigris and Arkansas Rivers and not far from
Fort Gibson.[35] The fortifications erected there received the name of
Cantonment Davis and upon them, in spite of Pike's decidedly moderate
estimate in the beginning, the Confederacy was said by a contemporary
to have spent "upwards of a million dollars."[36] In view of the
ostensible object of the very formation of the department and of
Pike's appointment to its command, the defence of Indian Territory,
and, in view of the existing location of enemy troops, challenging
that defence, the selection of the site was a reasonably wise one;
but, as subsequent pages will reveal, the commander did not retain it
long as his headquarters. Troubles came thick and fast upon him and he
had barely reached Cantonment Davis before they began. His delay in
reaching that place, which he did do, February 25,[37] was caused
by various occurrences that made it difficult for him to get his
materials together, his funds and the like. The very difficulties
presaged disaster.

Pike's great purpose--and, perhaps, it would be no exaggeration to
say, his only purpose--throughout the

[Footnote 33: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 764.]

[Footnote 34:--Ibid, 770.]

[Footnote 35:--Ibid, 764.]

[Footnote 36: Britton, _Memoirs of the Rebellion on the Border_,
72.]

[Footnote 37: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 286.]

full extent of his active connection with the Confederacy was to save
to that Confederacy the Indian Territory. The Indian occupants in and
for themselves, unflattering as it may seem to them for historical
investigators to have to admit it, were not objects of his solicitude
except in so far as they contributed to his real and ultimate
endeavor. He never at any time or under any circumstances advocated
their use generally as soldiers outside of Indian Territory in regular
campaign work and offensively.[38] As guerrillas he would have used
them.[39] He would have sent them on predatory expeditions into Kansas
or any other near-by state where pillaging would have been profitable
or retaliatory; but never as an organized force, subject to the rules
of civilized warfare because fully cognizant of them.[40] It is
doubtful if he would ever have allowed them, had he consulted only his
own inclination, to so much as cross the line except under stress of
an attack from without. He would never have sanctioned their joining
an unprovoked invading force. In the treaties

[Footnote 38: The provision in the treaties to the effect that
the alliance consummated between the Indians and the Confederate
government was to be both offensive and defensive must not be taken
too literally or be construed so broadly as to militate against this
fact: for to its truth Pike, when in distress later on and accused of
leading a horde of tomahawking villains, repeatedly bore witness. The
keeping back of a foe, bent upon regaining Indian Territory or of
marauding, might well be said to partake of the character of offensive
warfare and yet not be that in intent or in the ordinary acceptation
of the term. Everything would have to depend upon the point of view.]

[Footnote 39: A restricted use of the Indians in offensive guerrilla
action Pike would doubtless have permitted and justified. Indeed, he
seems even to have recommended it in the first days of his interest in
the subject of securing Indian Territory. No other interpretation can
possibly be given to his suggestion that a battalion be raised
from Indians that more strictly belonged to Kansas [_Official
Records_, vol. iii, 581]. It is also conceivable that the force
he had reference to in his letter to Benjamin, November 27, 1861
[Ibid., vol. viii, 698] was to be, in part, Indian.]

[Footnote 40: Harrell, _Confederate Military History_, vol. x,
121-122.]

which he negotiated he pledged distinctly and explicitly the opposite
course of action, unless, indeed, the Indian consent were first
obtained.[41] The Indian troops, however and wherever raised under the
provisions of those treaties, were expected by Pike to constitute,
primarily, a home guard and nothing more. If by chance it should
happen that, in performing their function as a home guard, they should
have to cross their own boundary in order to expel or to punish an
intruder, well and good; but their intrinsic character as something
resembling a police patrol could not be deemed thereby affected.
Moreover, Pike did not believe that acting alone they could even be a
thoroughly adequate home force. He, therefore, urged again and again
that their contingent should be supplemented by a white force and by
one sufficiently large to give dignity and poise and self-restraint
to the whole, when both forces were combined, as they always ought to
be.[42]

At the time of Pike's assumption of his ill-defined command, or
within a short period thereafter, the Indian force in the pay of the
Confederacy and subject to his orders may be roughly placed at four
full regiments and some miscellaneous troops.[43] The dispersion[44]
of Colonel John Drew's Cherokees, when about to attack
Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la, forced a slight reörganization and that, taken
in connection with the accretions to the command that came in the
interval before the Pea Ridge campaign brought the force approximately
to four full

[Footnote 41: In illustration of this, take the statement of the Creek
Treaty, article xxxvi.]

[Footnote 42: Aside from the early requests for white troops, which
were antecedent to his own appointment as brigadier-general, Pike's
insistence upon the need for the same can be vouched for by reference
to his letter to R.W. Johnson, January 5, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 795-796].]

[Footnote 43: Pike to Benjamin, November 27, 1861, Ibid, vol.
viii, 697.]

[Footnote 44: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 8, 17-18.]

regiments, two battalions, and some detached companies. The four
regiments were, the First Regiment Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted
Rifles under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, the First Creek Regiment under
Colonel D.N. McIntosh, the First Regiment Cherokee Mounted Rifles
under Colonel John Drew, and the Second Regiment Cherokee Mounted
Rifles under Colonel Stand Watie. The battalions were, the Choctaw
and Chickasaw and the Creek and Seminole, the latter under
Lieutenant-colonel Chilly McIntosh and Major John Jumper.

Major-general Earl Van Dorn formally assumed command of the newly
created Trans-Mississippi District of Department No. 2, January 29,
1862.[45] He was then at Little Rock, Arkansas. By February 6, he had
moved up to Jacksonport and, a week or so later, to Pocahontas, where
his slowly-assembling army was to rendezvous. His call for troops had
already gone forth and was being promptly answered,[46] requisition
having been made upon all the state units within the district,
Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, also Texas. Indian Territory, through
Pike[47] and his subordinates,[48] was yet to be communicated with;
but Van Dorn had, at the moment, no other plan in view for Indian
troops than to use them to advantage as a means of defence and as a
corps of observation.[49] His immediate object, according to his own
showing and according to the circumstances that had brought about the
formation of the district, was to protect Arkansas[50] against

[Footnote 45: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 745-746.]

[Footnote 46:--Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 776-779, 783-785,
790, 793-794.]

[Footnote 47:--Ibid., vol. viii, 749, 763-764.]

[Footnote 48:--Ibid., 764-765.]

[Footnote 49: Van Dorn to Price, February 14, 1862, Ibid.,
750.]

[Footnote 50: Arkansas seemed, at the time, to be but feebly
protected. R.W. Johnson deprecated the calling of Arkansas troops
eastward. They were (cont.)]

invasion and to relieve Missouri; his plan of operations was to
conduct a spring campaign in the latter state, "to attempt St. Louis,"
as he himself put it, and to drive the Federals out; his ulterior
motive may have been and, in the light of subsequent events, probably
was, to effect a diversion for General A.S. Johnston; but, if that
were really so, it was not, at the time, divulged or so much as hinted
at.

Ostensibly, the great object that Van Dorn had in mind was the relief
of Missouri. And he may have dreamed, that feat accomplished, that it
would be possible to carry the war into the enemy's country beyond the
Ohio; but, alas, it was his misfortune at this juncture to be called
upon to realise, to his great discomfiture, the truth of Robert Burns'
homely philosophy,

  The best-laid schemes o' mice and men
  Gang aft a-gley.

His own schemes and plans were all rendered utterly futile by the
unexpected movement of the Federal forces from Rolla, to which safe
place, it will be remembered, they had been drawn back by order
of General Hunter. They were now advancing by forced marches via
Springfield into northwestern Arkansas and were driving before them
the Confederates under McCulloch and Price.

The Federal forces comprised four huge divisions and were led by
Brigadier-general Samuel R. Curtis. Towards the end of the previous
December, on Christmas Day in fact, Curtis had been given "command of
the Southwestern District of Missouri, including the

[Footnote 50: (cont.) text of continuation: needed at home, not only
for the defence of Arkansas, but for that of the adjoining territory
[_Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 781-782]. There were,
in fact, only two Arkansas regiments absent and they were guarding the
Mississippi River [Ibid., 786]. By the middle of February, or
thereabouts, Price and McCulloch were in desperate straits and
were steadily "falling back before a superior force to the Boston
Mountains" [Ibid., 787].]

country south of the Osage and west of the Meramec River."[51] Under
orders of November 9, the old Department of the West, of which Frémont
had had charge and subsequently Hunter, but for only a brief period,
had been reorganized and divided into two distinct departments, the
Department of Missouri with Halleck in command and the Department of
Kansas with Hunter. Curtis, at the time when he made his memorable
advance movement from Rolla was, therefore, serving under Halleck.

In furtherance of Van Dorn's original plan, General Pike had been
ordered to march with all speed and join forces with the main army.
At the time of the issuance of the order, he seems to have offered no
objections to taking his Indians out of their own territory. Disaster
had not yet overtaken them or him and he had not yet met with the
injustice that was afterwards his regular lot. If his were regarded
as more or less of a puppet command, he was not yet aware of it and,
oblivious of all scorn felt for Indian soldiers, kept his eye single
on the assistance he was to render in the accomplishment of Van Dorn's
object. It was anything but easy, however, for him to move with
dispatch. He had difficulty in getting such of his brigade as was
Indian and as had collected at Cantonment Davis, a Choctaw and
Chickasaw battalion and the First Creek Regiment, to stir. They had
not been paid their money and had not been furnished with arms and
clothing as promised. Pike had the necessary funds with him, but time
would be needed in which to distribute them, and the order had been
for him to move promptly. It was something much more easily said than
done. Nevertheless, he did what he could, paid outright the Choctaws
and Chickasaws, a performance that occupied

[Footnote 51: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, vol.
viii, 462.]

three precious days, and agreed to pay McIntosh's Creek regiment at
the Illinois River. To keep that promise he tarried at Park Hill
one day, expecting there to be overtaken by additional Choctaws and
Chickasaws who had been left behind at Fort Gibson. When they did not
appear, he went forward towards Evansville and upward to Cincinnati, a
small town on the Arkansas side of the Cherokee line. There his Indian
force was augmented by Stand Watie's regiment[52] of Cherokees and at
Smith's Mill by John

[Footnote 52: Watie's regiment of Cherokees was scarcely in either
marching or fighting trim. The following letter from John Ross to
Pike, which is number nine in the John Ross _Papers_ in the
Indian Office, is elucidative. It is a copy used in the action against
John Ross at the close of the war. The italics indicate underscorings
that were probably not in the original.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, PARK HILL, Feb'y 25th, 1862.

To BRIG. GEN'L.A. PIKE, Com'dy Indian Department.

Sir: I have deemed it my duty to address you on the present
occasion--You have doubtless ere this received my communication
enclosing the action of the National Council with regard to the final
ratification of our Treaty--Col. Drew's Regiment promptly took up the
line of march on the receipt of your order from Fort Smith towards
Fayetteville. _I accompanied the Troops some 12 miles East of this
and I am happy to assure you in the most confident manner that in my
opinion this Regiment will not fail to do their whole duty, whenever
the Conflict with the common Enemy shall take place_. There are so
many conflicting reports as to your whereabouts and consequently much
interest is felt by the People to know where the Head Qrs. of
your military operations will be established during the present
emergencies--_I had intended going up to see the Troops of our
Regiment; also to visit the Head Qrs of the Army at Cane Hill in view
of affording every aid in any manner within the reach of my power to
repel the Enemy_. But I am sorry to say I have been dissuaded from
going at present in consequence of some unwarrantable conduct on the
part of many _base, reckless and unprincipled persons belonging to
Watie's Regiment who are under no subordination or restraint of their
leaders in domineering over and trampling upon the rights of peaceable
and unoffending citizens_. I have at all times in the most
unequivocal manner assured the People that you will not only promptly
discountenance, but will take steps to put a stop to such proceedings
for the protection of their persons and property and to _redress
their wrongs_--This is not the time for _crimination_ and
_recrimination_; at a proper time _I have certain specific
complaints to report for your investigation_. Pardon me for again
reiterating that (cont.)]

Drew's.[53] The Cherokees had been in much confusion all winter. Civil
war within their nation impended.[54] None the less, Pike, assuming
that all would be well when the call for action came, had ordered
all the Cherokee and Creek regiments to hurry to the help of
McCulloch.[55] He had done this upon the first intimation of the
Federal advance. The Cherokees had proceeded only so far, the Creeks
not at all, and the main body of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, into
whose minds some unscrupulous merchants had instilled mercenary
motives and the elements of discord generally, were lingering far in
the background. Pike's white force was, moreover, ridiculously small,
some Texas cavalry, dignified by him as collectively a squadron,
Captain O.G. Welch in command. There had as yet not been even a
pretense of giving him the three regiments of white men earlier asked
for. Toward the close of the afternoon of March 6, Pike "came up with
the rear of McCulloch's division,"[56] which proved to be the very
division he was to follow, but he was one day late for the fray.

The Battle of Pea Ridge, in its preliminary stages, was already being
fought. It was a three day fight, counting the skirmish at Bentonville
on the sixth between General Franz Sigel's detachment and General
Sterling Price's advance guard as the work of the first day.[57] The
real battle comprised the engagement at

[Footnote 52: (cont.) the mass of the People _are all right
in Sentiment for the support of the Treaty of Alliance with the
Confederate States_. I shall be happy to hear from you--I have the
honor to be your ob't Serv't

John Ross, Prin'l Chief, Cherokee Nation.]

[Footnote 53: Pike's Report, March 14, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. viii, 286-292.]

[Footnote 54: James McIntosh to S. Cooper, January 4, 1862,
Ibid., 732; D.H. Cooper to Pike, February 10, 1862,
Ibid., vol. xiii, 896.]

[Footnote 55:--Ibid., 819.]

[Footnote 56:--Ibid., vol. viii, 287.]

[Footnote 57:--Ibid., 208-215, 304-306.]

Leetown on the seventh and that at Elkhorn Tavern[58] on the eighth.
At Leetown, Pike's Cherokee contingent[59] played what he, in somewhat
quixotic fashion, perhaps, chose to regard as a very important part.
The Indians, then as always, were chiefly pony-mounted, "entirely
undisciplined," as the term discipline is usually understood,
and "armed very indifferently with common rifles and ordinary
shot-guns."[60] The ponies, in the end, proved fleet of foot, as
was to have been expected, and, at one stage of the game, had to
be tethered in the rear while their masters fought from the
vantage-ground of trees.[61] The Indian's most effective work was
done, throughout, under cover of the woods. Indians, as Pike well
knew, could never be induced to face shells in the open. It was he who
advised their climbing the trees and he did it without discounting, in
the slightest, their innate bravery.[62] There came a time, too, when
he gave countenance to another of their

[Footnote 58: The Elkhorn Tavern engagement is sometimes referred to,
and most appropriately, as the Sugar Creek [Phisterer, _Statistical
Record_, 95]. Colonel Eugene A. Carr of the Third Illinois Cavalry,
commanding the Fourth Division of Curtis's army, described the
tavern itself as "situated on the west side of the Springfield and
Fayetteville road, at the head of a gorge known as Cross Timber Hollow
(the head of Sugar Creek) ..." [_Official Records_, vol. viii,
258]. "Sugar Creek Hollow," wrote Curtis, "extends for miles, a gorge,
with rough precipitate sides ..." [Ibid., 589]. It was there
the closing scenes of the great battle were enacted.]

[Footnote 59: The practice, indulged in by both the Federals and the
Confederates, of greatly overestimating the size of the enemy force
was resorted to even in connection with the Indians. Pike gave the
number of his whole command as about a thousand men, Indians and
whites together [_Official Records_, vol. viii, 288; xiii, 820]
notwithstanding that he had led Van Dorn to expect that he would have
a force of "about 8,000 or 9,000 men and three batteries of artillery"
[Ibid., vol. viii, 749]. General Curtis surmised that Pike
contributed five regiments [Ibid., 196] and Wiley Britton, who
had excellent opportunity of knowing better because he had access to
the records of both sides, put the figures at "three regiments of
Indians and two regiments of Texas cavalry" [_Civil War on the
Border_, vol. i, 245].]

[Footnote 60: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 819.]

[Footnote 61:--Ibid., vol. viii, 288.]

[Footnote 62:--Ibid.]

peculiarities. He allowed Colonel Drew's men to fight in a way that
was "their own fashion,"[63] with bow and arrow and with tomahawk.[64]
This, as was only meet it should, called down upon him and them the
opprobrium of friends and foes alike.[65] The Indian war-whoop was
indulged in, of itself enough to terrify. It was hideous.

The service that the Cherokees rendered at different times during the
two days action was not, however, to be despised, even though not
sufficiently conspicuous to be deemed worthy of comment by Van
Dorn.[66] At Leetown, with the aid of a few Texans, they managed to
get possession of a battery and to hold it against repeated endeavors
of the Federals to regain. The death of McCulloch and of McIntosh made
Pike the ranking officer in his part of the field. It fell to him to
rally

[Footnote 63: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 289.]

[Footnote 64:--Ibid., 195.]

[Footnote 65: The northern press took up the matter and the New York
_Tribune_ was particularly virulent against Pike. In its issue of
March 27, 1862, it published the following in bitter sarcasm:

"The Albert Pike who led the Aboriginal Corps of Tomahawkers and
Scalpers at the battle of Pea Ridge, formerly kept school in
Fairhaven, Mass., where he was indicted for playing the part of
Squeers, and cruelly beating and starving a boy in his family. He
escaped by some hocus-pocus law, and emigrated to the West, where
the violence of his nature has been admirably enhanced. As his name
indicates, he is a ferocious fish, and has fought duels enough to
qualify himself to be a leader of savages. We suppose that upon
the recent occasion, he got himself up in good style, war-paint,
nose-ring, and all. This new Pontiac is also a poet, and wrote 'Hymns
to the Gods' in _Blackwood_; but he has left Jupiter, Juno, and
the rest, and betaken himself to the culture of the Great Spirit, or
rather of two great spirits, whisky being the second."]

[Footnote 66: Van Dorn did not make his detailed official report of
this battle until the news had leaked out that the Indians had mangled
the bodies of the dead and committed other atrocities. He was probably
then desirous of being as silent as he dared be concerning Indian
participation, since he, in virtue of his being chief in command, was
the person mainly responsible for it. In October of the preceding
year, McCulloch had favored using the Indians against Kansas
[_Official Records_, vol. iii, 719, 721]. Cooper objected
strongly to their being kept "at home" [Ibid., 614] and one
of the leading chiefs insisted that they did not intend to use the
scalping knife [Ibid., 625].]

McCulloch's broken army and with it to join Van Dorn. On the eighth,
Colonel Watie's men under orders from Van Dorn took position on the
high ridges where they could watch the movements of the enemy and
give timely notice of any attempt to turn the Confederate left flank.
Colonel Drew's regiment, meanwhile, not having received the word
passed along the line to move forward, remained in the woods near
Leetown, the last in the field. Subsequently, finding themselves
deserted, they drew back towards Camp Stephens, where they were soon
joined by "General Cooper, with his regiment and battalion of Choctaws
and Chickasaws, and" by "Colonel McIntosh with 200 men of his regiment
of Creeks."[67] The delinquent wayfarers were both fortunate and
unfortunate in thus tardily arriving upon the scene. They had missed
the fight but they had also missed the temptation to revert to the
savagery that was soon to bring fearful ignominy upon their neighbors.
To the very last of the Pea Ridge engagement, Stand Watie's men were
active. They covered the retreat of the main army, to a certain
extent. They were mostly half-breeds and, so far as can be definitely
ascertained, were entirely guiltless of the atrocities charged against
the others.

General Pike gave the permission to fight "in their own fashion"
specifically to the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles, who were, for the
most part, full-blooded Indians; but he later confessed that, in his
treaty negotiations with the tribes, they had generally stipulated
that they should, if they fought at all, be allowed to fight as they
knew how.[68] Yet they probably did not mean, thereby, to commit
atrocities and the Cherokee National Council lost no time, after the
Indian shortcomings

[Footnote 67: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 292.]

[Footnote 68:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 819.]

at the Battle of Pea Ridge had become known, in putting itself on
record as standing opposed to the sort of thing that had occurred,

    _Resolved_, That in the opinion of the National Council,
    the war now existing between the said United States and the
    Confederate States and their Indian allies should be conducted on
    the most humane principles which govern the usages of war among
    civilized nations, and that it be and is earnestly recommended to
    the troops of this nation in the service of the Confederate States
    to avoid any acts toward captured or fallen foes that would be
    incompatible with such usages.[69]

The atrocities committed by the Indians became almost immediately
a matter for correspondence between the opposing commanders. The
Federals charged mutilation of dead bodies on the battle-field and the
tomahawking and scalping of prisoners. The Confederates recriminated
as against persons "alleged to be Germans." The case involving the
Indians was reported to the joint committee of Congress on the
_Conduct of the Present War_;[70] but at least one piece of
evidence was not, at that time, forthcoming, a piece that, in a
certain sense, might be taken to exonerate the whites. It came to the
knowledge of General Blunt during the summer and was the Indians' own
confession. It bore only indirectly upon the actual atrocities but
showed that the red men were quite equal to making their own plans in
fighting and were not to be relied upon to do things decently and
in order. Drew's men, when they deserted the Confederates after the
skirmish of July third at Locust Grove, confided to the Federals the
intelligence "that the killing of the white rebels by the Indians in"
the Pea Ridge "fight was determined

[Footnote 69: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 826.]

[Footnote 70: By vote of the committee, General Curtis had been
instructed to furnish information on the subject of the employment of
Indians by the Confederates [_Journal_, 92].]

upon before they went into battle."[71] Presumptively, if the
Cherokees could plot to kill their own allies, they could be found
despicable enough and cruel enough to mutilate the dead,[72] were the
chance given them and that without any direction, instruction, or
encouragement from white men being needed.

The Confederate defeat at Pea Ridge was decisive and, as far as Van
Dorn's idea of relieving Missouri was concerned, fatally conclusive.
As early as the twenty-first of February, Beauregard had expressed a
wish to have him east of the Mississippi[73] and March had not yet
expired before Van Dorn was writing in such a way as to elicit the
consummation of the wish. The Federals were in occupation of the
northern part of Arkansas; but Van Dorn was very confident they would
not be able to subsist there long or "do much harm in the west."
In his opinion, therefore, it was incumbent upon the Confederates,
instead of dividing their strength between the east and the west, to
concentrate on the saving of the Mississippi.[74] To all appearances,
it was there that the situation was most critical. In due time, came
the order for Van Dorn to repair eastward and to take with him all the
troops that might be found available.

The completeness of Curtis's victory, the loss to the Southerners, by
death or capture, of some of their best-loved and ablest commanders,
McCulloch, McIntosh, Hébert, and the nature of the country through
which the Federals pursued their fleeing forces, to say nothing of the
miscellaneous and badly-trained character of

[Footnote 71: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 486.]

[Footnote 72: The same charge was made against the Indians who fought
at Wilson's Creek [Leavenworth _Daily Conservative_, August 24,
1861].]

[Footnote 73: Roman, _Military Operations of General Beauregard_,
vol. i, 240.]

[Footnote 74: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 796.]

those forces, to which, by the way, Van Dorn ascribed[75] much of
his recent ill-success, all helped to make the retirement of the
Confederates from the Pea Ridge battle-ground pretty much of a
helter-skelter affair. From all accounts, the Indians conducted
themselves as well as the best. The desire of everybody was to get
to a place of safety and that right speedily. Colonel Watie and his
regiment made their way to Camp Stephens,[76] near which place the
baggage train had been left[77] and where Cooper and Drew with their
men had found refuge already. Some two hundred of Watie's Indians
were detailed to help take ammunition back to the main army.[78] The
baggage train moved on to Elm Springs, the remainder of the Indians,
under Cooper, assisting in protecting it as far as that place.[79]
At Walnut Grove, the Watie detail, having failed to deliver the
ammunition because of the departure of the army prior to their
arrival, rejoined their comrades and all moved on to Cincinnati, where
Pike, who with a few companions had wandered several days among the
mountains, came up with them.[80]

In Van Dorn's calculations for troops that should accompany him east
or follow in his wake, the Indians had no place. Before his own plans
took final shape and while he was still arranging for an Army of the
West, his orders for the Indians were, that they should make their way
back as best they could to their own country and there operate "to cut
off trains, annoy the enemy in his marches, and to prevent him as far
as possible from supplying his troops from Missouri and

[Footnote 75: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 282.]

[Footnote 76:--Ibid.. 291.]

[Footnote 77:--Ibid., 317.]

[Footnote 78:--Ibid., 318.]

[Footnote 79:--Ibid.; Britton, _Civil War on the Border_,
vol. i, 273.]

[Footnote 80: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 292.]

Kansas."[81] A little later, but still anterior to Van Dorn's summons
east, more minute particulars of the programme were addressed to Pike.
Maury wrote,

    The general commanding has decided to march with his army against
    the enemy now invading the northeastern part of the State. Upon
    you, therefore, will devolve the necessity of impeding his advance
    into this region. It is not expected that you will give battle to
    a large force, but by felling trees, burning bridges, removing
    supplies of forage and subsistence, attacking his trains,
    stampeding his animals, cutting off his detachments, and other
    similar means, you will be able materially to harass his army and
    protect this region of country. You must endeavor by every means
    to maintain yourself in the Territory independent of this army.
    In case only of absolute necessity you may move southward. If the
    enemy threatens to march through the Indian Territory or descend
    the Arkansas River you may call on troops from Southwestern
    Arkansas and Texas to rally to your aid. You may reward your
    Indian troops by giving them such stores as you may think proper
    when they make captures from the enemy, but you will please
    endeavor to restrain them from committing any barbarities upon the
    wounded, prisoners, or dead who may fall into their hands. You may
    purchase your supplies of subsistence from wherever you can most
    advantageously do so. You will draw your ammunition from Little
    Rock or from New Orleans via Red River. Please communicate with
    the general commanding when practicable.[82]

It was an elaborate programme but scarcely a noble one. Its note of
selfishness sounded high. The Indians were simply to be made to serve
the ends of the white men. Their methods of warfare were regarded as
distinctly inferior. Pea Ridge was, in fact, the first and last time
that they were allowed to participate in the war on a big scale.
Henceforth, they were rarely ever anything more than scouts and
skirmishers and that was all they were really fitted to be.

[Footnote 81: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 282, 790; vol. liii,
supplement, 796.]

[Footnote 82:--Ibid., vol. viii, 795-796.]




II. LANE'S BRIGADE AND THE INCEPTION OF THE INDIAN


The Indian Expedition had its beginnings, fatefully or otherwise,
in "Lane's Kansas Brigade." On January 29, 1861, President Buchanan
signed the bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union and the
matter about which there had been so much of bitter controversy was at
last professedly settled; but, alas, for the peace of the border, the
radicals, the extremists, the fanatics, call them what one may, who
had been responsible for the controversy and for its bitterness, were
still unsettled. James Lane was chief among them. His was a turbulent
spirit and it permitted its owner no cessation from strife. With
President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, April 15, 1861, Lane's
martial activities began. Within three days, he had gathered together
a company of warriors,[83] the nucleus, psychologically speaking,
of what was to be his notorious, jayhawking, marauding brigade. His
enthusiasm was infectious. It communicated itself to reflective men
like Carl Schurz[84] and was probably the secret of Lane's

[Footnote 83: John Hay records in his _Diary_, "The White House
is turned into barracks. Jim Lane marshaled his Kansas warriors to-day
at Willard's and placed them at the disposal of Major Hunter,
who turned them to-night into the East Room. It is a splendid
company--worthy such an armory. Besides the Western Jayhawkers it
comprises some of the best _material_ in the East. Senator
Pomeroy and old Anthony Bleecker stood shoulder to shoulder in the
ranks. Jim Lane walked proudly up and down the ranks with a new sword
that the Major had given him. The Major has made me his aid, and
I labored under some uncertainty, as to whether I should speak to
privates or not."--THAYER, _Life and Letters of John Hay_, vol.
i, 92.]

[Footnote 84: It would seem to have communicated itself to Carl
Schurz, although Schurz, in his _Reminiscences_, makes no
definite admission of the fact. Hay (cont.)]

mysterious influence with the temperate, humane, just, and so very
much more magnanimous Lincoln, who, in the first days of the war, as
in the later and the last, had his hours of discouragement and deep
depression. For dejection of any sort, the wild excitement and
boundless confidence of a zealot like Lane must have been somewhat of
an antidote, also a stimulant.

The first Kansas state legislature convened March 26, 1861, and set
itself at once to work to put the new machinery of government into
operation. After much political wire-pulling that involved the promise
of spoils to come,[85] James H. Lane and Samuel C. Pomeroy[86] were
declared to be elected United States senators, the term of office of
each to begin with the first session of the thirty-seventh congress.
That session was

[Footnote 84: (cont.) says, "Going into Nicolay's room this morning,
C. Schurz, and J. Lane were sitting. Jim was at the window, filling
his soul with gall by steady telescopic contemplation of a Secession
flag impudently flaunting over a roof in Alexandria. 'Let me tell
you,' said he to the elegant Teuton, 'we have got to whip these
scoundrels like hell, C. Schurz. They did a good thing stoning our
men at Baltimore and shooting away the flag at Sumter. It has set the
great North a-howling for blood, and they'll have it.'

"'I heard,' said Schurz, 'you preached a sermon to your men
yesterday.'

"'No, sir! this is not time for preaching. When I went to Mexico there
were four preachers in my regiment. In less than a week I issued
orders for them all to stop preaching and go to playing cards. In a
month or so, they were the biggest devils and best fighters I had.'

"An hour afterwards, C. Schurz told me he was going home to arm his
clansmen for the wars. He has obtained three months' leave of absence
from his diplomatic duties, and permission to raise a cavalry
regiment. He will make a wonderful land pirate; bold, quick,
brilliant, and reckless. He will be hard to control and difficult to
direct. Still, we shall see. He is a wonderful man."--THAYER, _Life
and Letters of John Hay_, vol. i, 102-103.]

[Footnote 85: In Connelley's _James Henry Lane, the "Grim Chieftain"
of Kansas_, the following is quoted as coming from Lane himself:

"Of the fifty-six men in the Legislature who voted for Jim Lane,
five-and-forty now wear shoulder-straps. Doesn't Jim Lane look out for
his friends?"]

[Footnote 86: John Brown's rating of Pomeroy, as given by Stearns in
his _Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns_, 133-134,
would show him to have been a considerably less pugnacious individual
than was Lane.]

[Illustration: SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE MAIN THEATRE OF BORDER WARFARE
AND THE LOCATION OF TRIBES WITHIN THE INDIAN COUNTRY]

the extra one, called for July, 1861. Immediately, a difficulty arose
due to the fact that, subsequent to his election to the senatorship
and in addition thereto, Lane had accepted a colonelcy tendered by
Oliver P. Morton[87] of Indiana, his own native state.[88] Lane's
friends very plausibly contended that a military commission from one
state could not invalidate the title to represent another state in the
Federal senate. The actual fight over the contested seat came in the
next session and, quite regardless of consequences likely to prejudice
his case, Lane went on recruiting for his brigade. Indeed, he
commended himself to Frémont, who, in his capacity as major-general of
volunteers and in charge of the Western Military District, assigned
him to duty in Kansas, thus greatly complicating an already delicate
situation and immeasurably heaping up difficulties, embarrassments,
and disasters for the frontier.

The same indifference towards the West that characterized the
governing authorities in the South was exhibited by eastern men in the
North and, correspondingly, the West, Federal and Confederate,
was unduly sensitive to the indifference, perhaps, also, a trifle
unnecessarily alarmed by symptoms of its own danger. Nevertheless, its
danger was real. Each state gave in its adherence to the Confederacy
separately and, therefore, every single state in the slavery belt had
a problem to solve. The fight for Missouri was fought

[Footnote 87: Morton, war governor of Indiana, who had taken
tremendous interest in the struggle for Kansas and in the events
leading up to the organization of the Republican party, was one of the
most energetic of men in raising troops for the defence of the Union,
especially in the earliest stages of the war. See Foulke's _Life of
Oliver P. Morton_, vol. i.]

[Footnote 88: Some doubt on this point exists. John Speer, Lane's
intimate friend and, in a sense, his biographer, says Lane claimed
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, as his birthplace. By some people he is thought
to have been born in Kentucky.]

on the border and nowhere else. The great evil of squatter sovereignty
days was now epidemic in its most malignant form. Those days had bred
intense hatred between Missourian and Kansan and had developed a
disregard of the value of human life and a ruthlessness and brutality
in fighting, concomitant with it, that the East, in its most primitive
times, had never been called upon to experience. Granted that the
spirit of the crusader had inspired many a free-soiler to venture into
the trans-Missouri region after the Kansas-Nebraska bill had become
law and that real exaltation of soul had transformed some very
mercenary and altogether mundane characters unexpectedly into martyrs;
granted, also, that the pro-slavery man honestly felt that his
cause was just and that his sacred rights of property, under the
constitution, were being violated, his preserves encroached upon, it
yet remains true that great crimes were committed in the name of great
causes and that villains stalked where only saints should have trod.
The irregular warfare of the border, from fifty-four on, while it may,
to military history as a whole, be as unimportant as the quarrels of
kites and crows, was yet a big part of the life of the frontiersman
and frightful in its possibilities. Sherman's march to the sea or
through the Carolinas, disgraceful to modern civilization as each
undeniably was, lacked the sickening phase, guerrilla atrocities, that
made the Civil War in the West, to those at least who were in line
to experience it at close range, an awful nightmare. Union and
Confederate soldiers might well fraternize in eastern camps because
there they so rarely had any cause for personal hostility towards each
other, but not in western. The fight on the border was constant and to
the death.

The leaders in the West or many of them, on both sides, were men of
ungovernable tempers, of violent and unrestrained passions, sometimes
of distressingly base proclivities, although, in the matter of both
vices and virtues, there was considerable difference of degree among
them. Lane and Shelby and Montgomery and Quantrill were hardly types,
rather should it be said they were extreme cases. They seem never to
have taken chances on each other's inactivity. Their motto invariably
was, to be prepared for the worst, and their practice, retaliation.

It was scarcely to be supposed that a man like Lane, who had never
known moderation in the course of the long struggle for Kansas or been
over scrupulous about anything would, in the event of his adopted
state's being exposed anew to her old enemy, the Missourian, be able
to pose contentedly as a legislator or stay quietly in Washington,
his role of guardian of the White House being finished.[89] The
anticipated danger to Kansas visibly threatened in the summer of 1861
and the critical moment saw Lane again in the West, energetic beyond
precedent. He took up his position at Fort Scott, it being his
conviction that, from that point and from the line of the Little
Osage, the entire eastern section of the state, inclusive of Fort
Leavenworth, could best be protected.[90]

[Footnote 89: As Villard tells us [_Memoirs_, vol. i, 169],
Lane was in command of the "Frontier Guards," one of the two special
patrols that protected the White House in the early days of the war.
There were those, however, who resented his presence there. For
example, note the diary entry of Hay, "Going to my room, I met the
Captain. He was a little boozy and very eloquent. He dilated on the
troubles of the time and bewailed the existence of a garrison in the
White House 'to give _éclat_ to Jim Lane.'"--Thayer, op. cit.,
vol. i, 94. The White House guard was in reality under General Hunter
[_Report of the Military Services of General David Hunter_, 8].]

[Footnote 90: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 453, 455.]

Fort Scott was the ranking town among the few Federal strongholds in
the middle Southwest. It was within convenient, if not easy, distance
of Crawford Seminary which, situated to the southward in the Quapaw
Nation, was the headquarters of the Neosho Agency; but no more
perturbed place could be imagined than was that same Neosho Agency at
the opening of the Civil War. Bad white men, always in evidence at
moments of crisis, were known to be interfering with the Osages,
exciting them by their own marauding to deviltry and mischief of the
worst description.[91] As a

[Footnote 91: A letter from Superintendent W.G. Coffin of date, July,
30, 1861 [Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Schools_, C.
1275 of 1861] bears evidence of this as bear also the following
letters, the one, private in character, from Augustus Wattles, the
other, without specific date, from William Brooks:

PRIVATE

MONEKA, KANSAS, May 20, 1861.
MR. DOLE

Dear Sir, A messenger has this moment left me, who came up from the
Osages yesterday--a distance of about forty miles. The gentleman lives
on the line joining the Osage Indians, and has, since my acquaintance
with him about three years.

A short time ago, perhaps three weeks, a number of lawless white men
went into the Nation and stole a number of ponies. The Indians made
chase, had a fight and killed several, reported from three to five,
and retook their ponies.

A company of men is now getting up here and in other counties, to go
and fight the Indians. I am appealed to by the Indians to act as their
friend.

They represent that they are loyal to the U.S. Government and will
fight for their Great Father, at Washington, but must be protected
from bad white men at home. The Government must not think them enemies
when they only fight thieves and robbers.

Rob't B. Mitchell, who was recently appointed Maj. General of this
State by Gov. Robinson, has resigned, and is now raising volunteers to
fight the Indians. He has always been a Democrat in sympathy with the
pro-slavery party, and his enlisting men now to take them away from
the Missouri frontier, when we are daily threatened with an attack
from that State, and union men are fleeing to us for protection from
there, is certainly a very questionable policy. It could operate no
worse against us, if it were gotten up by a traitor to draw our
men off on purpose to give the Missourians a chance when we are
unprepared. (cont.)]

tribe, the Osages were not very dependable at the best of times and
now that they saw confusion all around

[Footnote 91: (cont.) I presume you have it in your power to prevent
any attack on the Indians in Kansas till such time as they can be
treated with. And such order to the Commander of the Western Division
of the U.S. Army would stop further proceedings.

I shall start to-morrow for Council Grove and meet the Kansas Indians
before General Mitchell's force can get there. As the point of attack
is secret, I fear it may be the Osages, for the purpose of creating
a necessity for a treaty with himself by which he can secure a large
quantity of land for himself and followers. He is acquainted with all
the old Democratic schemes of swindling Indians.

The necessity for prompt action on the part of the Indian Department
increases every day. The element of discord in the community here
now, was once, the pro-slavery party. I see their intention to breed
disturbances with the Indians is malicious and selfish. They are
active and unscrupulous, and must be met promptly and decisively.

I hope you will excuse this, as it appears necessary for me to step
a little out of my orders to notify you of current events. I am very
respectfully Your Ob't Ser'vt AUGUSTUS WATTLES, _Special Agent_

[Indian Office Special Files, no. 201.]

GRAND FALLS, NEWTON CO., MO.
COM. INDIAN AFFAIRS
Washington, D.C.

Hon. Sir: Permit me to inform you, by this means, of the efforts that
have been and are now being made in Southern Kansas to arouse both the
"Osages" and "Cherokees" _to rebel_, and bear arms against the
U.S. Government--At a public meeting near the South E. corner of the
"Osage Nation" called by the settlements for the devising of some
means by which to protect themselves from "unlawful characters," Mr.
John Mathis, who resides in the Osage Nation and has an Osage family,
also Mr. "Robert Foster" who lives in the Cherokee Nation and has a
Cherokee family endeavered by public speeches and otherwise to induce
"Osages", "Cherokees", as well as Americans who live on the "Neutral
Lands" to bear arms against the U.S. Government--_aledging that
there was no U.S. Government_. There was 25 men who joined them and
they proceeded to organise a "_Secession Company_" electing as
Capt R.D. Foster and 1st Lieutenant James Patton--This meeting was
held June 4th 1861--at "McGhees Residence"--The peace of this section
of country requires the removal of these men from the Indian country,
or some measures that will restrain them from exciting the Indians in
Southern Kansas.

Yours Respectfully WM BROOKS.

You will understand why you are addressed by a private individual on
this subject instead of the Agent, since A.J. Dorn, the present Indian
Agent, is an avowed "Secessionist" and consequently would favor,
rather than suppress the move. WM BROOKS.

[Ibid., _Southern Superintendency_, B567 of 1861]]

them their most natural inclination was to pay back old scores and
to make an alliance where such alliance could be most profitable to
themselves. The "remnants" of tribes, Senecas, Shawnees, and Quapaws,
associated with them in the agency, Neosho, that is, although not of
evil disposition, were similarly agitated and with good reason.
Rumors of dissensions among the Cherokees, not so very far away, were
naturally having a disquieting effect upon the neighboring but less
highly organized tribes as was also the unrest in Missouri, in the
southwestern counties of which, however, Union sentiment thus far
dominated.[92] Its continuance would undoubtedly turn upon military
success or failure and that, men like Lyon and Lane knew only too
well.

As the days passed, the Cherokee troubles gained in intensity, so
much so that the agent, John Crawford, even then a secessionist
sympathiser, reported that internecine strife might at any hour be
provoked.[93] So confused was everything that in July the people of
southeastern Kansas were generally apprehensive of an attack from the
direction of either Indian Territory or Arkansas.[94] Kansas troops
had been called to Missouri; but, at the same time, Lyon was
complaining that men from the West, where they were greatly needed,
were being called by Scott to Virginia.[95] On August 6 two emergency
calls went forth, one from Frémont for a brigade from California that
could be stationed at El Paso and moved as occasion might require,
either upon San Antonio or into the Indian Territory,[96]

[Footnote 92: Branch to Mix, June 22, 1861, enclosing letter from
Agent Elder, June 15, 1861 [Indian Office Files, _Neosho_, B 547
of 1861].]

[Footnote 93:--Ibid., _Cherokee_, C 1200 of 1861].

[Footnote 94: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 405.]

[Footnote 95:--Ibid., 397, 408.]

[Footnote 96:--Ibid., 428.]

the other from Congressmen John S. Phelps and Francis P. Blair junior,
who addressed Lincoln upon the subject of enlisting Missouri troops
for an invasion of Arkansas in order to ward off any contemplated
attack upon southwestern Missouri and to keep the Indians west of
Arkansas in subjection.[97] On August 10 came the disastrous Federal
defeat at Wilson's Creek. It was immediately subsequent to that event
and in anticipation of a Kansas invasion by Price and McCulloch that
Lane resolved to take position at Fort Scott.[98]

The Battle of Wilson's Creek, lost to the Federals largely because of
Frémont's failure to support Lyon, was an unmitigated disaster in more
than one sense. The death of Lyon, which the battle caused, was of
itself a severe blow to the Union side as represented in Missouri; but
the moral effect of the Federal defeat upon the Indians was equally
worthy of note. It was instantaneous and striking. It rallied the
wavering Cherokees for the Confederacy[99] and their defection was
something that could not be easily counterbalanced and was certainly
not counterbalanced by the almost coincident, cheap, disreputable, and
very general Osage offer, made towards the end of August, of services
to the United States in exchange for flour and whiskey.[100]

The disaster in its effect upon Lane was, however, little short of
exhilarating. It brought him sympathy, understanding, and a fair
measure of support from people who, not until the eleventh hour, had
really comprehended their own danger and it inspired him to redouble
his efforts to organize a brigade that should

[Footnote 97: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 430.]

[Footnote 98:--Ibid., 446.]

[Footnote 99: The Daily Conservative (Leavenworth), October 5, 1861.]

[Footnote 100:--Ibid., August 30, 1861, quoting from the Fort
Scott _Democrat_.]

adequately protect Kansas and recover ground lost. Prior to the
battle, "scarcely a battalion had been recruited for each" of the five
regiments, the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Kansas, which
he had been empowered by the War Department to raise.[101] It was in
the days of gathering reinforcements, for which he made an earnest
plea on August 29,[102] that he developed a disposition to utilize the
loyal Indians in his undertaking. The Indians, in their turn, were
looking to him for much needed assistance. About a month previous to
the disaster of August 10, Agent Elder had been obliged to make Fort
Scott, for the time being, the Neosho Agency headquarters, everything
being desperately insecure at Crawford's Seminary.[103]

[Footnote 101: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 122.]

[Footnote 102: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 465.]

[Footnote 103: The following letter, an enclosure of a report from
Branch to Dole, August 14, 1861, gives some slight indication of its
insecurity:

OFFICE OF NEOSHO AGENCY
Fort Scott, July 27, 1861.

Sir--I deem it important to inform the Department of the situation
of this Agency at this time. After entering upon the duties of this
office as per instructions--and attending to all the business that
seemed to require my immediate attention--I repaired to Franklin Co.
Kan. to remove my family to the Agency.

Leaving the Agency in care of James Killebrew Esq the Gov't Farmer for
the Quapaw Nation. Soon after I left I was informed by him that the
Agency had been surrounded by a band of armed men, and instituted an
inquiry for "_that Abolition Superintendent and Agent_." After
various interrogatories and answers they returned in the direction of
Missouri and Arkansas lines from whence they were supposed to
have come. He has since written me and Special Agent Whitney and
Superintendent Coffin told me that it would be very unsafe for me to
stay at that place under the present excited state of public feeling
in that vicinity. I however started with my family on the 6th July and
arrived at Fort Scott on the 9th intending to go direct to the Agency.
Here I learned from Capt Jennison commanding a detachment of Kansas
Militia, who had been scouting in that vicinity, that the country
was full of marauding parties from Gov. Jackson's Camp in S.W. Mo.
I therefore concluded to remain here and watch the course of events
believing as I did the Federal troops (cont.)]

Lane, conjecturing rightly that Price, moving northwestward from
Springfield, which place he had left on the twenty-sixth of August,
would threaten, if he did not actually attempt, an invasion of Kansas
at the point of its greatest vulnerability, the extreme southeast,
hastened his preparations for the defence and at the very end of the
month appeared in person at Fort Scott, where all the forces he could
muster, many of them refugee Missourians, had been rendezvousing. On
the second of September, the two armies, if such be not too dignified
a name for them, came into initiatory action at Dry Wood Creek,[104]
Missouri, a reconnoitering party of the Federals, in a venture across
the line, having

[Footnote 103: (cont.) would soon repair thither and so quell the
rebellion as to render my stay here no longer necessary. But as yet
the Union forces have not penetrated that far south, and Jackson with
a large force is quartered within 20 or 25 miles of the Agency--I was
informed by Mr. Killebrew on the 23d inst. that everything at the
Agency was safe--but the house and roads were guarded--Hence I have
assumed the responsibility of establishing my office here temporarily
until I can hear from the department.

And I most sincerely hope the course I have thus been compelled to
pursue will receive the approval of the department.

I desire instructions relative to the papers and a valuable safe
(being the only moveables there of value) which can only be moved
_at present_ under the protection of a guard. And also
instructions as to the course I am to pursue relative to the locality
of the Agency.

I feel confident that the difficulty now attending the locality at
Crawford Seminary will not continue long--if not then I shall move
directly there unless instructions arrive of a different character.

All mail matter should be directed to Fort Scott for the Mail Carrier
has been repeatedly arrested and the mails may be robbed--Very
respectfully your Obedient Servant

PETER P. ELDER, _U.S. Neosho Agent_.

H.B. BRANCH Esq, Superintendent of Ind. Affairs C.S.
  St. Joseph, Mo.
[Indian Office Files, _Neosho_, B 719 of 1861].]

[Footnote 104: For additional information about the Dry Wood Creek
affair and about the events leading up to and succeeding it, see
_Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 436; Britton, _Civil
War on the Border_, vol. i, chapter x; Connelley, _Quantrill and
the Border Wars_, 199.]

fallen in with the advance of the Confederates and, being numerically
outmatched, having been compelled to beat a retreat. In its later
stages, Lane personally conducted that retreat, which, taken as a
whole, did not end even with the recrossing of the state boundary,
although the pursuit did not continue beyond it. Confident that Price
would follow up his victory and attack Fort Scott, Lane resolved to
abandon the place, leaving a detachment to collect the stores and
ammunition and to follow him later. He then hurried on himself to
Fort Lincoln on the north bank of the Little Osage, fourteen miles
northwest. There he halted and hastily erected breastworks of a
certain sort[105]. Meanwhile, the citizens of Fort Scott, finding
themselves left in the lurch, vacated their homes and followed in the
wake of the army[106]. Then came a period, luckily short, of direful
confusion. Home guards were drafted in and other preparations made to
meet the emergency of Price's coming. Humboldt was now suggested as
suitable and safe headquarters for the Neosho Agency[107]; but, most
opportunely, as the narrative will soon show, the change had to wait
upon the approval of the Indian Office, which could not be had for
some days and, in the meantime, events proved that Price was not the
menace and Fort Scott not the target.

It soon transpired that Price had no immediate intention of invading
Kansas[108]. For the present, it was

[Footnote 105: In ridicule of Lane's fortifications, see Spring,
_Kansas_, 275.]

[Footnote 106: As soon as the citizens, panic-stricken, were gone, the
detachment which Lane had left in charge, under Colonel C.R. Jennison,
commenced pillaging their homes [Britton, _Civil War on the
Border_, vol. i, 130.]]

[Footnote 107: H.C. Whitney to Mix, September 6, 1861, Indian Office
Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, W 455 of 1861.]

[Footnote 108: By the fifth of September, Lane had credible
information that Price had broken camp at Dry Wood and was moving
towards Lexington [Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i,
144].]

enough for his purpose to have struck terror into the hearts of the
people of Union sentiments inhabiting the Cherokee Neutral Lands,
where, indeed, intense excitement continued to prevail until there was
no longer any room to doubt that Price was really gone from the near
vicinity and was heading for the Missouri River. Yet his departure was
far from meaning the complete removal of all cause for anxiety, since
marauding bands infested the country roundabout and were constantly
setting forth, from some well concealed lair, on expeditions of
robbery, devastation, and murder. It was one of those marauding bands
that in this same month of September, 1861, sacked and in part burnt
Humboldt, for which dastardly and quite unwarrantable deed, James G.
Blunt, acting under orders from Lane, took speedy vengeance; and the
world was soon well rid of the instigator and leader of the outrage,
the desperado, John Matthews.[109]

[Footnote 109: (a)

FT. LINCOLN, SOUTHERN KANSAS.
Sept. 25, 1861.

HON. WM.P. DOLE, Com. of Ind. Af'rs

Dear Sir, We have just returned from a successful expedition into the
Indian Country, And I thought you would be glad to hear the news.

Probably you know that Mathews, formerly an Indian Trader amongst the
Osages has been committing depredations at the head of a band of half
breed Cherokees, all summer.

He has killed a number of settlers and taken their property; but as
most of them were on the Cherokee neuteral lands I could not tell
whether to blame him much or not, as I did not understand the
condition of those lands.

A few days ago he came up to Humbolt and pillaged the town. Gen. Lane
ordered the home guards, composed mostly of old men, too old for
regular service, to go down and take or disperse this company under
Mathews.

He detailed Lieut. Col. Blunt of Montgomery's regiment to the command,
and we started about 200 strong. We went to Humbolt and followed down
through the Osage as far as the Quapaw Agency where we came up with
them, about 60 strong.

Mathews and 10 men were killed at the first fire, the others (cont.)]

As soon as Lane had definite knowledge that Price had turned away from
the border and was moving northward, he determined to follow after and
attack

[Footnote 109: (cont.) retreated. We found on Mathews a Commission
from Ben. McCulloch, authorizing him to enlist the Quapaw and other
Indians and operate on the Kansas frontier.

The Osage Indians are loyal, and I think most of the others would be
if your Agents were always ready to speak a word of confidence for our
Government, and on hand to counteract the influence of the Secession
Agents.

There is no more danger in doing this than in any of the Army service.
If an Agent is killed in the discharge of his duty, another can be
appointed the same as in any other service. A few prompt Agents, might
save a vast amount of plundering which it is now contemplated to do in
Kansas.

Ben. McCulloch promises his rangers, and the Indians that he will
winter them in Kansas and expel the settlers.

I can see the Indians gain confidence in him precisely as they loose
it in us. It need somebody amongst them to represent our power and
strength and purposes, and to give them courage and confidence in the
U.S. Government.

There is another view which some take and you may take the same, i.e.
let them go--fight and conquer them--take their lands and stop their
annuities.

I can only say that whatever the Government determines on the people
here will sustain. The President was never more popular. He is the
President of the Constitution and the laws. And notwithstanding what
the papers say about his difference with Frémont, every heart reposes
confidence in the President.

So far as I can learn from personal inquiry, the Indians are not yet
committed to active efforts against the Gov. AUG. WATTLES.

[Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Central Superintendency_,
W 474 of 1861.]

(b)

SACK AND FOX AGENCY, Dec. 17th 1861.

HON.W.P. DOLE, Commissioner of Indian Affairs

Dear Sir: After receiving the cattle and making arrangements for their
keeping at Leroy I went and paid a visit to the Ruins of Humboldt
which certainly present a gloomy appearance. All the best part of the
town was burnt. Thurstons House that I had rented for an office tho
near half a mile from town was burnt tho his dwelling and mill near
by were spared. All my books and papers that were there were lost. My
trunk and what little me and my son had left after the sacking were
all burnt including to Land Warrents one 160 acres and one 120. Our
Minne Rifle and ammunition Saddle bridle, etc.... About 4 or 5 Hundred
Sacks of Whitney's Corn were burnt. As soon as I can I will try to
make out a list of the Papers from the (cont.)]

him, if possible, in the rear. Governor Robinson was much opposed[110]
to any such provocative and apparently purposeless action, no one
knowing better than he Lane's vindictive mercilessness. Lane persisted
notwithstanding Robinson's objections and, for the time being, found
his policies actually endorsed by Prince at Fort Leavenworth.[111] The
attack upon Humboldt, having revealed the exposed condition of the
settlements north of the Osage lands, necessitated his leaving a much
larger force in his own rear than he had intended.[112] It also
made it seem advisable for him to order the building of a series of
stockades, the one of most immediate interest being at Leroy.[113] By
the fourteenth of September, Lane found himself within twenty-four
miles of Harrisonville but Price still far ahead. On the
twenty-second, having made a detour for the purpose of destroying some
of his opponent's stores, he performed the atrocious and downright
inexcusable exploit of burning Osceola.[114] Lexington, besieged,
had fallen into Price's hands two days before. Thus had the foolish
Federal practice of acting in

[Footnote 109: (cont.) Department [that] were burnt. As I had some at
Leavenworth I cannot do so til I see what is there. As Mr. Hutchinson
is not here I leave this morning for the Kaw Agency to endeavour to
carry out your Instructions there and will return here as soon as I
get through there. They are building some stone houses here and I am
much pleased with the result. The difference in cost is not near
so much as we expected but I will write you fully on a careful
examination as you requested. Very respectfully your obedient Servant

W.G. COFFIN, _Superintendent of Indian Affairs_
Southern Superintendency

[Indian Office Files, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1432 of
1861]]

[Footnote 110: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 468-469.]

[Footnote 111:--Ibid., 483.]

[Footnote 112:--Ibid., 490.]

[Footnote 113:--Ibid.]

[Footnote 114:--Ibid., 196; vol. liii, supplement, 743;
Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 147-148; Connelley,
_Quantrill and the Border Wars_, 208-209, 295.]

detachments instead of in force produced its own calamitous result.
There had never been any appreciable coördination among the parts
of Frémont's army. Each worked upon a campaign of its own. To some
extent, the same criticism might be held applicable to the opposing
Confederate force also, especially when the friction between Price and
McCulloch be taken fully into account; but Price's energy was far in
excess of Frémont's and he, having once made a plan, invariably saw
to its accomplishment. Lincoln viewed Frémont's supineness with
increasing apprehension and finally after the fall of Lexington
directed Scott to instruct for greater activity. Presumably, Frémont
had already aroused himself somewhat; for, on the eighteenth, he had
ordered Lane to proceed to Kansas City and from thence to coöperate
with Sturgis,[115] Lane slowly obeyed[116] but managed, while obeying,
to do considerable marauding, which worked greatly to the general
detestation and lasting discredit of his brigade. For a man,
temperamentally constituted as Lane was, warfare had no terrors and
its votaries, no scruples. The grim chieftain as he has been somewhat
fantastically called, was cruel, indomitable, and disgustingly
licentious, a person who would have hesitated at nothing to accomplish
his purpose. It was to be expected, then, that he would see nothing
terrible in the letting loose of the bad white man, the half-civilized
Indian, or the wholly barbarous negro upon society. He believed that
the institution of slavery should look out for itself[117] and, like
Governor Robinson,[118] Senator Pomeroy, Secretary Cameron, John

[Footnote 115: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 500.]

[Footnote 116:--Ibid., 505-506.]

[Footnote 117:--Ibid., 516.]

[Footnote 118: Spring, _Kansas_, 272.]

Cochrane,[119] Thaddeus Stevens[120] and many another, fully endorsed
the principle underlying Frémont's abortive Emancipation Proclamation.
He advocated immediate emancipation both as a political and a military
measure.[121]

There was no doubt by this time that Lane had it in mind to utilize
the Indians. In the dog days of August, when he was desperately
marshaling his brigade, the Indians presented themselves, in idea, as
a likely military contingent. The various Indian agents in Kansas
were accordingly communicated with and Special Agent Augustus
Wattles authorized to make the needful preparations for Indian
enlistment.[122] Not much could be done in furtherance of the scheme
while Lane was engaged in Missouri but, in October, when he was
back in Kansas, his interest again manifested itself. He was then
recruiting among all kinds of people, the more hot-blooded the better.
His energy was likened to frenzy and the more sober-minded took
alarm. It was the moment for his political opponents to interpose
and Governor Robinson from among them did interpose, being firmly
convinced that Lane, by his intemperate zeal and by his guerrilla-like
fighting was provoking Missouri to reprisals and thus precipitating
upon Kansas the very troubles that he professed to wish to ward off.
Incidentally, Robinson, unlike Frémont, was vehemently opposed to
Indian enlistment.

Feeling between Robinson and Lane became exceedingly tense in October.
Price was again moving

[Footnote 119: _Daily Conservative_, November 22, 1861.]

[Footnote 120: Woodburn, _Life of Thaddeus Stevens_, 183.]

[Footnote 121: Lane's speech at Springfield, November 7, 1861
[_Daily Conservative_, November 17, 1861].]

[Footnote 122: For a full discussion of the progress of the movement,
see Abel, _American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist_, 227
ff.]

suspiciously near to Kansas. On the third he was known to have left
Warrensburg, ostensibly to join McCulloch in Bates County[123] and, on
the eighth, he was reported as still proceeding in a southwestwardly
direction, possibly to attack Fort Scott.[124] His movements gave
opportunity for a popular expression of opinion among Lane's
adherents. On the evening of the eighth, a large meeting was held in
Stockton's Hall to consider the whole situation and, amidst great
enthusiasm, Lane was importuned to go to Washington,[125] there to lay
the case of the piteous need of Kansas, in actuality more imaginary
than real, before the president. Nothing loath to assume such
responsibility but not finding it convenient to leave his military
task just then, Lane resorted to letter-writing. On the ninth, he
complained[126] to Lincoln that Robinson was attempting to break
up his brigade and had secured the coöperation of Prince to that
end.[127] The anti-Robinson press[128] went farther and accused
Robinson and Prince of not being big enough, in the face of grave
danger to the commonwealth, to forget old scores.[129] As a
solution of the problem before them, Lane suggested to Lincoln the
establishment of a new military district that should include Kansas,
Indian Territory, and Arkansas, and be under his command.[130] So
anxious was Lane to be

[Footnote 123: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 525, 526, 527.]

[Footnote 124:--Ibid, 527.]

[Footnote 125: _Daily Conservative_, October 9, 10, 1861.]

[Footnote 126: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 529.]

[Footnote 127: _Daily Conservative_, October 9, 15, 1861.]

[Footnote 128: Chief among the papers against Robinson, in the matter
of his longstanding feud with Lane, was the _Daily Conservative_
with D.W. Wilder as its editor. Another anti-Robinson paper was
the Lawrence _Republican_. The Cincinnati _Gazette_ was
decidedly friendly to Lane.]

[Footnote 129: _Daily Conservative_, October 15, 1861.]

[Footnote 130: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 529-530. Lane
outlined his plan for a separate department in his speech in
Stockton's Hall [_Daily Conservative_, October 9, 1861]. (cont.)]

identified with what he thought was the rescue of Kansas that he
proposed resigning his seat in the senate that he might be entirely
untrammelled.[131] Perchance, also, he had some inkling that with
Frederick P. Stanton[132] contesting the seat, a bitter partisan fight
was in prospect, a not altogether welcome diversion.[133] Stanton,
prominent in and out of office in territorial days, was an old
political antagonist of the Lane faction and one of the four
candidates whose names had been before the legislature in March. In
the second half of October, Lane's brigade notably contributed to
Frémont's show of activity and then, anticipatory perhaps to greater
changes, it was detached from the main column and given the liberty
of moving independently down the Missouri line to the Cherokee
country.[134]

Lane's efforts towards securing Indian enlistment did not stop with
soliciting the Kansas tribes. Thoroughly aware, since the time of his
sojourn at Fort Scott, if not before, of the delicate situation
in Indian Territory, of the divided allegiance there, and of the
despairing cry for help that had gone forth from the Union element to
Washington, he conceived it eminently fitting and practicable that
that same Union element should have its loyalty put to good uses and
be itself induced to take up arms in behalf of the cause it affected
so ardently to endorse. To an ex-teacher among the Seminoles, E.H.
Carruth, was entrusted the task of recruiting.

The situation in Indian Territory was more than

[Footnote 130: (cont.) Robinson was opposed to the idea [Ibid.,
November 2, 6, 1861].]

[Footnote 131: _Official Records_, vol. iii, 530.]

[Footnote 132: Martin, _First Two Years of Kansas_, 24;
_Biographical Congressional Directory_, 1771-1903.]

[Footnote 133: _Daily Conservative_, November 1, 1861, gives
Robinson the credit of inciting Stanton to contest the seat.]

[Footnote 134: _Daily Conservative_, October 30, 1861.]

delicate. It was precarious and had been so almost from the beginning.
The withdrawal of troops from the frontier posts had left the
Territory absolutely destitute of the protection solemnly guaranteed
its inhabitants by treaty with the United States government.
Appeal[135] to the War Department for a restoration of what was a
sacred obligation had been without effect all the summer. Southern
emissaries had had, therefore, an entirely free hand to accomplish
whatever purpose they might have in mind with the tribes. In
September,[136] the Indian Office through Charles E. Mix, acting
commissioner of Indian affairs in the absence of William P. Dole, who
was then away on a mission to the Kansas tribes, again begged the War
Department[137] to look into matters so extremely urgent. National
honor would of itself have dictated a policy of intervention before

[Footnote 135: Secretary Cameron's reply to Secretary Smith's first
request was uncompromising in the extreme and prophetic of his
persistent refusal to recognize the obligation resting upon the United
States to protect its defenceless "wards." This is Cameron's letter of
May 10, 1861:

"In answer to your letter of the 4th instant, I have the honor
to state that on the 17th April instructions were issued by this
Department to remove the troops stationed at Forts Cobb, Arbuckle,
Washita, and Smith, to Fort Leavenworth, leaving it to the discretion
of the Commanding Officer to replace them, or not, by Arkansas
Volunteers.

"The exigencies of the service will not admit any change in these
orders." [Interior Department Files, _Bundle no. 1 (1849-1864)
War_.]

Secretary Smith wrote to Cameron again on the thirtieth [Interior
Department _Letter Press Book_, vol. iii, 125], enclosing Dole's
letter of the same date [Interior Department, _File Box, January 1
to December 1, 1861_; Indian Office _Report Book_, no. 12,
176], but to no purpose.]

[Footnote 136: Indian Office _Report Book_, no. 12, 218-219.]

[Footnote 137: Although his refusal to keep faith with the Indians is
not usually cited among the things making for Cameron's unfitness for
the office of Secretary of War, it might well and justifiably be. No
student of history questions to-day that the appointment of Simon
Cameron to the portfolio of war, to which Thaddeus Stevens had
aspirations [Woodburn, _Life of Thaddeus Stevens_, 239], was
one of the worst administrative mistakes Lincoln ever made. It was
certainly one of the four cabinet appointment errors noted by Weed
[_Autobiography_, 607].]

the poor neglected Indians had been driven to the last desperate
straits. The next month, October, nothing at all having been done in
the interval, Dole submitted[138] to Secretary Smith new evidence of
a most alarmingly serious state of affairs and asked that the
president's attention be at once elicited. The apparent result was
that about the middle of November, Dole was able to write with
confidence--and he was writing at the request of the president--that
the United States was prepared to maintain itself in its authority
over the Indians at all hazards.[139]

Boastful words those were and not to be made good until many precious
months had elapsed and many sad regrettable scenes enacted. In early
November occurred the reorganization of the Department of the West
which meant the formation of a Department of Kansas separate and
distinct from a Department of Missouri, an arrangement that afforded
ample opportunity for a closer attention to local exigencies in both
states than had heretofore been possible or than, upon trial, was
subsequently to be deemed altogether desirable. It necessarily
increased the chances for local patronage and exposed military matters
to the grave danger of becoming hopelessly entangled with political.

The need for change of some sort was, however, very evident and the
demand for it, insistent. If the southern Indians were not soon
secured, they were bound to menace, not only Kansas, but Colorado[140]
and to help materially in blocking the way to Texas, New Mexico,

[Footnote 138: Indian Office _Report Book_ no. 12, 225.]

[Footnote 139: Dole to Hunter, November 16, 1861, ibid., _Letter
Book_, no. 67, pp. 80-82.]

[Footnote 140: On conditions in Colorado Territory, the following are
enlightening: ibid., _Consolidated Files_, C 195 of 1861; C 1213
of 1861; C 1270 of 1861; C 1369 of 1861; V 43 of 1861; _Official
Records_, vol. iv, 73.]

and Arizona. Their own domestic affairs had now reached a supremely
critical stage.[141] It was high time

[Footnote 141: In addition to what may be obtained on the subject from
the first volume of this work, two letters of slightly later date
furnish particulars, as do also the records of a council held by Agent
Cuther with certain chiefs at Leroy.

(a). LAWRENCE, KANSAS, Dec. 14th, 1861.

HON.W.P. DOLE, Commissioner of Ind. Affairs

Dear Sir, It is with reluctance that I again intrude on your valuable
time. But I am induced to do so by the conviction that the subject
of our Indian relations is really a matter of serious concern: as
involving the justice and honor of our own Government, and the deepest
interests--the very existence, indeed--of a helpless and dependent
people. And knowing that it is your wish to be furnished with every
item of information which may, in any way, throw light on the subject,
I venture to trouble you with another letter.

Mico Hat-ki, the Creek man referred to in my letter of Oct. 31st has
been back to the Creek Nation, and returned about the middle of
last month. He was accompanied, to this place, by one of his former
companions, but had left some of their present company at LeRoy. They
were expecting to have a meeting with some of the Indians, at LeRoy,
to consult about the proper course to be pursued, in order to
protect the loyal and peaceable Indians, from the hostility of the
disaffected, who have become troublesome and menacing in their
bearing.

With this man and his companion, I had considerable conversation, and
find that the Secessionists and disaffected Half-breeds are carrying
things with a high hand. While the loyal Indians are not in
a condition to resist them, by reason of the proximity of an
overwhelming rebel force.

From them (repeating their former statements, regarding the defection
of certain parties, and the loyalty of others, with the addition of
some further particulars) I learn the following facts: Viz. That
M Kennard, the Principal Chief of the Lower Creeks, most of the
McIntoshes, George Stidham, and others have joined the rebels, and
organized a military force in their interest; for the purpose of
intimidating and harrassing the loyal Indians. They name some of the
officers, but are not sufficiently conversant with military terms to
distinguish the different grades, with much exactness. Unee McIntosh,
however, is the highest in rank, (a Colonel I presume) and Sam
Cho-co-ti, George Stidham, Chilly McIntosh, are all officers in the
Lower Creek rebel force.

Among the Upper Creeks, John Smith, Timiny Barnet and Wm. Robinson,
are leaders.

Among the Seminoles, John Jumper, the Principal Chief, is on the side
of the rebels. Pas-co-fa, the second chief, stands neutral. Fraser
McClish, though himself a Chickasaw, has raised a company (cont.)]

for the Federal government to do something to attest its own
competency. There was need for it to do that,

[Footnote 141: (cont.) among the Seminoles in favor of the rebellion.
They say the full Indians will kill him.

The Choctaws are divided in much the same way as the other Tribes, the
disaffected being principally among the Half-breeds.

The Chickasaw Governor, Harris, is a Secessionist; and so are most, if
not all, the Colberts. The full Indians are loyal to the Government,
as are some of the mixed bloods also, and here, I remark, from my own
knowledge, that this Governor Harris was the first to propose the
adoption of concerted measures, among the Southern Tribes, on the
subject of Secession. This was instantly and earnestly opposed by John
Ross, as being out of place, and an ungrateful violation of the Treaty
obligations, by which the Tribes had placed themselves under the
exclusive protection of the United States; and, under which, they had
enjoyed a long course of peace and prosperity.

They say, there are about four hundred Secessionists, among the
Cherokees. But whether organized or not, I did not understand. I
presume they meant such as were formerly designated by the term
Warriors, somewhat analogous to the class among ourselves, who are fit
for military duty, though they may or may not be actually organized
and under arms. So that the _Thousands of Indians_ in
the secession papers, as figuring in the armies, are enormous
exaggerations; and most of them sheer fabrications.

Albert Pike, of Little Rock, boasts of having visited and made treaty
alliances with the Comanches, and other tribes, on behalf of the
"Confederate States," but the Indians do not believe him. And, in
blunt style, say "he tells lies."

They make favorable mention of O-poth-le-yo-ho-lo, an ex-Creek Chief,
a true patriot of former days. But, it seems, he has been molested and
forced to leave his home to avoid the annoyance and violence of the
rebel party. There are, however, more than three thousand young men,
of the warrior class, who adhere to his principles, and hold true
faith and allegiance to the United States.

They say also that John Ross is not a Secessionist, and that there are
more than four thousand patriots among the Cherokees, who are true to
the Government of the United States. This agrees, substantially, with
my own personal knowledge, unless they have changed within a very
short time, which is not at all probable, as the Cherokees, of this
class, are pretty fully and correctly informed about the nature of the
controversy. And I may add, that much of their information is, through
one channel and another, communicated to the Creeks, and much of their
spirit too.

On the whole, judging from the most reliable information, I have been
able to obtain, I feel assured that the Full Indians of the Creeks,
Cherokees, Seminoles, and the small bands living in the Creek Nation,
are faithful to the Government. And the same, to a great extent, is
(cont.)]

moreover, on recognizably loyal ground, causes for dissatisfaction
among Kansas emigrant tribes to be

[Footnote 141: (cont.) true of the Choctaws and Chickasaws. And were
it not for the proximity of the rebel force, the loyal Indians would
put down the Secession movement among themselves, at once. Or rather,
they would not have suffered it to rise at all.

The loyal Indians say, they wish "to stand by their Old Treaties." And
they are as persistent in their adherence to these Treaties, as we
are, to our Constitution. And I have no doubt that, as soon as the
Government can afford them protection, they will be ready, at the
first call, to manifest, by overt action, the loyalty to which they
are pledged.

They are looking, with great anxiety and hope, for the coming of the
great army. And I have no doubt that a friendly communication from the
Government, through the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, would have a
powerful effect in removing any false impressions, which may have been
made, on the ignorant and unwary, by the emissaries of Secession, and
to encourage and reassure the loyal friends of the Government, who, in
despair of timely aid, may have been compelled to yield any degree of
submission, to the pressure of an overwhelming force. I was expecting
to see these Indians again, and to have had further conversation with
them. But I am informed by Charles Johnnycake that they have gone to
Fort Leavenworth and expect to go on to Washington. Hearing this, I
hesitated about troubling you with this letter at all, as, in that
case, you would see them yourself. But I have concluded to send it, as
affording me an opportunity to express a few thoughts, with which it
would hardly be worth while to occupy a separate letter.

Hoping that the counsels and movements of the Government may be
directed by wisdom from above, and that the cause of truth and right
may prevail, I remain with great respect, Dear Sir, Your Obedient
Ser'v EVAN JONES.

P.S. I rec. a note from Mr. Carruth, saying that he was going to
Washington, with a delegation of Southern Indians, and I suppose Mico
Hatki and his companions are that Delegation, or at least a part of
them.

I will just say in regard to Mr. Carruth that I was acquainted with
him, several years ago, as a teacher in the Cherokee Nation. He
afterwards went to the Creek Nation, I _think_, as teacher of a
Government school, and I believe, has been there ever since. If so,
he must know a good deal about the Creeks. Mr. Carruth bore a good
character. I think he married one of the Missionary ladies of the
Presbyterian Mission.

[Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern
Superintendency_, J 530 of 1861.]

(b). Wichita Agency, L.D., December 15, 1861.

All well and doing well. Hear you are having trouble among
yourselves--fighting one another, but you and we are friendly. Our
(cont.)]

removed and drastic measures taken with the indigenous of the plains.

The appointment of Hunter to the command of the

[Footnote 141: (cont.) brothers the Comanches and all the other tribes
are still your friends. Mode Cunard and you were here and had the talk
with Gen. Pike; we still hold to the talk we made with Gen. Pike, and
are keeping the treaty in good faith, and are looking for him back
again soon. We look upon you and Mode Cunard and Gen. Pike as
brothers. Gen. Pike told us at the council that there were but few
of us here, and if any thing turned up to make it necessary he would
protect them. We are just as we were when Gen. Pike was up here and
keeping the treaty made with him. Our brothers the wild Comanches have
been in and are friendly with us.

All the Indians here have but one heart. Our brothers, the Texans,
and the Indians are away fighting the cold weather people. We do not
intend to go North to fight them, but if they come down here, we will
all wait to drive them away. Some of my people are one-eyed and a
little crippled, but if the enemy comes here they will all jump out
to fight him. Pea-o-popicult, the principal Kiowa chief, has recently
visited the reserve, and expressed friendly intentions, and has gone
back to consult the rest of his people, and designs returning.

Hoseca X Maria} Ke-Had-a-wah } Chiefs of the Camanches Buffalo Hump }
Te-nah Geo. Washington Jim Pockmark

[Indian Office, Confederate Papers, Copy of a letter to John Jumper,
certified as a true copy by A.T. Pagy.]

(c). LEROY, COFFEY CO., KANSAS, NOV. 4, 1861.

HON. WM.P. DOLE, COM'R INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir: Enclosed I send you a statement of delegation of Creeks,
Chickasaw, and Kininola who are here for assistance from the
Government. You will see by the enclosed that I have held a Council
with them the result of which I send verbatim. They have travelled
some 300 or 400 miles to get here, had to take an unfrequented
road and were in momentary fear of their lives not because the
secessionists were stronger than the Union party in their nation, but
because the secessionists were on the alert and were determined that
there should be no communication with the Government.

They underwent a great many privations in getting here, had to bear
their own expenses, which as some of them who were up here a short
time ago have travelled in coming and going some 900 miles was
considerable.

I am now supplying them with everything they need on my own
responsibility. They dare not return to their people unless troops
(cont.)]

Department of Kansas was open to certain objections, no doubt; but, to
Lane, whose forceful personality had

[Footnote 141: (cont.) are sent with them and they assure me the
moment that is done, a large portion of each of the tribes will rally
to the support of the Government and that their warriors will gladly
take up arms in its defence.

I write to you from Topeka and urge that steps be taken to render them
the requisite protection. I am satisfied that the Department will
see the urgent necessity of carrying out the Treaty stipulations and
giving these Indians who are so desirous of standing firm by the
Government and who have resisted so persistently all the overtures of
the secessionists, the assistance and protection which is their due. I
am informed by these Indians that John Ross is desirous of standing by
the Government, and that he has 4000 warriors who are willing to do
battle for the cause of the Union.

They also inform me, that the Washitas, Caddos, Tenies, Wakoes,
Tewakano, Chiekies, Shawnees, and Kickapoos are almost unanimously
Union. Gen. Lane is anxious to do something to relieve the Union
Indians in the southern tribes, by taking prompt and energetic steps
at this time--it can be done with little expense and but little
trouble, while the benefit to be derived will be incalculable. Let me
beg of you and more that the matter be laid before the Department and
the proper steps be taken to give the Indians that protection which is
their due and at the same time take an important step in sustaining
the supremacy of the Government. Your obedient Servant, GEO.A. CUTLER,
_agent_ for the Indians of the Creek agency.

ENCLOSURES

At a Council of the Creeks, held at Leroy in Coffey County, Kansas, at
the house of the Agent of said Indians, Maj. Geo. A. Cutler, who was
unable to visit their Country owing to the rebellion existing in the
Country, the following talk was had by the Chiefs of said nation,
eight in number--Four Creeks, Two Seminoles, Two Chickasaws.

Oke-Tah-hah-shah-haw-choe, Chief of Creek Upper District says, he will
talk short words this time--wants to tell how to get trouble in Creek
nation. First time Albert Pike come in he made great deal trouble.
That man told Indian that the Union people would come and take away
property and would take away land--now you sleep, you ought to wake up
and attend to your own property. Tell them there ain't no U.S.--ain't
any more Treaty--all be dead--Tell them as there is no more U.S. no
more Treaty that the Creeks had better make new Treaty with the South
and the Southern President would protect them and give them their
annuity--Tell them if you make Treaty with southern President that he
would pay you more annuity and would pay better than the U.S. if they
the Indians would help the Southern President--Mr. Pike makes the half
(cont.)]

impressed itself, for good or ill, upon the trans-Missouri region, it
was, to say the least, somewhat

[Footnote 141: (cont.) breeds believe what he says and the half breeds
makes some of the full blood Indians believe what he says that they
(the Indians) must help the secessionists. Then that is so--but as for
himself he don't believe him yet. Then he thought the old U.S.
was alive yet and the Treaty was good. Wont go against the U.S.
himself--That is the reason the Secessions want to have him--The
Secessionists offered 5000$ for his head because he would not go
against the U.S. Never knew that Creek have an agent here until he
come and see him and that is why I have come among this Union people.
Have come in and saw my agent and want to go by the old Treaty.
Wants to get with U.S. Army so that I can get back to my people as
Secessionists will not let me go. Wants the Great Father to send the
Union Red people and Troops down the Black Beaver road and he will
guide them to his country and then all his people will be for the
Union--That he cannot get back to his people any other way--Our Father
to protect the land in peace so that he can live in peace on the land
according to the Treaty--At the time I left my union people I told
them to look to the Beaver Road until I come. Promised his own people
that the U.S. Army would come back the Beaver Road and wants to go
that way--The way he left his country his people was in an elbow
surrounded by secessions and his people is not strong enough against
them for Union and that is the reason he has come up for help--Needed
guns, powder, lead to take to his own people. Own people for the Union
about 3350 warriors all Creeks--Needed now clothing, tents for winter,
tools, shirts, and every thing owned by whites,--wants their annuity
as they need it now--The Indians and the Whites among us have done
nothing against any one but the Secessionists have compelled us to
fight and we are willing to fight for the Union. Creek half breeds
joined secessionists. 32 head men and leaders-27 towns for the Union
among Creeks

_Signed_: Oke-tah-hah-shah-haw Choe
his X mark.

_Talk of Chickasaw Chief, Toe-Lad-Ke_

Says--Will talk short words--have had fever and sick--Secessionists
told him no more U.S. no more Treaty--all broken up better make new
Treaty with Secessionists--Although they told him all this did not
believe them and that is reason came up to see if there was not still
old U.S.--Loves his country--loves his children and would not believe
them yet--That he did not believe what the Secessionists told him and
they would not let him live in peace and that is the reason he left
his country--The secessionists want to tie him--whip him and make him
join them--but he would not and he left.

  100 warriors for secession--
  2240    do    "   Union

(cont.)]

disconcerting, not because Lane was hostile to Hunter personally--the
two men had long had a friendly acquaintance

[Footnote 141: (cont.) The secessionists plague him so much talk he
asks for his country that the army go down and that is what his people
wants same as Creek and Seminole--Have seen the agent of the Creeks
but have not seen our agent but want to see him--wants agent sent--He
has always done no wrong--Secessionists would not let him live in
peace--and if have to fight all his people will fight for Union--That
is all the chance that he can save his lands and property to
children--by old U.S. and Treaty--Chickasaw--Seminoles and Creeks all
in no difference--all for the Union--all want annuity and have had
none for some time--Now my Great Father you must remember me and my
people and all our wants. _Signed_: TOE-LAD-KE, his X mark.

_Talk of Seminole Chief, Choo-Loo-Foe-Lop-hah-Choe_

Says: Pike went among the Seminoles and tell them the same as he
told the Creek. The talk of Pike he did not believe and told him
so himself--Some of my people did believe Pike and did join the
secessionists also he believed the old U.S. is alive and Treaty not
dead and that is the reason he come up and had this talk--Never had
done any thing against Treaty and had come to have Great Father
protect us--Secession told him that Union men was going to take away
land and property--could get no annuity old U.S. all gone--come to
see--find it not so--wants President to send an agent don't know who
agent is--wants to appoint agent himself as he knows who he wants.
Twelve towns are for the Union

  500 warriors for the Union
  100     do    "  Secession

All people who come with Billy Bowlegs are Union--Chief in place of
Billy Bowlegs Shoe-Nock-Me-Koe this is his name--Need everything that
Creeks need--arms clothing, etc. etc. wants to go with army same way
and same road with Creek--This is what we ask of our Great Father live
as the Treaty says in peace--and all Seminole warriors will fight for
the Union. This is the request of our people of our Great Father They
need their annuity have not had any for nearly a year and want it
sent.

_Signed_: CHOO-LOO-FOE-LOP-HAH-CHOE, his X mark.

We the Chiefs of the three nations Creeks, Chickasaws and Seminoles
who are of this delegation and all for the Union and the majority of
our people are for the Union and agree in all that has been said by
the Chiefs who have made this talk, and believe all they have said to
be true--

  OKE-TAH-HAH-SHAH-HAW-CHOE          his X mark       Creek
  WHITE CHIEF                        his X mark       Creek

  BOB DEER                           his X mark       Creek
  PHIL DAVID                         his X mark       Creek

(cont.)]

with each other[142]--but because he had had great hopes of receiving
the post himself.[143] The time was now drawing near for him to repair
to Washington to resume his senatorial duties since Congress was to
convene the second of December.

To further his scheme for Indian enlistment, Lane had projected an
inter-tribal council to be held at his own headquarters. E.H. Carruth
worked especially to that end. The man in charge of the Southern
Superintendency, W.G. Coffin, had a similar plan in mind for less
specific reasons. His idea was to confer with the representatives of
the southern tribes with reference to Indian Territory conditions
generally. It was part of the duty appertaining to his office.
Humboldt[144] was the place selected by him for the meeting;
but Leroy, being better protected and more accessible, was soon
substituted. The sessions commenced the

[Footnote 141: (cont.)

  TOE-LAD-KE                 his X mark    Chickasaw
  CHAP-PIA-KE                his X mark    Chickasaw

  CHOO-LOO-FOE-LOP-HAH-CHOE  his X mark    Seminole
  OH-CHEN-YAH-HOE-LAH        his X mark    Seminole

  _Witness_: C.F. Currier
                  W. Whistler

LEROY, COFFEY CO. KAN., Nov. 4 1861.

I do certify that the within statement of the different chiefs were
taken before me at a council held at my house at the time stated and
that the talk of the Indian was correctly taken down by a competent
clerk at the time.

GEO.A. CUTLER, _Agent_ for the Creek Indians.

[Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1400 of 1861.]]

[Footnote 142: Their acquaintance dated, if not from the antebellum
days when Hunter was stationed at Fort Leavenworth and was not
particularly magnanimous in his treatment of Southerners, then from
those when he had charge, by order of General Scott, of the guard at
the White House. _Report of the Military Services of General David
Hunter_, pp. 7, 8.]

[Footnote 143: _Daily Conservative_, November 13, 1861.]

[Footnote 144: Coffin to Dole, October 2, 1861, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, _Report_, 1861, p. 39.]

sixteenth[145] of November and were still continuing on the
twenty-third.[146] It had not been possible to hold them earlier
because of the disturbed state of the country and the consequent
difficulty of getting into touch with the Indians.

Upon assuming command of the Department of Kansas, General Hunter took
full cognizance of the many things making for disquietude and turmoil
in the country now under his jurisdiction. Indian relations became, of
necessity, matters of prime concern. Three things bear witness to this
fact, Hunter's plans for an inter-tribal council at Fort Leavenworth,
his own headquarters; his advocacy of Indian enlistment, especially
from among the southern Indians; and his intention, early avowed, of
bringing Brigadier-general James W. Denver into military prominence
and of entrusting to him the supervisory command in Kansas. In some
respects, no man could have been found equal to Denver in conspicuous
fitness for such a position. He had served as commissioner of Indian
affairs[147] under Buchanan and, although a Virginian by birth,
had had a large experience with frontier life--in Missouri, in the
Southwest during the Mexican War, and in California. He had also
measured swords with Lane. It was in squatter-sovereignty days when,
first as secretary and then as governor of Kansas Territory, he
had been in a position to become intimately acquainted with the
intricacies of Lane's true character and had had both occasion and
opportunity to oppose some of that worthy's autocratic and thoroughly
lawless

[Footnote 145: _Daily Conservative_, November 17, 1861.]

[Footnote 146:--Ibid., November 23,1861.]

[Footnote 147: Denver was twice appointed Commissioner of Indian
Affairs by Buchanan. For details as to his official career, see
_Biographical Congressional Directory_, 499, and Robinson,
_Kansas Conflict_, 424.]

maneuvers.[148] As events turned out, this very acquaintance with Lane
constituted his political unfitness for the control that Hunter,[149]
in December, and Halleck,[150] in the following March, designed to
give him. With the second summons to command, came opportunity for
Lane's vindictive animosity to be called into play. Historically, it
furnished conclusive proof, if any were needed, that Lane had supreme
power over the distribution of Federal patronage in his own state and
exercised that power even at the cost of the well-being and credit of
his constituency.

When Congress began its second session in December, the fight against
Lane for possession of his seat in the Senate proceeded apace; but
that did not, in the least, deter him from working for his brigade.
His scheme now was to have it organized on a different footing from
that which it had sustained heretofore. His influence with the
administration in Washington was still very peculiar and very
considerable, so much so, in fact, that President Lincoln, without
taking expert advice and without consulting either the military men,
whose authority would necessarily be affected, or the civil officials
in Kansas, nominated him to the Senate as brigadier-general to have
charge of troops in that state.[151] Secretary Cameron was absent from
the city

[Footnote 148: Robinson, _op. cit_., 378 ff., 424 ff.]

[Footnote 149: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 456.]

[Footnote 150:--Ibid., 832.]

[Footnote 151: The Leavenworth _Daily Conservative_ seemed
fairly jubilant over the prospect of Lane's early return to military
activity. The following extracts from its news items and editorials
convey some such idea:

"General Lane of Kansas has been nominated to the Senate and
unanimously confirmed, as Brigadier General, to command Kansas troops;
the express understanding being that General Lane's seat in the Senate
shall not be vacated until he accepts his new commission, which he
will not do until the Legislature of Kansas assembles, next month. He
has no idea of doing anything that shall oblige Governor Robinson and
his appointee (Stanton) (cont.)]

at the time this was done and apparently, when apprised of it, made
some objections on the score, not so much of an invasion of his own
prerogative, as of its probable effect upon Hunter. Cameron had his
first consultation with Lane regarding the matter, January second, and
was given by him to understand that everything had been done in strict
accordance with Hunter's own wishes.[152] The practical question of
the relation of Lane's brigade to Hunter's command soon, however,
presented itself in a somewhat different light and its answer required
a more explicit statement from the president than had yet been made.
Lincoln, when appealed to, unhesitatingly repudiated every suggestion
of the idea that it had ever been his intention to give Lane an
independent command or to have Hunter, in any sense, superseded.[153]

The need for sending relief to the southern Indians, which, correctly
interpreted meant, of course, reasserting authority over them and thus
removing a menacing and impending danger from the Kansas border, had
been one of Lane's strongest arguments in gaining his way with the
administration. The larger aspect of his purpose was, however, the one
that appealed to Commissioner Dole, who, as head of the Indian Bureau,
seems fully to have appreciated the responsibility that

[Footnote 151: (cont.) who has been in waiting for several months to
take the place."--_Daily Conservative_, January 1, 1862.

"Rejoicing in Neosho Battalion over report that Lane appointed to
command Kansas troops."--Ibid., January 4, 1862.

"General Lane will soon be here and General Denver called to another
command."--Ibid., January 7, 1862.]

[Footnote 152: Cameron to Hunter, January 3, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 512-513.]

[Footnote 153: Martin F. Conway, the Kansas representative in
Congress, was under no misapprehension as to Lane's true position;
for Lincoln had told him personally that Lane was to be under Hunter
[_Daily Conservative_, February 6, 1862].]

assuredly rested in all honor upon the government, whether conscious
of it or not, to protect its wards in their lives and property. From
the first intimation given him of Lane's desire for a more energetic
procedure, Dole showed a willingness to coöperate; and, as many things
were demanding his personal attention in the West, he so timed a
journey of his own that it might be possible for him to assist in
getting together the Indian contingent that was to form a part of the
"Southern Expedition."[154]

The urgency of the Indian call for help[155] and the

[Footnote 154: Lane's expedition was variously referred to as "the
Southern Expedition," "the Cherokee Expedition," "the great jayhawking
expedition," and by many another name, more or less opprobrious.]

[Footnote 155: Representations of the great need of the Indians for
assistance were made to the government by all sorts of people. Agent
after agent wrote to the Indian Office. The Reverend Evan Jones wrote
repeatedly and on the second of January had sent information, brought
to him at Lawrence by two fugitive Cherokees, of the recent battle in
which the loyalists under Opoethle-yo-ho-la had been worsted, at
the Big Bend of the Arkansas [Indian Office Special Files, no. 201,
_Southern Superintendency_, J 540 of 1862]. In the early winter,
a mixed delegation of Creeks and others had made their way to
Washington, hoping by personal entreaty to obtain succor for their
distressed people, and justice. Hunter had issued a draft for their
individual relief [Ibid., J523 of 1861], and passes from Fort
Leavenworth to Washington [Ibid., C1433 of 1861]. It was not so
easy for them to get passes coming back. Application was made to the
War Department and referred back to the Interior [Ibid., A 434
of 1861]. The estimate, somewhat inaccurately footed up, of the total
expense of the return journey as submitted by agents Cutler and
Carruth was,

  "11 R.R. Tickets to Fort Leavenworth by way of New York City
  $48                                                        $ 528.00

  11 men $2 ea (incidental expenses)                            22.00

  2 1/2 wks board at Washington $5                             137.50

  Expenses from Leavenworth to Ind. Nat                         50.00

  Pay of Tecumseh for taking care of horses                     25.00
                                                             -------

  [Ibid., C 1433 of 1861].                             $ 960.50"

Dole had not encouraged the delegation to come on to Washington.
He pleaded lack of funds and the wish that they would wait in Fort
Leavenworth and attend Hunter's inter-tribal council so that they
might go back to their people carrying definite messages of what was
to be done (cont.)]

evident readiness of the government to make answer to that call before
it was quite too late pointed auspiciously to a successful outcome for
Senator Lane's endeavors; but, unfortunately, Major-general Hunter had
not been sufficiently counted with. Hunter had previously shown much
sympathy for the Indians in their distress[156] and also a realization
of the strategic importance

[Footnote 155: (cont.) [Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 67,
p. 107]. Dole had been forwarned of their intention to appear in
Washington by the following letter:

FORT LEAVENWORTH KAN., Nov. 23rd 1861.
HON WM.P. DOLE, Com. Indian Affs.

Sir: On my arrival in St. Louis I found Gen'l Hunter at the Planters
House and delivered the message to him that you had placed in my hands
for that purpose. He seemed fully satisfied with your letter and has
acted on it accordingly. I recd from Gen'l Hunter a letter for Mr.
Cutler, and others of this place, all of which I have delivered.
Having found Cutler here, he having been ordered by Lane to move the
council from Leroy to Fort Scott. But from some cause (which I have
not learned) he has brought the chiefs all here to the Fort, where
they are now quartered awaiting the arrival of Gen'l Hunter. He has
with him six of the head chiefs of the Creek, Seminole and Cherokee
Nations, and tells me that they are strong for the Union. He also says
that John Ross (Cherokee) is all right but dare not let it be known,
and that he will be here if he can get away from the tribe.

These chiefs all say they want to fight for the Union, and that they
will do so if they can get arms and ammunition. Gen'l Hunter has
ordered me to await his arrival here at which time he will council
with these men, and report to you the result. I think he will be
here on Tuesday or Wednesday. Cutler wants to take the Indians to
Washington, but I advised him not to do so until I could hear from
you. When I met him here he was on his way there.

You had better write to him here as soon as you get this, or you will
see him there pretty soon.

I have nothing more to write now but will write in a day or two.

Yours Truly R.W. DOLE.

P.S. Coffin is at home sick, but will be here soon. Branch is at St.
Joe but would not come over with me, cause, too buissie to attend to
business.

[Indian Office Special Files, no 201, _Southern Superintendency_,
D 410 of 1861].]

[Footnote 156: In part proof of this take his letter to
Adjutant-general Thomas, January 15, 1862.

"On my arrival here in November last I telegraphed for permission to
(cont.)]

of Indian Territory. Some other explanation, therefore, must be found
for the opposition he advanced to Lane's project as soon as it was
brought to his notice. It had been launched without his approval
having been explicitly sought and almost under false pretences.[157]
Then, too, Lane's bumptiousness, after he had accomplished his object,
was naturally very irritating. But, far above every other reason,
personal or professional, that Hunter had for objecting to a command
conducted by Lane was the identical one that Halleck,[158] Robinson,
and many another shared with him, a wholesome repugnance to such
marauding[159] as Lane had permitted his men to indulge in in the
autumn. It was to be feared that Indians under Lane would inevitably
revert to savagery. There would be no one to put any restraint upon
them and their natural instincts would be given free play. Conceivably
then, it was not mere supersensitiveness and pettiness of spirit that
moved General Hunter to take exception to Lane's appointment but
regard for the honor of his profession, perchance, also, a certain
feeling of personal dignity that

[Footnote 156: (cont.) muster a Brigade of Kansas Indians into the
service of the United States, to assist the friendly Creek Indians in
maintaining their loyalty. Had this permission been promptly granted,
I have every reason to believe that the present disastrous state of
affairs, in the Indian country west of Arkansas, could have been
avoided. I now again respectfully repeat my request."--Indian Office
General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 157: To the references given in Abel, _The American Indian
as Slaveholder and Secessionist_, add Thomas to Hunter, January 24,
1862, _Official Records_, vol. viii, 525.]

[Footnote 158: The St. Louis _Republican_ credited Halleck with
characterizing Hunter's command, indiscriminately, as "marauders,
bandits, and outlaws" [_Daily Conservative_, February 7, 1862].
In a letter to Lincoln, January 6, 1862, Halleck said some pretty
plain truths about Lane [_Official Records_, vol. vii, 532-533].
He would probably have had the same objection to the use of
Indians that he had to the use of negroes in warfare [_Daily
Conservative_, May 23, 1862, quoting from the Chicago
_Tribune_].]

[Footnote 159: On marauding by Lane's brigade, see McClellan to
Stanton, February 11, 1862 [_Official Records_, vol. viii,
552-553].]

legitimately resented executive interference with his rights. His
protest had its effect and he was informed that it was entirely within
his prerogative to lead the expedition southward himself. He resolved
to do it. Lane was, for once, outwitted.

The end, however, was not yet. About the middle of January, Stanton
became Secretary of War and soon let it be known that he, too, had
views on the subject of Indian enlistment. As a matter of fact, he
refused to countenance it.[160] The disappointment was the most keen
for Commissioner Dole. Since long before the day when Secretary Smith
had announced[161] to him that the Department of War was contemplating
the employment of four thousand Indians in its service, he had hoped
for some means of rescuing the southern tribes from the Confederate
alliance and now all plans had come to naught. And yet the need
for strenuous action of some sort had never been so great.[162]
Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la and his defeated followers were refugees on the
Verdigris, imploring help to relieve their present

[Footnote 160: Note this series of telegrams [Indian Office Special
Files, no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_, D 576 of 1862]:

"Secretary of War is unwilling to put Indians in the army. Is to
consult with President and settle it today."--SMITH to Dole, February
6, 1862.

"President cant attend to business now. Sickness in the family. No
arrangements can be made now. Make necessary arrangements for relief
of Indians. I will send communication to Congress today."--Same to
Same, February 11, 1862.

"Go on and supply the destitute Indians. Congress will supply the
means. War Department will not organize them."--Same to Same, February
14, 1862.]

[Footnote 161: Smith to Dole, January 3, 1862 [Indian Office Special
Files, no. 201, _Central Superintendency_, I 531 of 1862;
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, p. 150].]

[Footnote 162: On the second of January, Agent Cutler wired from
Leavenworth to Dole, "Heopothleyohola with four thousand warriors is
in the field and needs help badly. Secession Creeks are deserting him.
Hurry up Lane."--Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1443 of 1862.]

necessities and to enable them to return betimes to their own
country.[163] Moreover, Indians of northern antecedents and sympathies
were exhibiting unwonted enthusiasm for the cause[164] and it seemed
hard to have to repel them. Dole was, nevertheless, compelled to do
it. On the eleventh of February, he countermanded the orders he had
issued to Superintendent Coffin and thus a temporary quietus was put
upon the whole affair of the Indian Expedition.

[Footnote 163: Their plea was expressed most strongly in the course of
an interview which Dole had with representatives of the Loyal Creeks
and Seminoles, Iowas and Delawares, February 1, 1862. Robert Burbank,
the Iowa agent, was there. White Cloud acted as interpreter [_Daily
Conservative_, February 2, 1862].]

[Footnote 164: Some of these had been provoked to a desire for war by
the inroads of Missourians. Weas, Piankeshaws, Peorias, and Miamies,
awaiting the return of Dole from the interior of Kansas, said,
"they were for peace but the Missourians had not left them alone"
[Ibid., February 9, 1862].]




III. THE INDIAN REFUGEES IN SOUTHERN KANSAS


The thing that would most have justified the military employment of
Indians by the United States government, in the winter of 1862, was
the fact that hundreds and thousands of their southern brethren were
then refugees because of their courageous and unswerving devotion to
the American Union. The tale of those refugees, of their wanderings,
their deprivations, their sufferings, and their wrongs, comparable
only to that of the Belgians in the Great European War of 1914, is
one of the saddest to relate, and one of the most disgraceful, in the
history of the War of Secession, in its border phase.

The first in the long procession of refugees were those of the army
of Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la who, after their final defeat by Colonel James
McIntosh in the Battle of Chustenahlah, December 26, 1861, had fled up
the valley of the Verdigris River and had entered Kansas near Walnut
Creek. In scattered lines, with hosts of stragglers, the enfeebled,
the aged, the weary, and the sick, they had crossed the Cherokee Strip
and the Osage Reservation and, heading steadily towards the northeast,
had finally encamped on the outermost edge of the New York Indian
Lands, on Fall River, some sixty odd miles west of Humboldt. Those
lands, never having been accepted as an equivalent for their Wisconsin
holdings by the Iroquois, were not occupied throughout their entire
extent by Indians and only here and there

encroached upon by white intruders, consequently the impoverished
and greatly fatigued travellers encountered no obstacles in settling
themselves down to rest and to wait for a much needed replenishment of
their resources.

Their coming was expected. On their way northward, they had fallen
in, at some stage of the journey, with some buffalo hunters, Sacs and
Foxes of the Mississippi, returning to their reservation, which lay
some distance north of Burlington and chiefly in present Osage County,
Kansas. To them the refugees reported their recent tragic experience.
The Sacs and Foxes were most sympathetic and, after relieving the
necessities of the refugees as best they could, hurried on ahead,
imparting the news, in their turn, to various white people whom they
met. In due course it reached General Denver, still supervising
affairs in Kansas, and William G. Coffin, the southern
superintendent.[165] It was the first time, since his appointment the
spring before, that Coffin had had any prospect of getting in touch
with any considerable number of his charges and he must have welcomed
the chance of now really earning his salary. He ordered all of the
agents under him--and some[166] of them had not previously entered
officially upon their duties--to assemble at Fort Roe, on the
Verdigris, and be prepared to take charge of their

[Footnote 165: These facts were obtained chiefly from a letter, not
strictly accurate as to some of its details, written by Superintendent
Coffin to Dole, January 15, 1862 [Indian Office Special Files, no.
201, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1474 of 1862].]

[Footnote 166: For instance, William P. Davis, who had been appointed
Seminole Agent, despairing of ever reaching his post, had gone into
the army [Dole to John S. Davis of New Albany, Indiana, April 5, 1862,
Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 68, p. 39]. George C. Snow of
Parke County, Indiana, was appointed in his stead [Dole to Snow,
January 13, 1862, Ibid., no. 67, p. 243].]

several contingents; for the refugees, although chiefly Creeks, were
representative of nearly every one of the non-indigenous tribes of
Indian Territory.

It is not an easy matter to say, with any show of approach to exact
figures, how many the refugees numbered.[167] For weeks and weeks,
they were almost continually coming in and even the very first reports
bear suspicious signs of the exaggeration that became really notorious
as graft and peculation entered more and more into the reckoning.
Apparently, all those who, in ever so slight a degree, handled the
relief funds, except, perhaps, the army men, were interested in
making the numbers appear as large as possible. The larger the need
represented, the larger the sum that might, with propriety, be
demanded and the larger the opportunity for graft. Settlers, traders,
and some government agents were, in this respect, all culpable
together.

There was no possibility of mistake, however, intentional or
otherwise, about the destitution of the refugees. It was inconceivably
horrible. The winter weather of late December and early January had
been most inclement and the Indians had trudged through it, over
snow-covered, rocky, trailless places and desolate prairie, nigh three
hundred miles. When they started out, they were not any too well
provided with clothing; for they had departed in a hurry, and, before
they got to Fall River, not a few of them were absolutely naked. They
had practically no tents, no bed-coverings, and no provisions. Dr.
A.B. Campbell, a surgeon sent out by General Hunter,[168] had reached
them

[Footnote 167: Compare the statistics given in the following:
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1861, p. 151; 1862,
pp. 137, 157; Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1525 of 1862; General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1602 of 1862.]

[Footnote 168: The army furnished the first relief that reached them.
In its issue (cont.)]

towards the end of January and their condition was then so bad, so
wretched that it was impossible for him to depict it. Prairie grasses
were "their only protection from the snow" upon which they were
lying "and from the wind and weather scraps and rags stretched upon
switches." Ho-go-bo-foh-yah, the second Creek chief, was ill with a
fever and "his tent (to give it that name) was no larger than a small
blanket stretched over a switch ridge pole, two feet from the ground,
and did not reach it by a foot from the ground on either side of
him." Campbell further said that the refugees were greatly in need of
medical assistance. They were suffering "with inflammatory diseases
of the chest, throat, and eyes." Many had "their toes frozen off,"
others, "their feet wounded." But few had "either shoes or moccasins."
Dead horses were lying around in every direction and the sanitary
conditions were so bad that the food was contaminated and the
newly-arriving refugees became sick as soon as they ate.[169]

Other details of their destitution were furnished by Coffin's son
who was acting as his clerk and who was among the first to attempt
alleviation of their misery.[170] As far as relief went, however, the
supply was so out of proportion to the demand that there was never
any time that spring when it could be said that they were fairly
comfortable and their ordinary wants satisfied. Campbell frankly
admitted that he "selected the nakedest of the naked" and doled out to
them the few articles he

[Footnote 168: (cont.) of January 18, 1862, the _Daily
Conservative_ has this to say: "The Kansas Seventh has been ordered
to move to Humboldt, Allen Co. to give relief to Refugees encamped on
Fall River. Lt. Col. Chas. T. Clark, 1st Battalion, Kansas Tenth, is
now at Humboldt and well acquainted with the conditions."]

[Footnote 169: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
pp. 151-152.]

[Footnote 170: O.S. Coffin to William G. Coffin, January 26, 1862,
Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_,
C 1506 of 1862.]

had. When all was gone, how pitiful it must have been for him to see
the "hundreds of anxious faces" for whom there was nothing! Captain
Turner, from Hunter's commissary department, had similar experiences.
According to him, the refugees were "in want of every necessary of
life." That was his report the eleventh of February.[171] On the
fifteenth of February, the army stopped giving supplies altogether
and the refugees were thrown back entirely upon the extremely limited
resources of the southern superintendency.

Dole[172] had had warning from Hunter[173] that such would have to
be the case and had done his best to be prepared for the emergency.
Secretary Smith authorized expenditure for relief in advance of
congressional appropriation, but that simply increased the moral
obligation to practice economy and, with hundreds of loyal Indians on
the brink of starvation,[174] it was no

[Footnote 171: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
pp. 152-154.]

[Footnote 172: Dole had an interview with the Indians immediately upon
his arrival in Kansas [Moore, _Rebellion Record_, vol. iv, 59-60,
Doc. 21].]

[Footnote 173: Hunter to Dole, February 6, 1862, forwarded by Edward
Wolcott to Mix, February 10, 1862 [Indian Office General Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, W 513 and D 576 of 1862;
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, p. 150].]

[Footnote 174: Agent G.C. Snow reported, February 13, 1862, on the
utter destitution of the Seminoles [Indian Office General
Files, _Seminole_, 1858-1869] and, on the same day, Coffin
[Ibid., _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1526] to
the same effect about the refugees as a whole. They were coming in,
he said, about twenty to sixty a day. The "destitution, misery and
suffering amongst them is beyond the power of any pen to portray, it
must be seen to be realised--there are now here over two thousand men,
women, and children entirely barefooted and more than that number that
have not rags enough to hide their nakedness, many have died and they
are constantly dying. I should think at a rough guess that from 12 to
15 hundred dead Ponies are laying around in the camp and in the river.
On this account so soon as the weather gets a little warm, a removal
of this camp will be indespensable, there are perhaps now two thousand
Ponies living, they are very poor and many of them must die before
grass comes which we expect here from the first to the 10th of March.
We are issuing a little corn to (cont.)]

time for economy. The inadequacy of the Indian service and the
inefficiency of the Federal never showed up more plainly, to the utter
discredit of the nation, than at this period and in this connection.

Besides getting permission from Secretary Smith to go ahead and supply
the more pressing needs of the refugees, Dole accomplished another
thing greatly to their interest. He secured from the staff of General
Lane a special agent, Dr. William Kile of Illinois,[175] who
had formerly been a business partner of his own[176] and, like
Superintendent Coffin, his more or less intimate friend. Kile's
particular duty as special agent was to be the purchasing of supplies
for the refugees[177] and he at once visited their encampment in order
the better to determine their requirements. His investigations more
than corroborated the earlier accounts of their sufferings and
privations and his appointment under the circumstances seemed fully
justified, notwithstanding that on the surface of things it appeared
very suggestive of a near approach to nepotism, and of nepotism Dole,
Coffin, and many others were unquestionably guilty. They worked into
the service just as many of their own relatives and friends as they
conveniently and safely could. The official pickings were considered
by them as their proper perquisites. "'Twas ever thus" in American
politics, city, county, state, and national.

The Indian encampment upon the occasion of

[Footnote 174: (cont.) the Indians and they are feeding them a
little...." See also Moore, _Rebellion Record_, vol. iv, 30.]

[Footnote 175: Dole was from Illinois also, from Edgar County; Coffin
was from Indiana [Indian Office Miscellaneous Records, no. 8, p.
432].]

[Footnote 176: _Daily Conservative_, February 8, 1862.]

[Footnote 177: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, D 576 of 1862; _Letter Book_, no. 67, pp.
450-452.]

Kile's[178] visit was no longer on Fall River. Gradually, since first
discovered, the main body of the refugees had moved forward within the
New York Indian Lands to the Verdigris River and had halted in the
neighborhood of Fort Roe, where the government agents had received
them; but smaller or larger groups, chiefly of the sick and their
friends, were scattered all along the way from Walnut Creek.[179] Some
of the very belated exiles were as far westward as the Arkansas, over
a hundred miles distant. Obviously, the thing to do first was to get
them all together in one place. There were reasons why the Verdigris
Valley was a most desirable location for the refugees. Only a very few
white people were settled there and, as they were intruders and had
not a shadow of legal claim to the land upon which they had squatted,
any objections that they might make to the presence of the Indians
could be ignored.[180]

For a few days, therefore, all efforts were directed, at large
expense, towards converting the Verdigris Valley, in the vicinity of
Fort Roe, into a concentration camp; but no precautions were taken
against allowing unhygienic conditions to arise. The Indians
themselves were much diseased. They had few opportunities for personal
cleanliness and less ambition. Some of the food doled out to them was
stuff that the army had condemned and rejected as unfit for use. They
were emaciated, sick, discouraged. Finally, with

[Footnote 178: Indian Office Land Files, 1855-1870, _Southern
Superintendency_, K 107 of 1862.]

[Footnote 179: Some had wandered to the Cottonwood and were camped
there in great destitution. Their chief food was hominy [_Daily
Conservative_, February 14, 1862].]

[Footnote 180: For an account of the controversy over the settlement
of the New York Indian Lands, see Abel, _Indian Reservations in
Kansas and the Extinguishment of their Title_, 13-14.]

the February thaw, came a situation that soon proved intolerable. The
"stench arising from dead ponies, about two hundred of which were
in the stream and throughout the camp,"[181] unburied, made removal
imperatively necessary.

The Neosho Valley around about Leroy presented itself as a likely
place, very convenient for the distributing agents, and was next
selected. Its advantages and disadvantages seemed about equal and had
all been anticipated and commented upon by Captain Turner.[182] It
was near the source of supplies--and that was an item very much to
be considered, since transportation charges, extraordinarily high in
normal times were just now exorbitant, and the relief funds very, very
limited. No appropriation by Congress had yet been made although one
had been applied for.[183] The great disadvantage of the location was
the presence of white settlers and they objected, as well they might,
to the near proximity of the inevitable disease and filth and,
strangely enough, more than anything else, to the destruction of the
timber, which they had so carefully husbanded. The concentration on
the Neosho had not been fully accomplished when the pressure from the
citizens became so great that Superintendent Coffin felt obliged to
plan for yet another removal. Again the sympathy of the Sacs and
Foxes of Mississippi manifested itself and most opportunely. Their
reservation

[Footnote 181: Annual Report of Superintendent Coffin, October 15,
1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, p. 136.
Compare with Coffin's account given in a letter to Dole, February 13,
1862.]

[Footnote 182: February 11, 1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
_Report_, 1862, p. 153; Indian Office Special Files, no. 201,
_Southern Superintendency_, D 576 of 1862.]

[Footnote 183: _Congressional Globe_, 37th congress, second
session, part I, pp. 815, 849. Dole's letter to Smith, January 31,
1862, describing the destitution of the refugees, was read in the
Senate, February 14, 1862, in support of joint resolution S. no. 49,
for their relief.]

lay about twenty-five miles to the northward and they generously
offered it as an asylum.[184] But the Indians balked. They were
homesick, disgusted with official mismanagement[185] and indecision,
and determined to go no farther. They complained bitterly of the
treatment that they had received at the hands of Superintendent Coffin
and of Agent Cutler and, in a stirring appeal[186] to President
Lincoln, set forth their injuries, their grievances, and
their incontestable claim upon a presumably just and merciful
government.[187]

The Indians were not alone in their rebellious attitude. There was
mutiny seething, or something very like it, within the ranks of the
agents.[188] E.H. Carruth

[Footnote 184: Coffin to Dole, March 28, 1862 [Indian Office Special
Files, no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1565 of 1862].]

[Footnote 185: Mismanagement there most certainly had been. In no
other way can the fact that there was absolutely no amelioration in
their condition be accounted for. Many documents that will be cited in
other connections prove this point and Collamore's letter is of itself
conclusive. George W. Collamore, known best by his courtesy title of
"General," went to Kansas in the critical years before the war under
circumstances, well and interestingly narrated in Stearns' _Life and
Public Services of George Luther Stearns_, 106-108. He had been
agent for the New England Relief Society in the year of the great
drouth, 1860-1861 [_Daily Conservative_, October 26, 1861] and
had had much to do with Lane, in whose interests he labored, and who
had planned to make him a brigadier under himself as major-general
[Stearns, 246, 251]. He became quartermaster-general of Kansas
[_Daily Conservative_, March 27, 1862] and in that capacity made,
in the company of the Reverend Evan Jones, a visit of inspection to
the refugee encampment. His discoveries were depressing [Ibid.,
April 10, 1862]. His report to the government [Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1602 of 1862] is
printed almost _verbatim_ in Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
_Report_, 1862, 155-158.]

[Footnote 186: Coffin's letter to Dole of April 21, 1862 [Indian
Office General Files, _Wichita_, 1862-1871, C 1601 of 1862] seems
to cast doubt upon the genuineness of some of the signatures attached
to this appeal and charges Agent Carruth with having been concerned in
making the Indians discontented.]

[Footnote 187: Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la and other prominent refugees
addressed their complaints to Dole, March 29, 1862 [Indian Office Land
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870, O 43 of 1862] and
two days later to President Lincoln, some strong partisan, supposed by
Coffin to be Carruth, acting as scribe.]

[Footnote 188: On the way to the Catholic Mission, whither he was
going in order (cont.)]

who had been so closely associated with Lane in the concoction of the
first plan for the recovery of Indian Territory, was now figuring as
the promoter of a rising sentiment against Coffin and his minions, who
were getting to be pretty numerous. The removal to the Sac and Fox
reservation would mean the getting into closer and closer touch with
Perry Fuller,[189] the contractor, whose dealings in connection with
the Indian refugees were to become matter, later on, of a notoriety
truly disgraceful. Mistrust of Coffin was yet, however, very vague in
expression and the chief difficulty in effecting the removal from the
Neosho lay, therefore, in the disgruntled state of the refugees,
which was due, in part, to their unalleviated misery and, in part, to
domestic

[Footnote 188: (cont.) to coöperate with Agent Elder in negotiating
with the Osages, Coffin heard of "a sneaking conspiracy" that was "on
foot at Iola for the purpose of prejudicing the Indians against us
[himself and Dole, perhaps, or possibly himself and the agents]."
The plotters, so Coffin reported, "sent over the Verdigris for E.H.
Carruth who" was "deep in the plot," which was a scheme to induce the
Indians to lodge complaint against the distributers of relief. One of
the conspirators was a man who had studied law under Lane and who had
wanted a position under Kile. Lane had used his influence in the man's
behalf and the refusal of Coffin to assign him to a position was
supposed to be the cause of all the trouble. Coffin learned that
his enemies had even gone so far as to plan vacancies in the Indian
service and to fill them. They had "instructed Lane, Pomeroy, and
Conway accordingly," leaving graciously to Lane the choice of
superintendent. A Mr. Smith, correspondent of the Cincinnati
_Gazette_ was their accredited secretary [Coffin to Dole,
April 2, 1862, Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1571 of 1862].

Further particulars of the disaffection came to Coffin's ears before
long and he recounted them to Dole in a letter of April 9, 1862
[Ibid., General Files, _Southern Superintendency_,
1859-1862].]

[Footnote 189: Perry Fuller had been in Kansas since 1854 [U.S.
House _Reports_, 34th congress, first session, no. 200, p. 8 of
"Testimony"]. The first time that his name is intimately used in the
correspondence, relative to the affairs of the refugees, is in a
letter from Kile to Dole, March 29, 1862 [Indian Office Consolidated
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, K 113 of 1862, which also
makes mention of the great unwillingness of the Indians to move to the
Sac and Fox reservation.]]

tribal discord. There was a quarrel among them over leadership, the
election of Ock-tah-har-sas Harjo as principal chief having
aroused strong antagonistic feeling among the friends of
Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la.[190] Moreover, dissatisfaction against their agent
steadily increased and they asked for the substitution of Carruth; but
he, being satisfied with his assignment to the Wichitas,[191] had no
wish to change.[192]

[Footnote 190: Carruth gave particulars of this matter to Dole, April
20, 1862 [Indian Office General Files, _Wichita_, 1862-1871, C
1601 of 1862].]

[Footnote 191: Dole to Carruth, March 18, 1862 [Indian Office
_Letter Book_, no. 67, pp. 493-494].]

[Footnote 192: Carruth to Dole, April 10, 1862 [Ibid.,
General Files, _Wichita_, 1862-1871, C 1588 of 1862; _Letters
Registered_, vol. 58].]




IV. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST INDIAN EXPEDITION


Among the manifold requests put forward by the refugees, none was so
insistent, none so dolefully sincere, as the one for means to return
home. It is a mistake to suppose that the Indian, traditionally
laconic and stoical, is without family affection and without that
noblest of human sentiments, love of country. The United States
government has, indeed, proceeded upon the supposition that he is
destitute of emotions, natural to his more highly civilized white
brother, but its files are full to overflowing with evidences to the
contrary. Everywhere among them the investigator finds the exile's
lament. The red man has been banished so often from familiar and
greatly loved scenes that it is a wonder he has taken root anywhere
and yet he has. Attachment to the places where the bones of his people
lie is with him the most constant of experiences and his cry for those
same sacred places is all the stronger and the more sorrowful because
it has been persistently ignored by the white man.

The southern Indians had not been so very many years in the Indian
Territory, most of them not more than the span of one generation, but
Indian Territory was none the less home. If the refugees could only
get there again, they were confident all would be well with them. In
Kansas, they were hungry, afflicted with disease, and dying daily by
the score.[193] Once at home

[Footnote 193: And yet they did have their amusements. Their days of
exile were not filled altogether with bitterness. Coffin, in a letter
to the (cont.)]

all the ills of the flesh would disappear and lost friends be
recovered. The exodus had separated them cruelly from each other.
There were family and tribal encampments within the one large
encampment,[194] it is true, but there were also widely isolated
groups, scattered indiscriminately across two hundred miles of bleak
and lonely prairie, and no amount of philanthropic effort on the part
of the government agents could mitigate the misery arising therefrom
or bring the groups together. The task had been early abandoned as,
under the circumstances, next to impossible; but the refugees went on
begging for its accomplishment, notwithstanding that they had
neither the physical strength nor the means to render any assistance
themselves. Among them the wail of the bereaved vied in tragic cadence
with the sad inquiry for the missing.

When Dole arrived at Leavenworth the latter part of January,
representatives of the loyal Indians interviewed him and received
assurances, honest and well-meant at the time given, that an early
return to Indian Territory would be made possible. Lane, likewise
interviewed,[195] was similarly encouraging and had every reason to
be; for was not his Indian brigade in process of formation? Much
cheered and even exhilarated in spirit, the Indians went away to
endure and to wait. They had great confidence in Lane's power to
accomplish; but, as the days and the weeks passed and he did not come,
they grew tired of waiting. The waiting

[Footnote 193: (cont.) _Daily Conservative_, published April 16,
1862, gives, besides a rather gruesome account of their diseases, some
interesting details of their camp life.]

[Footnote 194: On their division into tribal encampments, see Kile
to Dole, April 10, 1862 [Indian Office General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, 1859-1862, K 119 of 1862].]

[Footnote 195: They had their interview with Lane at the Planters'
House while they were awaiting the arrival of Dole. Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la
(Crazy Dog) and a Seminole chief, Aluktustenuke (Major Potatoes) were
among them [_Daily Conservative_, January 28, February 8, 1862].]

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF COLONEL W.A. PHILLIPS]

seemed so hopeless to them miserable, so endlessly long. Primitive as
they were, they simply could not understand why the agents of a great
government could not move more expeditiously. The political and
military aspects of the undertaking, involved in their return home,
were unknown to them and, if known, would have been uncomprehended.
Then, too, the vacillation of the government puzzled them. They became
suspicious; for they had become acquainted, through the experience of
long years, with the white man's bad faith and they had nothing to go
upon that would counteract the influence of earlier distrust. And so
it happened, that, as the weary days passed and Lane's brigade did not
materialize, every grievance that loomed up before them took the shape
of a disappointed longing for home.

So poignant was their grief at the continued delay that they despaired
of ever getting the help promised and began to consider how they could
contrive a return for themselves. And yet, quite independent of Lane's
brigade, there had been more than one movement initiated in their
behalf. The desire to recover lost ground in Indian Territory, under
the pretext of restoring the fugitives, aroused the fighting instinct
of many young men in southern Kansas and several irregular expeditions
were projected.[196] Needless to say they came to nothing. In point of
fact, they never really developed, but died almost with the thought.
There was no adequate equipment for them and the longer the delay,
the more necessary became equipment; because after the Battle of Pea
Ridge, Pike's brigade had been set free to operate, if it so willed,
on the Indian Territory border.

[Footnote 196: In addition to those referred to in documents already
cited, the one, projected by Coffin's son and a Captain Brooks, is
noteworthy. It is described in a letter from Coffin to Dole, March 24,
1862.]

Closely following upon the Federal success of March 6 to 8, came
numerous changes and readjustments in the Missouri-Kansas commands;
but they were not so much the result of that success as they were
a part of the general reorganization that was taking place in the
Federal service incident to the more efficient war administration of
Secretary Stanton. By order of March 11, three military departments
were arranged for, the Department of the Potomac under McClellan,
that of the Mountain under Frémont, and that of the Mississippi under
Halleck. The consolidation of Hunter's Department of Kansas with
Halleck's Department of Missouri was thus provided for and had long
been a consummation devoutly to be wished.[197] Both were naturally
parts of the same organic whole when regarded from a military point
of view. Neither could be operated upon independently of the other.
Moreover, both were infested by political vultures. In both, the army
discipline was, in consequence, bad; that is, if it could be said to
be in existence at all. If anything, Kansas was in a worse state than
Missouri. Her condition, as far as the military forces were concerned,
had not much improved since Hunter first took command and it was then
about the worst that could possibly be imagined. Major Halpine's
description[198] of it, made by him in his capacity as assistant
adjutant-general, officially to Halleck, is anything but flattering.
Hunter was probably well rid of his job and Halleck, whom Lincoln much
admired because he was "wholly for the service,"[199] had asked for
the entire command.[200]

[Footnote 197: Halleck, however, had not desired the inclusion of
Kansas in the contemplated new department because he thought that
state had only a remote connection with present operations.]

[Footnote 198: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 615-617.]

[Footnote 199: Thayer, _Life and Letters of John Hay_, vol. i,
127-128.]

[Footnote 200: Badeau, _Military History of U.S. Grant_, vol. i,
53, _footnote_.]

Halleck's plans for remodeling the constituent elements of his
department were made with a thorough comprehension of the difficulties
confronting him. It is not surprising that they brought General Denver
again to the fore. Hunter's troubles had been bred by local politics.
That Halleck well knew; but he also knew that Indian relations were a
source of perplexity and that there was no enemy actually in Kansas
and no enemy worth considering that would threaten her, provided her
own jay-hawking hordes could be suppressed. Her problems were chiefly
administrative.[201] For the work to be done, Denver seemed the
fittest man available and, on the nineteenth, he, having previously
been ordered to report to Halleck for duty,[202] was assigned[203] to
the command of a newly-constituted District of Kansas, from which
the troops,[204] who were guarding the only real danger zone,
the southeastern part of the state, were expressly excluded. The
hydra-headed evil of the western world then asserted itself, the
meddling, particularistic spoils system, with the result that Lane and
Pomeroy, unceasingly vigilant whenever and wherever what they regarded
as their preserves were likely to be encroached upon, went to
President Lincoln and protested against the preferment of Denver.[205]
Lincoln weakly yielded and wired to Halleck to suspend

[Footnote 201: Halleck to Stanton, March 28, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. viii, 647-648.]

[Footnote 202:--Ibid., 612]

[Footnote 203:--Ibid., 832.]

[Footnote 204: Those troops, about five thousand, were left under
the command of George W. Deitzler, colonel of the First Kansas
(Ibid., 614), a man who had become prominent before the war in
connection with the Sharpe's rifles episode (Spring, _Kansas_,
60) and whose appointment as an Indian agent, early in 1861, had been
successfully opposed by Lane (Robinson, _Kansas Conflict_, 458).
There will be other occasions to refer to him in this narrative. He is
believed to have held the secret that induced Lane to commit suicide
in 1866 [Ibid., 457-460].]

[Footnote 205: Stanton to Halleck, March 26, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 516].]

the order for Denver's assignment to duty until further notice.[206]
Stanton, to whom Halleck applied[207] for an explanation,
deprecated[208] the political interference of the Kansas senators and
the influence it had had with the chief executive, but he, too, had to
give way. So effective was the Lane-Pomeroy objection to Denver that
even a temporary[209] appointment of him, resorted[210] to by Halleck
because of the urgent need of some sort of a commander in Kansas, was
deplored by the president.[211] Denver was then sent to the place
where his abilities and his experience would be better appreciated, to
the southernmost part of the state, the hinterland of the whole Indian
country.[212] Official indecision and personal envy pursued him
even there, however, and it was not long before he was called
eastward.[213] The man who succeeded him in command of the District of
Kansas[214] was one who proved to be his ranking officer[215] and his
rival, Brigadier-general S.D. Sturgis. Blunt succeeded him at Fort
Scott.

[Footnote 206: Lincoln to Halleck, March 21, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 516.]

[Footnote 207: Halleck to Stanton, March 26, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 208: "Deprecated" is, perhaps, too mild a word to describe
Stanton's feeling in the matter. Adjutant-general Hitchcock is
authority for the statement that Stanton threatened "to leave the
office" should the "enforcement" of any such order, meaning the
non-assignment of Denver and the appointment of a man named Davis
[Davies?], believed by Robinson to be a relative of Lane [_Kansas
Conflict_, 446], be attempted [Hitchcock to Halleck, March 22,
1862, _Official Records_, vol. viii, 832-833].]

[Footnote 209:--Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 519.]

[Footnote 210:--Ibid., vol. viii, 647-648.]

[Footnote 211:--Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 519.]

[Footnote 212: Concerning the work, mapped out for Denver, see Halleck
to Sturgis, April 6, 1862 [_Official Records_, vol. viii, 668]
and Halleck to Stanton, April 7, 1862 [Ibid., 672].]

[Footnote 213: May 14, 1862 [Ibid., vol. iii, part i,
supplement, 249].]

[Footnote 214:--Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 520.]

[Footnote 215: "It is stated that the commission of Gen. Sturgis is
dated April 10 and that of Gen. Denver Aug. 14 and consequently Gen.
Sturgis is the ranking officer in this military District."--_Daily
Conservative_, April 10, 1862.]

The elimination of Kansas as a separate department marked the revival
of interest in an Indian expedition. The cost of supporting so huge
a body of refugees had really become a serious proposition and, as
Colonel C. R. Jennison[216] had once remarked, it would be economy to
enlist them.[217] Congress had provided that certain Indian annuity
money might be diverted to their maintenance,[218] but that fund was
practically exhausted before the middle of March.[219] As already
observed, the refugees very much wished to assist in the recovery of
Indian Territory.[220] In fact they were determined to go south if the
army went and their disappointment was likely to be most keen in the
event of its and their not going.[221] It was under circumstances such
as these that Commissioner Dole recommended to Secretary Smith, March
13, 1862, that he

  Procure an order from the War Department detailing two
  Regiment of Volunteers from Kansas to go with the Indians
  to their homes and to remain there for their protection as long
  (as) may be necessary, also to furnish two thousand stand of
  arms and ammunition to be placed in the hands of the loyal
  Indians.

Dole's unmistakable earnestness carried the day. Within less than a
week there had been promised[222] him all that he had asked for and
more, an

[Footnote 216: Jennison, so says the _Daily Conservative_,
March 25, 1862, had been ordered with the First Cavalry to repair to
Humboldt at the time the Indian Expedition was under consideration the
first of the year and was brevetted acting brigadier for the purpose
of furthering Dole's intentions.]

[Footnote 217: _Daily Conservative_, February 18, 1862.]

[Footnote 218: _Congressional Globe_, 37th congress, second
session, part i, 835, 878.]

[Footnote 219: Dole to Smith, March 13, 1862 [Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 331-332].]

[Footnote 220: Coffin to Dole, March 3, 1862 [Ibid.,
Consolidated Files, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1544 of 1862;
_Letters Registered_, no. 58].]

[Footnote 221: _Daily Conservative_, March 5, 1862.]

[Footnote 222: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
148.]

expeditionary force of two white regiments and two[223] thousand
Indians, appropriately armed. To expedite matters and to obviate any
difficulties that might otherwise beset the carrying out of the plan,
a semi-confidential agent, on detail from the Indian Office, was sent
west with despatches[224] to Halleck and with an order[225] from the
Ordnance Department for the delivery, at Fort Leavenworth, of the
requisite arms. The messenger was Judge James Steele, who, upon
reaching St. Louis, had already discouraging news to report to Dole.
He had interviewed Halleck and had found him in anything but a helpful
mood, notwithstanding that he must, by that time, have received and
reflected upon the following communication from the War Department:

WAR DEPARTMENT,

WASHINGTON CITY, D. C, March 19, 1862.
MAJ. GEN.H.W. HALLECK,

Commanding the Department of Mississippi:

General: It is the desire of the President, on the application of the
Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that
you should detail two regiments to act in the Indian country, with a
view to open the way for the friendly Indians who are now refugees in
Southern Kansas to return to their homes and to protect them there.
Five thousand friendly Indians will also be armed to aid in their
own protection, and you will please furnish them with necessary
subsistence.

Please report your action in the premises to this Department. Prompt
action is necessary.

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS, Adjutant-general[226]

[Footnote 223: Two thousand was most certainly the number, although
the communication from the War Department gives it as five.]

[Footnote 224: Dole to Halleck, March 21, 1862 [Indian Office
_Letter Book_, no. 67, 516-517].]

[Footnote 225:--Ibid., 517-518.]

[Footnote 226: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 624-625.]

Steele inferred from what passed at the interview with Halleck that
the commanding general was decidedly opposed to arming Indians. Steele
found him also non-committal as to when the auxiliary force would be
available.[227] Dole's letter, with its seeming dictation as to
the choice of a commander for the expedition, may not have been to
Halleck's liking. He was himself at the moment most interested in the
suppression of guerrillas and jayhawkers, against whom sentence of
outlawry had just been passed. As it happened, that was the work in
which Dole's nominee, Colonel Robert B. Mitchell,[228] was to render
such signal service[229] and, anticipating as much, Halleck may have
objected to his being thought of for other things. Furthermore, Dole
had no right to so much as cast a doubt upon Halleck's own ability to
select a proper commander.

A little perplexed but not at all daunted by Halleck's lack of
cordiality, Steele proceeded on his journey and, arriving at
Leavenworth, presented his credentials to Captain McNutt, who was in
charge of the arsenal. Four hundred Indian rifles were at hand, ready
for him, and others expected.[230] What to do next, was the question?
Should he go on to Leroy and trust to the auxiliary force's showing up
in season or wait for it? The principal part of his mission was yet
to be executed. The Indians had to be enrolled and everything got in
train for their expedition southward. Their homes

[Footnote 227: Steele to Dole, March 27, 1862 [Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendence_, 1859-1862, S 537 of 1862].]

[Footnote 228: Robert B. Mitchell was colonel, first of the Second
Kansas Infantry, then of the Second Kansas Cavalry. He raised the
former, in answer to President Lincoln's first call, 1861 [Crawford,
_Kansas in the Sixties_, 20], chiefly in Linn County, and the
latter in 1862.]

[Footnote 229: Connelley, _Quantrilt and the Border Wars_, 236
ff.]

[Footnote 230: Steele to Dole, March 26, 1862 [Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendence_, 1859-1862].]

once recovered, they were to be left in such shape as to be able to
"protect and defend themselves."[231]

Halleck's preoccupation, prejudice, or whatever it was that prevented
him from giving any satisfaction to Steele soon yielded, as all
things sooner or later must, to necessity; but not to the extent of
sanctioning the employment of Indians in warfare except as against
other "Indians or in defense of their own territory and homes." The
Pea Ridge atrocities were probably still fresh in his mind. On the
fifth of April, he instructed[232] General Denver with a view to
advancing, at last, the organization of the Indian expedition and
Denver, Coffin, and Steele forthwith exerted all their energies in
coöperating effort[233]. Some time was spent in inspecting arms[234]
but, on the eighth, enough for two thousand Indians went forward in
the direction of Leroy and Humboldt[235] and on the sixteenth were
delivered to the superintendent[236]. Coffin surmised that new
complications would arise as soon as the distribution began; for all
the Indians, whether they intended to enlist or not, would try to
secure guns. Nothing had yet been said about their pay and nothing
heard of an auxiliary force[237]. Again the question was, what,

[Footnote 231: Dole to Steele, March 21, 1862, Indian Office _Letter
Book_, no. 67, 508-509.]

[Footnote 232: _Official Records_, vol. viii, 665.]

[Footnote 233: Dole's name might well be added to this list; for he
had never lost his interest or relaxed his efforts. On the fifth of
April, he communicated to Secretary Smith the intelligence that he
had issued instructions to "the officers appointed to command the two
Regiments of Indians to be raised as Home Guard to report at Fort
Leavenworth to be mustered into service ... "--Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 357.]

[Footnote 234: Steele to Dole, April 7, 1862 [Ibid., General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, S 538 of 1862].]

[Footnote 235: Denver to Halleck, April 8, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. viii, 679].]

[Footnote 236: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
148.]

[Footnote 237: "... I fear we shall have trouble in regard to the guns
as many will take guns that will not go and whether they will give up
their arms is doubtful. I had a long talk with Opothly-Oholo on that
point and told (cont.)]

in the event of its not appearing, should the Indian agents do?[238]

The time was propitious for starting the expedition; for not the
shadow of an enemy had been lately seen in the West, unless count be
taken of Indians returning home or small roving bands of possible
marauders that the people of all parties detested[239]. But the order
for the supplanting of Denver by Sturgis had already been issued,
April sixth[240], and Sturgis's policy was not yet

[Footnote 237: (cont.) him you could only get 2000 guns and you wanted
every one to go and an Indian with it and that if any of them got guns
that did not go they must give up their guns to those that would go
but I know enough of the Indian character to know that it will be next
thing to an impossibility to get a gun away from one when he once gets
it and I shall put off the distribution of the guns till the last
moment and it would be best to send them on a day or two before being
distributed but that would make them mad and they would not go at all
and how we are to know how many to look out for from others than those
we have here I am not able to see but we will do all that we can but
you may look out for dificulty in the matter they all seem anxious now
to go and make no objections as yet nor have they said anything about
their pay but as they were told before when we expect them to go into
the Hunter Lane expedition that they would get the same pay as white
troops and set off a part of it for their families it was so indelibly
impressed upon their minds that I fear we will have a blow up on that
score when it comes up we hear nothing yet of any troops being ordered
to this service and I very much fear they will put off the matter so
long that there will be no crop raised this season ... the mortality
amongst them is great more since warm weather has set in than during
the cold weather they foolishly physic themselves nearly to death danc
[dance] all night and then jump into the river just at daylight to
make themselves bullet proof they have followed this up now every
night for over two weeks and it has no doubt caused many deaths
Long Tiger the Uchee Chief and one of the best amongst them died
to-day--yesterday we had 7 deaths and there will not be less
to-day"--Coffin to Dole, April 7, 1862, Indian Office General Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1578 of 1862.]

[Footnote 238: This was the query put to Dole by Steele in a letter of
the thirteenth of April, which acknowledged Dole's of the third and
ventured the opinion that Postmaster-general Blair "must be imitating
General McClellan and practicing strategy with the mails." Steele
further remarked, "Gen'l Denver, Maj. Wright and I are in the dark as
to the plans of the Indian Expedition. Gen. Denver thinks I
should proceed at once to Leroy without waiting for your
instructions."--Ibid., S 539 of 1862.]

[Footnote 239: Curtis to Halleck, April 5, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. viii, 662].]

[Footnote 240: Sturgis, upon the receipt of orders of this date,
assumed command of (cont.)]

known. It soon revealed itself, however, and was hostile to the whole
project that Dole had set his heart upon. Apparently that project, the
moment it had been taken up by Denver, had ceased to have any interest
for Lane on the score of its merits and had become identified with
the Robinson faction in Kansas politics. At any rate, it was the
anti-Robinson press that saw occasion for rejoicing in the complete
removal of Denver from the scene, an event which soon took place[241].

The relieving of Denver from the command of the District of Kansas
inaugurated[242] what contemporaries described as "Sturgis' military
despotism,"[243] in amplification of which it is enough to say that
it attempted the utter confounding, if not the annihilation, of the
Indian Expedition, a truly noble undertaking to be sure, considering
how much was hoped for from that expedition, how much of benefit and
measure of justice to a helpless, homeless, impoverished people and
considering, also, how much of time and thought and

[Footnote 240: (cont.) the District of Kansas; but Denver was not
called east until the fourteenth of May. On the twenty-first of April,
it was still expected that he would lead an expedition "down the
borders of Arkansas into the Indian country." [KELTON to Curtis, April
21, 1862, Ibid., vol. xiii, 364].]

[Footnote 241: The _Daily Conservative_, for instance, rejoiced
over this telegram from Sidney Clark of May 2, which gave advanced
information of Denver's approaching departure: "Conservative: The
Department of Kansas is reinstated. Gen. Blunt takes command. Denver
reports to Halleck; Sturgis here." The newspaper comment was, "We
firmly believe that a prolongation of the Denver-Sturgis political
generalship, aided as it was by the corrupt Governor of this
State, would have led to a revolution in Kansas ..."--_Daily
Conservative_, May 6, 1862.]

[Footnote 242: General Sturgis assumed command, April 10, 1862
[_Official Records_, vol. viii, 683], and Denver took temporary
charge at Fort Scott [Ibid., 668].]

[Footnote 243: Quoted from the _Daily Conservative_ of May 20;
but not with the idea of subscribing thereby to any verdict that would
bear the implication that all of Sturgis's measures were arbitrary
and wrong. Something strenuous was needed in Kansas. The arrest of
Jennison and of Hoyt [Ibid., April 19, 23, 1862] because of
their too radical anti-slavery actions was justifiable. Jennison had
disorganized his regiment in a shameful manner [Ibid., June 3,
1862].]

energy, not to mention money, had already been expended upon it.

Sturgis's policy with reference to the Indian Expedition was initiated
by an order[244], of April 25, which gained circulation as purporting
to be in conformity with instructions from the headquarters of the
Department of the Mississippi, although in itself emanating from those
of the District of Kansas. It put a summary stop to the enlistment
of Indians and threatened with arrest anyone who should disobey its
mandate. Superintendent Coffin, in his inimitable illiteracy, at once
entered protest[245] against it and coolly informed Sturgis that, in
enrolling Indians for service, he was acting under the authority, not
of the War, but of the Interior Department. At the same sitting, he
applied to Commissioner Dole for new instructions[246].

[Footnote 244: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 365.]

[Footnote 245:

  LE ROY COFFEE COUNTY, KANSAS, April 29th 1862.
  BRIG. GENL S.D. STURGIS, Fort Leavenworth Kansas

Dear Sir: A Special Messenger arrived here last night from Fort
Leavenworth with your orders No. 8 and contents noted. I would most
respectfully inform you that I am acting under the controle and
directions of the Interior and not of the War Department. I have
been endeavoring to the best of my humble ability to carry out the
instructions and wishes of that Department, all of which I hope will
meet your aprobation.

Your Messenger reports himself Straped, that no funds were furnished
him to pay his expenses, that he had to beg his way down here. I have
paid his bill here and furnished him with five dollars to pay his way
back. Very respectfully your Obedient Servant

W.G. COFFIN, _Sup't. of Indian Affairs_, Southern
Superintendency. [Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1612 of 1862].]

[Footnote 246: LEROY COFFEY CO., KANSAS, April 29th, 1862.

SIR: Enclosed please find a communication from Brigadier General
Sturgis in regard to the organising of the Indians and my reply to the
same, the officers are here, or at least four of them. Col Furnace
Agutant Elithurp Lieutenant Wattles and Agutant Dole I need scarcely
say to you that we shall continue to act under your Instructions til
further orders, the Officers above alluded to have been untiring in
their efforts to get acquainted with and get the permanent (cont.)]

Colonel John Ritchie[247] of the inchoate Second Regiment Indian Home
Guards did the same[248].

The reëstablishment[249] of the Department of Kansas, at this critical
moment, while much to be regretted as indicative of a surrender to
politicians[250] and an abandonment of the idea, so fundamentally
conducive to military success, that all parts must contribute to the
good of the whole, had one thing to commend it, it restored vigor
to the Indian Expedition. The department was reëstablished, under
orders[251] of May second, with James G. Blunt in command. He entered
upon his duties, May fifth, and on that selfsame day authorized the
issue of the following most significant instructions, in toto, a
direct countermand of all that Sturgis had most prominently stood for:

[Footnote 246: (cont.) organization of the Indians under way and have
made a fine impression upon them, and I should very much regret any
failure to carry out the programe as they have been allready so
often disappointed that they have become suspicious and it all has a
tendency to lessen their confidence in us and to greatly increase
our dificulties All of which is most Respectfully Submitted by your
obedient Servant

W.G. COFFIN, Sup't of Indian Affairs. [Indian Office Special Files,
no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1612 of 1862].]

[Footnote 247: For an inferential appraisement of Ritchie's character
and abilities, see Kansas _Historical Collections_, vol. iii,
359-366.]

[Footnote 248: Ritchie to Dole, April 26, 1863 [Indian Office
Miscellaneous Files, 1858-1863].]

[Footnote 249: The reëstablishment, considered in the light of the
first orders issued by Blunt, those set out here, was decidedly in
the nature of a reflection upon the reactionary policy of Halleck and
Sturgis; but Halleck had no regrets. Of Kansas, he said, "Thank God,
it is no longer under my command." [_Official Records_, vol.
xiii, 440.] Ever since the time, when he had been urged by the
administration in Washington, peculiarly sensitive to political
importunities, not to retain, outside of Kansas, the Kansas troops
if he could possibly avoid it, there had been more or less of rancor
between him and them. His opinion of them was that they were a
"humbug" [Ibid., vol. viii, 661].]

[Footnote 250: Almost simultaneously, Schofield was given independent
command in Missouri, a similar surrender to local political pressure.]

[Footnote 251: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 368-369.]

General Orders,                HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF KANSAS,
No. 2.                         Fort Leavenworth, Kans., May 5, 1862.

I. General Orders, No. 8, dated Headquarters District of Kansas, April
25, 1862, is hereby rescinded.

II. The instructions issued by the Department at Washington to the
colonels of the two Indian regiments ordered to be raised will be
fully carried out, and the regiments will be raised with all possible
speed.

By order of Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt,[252]

THOS. MOONLIGHT, _Captain
and Assistant Adjutant-general_.[253]

The full extent, not only of Sturgis's failure to coöperate with
the Indian Office, but also of his intention utterly to block the
organization of the Indian Expedition, is revealed in a letter[254]
from Robert W. Furnas, colonel commanding the First Regiment Indian
Home Guards, to Dole, May 4, 1862. That letter best explains itself.
It was written from Leroy, Kansas, and reads thus:

    Disclaiming any idea of violating "Regulations" by an "Official
    Report" to you, permit me to communicate certain facts extremely
    embarrassing, which surround the Indian Expedition.

    In compliance with your order of Ap'l 5th. I reported myself
    "forthwith" to the U.S. mustering officer at Ft. Leavenworth and
    was "mustered into the service" on the 18th. of April. I "awaited
    the orders from Genl Halleck" as directed but rec'd none. On the
    20th. Ap'l I rec'd detailed

[Footnote 252: The promotion of Blunt to a brigadier-generalship had
caused surprise and some opposition. Referring to it, the _Daily
Conservative_, April 12, 1862, said, "Less than three months ago
Mr. Lincoln informed a gentleman from this State that no Kansas man
would be made a Brigadier 'unless the Kansas Congressional delegation
was unanimously and strenuously in his favor' ... Either the President
has totally changed his policy or Lane, Pomeroy and Conway are
responsible for this most unexpected and unprecedented appointment
..."]

[Footnote 253: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 370.]

[Footnote 254: Indian Office General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, 1859-1862, F 363 of 1862.]

    instructions from Adjt. Gen'l Thomas, authorizing me to proceed
    and raise "from the loyal Indians now in Kansas a Regiment of
    Infantry." I immediately repaired to this place and in a very
    few days enrolled a sufficient number of Indians to form a
    minimum[255] Regiment. I am particularly indebted to the Agts.
    Maj. Cutler of the Creeks and Maj. Snow of the Seminoles, for
    their valuable services. Immediately after the enrolling, and
    in compliance with my instructions from Adjt. Gen'l Thomas, I
    notified Lieut. Chas. S. Bowman U.S. mustering officer at Ft.
    Leavenworth of the fact, to which I have rec'd no answer.

    At this point in my procedure a special messenger from Gen'l
    Sturgis reached this place with a copy of his "Order No. 8," a
    copy of which I herewith send you. On the next day Maj. Minor in
    command at Iola, Kansas, and who had been furnished with a copy of
    General Sturgis' "Order" came with a company of Cavalry to this
    place "to look into matters." I showed him my authority, and
    informed him what I had done. He made no arrest, seeming utterly
    at a loss to understand the seemingly _confused_ state of
    affairs. Whether Gen'l Sturgis will on the reception of my notice
    at the Fort arrest me, or not, I know not. I have gone to the
    limits of my instructions and deem it, if not my duty, prudent at
    least to notify you of the condition of affairs, that you may be
    the better enabled to remove obstacles, that the design of the
    Department may be fully and promptly executed....[256]

[Footnote 255: The regiment, according to the showing of the muster
roll, comprised one thousand nine men. Fifteen hundred was the more
usual number of a regiment, which, normally, had three battalions with
a major at the head of each.]

[Footnote 256: The remainder of the letter deals with the muster roll
of the First Regiment Indian Home Guards, which was forwarded to Dole,
under separate cover, the same day, and of which Dole acknowledged the
receipt, May 16, 1862 [Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 68, pp.
240-241]. The roll shows the captain and number of each company as
here:

  Company A   Billy Bowlegs               106
  Company B   A-ha-luk-tus-ta-na-ke       100
  Company C   Tus-te-nu-ke-ema-ela        104
  Company D   Tus-te-nuk-ke               100
  Company E   Jon-neh (John)              101
  Company F   Mic-co-hut-ka (White Chief) 103
  Company G   Ah-pi-noh-to-me             103

(cont.)]

It soon developed that General Halleck had been equally at fault
in disregarding the wishes of the government with respect to the
mustering in of the loyal Indians. He had neglected to send on
to Kansas the instructions which he himself had received from
Washington.[257] It was incumbent, therefore, upon Blunt to ask for
new. He had found the enlisted Indians with no arms, except guns, no
shot pouches, no powder horns, although they were attempting to supply
themselves as best they could.[258] Blunt thought they ought to be
furnished with sheath, or bowie, knives; but the Indian Office had no
funds for such a purpose.[259] The new instructions, when they came,
were found to differ in no particular from those which had formerly
been issued. The Indian Home Guards were to constitute an irregular
force and were to be supported by such white troops, as Blunt should
think necessary. They were to be supplied with transportation and
subsistence and Blunt was to "designate the general to command."
Blunt's own appointment was expected to remove all difficulties that
had stood in the way of the Indian Expedition while under the control
of Halleck.[260] On

[Footnote 256: (cont.)

  Company H   Lo-ga-po-koh        94
  Company I   Jan-neh (John      100
  Company J   Lo-ka-la-chi-ha-go  98]

[Footnote 257: Coffin to Dole, May 8, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 258: Same to Same, May 13, 1862, Ibid., Land Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870.]

[Footnote 259: Dole to Coffin, May 20, 1862, Ibid., _Letter
Book_, no. 68, p. 252.]

[Footnote 260: "I visited the War Department today to ascertain what
orders had been forwarded to you and your predecessor relative to the
organization of two thousand Indians as a home guard, which when
so organized would proceed to their homes in the Indian country in
company with a sufficient number of white troops to protect them at
their homes.

"I learn from Adjutant General Thomas that all necessary orders have
been forwarded to enable you to muster these Indian Regiments into the
service as an irregular force; and to send such white force with them
as (cont.)]

May 8 came the order from Adjutant-general Thomas, "Hurry up the
organization and departure of the two Indian regiments,"[261] which
indicated that there was no longer any question as to endorsement by
the Department of War.

As a matter of fact, the need for hurry was occasioned by the activity
of secessionists, Indians and white men, in southwest Missouri, which
would, of itself, suggest the inquiry as to what the Indian allies of
the Confederacy had been about since the Battle of Pea Ridge. Van
Dorn had ordered them to retire towards their own country and, while
incidentally protecting it, afford assistance to their white ally by
harassing the enemy, cutting off his supply trains, and annoying him
generally. The order had been rigidly attended to and the Indians had
done their fair share of the irregular warfare that terrorized and
desolated the border in the late spring of the second year of the war.
Not all of them, regularly enlisted, had participated in it, however;
for General Pike had, with a considerable part of his brigade, gone
away from the border as far as possible and had intrenched himself at
a fort of his own planning, Fort McCulloch, in the Choctaw Nation, on
the Blue River, a branch of the Red.[262] Furthermore,

[Footnote 260: (cont.) in your judgment may be deemed necessary, also
that the difficulties we experienced while the expedition was under
the control of Gen'l Halleck are now removed by your appointment, and
that you will designate the general to command the whole expedition
and see that such supplies for the transportation and subsistence as
may be necessary are furnished to the whole expedition (Indians as
well as whites). Lieut. Kile informs me that there was doubt whether
the Quarter Master would be expected to act as Commissary for
the Regiment. I suppose that you fully understand this was the
intention...."--Dole to Blunt, May 16, 1862, Indian Office _Letter
Book_, no. 68, pp. 241-242.]

[Footnote 261: _Daily Conservative_, May 9, 1862.]

[Footnote 262: "... General Albert Pike retreated from the battle of
Pea Ridge, Arkansas, a distance of 250 miles, and left his new-made
wards to the mercy (cont.)]

Colonel Drew and his men, later converts to secessionism, had, for a
good part of the time, contented themselves with guarding the Cherokee
Nation,[263] thus leaving Colonel Cooper and Colonel Stand Watie, with
their commands, to do most of the scouting and

[Footnote 262: (cont.) of war, stringing his army along through the
Cherokee, Creek and Choctaw Nations, passing through Limestone Gap, on
among the Boggies, and halted at Carriage Point, on the Blue, 'away
down along the Chickasaw line.' Cherokee Knights of the Golden Circle
followed Pike's retreat to Texas ... "--Ross, _Life and Times of
Hon. William P. Ross_, p. viii.]

[Footnote 263: These two letters from John Ross are offered in
evidence of this. They are taken from Indian Office Miscellaneous
Files, John Ross _Papers_:

(a)

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, PARK HILL, March 21st, 1862.

SIR: I am in receipt of your favor of the 23rd. inst. I have no doubt
that forage can be procured for Col. Drew's men in this vicinity by
hauling it in from the farms of the surrounding Districts. The subject
of a Delegate in Congress shall be attended to so soon as arrangements
can be made for holding an election. I am happy to learn that Col.
Drew has been authorized to furlough a portion of the men in his
Regiment to raise corn. I shall endeavor to be correctly informed of
the movements of the enemy and advise you of the same. And I shall be
gratified to receive any important information that you may have to
communicate at all times. I am very respectfully and truly, Yours,
etc. John Ross, _Prin'l Chief_, Cherokee Nation.

(b).

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, C.N. PARK HILL, April 10th, 1862.

SIR: I beg leave to thank you for your kind response to my letter of
the 22nd ulto and your order stationing Col. Drew's Regiment in this
vicinity. Though much reduced by furloughs in number it will be
useful for the particular purposes for which it was ordered here. The
unprotected condition of the country however is a source of general
anxiety among the People, who feel that they are liable to be overrun
at any time by small parties from the U.S. Army which remains in the
vicinity of the late Battle Ground. This is more particularly the case
since the removal of the Confederate Forces under your command and
those under Major Gen'l Price. Without distrusting the wisdom that has
prompted these movements, or the manifestation of any desire on my
part to enquire into their policy it will be nevertheless a source
of satisfaction to be able to assure the people of the country that
protection will not be withheld from them and that they will not
be left to their own feeble defense. Your response is respectfully
requested, I have the honor to be Sir with high regards, Your Obt
Servt. JOHN ROSS, _Prin'l Chief_, Cherokee Nation.

To Brig. Gen'l A. Pike Com'dg, Department Indian Territory, Head Qrs.
Choctaw Nation.]

skirmishing. So kindly did the Indians take to that work that Colonel
Cooper recommended[264] their employment as out-and-out guerrillas.
That was on May 6 and was probably suggested by the fact that, on
April 21, the Confederate government had definitely authorized the
use of partisan rangers.[265] A good understanding of Indian military
activity, at this particular time, is afforded by General Pike's
report[266] of May 4,

    ... The Cherokee[267] and Creek troops are in their respective
    countries. The Choctaw troops are in front of me, in their
    country, part on this side of Boggy and part at Little Boggy, 34
    miles from here. These observe the roads to Fort Smith and by
    Perryville toward Fort Gibson. Part of the Chickasaw battalion is
    sent to Camp McIntosh, 11 miles this side of the Wichita Agency,
    and part to Fort Arbuckle, and the Texan company is at Fort Cobb.

    I have ordered Lieutenant-colonel Jumper with his Seminoles to
    march to and take Fort Larned, on the Pawnee Fork of the Arkansas,
    where are considerable stores and a little garrison. He will go as
    soon as their annuity is paid.

    The Creeks under Colonel McIntosh are about to make an extended
    scout westward. Stand Watie, with his Cherokees, scouts along the
    whole northern line of the Cherokee country from Grand Saline to
    Marysville, and sends me information continually of every movement
    of the enemy in Kansas and Southwestern Missouri.

    The Comanches, Kiowas, and Reserve Indians are all peaceable and
    quiet. Some 2,000 of the former are encamped about three days'
    ride from Fort Cobb, and some of them come in at intervals to
    procure provisions. They have sent to me to know

[Footnote 264: Cooper to Van Dorn, May 6, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 823-824.]

[Footnote 265: _Journal of the Congress of the Confederate
States_, vol. v, 285.]

[Footnote 266: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 819-823.]

[Footnote 267: This situation, so eminently satisfactory to John Ross,
did not continue long, however, and on May 10, the Cherokee Principal
Chief had occasion to complain that his country had been practically
divested of a protecting force and, at the very moment, too, when the
Federals were showing unwonted vigor near the northeastern border
[Ross to Davis, May 10, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. xiii,
824-825].]

    if they can be allowed to send a strong party and capture any
    trains on their way from Kansas to New Mexico, to which I have no
    objection. To go on the war-path somewhere else is the best way to
    keep them from troubling Texas ...

Stand Watie's scouting had brought him, April 26,[268] into a slight
action with men of the First Battalion First Missouri Cavalry at
Neosho, in the vicinity of which place he lingered many days and where
his men[269] again fought, in conjunction with Colonel Coffee's, May
31.[270] The skirmish of the later date was disastrous to the Federals
under Colonel John M. Richardson of the Fourteenth Missouri State
Militia Cavalry and proved to be a case where the wily and nimble
Indian had taken the Anglo-Saxon completely by surprise.[271] From
Neosho, Stand Watie moved down, by slow and destructive stages,
through Missouri and across into Indian Territory. His next important
engagement was at Cowskin Prairie, June 6.

Meanwhile, the organization of the Indian Expedition, or Indian Home
Guard, as it was henceforth most commonly styled, was proceeding
apace.[272] The

[Footnote 268: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 61-63; Britton,
_Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 281-282.]

[Footnote 269: Stand Watie's whole force was not engaged and he,
personally, was not present. Captain Parks led Watie's contingent and
was joined by Coffee.]

[Footnote 270: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 90-92, 94-95.]

[Footnote 271:--Ibid., 92-94, 409. Watie, although not
present, seems to have planned the affair [Ibid., 95].
Lieutenant-colonel Mills, who reported upon the Neosho engagement, was
of the opinion that "the precipitate flight" of the Federals could
be accounted for only upon the supposition that the "screaming and
whooping of the Indians" unnerved them and "rendered their untrained
horses nearly unmanageable."--Ibid., 93.]

[Footnote 272: The progress in organization is indicated by these
communications to the Indian Office:

(a).

The enrollment, organizing etc. etc. of the Indians, and preparations
for their departure, are progressing satisfactorily, though as I
anticipated, it will be difficult to raise two Regiments, and I have
some fears of our success in getting the full number for the 2nd
Regiment. But if we get one full company of Delawares and Shawnees,
(cont.)]

completion of the first regiment gave little concern. It was composed
of Creeks and Seminoles, eight companies of the former and two of the
latter. The second regiment was miscellaneous in its composition and
took longer to

[Footnote 272: (cont.) as promised, and four companies of Osages,
which the chiefs say they can raise, I think we shall succeed.

Two Regiments of white troops and Rabb's Battery have already started
and are down by this time in the Cherokee Nation. Col. Doubleday, who
is in command, has notified the officers here to prepare with all
possible despatch, for marching orders. We are looking for Aliens
Battery here this week and if it comes I hope to make considerable
addition to the Army from the loyal Refugee Indians here, as they have
great confidence in "_them waggons that shoot_," this has been a
point with them all the time.

We were still feeding those that are mustered in and shall I suppose
have to do so until the requisitions arive. The Dellawares and
Shaw-nees also, I had to make arrangements to feed from the time of
their arrival at the Sac and Fox Agency. But from all the indications
now we expect to see the whole Expedition off in ten days or two
weeks.--Coffin to Dole, June 4, 1862, Indian Office General Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1661.

(b).

It has been some time since I wrote you and to fill my promise I again
drop you a line. I presume you feel a lively interest in whatever
relates to the Indians. The 1st. Regt. is now mustered into the
service and will probably to-day number something over a minimum Regt.
It is composed entirely of Creeks and Seminoles, eight companys of the
former and two of the latter.

I have understood that the report of the Creek Agent gave the number
of Creek men at 1990--If this is a fact it is far from a correct
statement--The actual number of Creek men over 14 years of age
(refugees) will not number over 900. Some of these are unable to be
soldiers. The actual number of Seminoles (men) will not excede 300
over 14 years of age, many of them are old and disabled as soldiers.
Thus you will see that but one Regt. could be raised from that
quarter. You are aware that the Creeks and Seminoles speak one
language nearly and are thus naturally drawn together and they were
not willing to be divided.

The second regt. is now forming from the various other tribes and I
have no doubt will be filled, it would have been filled long ago, but
Col. Ritchie did not repair here for a long time in fact not till
after our Regt. was raised--Adjutant Dole came here promptly to do his
duty--but in the absence of his Col. could not facilitate his regt.
without assuming a responsibility that would have been unwise. I
regret that he could not have been placed in our regt. for he will
prove a faithful and reliable officer and should I be transfered to
(cont.)]

organize, largely because its prospective commander, Colonel John
Ritchie, who had gone south to persuade the Osages to enlist,[273] was
slow in putting in an appearance at Humboldt. The Neosho Agency, to
which the Osages belonged, was in great confusion, partly due to

[Footnote 272: (cont.) any other position which I am strongly in hopes
I may be, I hope you will exercise your influence to transfer him
to my place, this will be agreable to all the officers of the 1st.
regiment and desirable on his part.

The condition of the Indians here at the present writing is very
favorable, sickness is abating and their spirits are reviving. I
think I have fully settled the fact of the Indians capability and
susceptibility to arive at a good state of military disipline. You
would be surprised to see our Regt. move. They accomplish the feat of
regular time step equal to any white soldier, they form in line with
dispatch and with great precission; and what is more they now manifest
a great desire to learn the entire white man's disiplin in military
matters. That they will make brave and ambitious soldiers I have no
doubt. Our country may well feel proud that these red men have at
last fell into the ranks to fight for our flag, and aid in crushing
treason. Much honor is due them. I am sorry that Dr. Kile did
not accept the appointment of Quartermaster but owing to some
misunderstanding with Col. Ritchie he declines.

You will please remember me to Gen'l Lane and say that I have not
heard from him since I left Washington.--A.C. ELITHORPE to Dole, June
9, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Southern Superintendency_,
1859-1862, C 1661.

(c).

The Indian Brigade, consisting of about one thousand Creeks and
Seminoles, sixty Quapaws, sixty Cherokees and full companies of wild
Delawares, Kechees, Ironeyes, Cadoes, and Kickapoos, left this place
(Leroy) yesterday for Humboldt, at which place I suppose they will
join the so much talked of Indian expedition. Although I have not as
yet fully ascertained the exact number of each Tribe, represented in
said Brigade, but they may be estimated at about Fifteen Hundred,
all of the Southern Refugee Indians who have been fed here by the
Government, besides sixty Delawares from the Delaware Reservation, and
about two Hundred Osages, the latter of which I have been assured will
be increased to about four or five hundred, ere they get through the
Osage Nation ...

The news from the Cherokee Nation is very cheering and encouraging; it
has been reported that nearly Two Thousand Cherokees will be ready to
join the expedition on its approach into that country....--Coffin to
Dole, June 15, 1862, Ibid., C 1684.]

[Footnote 273: Coffin to Dole, June 4, 1862, Ibid.,
_Neosho_, C 1662 of 1862. See also Carruth to Coffin, September
19, 1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
164-166.]

the fact that, at this most untoward moment, the Osages were being
approached for a cession of lands, and partly to the fact that
Indians of the neighborhood, of unionist sympathies, Cherokees and
Delawares[274] from the Cherokee country, Shawnees, Quapaws,[275] and
Seneca-Shawnees, were being made refugees, partly, also, to the fact
that Agent Elder and Superintendent Coffin were not working in harmony
with each other. Their differences dated from the first days of their
official relationship. Elder had been influential, for reasons most
satisfactory to himself and not very complimentary to Coffin,
in having the Neosho Agency transferred to the Central
Superintendency.[276] Coffin had vigorously objected and with such
effect that, in March, 1862, a retransfer had been ordered;[277] but
not before Coffin had reported[278] that everything was now amicable
between him and Elder. Elder was evidently of a different opinion and
before long was asking to be allowed again to report officially
to Superintendent Branch at St. Joseph.[279] There was a regular
tri-weekly post between that place and Fort Scott, Elder's present
headquarters, and the chances were good that Branch would be in a
position to attend to mail more promptly than was Coffin.[280] The
counter arguments

[Footnote 274: F. Johnson to Dole, April 2, 1862, Indian Office,
_Central Superintendency_, Delaware, J 627 of 1862.]

[Footnote 275: The propriety of permitting the refugee Quapaws to
"return to their homes by accompanying the military expedition" was
urged upon the Indian Office in a letter from Elder to Coffin, May
29, 1862 [Coffin to Dole, June 4, 1862, Ibid., _Southern
Superintendency_, Neosho, C 1663 of 1862].]

[Footnote 276: Office letter of June 5, 1861.]

[Footnote 277: Mix to Branch, March 1, 1862, Indian Office _Letter
Book_, no. 67.]

[Footnote 278: Coffin to Dole, February 28, 1862, Ibid.,
General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1541 of
1862.]

[Footnote 279: Elder to Dole, May 16, 1862, Ibid., Neosho, E
106 of 1862.]

[Footnote 280: Coffin was spending a good deal of his time at Leroy.
Leroy was one hundred twenty-five miles, so Elder computed, from
Leavenworth, where he (cont.)]

of Coffin[281] were equally plausible and the request for transfer
refused.

The outfit for the Indians of the Home Guard was decidedly inferior.
Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la wanted batteries, "wagons that shoot."[282] His
braves, many of them, were given guns that were worthless, that would
not shoot at all.[283] In such a way was their eagerness to learn the
white man's method of fighting and to acquire his discipline rewarded.
The fitting out was done at Humboldt, although Colonel William
Weer[284] of the Tenth Kansas Infantry, who was the man finally
selected to command the entire force, would have preferred it done at
Fort Scott.[285] The Indians had a thousand and one excuses for not
expediting matters. They seemed to have a deep-seated distrust of what
the Federal intentions regarding them might be when

[Footnote 280: (cont.) directed his mail, and sixty or seventy from
Fort Scott. His communications were held up until Coffin happened to
go to Leavenworth. Moreover, Coffin was then expecting to go soon
"into the Indian country."]

[Footnote 281: Coffin complained that Elder neglected his duties. It
was Coffin's intention to remove the headquarters of the Southern
Superintendency from Fort Scott to Humboldt. It would then be very
convenient for Elder to report to him, especially if he would go back
to his own agency headquarters and not linger, as he had been doing,
at Fort Scott [Coffin to Dole, June 10, 1862, Ibid., C 1668 of
1862.]]

[Footnote 282: _Daily Conservative_, May 10, 1862.]

[Footnote 283: Weer to Doubleday, June 6, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 418; Coffin to Dole, June 17, 1862, Indian
Office General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 284: Weer was one of the men in disfavor with Governor
Robinson [_Daily Conservative_, May 25, 1862]. He had been
arrested and his reinstatement to command that came with the
appearance of Blunt upon the scene was doubtless the circumstance that
afforded opportunity for his appointment to the superior command
of the Indian Expedition. Sturgis had refused to reinstate him. In
December, 1861, a leave of absence had been sought by Weer, who was
then with the Fourth Kansas Volunteers, in order that he might go
to Washington, D.C., and be a witness in the case involving Lane's
appointment as brigadier-general [Thomas to Hunter, December 12, 1861,
_Congressional Globe_, 37th congress, second session, part i,
128].]

[Footnote 285: Weer to Moonlight, June 6, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 419.]

once they should be back in their own country. They begged that some
assurance be given them of continued protection against the foe and
in their legal rights. And, in the days of making preparations, they
asked again and again for tangible evidence that white troops were
really going to support them in the journey southward.

The main portion of the Indian Expedition auxiliary white force had
all this time been more or less busy, dealing with bushwhackers and
the like, in the Cherokee Neutral Lands and in the adjoining counties
of Missouri. When Blunt took command of the Department of Kansas,
Colonel Frederick Salomon[286] of the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry was in charge at Fort Scott and the troops there or reporting
there were, besides eight companies of his own regiment, a part of
the Second Ohio Cavalry under Colonel Charles Doubleday, of the Tenth
Kansas Infantry under Colonel William F. Cloud, and the Second Indiana
Battery.[287] Blunt's first thought was to have Daubleday[288] lead
the Indian Expedition, the auxiliary white force of which was to be
selected from the regiments at Fort Scott. Doubleday accordingly made
his plans, rendezvoused his men, and arranged that the mouth of Shoal
Creek should be a rallying point and temporary headquarters;[289] but
events were already in train for Colonel

[Footnote 286: Salomon was born in Prussia in 1826 [Rosengarten,
_The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States_, 150]. He
had distinguished himself in some of the fighting that had taken place
in Missouri in the opening months of the war and, when the Ninth
Wisconsin Infantry, composed solely of German-Americans, had been
recruited, he was called to its command [Love, _Wisconsin in the War
of the Rebellion_, 578].]

[Footnote 287: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 371-372, 377.]

[Footnote 288: for an account of Doubleday's movements in April that
very probably gained him the place, see Britton, _Civil War on the
Border_, vol. i, 296.]

[Footnote 289: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 397, 408.]

Weer to supersede him and for his own assignment to the Second Brigade
of the expedition.

Previous to his supersedure by Weer, Doubleday conceived that it might
be possible to reach Fort Gibson with ease,[290] provided the
attempt to do so should be undertaken before the various independent
secessionist commands could unite to resist.[291] That they were
planning to unite there was every indication.[292] Doubleday[293] was
especially desirous of heading off Stand Watie who was still hovering
around in the neighborhood of his recent adventures, and was believed
now to have an encampment on Cowskin Prairie near Grand River.
Accordingly, on the morning of June 6, Doubleday started out, with
artillery and a thousand men, and, going southward from Spring River,
reached the Grand about sundown.[294] Watie was three miles away
and, Doubleday continuing the pursuit, the two forces came to an
engagement. It was indecisive,[295] however, and Watie slipped away
under

[Footnote 290: Doubleday to Moonlight, May 25, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 397.]

[Footnote 291: Doubleday to Blunt, June 1, 1862, Ibid., 408.]

[Footnote 292: General Brown reported on this matter, June 2
[Ibid., 409] and June 4 [Ibid., 414], as did also
General Ketchum, June 3 [Ibid., 412]. They all seem to have had
some intimation that General Pike was to unite with Stand Watie as
well as Coffee and others, and that was certainly General Hindman's
intention. On May 31, the very day that he himself assumed command,
Hindman had ordered Pike to advance from Fort McCulloch to the Kansas
border. The order did not reach Pike until June 8 and was repeated
June 17 [Ibid., 40].]

[Footnote 293: The idea seems to have obtained among Missourians that
Doubleday was all this time inactive. They were either ignorant of or
intent upon ignoring the Indian Expedition. June 4, Governor Gamble
wrote to Secretary Stanton asking that the Second Ohio and the Ninth
Wisconsin, being at Fort Scott and unemployed, might be ordered to
report to Schofield [Ibid., 414, 438], who at the instance of
politicians and contrary to the wishes of Halleck [Ibid., 368]
had been given an independent command in Missouri.]

[Footnote 294: Doubleday to Weer, June 8, 1862 [Ibid., 102].]

[Footnote 295: Doubleday reported to Weer that it was a pronounced
success, so did Blunt to Schofield [Ibid., 427]; but subsequent
events showed that it was (cont.)]

cover of the darkness. Had unquestioned success crowned Doubleday's
efforts, all might have been well; but, as it did not, Weer, who had
arrived at Fort Scott[296] a few days before and had been annoyed
to find Doubleday gone, ordered him peremptorily to make no further
progress southward without the Indians. The Indian contingent had in
reality had a set-back in its preparations. Its outfit was incomplete
and its means for transportation not forthcoming.[297] Under such
circumstances, Weer advised the removal of the whole concern to Fort
Scott, but that was easier said than done, inasmuch, as before any
action was taken, the stores were _en route_ for Humboldt.[298]
Nevertheless, Weer was determined to have the expedition start before
Stand Watie could be reinforced by Rains.[299] Constant and insistent
were the reports that the enemy was massing its forces to destroy the
Indian Expedition.[300]

[Footnote 295: (cont.) anything but that and the _Daily
Conservative_ tried to fix the blame upon Weer [Weer to Moonlight,
June 23, 1862, Ibid., 446]. The newspaper account of the whole
course of affairs may be given, roughly paraphrased, thus: Doubleday,
knowing, perhaps, that Weer was to supersede him and that his time for
action was short, "withdrew his detachment from Missouri, concentrated
them near Iola, Kansas, and thence directed them to march to the
mouth of Shoal Creek, on Spring River, himself taking charge of the
convoying of a train of forty days supplies to the same place ..." He
arrived June 4. Then, "indefatigible in forwarding the preparations
for a blow upon the camp of organization which the rebels had occupied
unmolested on Cowskin Prairie," he made his plans for further advance.
At that moment came the news that Weer had superseded him and had
ordered him to stop all movement south. He disregarded the order and
struck, even though not fully prepared [_Daily Conservative_,
June 13, 1862].]

[Footnote 296: Weer to Moonlight, June 5, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 418.]

[Footnote 297:--Ibid.; Weer to Doubleday, June 6, 1862,
Ibid., 418-419.]

[Footnote 298: Weer to Moonlight, June 13, 1862, Ibid., 430.]

[Footnote 299: Same to same, June 7, 1862, Ibid., 422.]

[Footnote 300: The destruction of the Indian Expedition was most
certainly the occasion for the massing, notwithstanding the fact that
Missourians were apprehensive for the safety of their state only and
wanted to have Weer's white troops diverted to its defence. Curtis,
alone, of the commanders in Missouri seems to have surmised rightly in
the matter [Curtis to Schofield, Ibid., 432].]

Weer, therefore, went on ahead to the Osage Catholic Mission and
ordered the Fort Scott troops to meet him there. His purpose was to
promote the enlistment of the Osages, who were now abandoning the
Confederate cause.[301] He would then go forward and join Doubleday,
whom he had instructed to clear the way.[302]

Weer's plans were one thing, his embarrassments, another. Before the
middle of June he was back again at Leroy,[303] having left Salomon
and Doubleday[304] at Baxter Springs on the west side of Spring
River in the Neutral Lands, the former in command. Weer hoped by his
presence at Leroy to hurry the Indians along; for it was high time the
expedition was started and he intended to start it, notwithstanding
that many officers were absent from their posts and the men of
the Second Indian Regiment not yet mustered in. It was absolutely
necessary, if anything were going to be done with Indian aid, to get
the braves away from under the influence of their chiefs, who were
bent upon delay and determent. By the sixteenth he had the warriors
all ready at Humboldt,[305] their bullet-proof medicine taken, their
grand war dance indulged in. By the twenty-first, the final packing
up began,[306] and it was not long thereafter before the Indian
Expedition, after having experienced so many vicissitudes, had
definitely materialized and was on its way south. Accompanying Weer
were the Reverend Evan Jones, entrusted with

[Footnote 301: Weer to Moonlight, June 13, 1862.]

[Footnote 302: Weer to Doubleday, June 6, 1862.]

[Footnote 303: Weer to Moonlight, June 13, 1862.]

[Footnote 304: On the twentieth, General Brown requested Salomon to
send Doubleday to southwest Missouri [_Official Records_, vol.
xiii, 440] and Salomon so far complied with the request as to post
some companies of Doubleday's regiment, under Lieutenant-colonel
Ratliff, at Neosho [Ibid., 445, 459].]

[Footnote 305:--Ibid., 434.]

[Footnote 306:--Ibid., 441.]

a confidential message[307] to John Ross, and two special Indian
agents, E.H. Carruth, detailed at the instance of the Indian Office,
and H.W. Martin, sent on Coffin's own responsibility, their particular
task being to look out for the interests and welfare of the Indians
and, when once within the Indian Territory, to take careful stock of
conditions there, both political and economic.[308] The Indians were
in fine spirits and, although looking

[Footnote 307: The message, addressed to "Mutual Friend," was an
assurance of the continued interest of the United States government
in the inhabitants of Indian Territory and of its determination to
protect them [Coffin to Ross, June 16, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1684].]

[Footnote 308: "... You will assure all loyal Indians in the Indian
Territory of the disposition and the ability of the Government of the
United States to protect them in all their rights, and that there is
no disposition on the part of said government to shrink from any of
its Treaty Obligations with all such of the Indian Tribes, who
have been, are now, and remaining loyal to the same. Also that the
government will, at the earliest practicable period, which is
believed not to be distant, restore to all loyal Indians the rights,
privileges, and immunities, that they have enjoyed previous to the
present unfortunate rebellion.

"If, during the progress of the Army you should find Indians in a
suffering condition whose loyalty is _beyond doubt_, you will,
on consultation with the officers, render such assistance, as you may
think proper, with such aid as the officers may render you.

"You will carefully look into the condition of the country, ascertain
the quantity of Stock, Hogs, and Cattle, also the quantity of Corn,
wheat etc. which may be in the hands of the loyal Indians, and the
amount of the crops in the ground the present season, their condition
and prospects.

"You are requested to communicate with me at this office at every
suitable opportunity on all the above mentioned points, in order to
enable me to keep the Hon. Com'r of Indian Aff'rs well advised of the
condition of affairs in the Indian Territory, and that the necessary
steps may be taken at the earliest possible moment, consistent with
safety and economy, to restore the loyal Indians now in Kansas to
their homes.

"Should any considerable number of the Indians, now in the Army,
remain in the Indian Territory, or join you from the loyal Indians,
now located therein you will very probably find it best, to remain
with them, until I can get there with those, who are now here. But of
these matters you will be more able to judge on the ground."--Extract
from Coffin's instructions to Carruth, June 16, 1862, Ibid.,
Similar instructions, under date of June 23, 1862, were sent to H.W.
Martin.]

somewhat ludicrous in their uniforms,[309] were not much behind their
comrades of the Ninth and Tenth Kansas[310] in earnestness and in
attention to duty.[311] Nevertheless, they had been very reluctant to
leave their families and were, one and all, very apprehensive as to
the future.

[Footnote 309: "I have just returned from Humboldt--the army there
under Col. Weer consisting of the 10th Kansas Regiment 4 Companys of
the 9th Kansas Aliens Battery of Six Tenths Parrot Guns and the first
and second Indian Regements left for the Indian Territory in good
stile and in fine spirits the Indians with their new uniforms and
small Military caps on their Hugh Heads of Hair made rather a Comecal
Ludecrous apperance they marched off in Columns of 4 a breast singing
the war song all joining in the chourse and a more animated seen is
not often witnessed. The officers in command of the Indian Regements
have labored incessantly and the improvement the Indians have made in
drilling is much greater than I supposed them capabell of and I think
the opinion and confidence of all in the eficency of the Indian
Regements was very much greater when they left than at any previous
period and I have little doubt that for the kind of service that will
be required of them they will be the most efecient troops in the
Expedition."--COFFIN to Dole, June 25, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1684.]

[Footnote 310: Weer took with him as white anxiliary "the Tenth
Kansas, Allen's battery, three companies Ninth Kansas..." [_Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 441]. It seems to have been his intention to
take the Second Kansas also; but that regiment was determined to stay
at Humboldt until it had effected a change in its colonels in favor of
Owen A. Bassett [Ibid., 434].]

[Footnote 311: Weer was disgusted with conditions surrounding his
white force. This is his complaint, on the eve of his departure:

"Commissions to officers from the Governor are pouring in daily. I am
told that the Tenth is rapidly becoming a regiment of officers. To add
to these difficulties there are continual intrigues, from colonels
down, for promotions and positions of command. Officers are leaving
their posts for Fort Leavenworth and elsewhere to engage in these
intrigues for more prominent places. The camps are filled with rumors
of the success of this or that man. Factions are forming, and a
general state of demoralization being produced..."--WEER to Moonlight,
June 21, 1862, Ibid., 441-442.]




V. THE MARCH TO TAHLEQUAH AND THE RETROGRADE MOVEMENT OF THE "WHITE
AUXILIARY"


Towards the end of June, the various elements designed to comprise the
First Indian Expedition had encamped at Baxter Springs[312] and two
brigades formed. As finally organized, the First Brigade was put under
the command of Colonel Salomon and the Second, of Colonel William
R. Judson. To the former, was attached the Second Indian Regiment,
incomplete, and, to the latter, the First. Brigaded with the Indian
regiments was the white auxiliary that had been promised and that the
Indians had almost pathetically counted upon to assist them in their
straits. Colonel Weer's intention was not to have the white and red
people responsible for the same duties nor immediately march together.
The red were believed to be excellent for scouting and, as it would
be necessary to scout far and wide all the way down into the Indian
Territory, the country being full of bushwhackers, also, most likely,
of the miscellaneous forces of General Rains, Colonel Coffee, and
Colonel Stand Watie, they were to be reserved for that work.

The forward movement of the Indian Expedition began at daybreak on the
twenty-eighth of June. It was then that the First Brigade started, its
white contingent, "two sections Indiana Battery, one battalion of

[Footnote 312: Baxter Springs was a government post, established on
Spring River in the southwest corner of the Cherokee Neutral Lands,
subsequent to the Battle of Pea Ridge [Kansas Historical Society,
_Collections_, vol. vi, 150].]

Second Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and six companies of Ninth Wisconsin
Volunteer Infantry,"[313] taking the military road across the Quapaw
Strip and entering the Indian Territory, unmolested. A day's journey
in the rear and travelling by the same route came the white contingent
of the Second Brigade and so much of the First Indian as was
unmounted.[314] Beyond the border, the cavalcade proceeded to Hudson's
Crossing of the Neosho River, where it halted to await the coming of
supply trains from Fort Scott. In the meantime, the Second Indian
Regiment, under Colonel John Ritchie, followed, a day apart, by the
mounted men of the First under Major William A. Phillips,[315] had
also set out, its orders[316] being to leave the military road and to
cross to the east bank of Spring River, from thence to march southward
and scour the country thoroughly between Grand River and the Missouri
state line.

The halt at Hudson's Crossing occupied the better part of two days and
then the main body of the Indian Expedition resumed its forward march.
It crossed the Neosho and moved on, down the west side of Grand River,
to a fording place, Carey's Ford, at which point, it passed over to
the east side of the river and camped, a short distance from the ford,
at Round Grove, on Cowskin Prairie, Cherokee ground, and the scene of
Doubleday's recent encounter with the enemy. At this

[Footnote 313: Salomon to Weer, June 30, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 458.]

[Footnote 314: James A. Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 456].]

[Footnote 315: William A. Phillips, a Scotsman by birth, went out to
Kansas in the autumn of 1855 as regular staff correspondent of the New
York _Tribune_ [Kansas Historical Society _Collections_,
vol. v, 100, 102]. He was a personal friend of Dana's [Britton,
_Memoirs_, 89], became with Lane an active Free State man and
later was appointed on Lane's staff [_Daily Conservative_,
January 24, 31, 1862]. He served as correspondent of the _Daily
Conservative_ at the time when that newspaper was most guilty of
incendiarism.]

[Footnote 316: James A. Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 456.]

place it anxiously awaited the return of Lieutenant-colonel Ratliff,
who had been despatched to Neosho in response to an urgency call from
General E.B. Brown in charge of the Southwestern Division of the
District of Missouri.[317]

The Confederates were still in the vicinity, promiscuously wandering
about, perhaps; but, none the less, determined to check, if possible,
the Federal further progress; for they knew that only by holding the
territorial vantage, which they had secured through gross Federal
negligence months before, could they hope to maintain intact the
Indian alliance with the Southern States. Stand Watie's home farm was
in the neighborhood of Weer's camp and Stand Watie himself was even
then scouting in the Spavinaw hills.[318]

In the latter part of May, under directions from General
Beauregard[319] but apparently without the avowed knowledge of the
Confederate War Department and certainly without its official[320]
sanction, Thomas C.

[Footnote 317: Weer to Moonlight, June 23, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 445, and same to same, July 2, 1862,
Ibid., 459-461.]

[Footnote 318: Anderson, _Life of General Stand Watie_, 18.]

[Footnote 319: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 28.]

[Footnote 320: The emphasis should be upon the word, _official_,
since the government must assuredly have acquiesced in Hindman's
appointment. Hindman declared that the Secretary of War, in
communicating on the subject to the House of Representatives, "ignored
facts which had been officially communicated to him," in order to
convey the impression that Hindman had undertaken to fill the post
of commander in the Trans-Mississippi Department without rightful
authority [Hindman to Holmes, February 8, 1863, Ibid., vol.
xxii, part 2, p. 785]. The following telegram shows that President
Davis had been apprised of Hindman's selection, and of its tentative
character.

BALDWIN, June 5, 1862.

(Received 6th.)

THE PRESIDENT:

Do not send any one just now to command the Trans-Mississippi
District. It will bring trouble to this army. Hindman has been sent
there temporarily. Price will be on to see you soon.

EARL VAN DORN, Major-General.

[Ibid., vol. lii, part 2, supplement, p. 320.]]

Hindman had assumed the command of the Trans-Mississippi
Department.[321] As an Arkansan, deeply moved by the misfortunes and
distress of his native state, he had stepped into Van Dorn's place
with alacrity, intent upon forcing everything within his reach to
subserve the interests of the Confederate cause in that particular
part of the southern world. To the Indians and to their rights,
natural or acquired, he was as utterly indifferent as were most other
American men and all too soon that fact became obvious, most obvious,
indeed, to General Pike, the one person who had, for reasons best
known to himself, made the Indian cause his own.

General Hindman took formal command of the Trans-Mississippi
Department at Little Rock, May 31. It was a critical moment and he was
most critically placed; for he had not the sign of an army, Curtis's
advance was only about thirty-five miles away, and Arkansas was yet,
in the miserable plight in which Van Dorn had left her in charge of
Brigadier-general J.S. Roane, it is true, but practically denuded of
troops. Pike was at Fort McCulloch, and he had a force not wholly to
be despised.[322] It was to him, therefore, that Hindman

[Footnote 321: _Department_ seems to be the more proper word
to use to designate Hindman's command, although _District_ and
_Department_ are frequently used interchangeably in the records.
In Hindman's time and in Holmes's, the Trans-Mississippi Department
was not the same as the Trans-Mississippi District of Department No.
2 [See Thomas Jordan, Chief of Staff, to Hindman, July 17, 1862,
_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 855]. On the very date of
Hindman's assignment, the boundaries of his command were defined as
follows:

"The boundary of the Trans-Mississippi Department will embrace the
States of Missouri and Arkansas, including Indian Territory, the
State of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, and the State of
Texas."--Ibid., 829.]

[Footnote 322: Yet Hindman did, in a sense, despise it and, from the
start, he showed a tendency to disparage Pike's abilities and efforts.
On the nineteenth of June, he reported to Adjutant-general Cooper,
among other things, that he had ordered Pike to establish his
headquarters at Fort Gibson and added, "His force does not amount to
much, but there is no earthly need of its (cont.)]

made one of his first appeals for help and he ordered him so to
dispose of his men that some of the more efficient, the white, might
be sent to Little Rock and the less efficient, the red, moved upward
"to prevent the incursions of marauding parties," from Kansas.[323]
The orders were repeated about a fortnight later; but Pike had already
complied to the best of his ability, although not without protest[324]
for he had collected his brigade and accoutered it by his own energies
and his own contrivances solely. Moreover, he had done it for the
defence of Indian Territory exclusively.

Included among the marauders, whose enterprises General Hindman was
bent upon checking, were Doubleday's men; for, as General Curtis
shrewdly surmised,[325] some inkling of Doubleday's contemplated
maneuvers had most certainly reached Little Rock. Subsequently, when
the Indian Expedition was massing at Baxter Springs, more vigorous
measures than any yet taken were prepared for and all with the view
of delaying or defeating it. June 23, Pike ordered Colonel Douglas H.
Cooper to repair to the country north of the Canadian River and to
take command of all troops, except Jumper's Seminole battalion, that
should be there or placed there.[326] Similarly, June 26, Hindman, in
ignorance of Pike's action, assigned Colonel J.J. Clarkson[327] to the
supreme command, under

[Footnote 322: (cont.) remaining 150 miles south of the Kansas line
throwing up intrenchments." [_Official Records_, vol. xiii,
837].]

[Footnote 323: Hindman to Pike, May 31, 1862 [Ibid., 934].]

[Footnote 324: Pike to Hindman, June 8, 1862 [Ibid., 936-943].]

[Footnote 325:--Ibid., 398, 401.]

[Footnote 326: General Orders, Ibid., 839, 844-845.]

[Footnote 327: Of Clarkson, Pike had this to say: "He applied to me
while raising his force for orders to go upon the Santa Fe' road and
intercept trains. I wrote him that he could have such orders if
he chose to come here, and the next I heard of him he wrote for
ammunition, and, I learned, was going to make (cont.)]

Pike, "of all forces that now are or may hereafter be within the
limits of the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole countries."[328] As fate
would have it, Clarkson was the one of these two to whom the work in
hand first fell.

The Indian Expedition was prepared to find its way contested; for its
leaders believed Rains,[329] Coffey, and Stand Watie to be all in the
immediate vicinity, awaiting the opportunity to attack either singly
or with combined forces; but, except for a small affair between a
reconnoitering party sent out by Salomon and the enemy's pickets,[330]
the march was without incident worth recording until after Weer had
broken camp at Cowskin Prairie. Behind him the ground seemed clear
enough, thanks to the very thorough scouting that had been done by the
Indians of the Home Guard regiments, some of whom, those of Colonel
Phillips's command, had been able to penetrate Missouri.[331] Of
conditions ahead of him, Weer was not so sure and he was soon made
aware of the near presence of the foe.

Colonel Watie, vigilant and redoubtable, had been on the watch for the
Federals for some time and, learning of their approach down the east
side of Grand River, sent two companies of his regiment to head off
their advance guard. This was attempted in a surprise movement at
Spavinaw Creek and accomplished with some measure of success.[332]
Colonel Clarkson was at

[Footnote 327: (cont.) forays into Missouri. I had no ammunition for
that business. He seized 70 kegs that I had engaged of Sparks in Fort
Smith, and soon lost the whole and Watie's also. Without any notice
to me he somehow got in command of the northern part of the Indian
country over two colonels with commissions nine months older than
his."--Pike to Hindman, July 15, 1862, _Official Records_, vol.
xiii, 858.]

[Footnote 328: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 845-846.]

[Footnote 329: Rains had made Tahlequah the headquarters of the Eighth
Division Missouri State Guards.--PIKE to Hindman, July 15, 1862,
Ibid., 858.]

[Footnote 330:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 458, 460.]

[Footnote 331:--Ibid., 460.]

[Footnote 332: Anderson, _Life of General Stand Watie_, 18. This
incident is most (cont.)]

Locust Grove and Weer, ascertaining that fact, prepared for an
engagement. His supplies and camp equipage, also an unutilized part of
his artillery he sent for safety to Cabin Creek, across Grand River
and Lieutenant-colonel Lewis R. Jewell of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry
he sent eastward, in the direction of Maysville, Arkansas, his
expectation being--and it was realized--that Jewell would strike
the trail of Watie and engage him while Weer himself sought out
Clarkson.[333]

The looked-for engagement between the main part of the Indian
Expedition and Clarkson's force, a battalion of Missourians that had
been raised by Hindman's orders and sent to the Indian Territory "at
the urgent request of Watie and Drew,"[334] occurred at Locust Grove
on the third of July. It was nothing but a skirmish, yet had very
significant results. Only two detachments of Weer's men were actively
engaged in it.[335] One of them was from the First Indian Home Guard
and upon it the brunt of the fighting fell.[336]

[Footnote 332: (cont.) likely the one that is referred to in Carruth
and Martin's letter to Coffin, August 2, 1862, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, _Report_, 1862, p. 162.]

[Footnote 333: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i,
300-301.]

[Footnote 334: Report of General Hindman, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 40.]

[Footnote 335: Weer to Moonlight, July 6, 1862, Ibid., 137.]

[Footnote 336: Carruth and Martin reported to Coffin, August 2, 1862,
that the Indians did practically all the fighting on the Federal side.
In minor details, their account differed considerably from Weer's.

"When near Grand Saline, Colonel Weer detached parts of the 6th,
9th, and 10th Kansas regiments, and sent the 1st Indian regiment in
advance. By a forced night march they came up to the camp of Colonel
Clarkson, completely surprising him, capturing all his supplies, and
taking one hundred prisoners; among them the colonel himself.

"The Creek Indians were first in the fight, led by Lieutenant Colonel
Wattles and Major Ellithorpe. We do not hear that any white man fired
a gun unless it was to kill the surgeon of the 1st Indian regiment.
We were since informed that one white man was killed by the name of
McClintock, of the 9th Kansas regiment. In reality, it was a victory
gained by the 1st Indian regiment; and while the other forces would,
no doubt, have acted well, it is the height of injustice to claim
this victory for the whites...."--Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
_Report_, 1862, p. 162.]

The Confederates were worsted and lost their train and many prisoners.
Among the prisoners was Clarkson himself. His battalion was put to
flight and in that circumstance lay the worst aspect of the whole
engagement; for the routed men fled towards Tahlequah and spread
consternation among the Indians gathered there, also among those who
saw them by the way or heard of them. Thoroughly frightened the red
men sought refuge within the Federal lines. Such conduct was to be
expected of primitive people, who invariably incline towards the
side of the victor; but, in this case, it was most disastrous to the
Confederate Indian alliance. For the second time since the war began,
Colonel John Drew's enlisted men defected from their own ranks[337]
and, with the exception of a small body under Captain Pickens
Benge,[338] went boldly over to the enemy. The result was, that the
Second Indian Home Guard, Ritchie's regiment, which had not previously
been filled up, had soon the requisite number of men[339] and there
were more to spare. Indeed, during the days that followed, so many
recruits came in, nearly all of them Cherokees, that lists were opened
for starting a third regiment of Indian Home Guards.[340] It was not
long before it was organized, accepted by Blunt, and W.A. Phillips
commissioned as its colonel.[341] The regular mustering in of the new
recruits had to be done at Fort Scott and thither Ritchie sent the
men, intended for his regiment, immediately.

The Indian Expedition had started out with a very definite preliminary
programme respecting the

[Footnote 337: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 138.]

[Footnote 338: Hindman's Report, Ibid., 40.]

[Footnote 339: Ritchie to Blunt, July 5, 1862, Ibid., 463-464.]

[Footnote 340: Weer to Moonlight, July 12, 1862, Ibid., 488.]

[Footnote 341: Blunt to Salomon, August 3, 1862, Ibid., 532;
Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 304.]

management of Indian affairs, particularly as those affairs might
be concerned with the future attitude of the Cherokee Nation. The
programme comprised instructions that emanated from both civil and
military sources. The special Indian agents, Carruth and Martin, had
been given suitable tasks to perform and the instructions handed them
have already been commented upon. Personally, these two men were very
much disposed to magnify the importance of their own position and
to resent anything that looked like interference on the part of the
military. As a matter of fact, the military men treated them with
scant courtesy and made little or no provision for their comfort and
convenience.[342] Colonel Weer seems to have ignored, at times, their
very existence. On more than one occasion, for instance, he deplored
the absence of some official, accredited by the Indian Office, to take
charge of what he contemptuously called "this Indian business,"[343]
which business, he felt, greatly complicated all military
undertakings[344] and was decidedly beyond the bounds of his peculiar
province.[345]

[Footnote 342: Pretty good evidence of this appears in a letter, which
Carruth and Martin jointly addressed to Coffin, September 4, 1862,
in anticipation of the Second Indian Expedition, their idea being to
guard against a repetition of some of the experiences of the first.
"We wish to call your attention," wrote they, "to the necessity of
our being allowed a wagon to haul our clothing, tents, etc. in the
Southern expedition.

"In the last expedition we had much annoyance for the want of
accommodations of our own. Unless we are always by at the moment of
moving, our things are liable to be left behind, that room may be made
for _army baggage_ which sometimes accumulates amazingly....

"The cold nights of autumn and winter will overtake us in the next
expedition and we ought to go prepared for them. We must carry many
things, as clothing, blankets, etc."--General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 343: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 460.]

[Footnote 344:--Ibid., 487.]

[Footnote 345: Weer, nevertheless, was not long in developing some
very pronounced ideas on the subject of Indian relations. The earliest
and best indication of (cont.)]

The military instructions for the management of Indian affairs
outlined a policy exceedingly liberal, a policy that proceeded upon
the assumption that stress of circumstances had conditioned the Indian
alliance with the Confederacy. This idea was explicitly conveyed in
a communication from Weer, through his acting assistant
adjutant-general, to John Ross, and again in the orders issued
to Salomon and Judson. Ross and his people were to be given an
opportunity to return to their allegiance, confident that the United
States government would henceforth protect them.[346] And the military
commanders were invited to give their "careful attention to the
delicate position" which the Indian Expedition would occupy

    In its relation to the Indians. The evident desire of the
    government is to restore friendly intercourse with the tribes and
    return the loyal Indians that are with us to their homes. Great
    care must be observed that no unusual degree of vindictiveness be
    tolerated between Indian and Indian. Our policy toward the rebel
    portion must be a subject of anxious consideration, and its
    character will to a great degree be shaped by yourself (Judson) in
    conjunction with Colonel Salomon. No settled policy can at
    present be marked out. Give all questions their full share of
    investigation. No spirit of private vengeance should be
    tolerated.[347]

After the skirmish at Locust Grove, Colonel Weer deemed that the
appropriate moment had come for approaching John Ross with suggestions
that the Cherokee Nation abandon its Confederate ally and return to
its allegiance to the United States government. From

[Footnote 345: (cont.) that is to be found in his letter of July
twelfth, in which he gave his opinion of the negroes, whom he found
very insolent. He proposed that the Cherokee Nation should abolish
slavery by vote.]

[Footnote 346: J.A. Phillips to Ross, June 26, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 450.]

[Footnote 347: Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862, Ibid., 456.
Orders, almost identically the same, were issued to Salomon. See
Phillips to Salomon, June 27, 1862, Ibid., 452.]

his camp on Wolf Creek, therefore, he addressed a conciliatory
communication[348] to the Cherokee chief, begging the favor of an
interview and offering to make full reparation for any outrages or
reprisals that his men, in defiance of express orders to the contrary,
might have made upon the Cherokee people through whose country they
had passed.[349] Weer had known for several days, indeed, ever since
he first crossed the line, that the natives were thoroughly alarmed at
the coming of the Indian Expedition. They feared reprisals and Indian
revenge and, whenever possible, had fled out of reach of danger, many
of them across the Arkansas River, taking with them what of their
property they could.[350] Weer had done his best to restrain his
troops, especially the Indian, and had been very firm in insisting
that no "outrages perpetrated after Indian fashion" should occur.[351]

Weer's message to Ross was sent, under a flag of truce, by Doctor
Gillpatrick, a surgeon in the Indian Expedition, who had previously
served under Lane.[352] Ross's reply,[353] although prompt, was
scarcely satisfactory from Weer's standpoint. He refused pointblank
the request for an interview and reminded Weer that the Cherokee
Nation, "under the sanction and authority of the whole Cherokee
people," had made a formal alliance with the Confederate government
and

[Footnote 348: Weer to Ross, July 7, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 464.]

[Footnote 349: That there had been outrages and reprisals, Carruth and
Martin admitted but they claimed that they had been committed by white
men and wrongfully charged against Indians [Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, _Report_, 1862, 162-163].]

[Footnote 350: Weer to Moonlight, July 2, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 460.]

[Footnote 351:--Ibid., 452, 456, 461.]

[Footnote 352: _Daily Conservative_, December 27, 1861.]

[Footnote 353: Ross to Weer, July 8, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 486-487; Moore, _Rebellion Record_, vol. v, 549.]

proposed to remain true, as had ever been its custom, to its treaty
obligations. To fortify his position, he submitted documents
justifying his own and tribal actions since the beginning of the
war.[354] Weer was naturally much embarrassed. Apparently, he had had
the notion that the Indians would rush into the arms of the Union
with the first appearance of a Federal soldier; but he was grievously
mistaken. None the less, verbal reports that reached his headquarters
on Wolf Creek restored somewhat his equanimity and gave him the
impression that Ross, thoroughly anti-secessionist at heart himself,
was acting diplomatically and biding his time.[355] Weer referred[356]
the matter to Blunt for instructions at the very moment when Blunt,
ignorant that he had already had communication with Ross, was
urging[357] him to be expeditious, since it was "desirable to
return the refugee Indians now in Kansas to their homes as soon as
practicable."

There were other reasons, more purely military, why a certain haste
was rather necessary. Some of those reasons inspired Colonel Weer
to have the country around about him well reconnoitered. On the
fourteenth of July, he sent out two detachments. One, led by Major
W.T. Campbell, was to examine "the alleged position of the enemy south
of the Arkansas," and the other, led by Captain H.S. Greeno, to repair
to Tahlequah and Park Hill.[358] Campbell, before he had advanced far,
found out that there was a strong Confederate force at Fort Davis[359]
so he halted at Fort Gibson and was

[Footnote 354: Weer to Moonlight, July 12, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 487. The documents are to be found
accompanying Weer's letter, Ibid., 489-505.]

[Footnote 355: Blunt to Stanton, July 21, 1862, Ibid., 486.]

[Footnote 356: Weer to Moonlight, July 12, 1862, Ibid.,
487-488.]

[Footnote 357: Blunt to Weer, July 12, 1862, Ibid., 488-489.]

[Footnote 358: Weer to Moonlight, July 16, 1862, Ibid.,
160-161.]

[Footnote 359: Campbell to Weer, July 14, 1862, Ibid., 161.]

there joined by Weer. Meanwhile, Greeno with his detachment of one
company of whites and fifty Cherokee Indians had reached Tahlequah and
had gone into camp two and one-half miles to the southward.[360] He
was then not far from Park Hill, the residence of Chief Ross. All the
way down he had been on the watch for news; but the only forces he
could hear of were some Indian, who were believed to be friendly to
the Union although ostensibly still serving the Confederacy. It was a
time of crisis both with them and with him; for their leaders had just
been summoned by Colonel Cooper, now in undisputed command north
of the Canadian, to report immediately for duty at Fort Davis, his
headquarters. Whatever was to be done would have to be done quickly.
There was no time to lose and Greeno decided the matter for all
concerned by resorting to what turned out to be a very clever
expedient. He made the commissioned men all prisoners of war[361] and
then turned his attention to the Principal Chief, who was likewise in
a dilemma, he having received a despatch from Cooper ordering him,
under authority of treaty provisions and "in the name of President
Davis, Confederate States of America, to issue a proclamation calling
on all Cherokee Indians over 18 and under 35 to come forward and
assist in protecting the country from invasion."[362] Greeno thought
the matter over and concluded there was nothing for him to do but to
capture Ross also and to release him, subsequently, on parole. These
things he did and there were many people who thought, both then and
long

[Footnote 360: Greeno to Weer, July 15, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 473; Carruth and Martin to Coffin, July 19, 1862,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, 158-160.]

[Footnote 361: Greeno to Weer, July 17, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 161-162.]

[Footnote 362: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 473.]

afterwards, that the whole affair had been arranged for beforehand and
that victor and victim had been in collusion with each other all the
way through.

Up to this point the Indian Expedition can be said to have met with
more than a fair measure of success; but its troubles were now to
begin or rather to assert themselves; for most of them had been
present since the very beginning. Fundamental to everything else was
the fact that it was summer-time and summer-time, too, in a prairie
region. Troops from the north, from Wisconsin and from Ohio, were
not acclimated and they found the heat of June and July almost
insufferable. There were times when they lacked good drinking
water, which made bad matters worse. The Germans were particularly
discontented and came to despise the miserable company in which they
found themselves. It was miserable, not so much because it was largely
Indian, but because it was so ill-equipped and so disorderly. At
Cowskin Prairie, the scouts had to be called in, not because their
work was finished, but because they and their ponies were no longer
equal to it.[363] They had played out for the simple reason that they
were not well fitted out. The country east of Grand River was "very
broken and flinty and their ponies unshod." It has been claimed,
although maybe with some exaggeration, that not "a single horse-shoe
or nail" had been provided for Colonel Salomon's brigade.[364]

The supplies of the Indian Expedition were insufficient and, although
at Spavinaw Creek Colonel Watie's entire commissary had been
captured[365] and Clarkson's at Locust Grove, there was great
scarcity. Weer had

[Footnote 363: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 460.]

[Footnote 364: Love, _Wisconsin in the War of Rebellion_, 580.]

[Footnote 365: Anderson, Life of General Stand Watìe, 19.]

been cautioned again and again not to cut himself off from easy
communication with Fort Scott.[366] He had shown a disposition to
wander widely from the straight road to Fort Gibson; but Blunt had
insisted that he refrain altogether from making excursions into
adjoining states.[367] He had himself realized the shortness of his
provisions and had made a desperate effort to get to the Grand
Saline so as to replenish his supply of salt at the place where the
Confederates had been manufacturing that article for many months. He
had known also that for some things, such as ordnance stores, he would
have to look even as far as Fort Leavenworth.[368]

The climax of all these affairs was reached July 18, 1862. On that
day, Frederick Salomon, colonel of the First Brigade, took matters
into his own hands and arrested his superior officer. It was
undoubtedly a clear case of mutiny[369] but there was much to be said
in extenuation of Salomon's conduct. The reasons for his action, as
stated in a _pronunciamento_[370] to his associates in command
and as submitted to General Blunt[371] are here given. They speak for
themselves.

  Headquarters Indian Expedition,
  Camp on Grand River, July 18, 1862.

To Commanders of the different Corps constituting Indian Expedition:

Sirs: In military as well as civil affairs great and violent wrongs
need speedy and certain remedies. The time had arrived, in my
judgment, in the history of this expedition when the greatest wrong
ever perpetrated upon any troops was about

[Footnote 366: Consider, for example, Blunt's orders of July 14
[_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 472].]

[Footnote 367: Blunt to Weer, July 3, 1862, Ibid., 461.]

[Footnote 368: Weer to Moonlight, July 2, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 369: As such the Indian agents regarded it. See their
communication on the subject, July 19, 1862, Ibid., 478.]

[Footnote 370: Ibid., 475-476.]

[Footnote 371: Ibid., 484-485.]

to fall with crushing weight upon the noble men composing the command.
Some one must act, and that at once, or starvation and capture were
the imminent hazards that looked us in the face.

As next in command to Colonel Weer, and upon his express refusal to
move at all for the salvation of his troops, I felt the responsibility
resting upon me.

I have arrested Colonel Weer and assumed command.

The causes leading to this arrest you all know. I need not reiterate
them here. Suffice to say that we are 160 miles from the base of
operations, almost entirely through an enemy's country, and without
communication being left open behind us. We have been pushed forward
thus far by forced and fatiguing marches under the violent southern
sun without any adequate object. By Colonel Weer's orders we were
forced to encamp where our famishing men were unable to obtain
anything but putrid, stinking water. Our reports for disability and
unfitness for duty were disregarded; our cries for help and complaints
of unnecessary hardships and suffering were received with closed ears.
Yesterday a council of war, convened by the order of Colonel Weer,
decided that our only safety lay in falling back to some point from
which we could reopen communication with our commissary depot. Colonel
Weer overrides and annuls the decision of that council, and announces
his determination not to move from this point. We have but three days'
rations on hand and an order issued by him putting the command on half
rations. For nearly two weeks we have no communication from our rear.
We have no knowledge when supply trains will reach us, neither has
Colonel Weer. Three sets of couriers, dispatched at different times
to find these trains and report, have so far made no report. Reliable
information has been received that large bodies of the enemy were
moving to our rear, and yet we lay here idle. We are now and ever
since our arrival here have been entirely without vegetables or
healthy food for our troops. I have stood with arms folded and seen my
men faint and fall away from me like the leaves of autumn because I
thought myself powerless to save them.

I will look upon this scene no longer. I know the responsibility I
have assumed. I have acted after careful thought

and deliberation. Give me your confidence for a few days, and all that
man can do, and with a pure purpose and a firm faith that he is right,
shall be done for the preservation of the troops.

  F. Salomon, _Colonel Ninth Wis. Vols_.,
              _Comdg. Indian Expedition_.

  Headquarters Indian Expedition,
  Camp on Wolf Creek, Cherokee Nation, July 20, 1862.
  Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt,

_Commanding Department of Kansas_:

Sir: I have the honor to report that I have arrested Col. William
Weer, commanding the Indian Expedition, and have assumed command.
Among the numerous reasons for this step a few of the chief are as
follows:

From the day of our first report to him we have found him a man
abusive and violent in his intercourse with his fellow-officers,
notoriously intemperate in habits, entirely disregarding military
usages and discipline, always rash in speech, act, and orders,
refusing to inferior officers and their reports that consideration
which is due an officer of the U.S. Army.

Starting from Cowskin Prairie on the 1st instant, we were pushed
rapidly forward to the vicinity of Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas River,
a distance of 160 miles from Fort Scott. No effort was made by him to
keep communication open behind us. It seemed he desired none. We
had but twenty-three days' rations on hand. As soon as he reached
a position on Grand River 14 miles from Fort Gibson his movements
suddenly ceased. We could then have crossed the Arkansas River, but it
seemed there was no object to be attained in his judgment by such a
move. There we lay entirely idle from the 9th to the 19th. We had at
last reached the point when we had but three days' rations on hand.
Something must be done. We were in a barren country, with a large
force of the enemy in front of us, a large and now impassable river
between us, and no news from our train or from our base of operations
for twelve days. What were we to do? Colonel Weer called a council of
war, at which he stated that the Arkansas River was now impassable
to our forces; that a train containing commissary stores had been
expected for three days; that three different sets of couriers sent
out some time previous had

entirely failed to report; that he had been twelve days entirely
without communication with or from the department, and that he had
received reliable information that a large force of the enemy were
moving to our rear via the Verdigris River for the purpose of cutting
off our train.

Upon this and other information the council of war decided that our
only safety lay in falling back to some point where we could reopen
communication and learn the whereabouts of our train of subsistence.
To this decision of the council he at the time assented, and said that
he would arrange with the commanders of brigades the order of march.
Subsequently he issued an order putting the command on half rations,
declaring that he would not fall back, and refused utterly, upon my
application, to take any steps for the safety or salvation of his
command. I could but conclude that the man was either insane,
premeditated treachery to his troops, or perhaps that his grossly
intemperate habits long continued had produced idiocy or monomania.
In either case the command was imperiled, and a military necessity
demanded that something be done, and that without delay. I took the
only step I believed available to save your troops. I arrested this
man, have drawn charges against him, and now hold him subject to your
orders.

On the morning of the 19th I commenced a retrograde march and have
fallen back with my main force to this point.

You will see by General Orders, No. 1, herewith forwarded, that I have
stationed the First and Second Regiments Indian Home Guards as a corps
of observation along the Grand and Verdigris Rivers; also to guard the
fords of the Arkansas. Yesterday evening a courier reached me at Prior
Creek with dispatches saying that a commissary train was at Hudson's
Crossing, 75 miles north of us, waiting for an additional force as an
escort. Information also reaches me this morning that Colonel Watie,
with a force of 1,200 men, passed up the east side of Grand River
yesterday for the purpose of cutting off this train. I have sent out
strong reconnoitering parties to the east of the river, and if the
information proves reliable will take such further measures as I deem
best for its security.

I design simply to hold the country we are now in, and will make
no important moves except such as I may deem necessary for the
preservation of this command until I receive specific

instructions from you. I send Major Burnett with a small escort to
make his way through to you. He will give you more at length the
position of this command, their condition, &c.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
F. Salomon, _Colonel Ninth Wis. Vols_.,
_Comdg. Indian Expedition_.

Salomon's insubordination brought the Indian Expedition in its
original form to an abrupt end, much to the disgust and righteous
indignation of the Indian service. The arrest of Colonel Weer threw
the whole camp into confusion,[372] and it was some hours before
anything like order could be restored. A retrograde movement of the
white troops had evidently been earlier resolved upon and was at once
undertaken. Of such troops, Salomon assumed personal command and
ordered them to begin a march northward at two o'clock on the morning
of the nineteenth.[373] At the same time, he established the troops,
he was so brutally abandoning, as a corps of observation on or near
the Verdigris and Grand Rivers. They were thus expected to cover his
retreat, while he, unhampered, proceeded to Hudson's Crossing.[374]

With the departure of Salomon and subordinate commanders in sympathy
with his retrograde movement, Robert W. Furnas, colonel of the First
Indian, became the ranking officer in the field. Consequently it was
his duty to direct the movements of the troops that remained. The
troops were those of the three Indian regiments, the third of which
had not yet been formally recognized and accepted by the government.
Not all of these troops were in camp when the arrest of Weer took
place. One of the last official acts of Weer as

[Footnote 372: Carruth and Martin to Blunt, July 19, 1862.]

[Footnote 373: Blocki, by order of Salomon, July 18, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 477.]

[Footnote 374: Carruth and Martin to Coffin, August 2, 1862.]

commander of the Indian Expedition had been to order the First Indian
to proceed to the Verdigris River and to take position "in the
vicinity of Vann's Ford." Only a detachment of about two hundred men
had as yet gone there, however, and they were there in charge of
Lieutenant A.C. Ellithorpe. A like detachment of the Third Indian,
under John A. Foreman, major, had been posted at Fort Gibson.[375]
Salomon's _pronunciamento_ and his order, placing the Indian
regiments as a corps of observation on the Verdigris and Grand Rivers,
were not communicated to the regimental commanders of the Indian Home
Guard until July 22;[376] but they had already met, had conferred
among themselves, and had decided that it would be bad policy to take
the Indians out of the Territory.[377] They, therefore agreed to
consolidate the three regiments into a brigade, Furnas in command,
and to establish camp and headquarters on the Verdigris, about twelve
miles directly west of the old camp on the Grand.[378]

The brigading took place as agreed upon and Furnas, brigade commander,
retained his colonelcy of the First Indian, while Lieutenant-colonel
David B. Corwin took command of the Second and Colonel William
A. Phillips of the Third. Colonel Ritchie had, prior to recent
happenings, been detached from his command in order to conduct a party
of prisoners to Fort Leavenworth, also to arrange for the mustering in
of Indian recruits.[379] But two days' rations were on hand, so jerked
beef was accepted as the chief article of diet until other supplies
could be obtained.[380] There was likely to be plenty of

[Footnote 375: Furnas to Blunt, July 25, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 512.]

[Footnote 376:--Ibid., 512.]

[Footnote 377: Britton, _Civil War on the border_, vol. i, 309.]

[Footnote 378: _Official Records_, vol. xii, 512; Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, 163.]

[Footnote 379: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
163-164.]

[Footnote 380: Carruth and Martin to Coffin, July 25, 1862,
Ibid., 160.]

that; for, as Weer had once reported, cattle were a drug on the market
in the Cherokee country, the prairies "covered with thousands of
them."[381] The encampment on the Verdigris was made forthwith; but it
was a failure from the start.

The Indians of the First Regiment showed signs of serious
demoralization and became unmanageable, while a large number of the
Second deserted.[382] It was thought that deprivation in the midst of
plenty, the lack of good water and of the restraining influence of
white troops had had much to do with the upheaval, although there had
been much less plundering since they left than when they were present.
With much of truth back of possible hatred and malice, the special
agents reported that such protection as the white men had recently
given Indian Territory "would ruin any country on earth."[383]

With the hope that the morale of the men would be restored were they
to be more widely distributed and their physical conditions improved,
Colonel Furnas concluded to break camp on the Verdigris and return to
the Grand. He accordingly marched the Third Indian to Pryor Creek[384]
but had scarcely done so when orders came from Salomon, under cover of
his usurped authority as commander of the Indian Expedition, for
him to cross the Grand and advance northeastward to Horse Creek and
vicinity, there to pitch his tents. The new camp was christened Camp
Wattles. It extended from Horse to Wolf Creek and constituted a point
from which the component parts of the Indian Brigade did

[Footnote 381: Weer to Moonlight, July 12, 1862.]

[Footnote 382: Furnas to Blunt, July 25, 1862.]

[Footnote 383: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
160-161.]

[Footnote 384: Named in honor of Nathaniel Pryor of the Lewis and
Clark expedition and of general frontier fame, and, therefore,
incorrectly called Prior Creek in Furnas's report.]

extensive scouting for another brief period. In reality, Furnas was
endeavoring to hold the whole of the Indian country north of the
Arkansas and south of the border.[385]

Meanwhile, Salomon had established himself in the neighborhood of
Hudson's Crossing, at what he called, Camp Quapaw. The camp was on
Quapaw land. His idea was, and he so communicated to Blunt, that he
had selected "the most commanding point in this (the trans-Missouri)
country not only from a military view as a key to the valleys of
Spring River, Shoal Creek, Neosho, and Grand River, but also as the
only point in this country now where an army could be sustained with a
limited supply of forage and subsistence, offering ample grazing[386]
and good water."[387] No regular investigation into his conduct
touching the retrograde movement, such as justice to Weer would seem
to have demanded, was made.[388] He submitted the facts to Blunt and
Blunt, at first alarmed[389] lest a complete abandonment of Indian
Territory would result, acquiesced[390] when, he found that the Indian
regiments were holding their own there.[391] Salomon, indeed, so far
strengthened Furnas's hand as to supply him with ten days rations and
a section of Allen's battery.

[Footnote 385: For accounts of the movements of the Indian Expedition
after the occurrence of Salomon's retrograde movement, see the
_Daily Conservative_, August 16, 21, 26, 1862.]

[Footnote 386: On the subject of grazing, see Britton, _Civil War on
the Border_, vol. i, 308.]

[Footnote 387: Salomon to Blunt, July 29, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 521.]

[Footnote 388: H.S. Lane called Stanton's attention to the matter,
however, Ibid., 485.]

[Footnote 389: Blunt to Salomon, August 3, 1862, Ibid.,
531-532.]

[Footnote 390: He acquiesced as, perforce, he had to do but he was
very far from approving.]

[Footnote 391: In November, Dole reported to Smith that Salomon's
retrograde movement had caused about fifteen hundred or two thousand
additional refugees to flee into Kansas. Dole urged that the Indian
Expedition should be reenforced and strengthened [Indian Office
_Report Book_, no. 12, 503-504].]




VI. GENERAL PIKE IN CONTROVERSY WITH GENERAL HINDMAN


The retrograde movement of Colonel Salomon and the white auxiliary of
the Indian Expedition was peculiarly unfortunate and ill-timed since,
owing to circumstances now to be related in detail, the Confederates
had really no forces at hand at all adequate to repel invasion. On the
thirty-first of May, as earlier narrated in this work, General Hindman
had written to General Pike instructing him to move his entire
infantry force of whites and Woodruff's single six-gun battery to
Little Rock without delay. In doing this, he admitted that, while
it was regrettable that Pike's force in Indian Territory should be
reduced, it was imperative that Arkansas should be protected, her
danger being imminent. He further ordered, that Pike should supply the
command to be sent forward with subsistence for thirty days, should
have the ammunition transported in wagons, and should issue orders
that not a single cartridge be used on the journey.[392]

To one of Pike's proud spirit, such orders could be nothing short
of galling. He had collected his force and everything he possessed
appertaining to it at the cost of much patience, much labor, much
expense. Untiring vigilance had alone made possible the formation of
his brigade and an unselfish willingness to advance his own funds had
alone furnished it with quartermaster and commissary stores. McCulloch
and Van

[Footnote 392: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 934.]

Dorn[393] each in turn had diverted his supplies from their destined
course, yet he had borne with it all, uncomplainingly. He had even
broken faith with the Indian nations at Van Dorn's instance; for,
contrary to the express terms of the treaties that he had negotiated,
he had taken the red men across the border, without their express
consent, to fight in the Pea Ridge campaign. And with what result?
Base ingratitude on the part of Van Dorn, who, in his official report
of the three day engagement, ignored the help rendered[394] and left
Pike to bear the stigma[395] of Indian atrocities alone.

With the thought of that ingratitude still rankling in his breast,
Pike noted additional features of Hindman's first instructions to him,
which were, that he should advance his Indian force to the northern
border of Indian Territory and hold it there to resist invasion from
Kansas. He was expected to do this unsupported

[Footnote 393: Van Dorn would seem to have been a gross offender in
this respect. Similar charges were made against him by other men and
on other occasions [_Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement,
825].]

[Footnote 394: It was matter of common report that Van Dorn despised
Pike's Indians [Ibid., vol. xiii, 814-816]. The entire Arkansas
delegation in Congress, with the exception of A.H. Garland, testified
to Van Dorn's aversion for the Indians [Ibid., 815].]

[Footnote 395: How great was that stigma can be best understood from
the following: "The horde of Indians scampered off to the mountains
from whence they had come, having murdered and scalped many of the
Union wounded. General Pike, their leader, led a feeble band to the
heights of Big Mountain, near Elk Horn, where he was of no use to
the battle of the succeeding day, and whence he fled, between roads,
through the woods, disliked by the Confederates and detested by the
Union men; to be known in history as a son of New Hampshire--a poet
who sang of flowers and the beauties of the sunset skies, the joys of
love and the hopes of the soul--and yet one who, in the middle of the
19th century, led a merciless, scalping, murdering, uncontrollable
horde of half-tame savages in the defense of slavery--themselves
slave-holders--against that Union his own native State was then
supporting, and against the flag of liberty. He scarcely struck a blow
in open fight.... His service was servile and corrupt; his flight
was abject, and his reward disgrace."--_War Papers and Personal
Recollections of the Missouri Commandery_, 232.]

by white troops, the need of which, for moral as well as for physical
strength, he had always insisted upon.

It is quite believable that Van Dorn was the person most responsible
for Hindman's interference with Pike, although, of course, the very
seriousness and desperateness of Hindman's situation would have
impelled him to turn to the only place where ready help was to be had.
Three days prior to the time that Hindman had been assigned to the
Trans-Mississippi Department, Roane, an old antagonist of Pike[396]
and the commander to whose immediate care Van Dorn had confided
Arkansas,[397] had asked of Pike at Van Dorn's suggestion[398] all the
white forces he could spare, Roane having practically none of his own.
Pike had refused the request, if request it was, and in refusing it,
had represented how insufficient his forces actually were for purposes
of his own department and how exceedingly difficult had been the task,
which was his and his alone, of getting them together. At the time of
writing he had not a single dollar of public money for his army and
only a very limited amount of ammunition and other supplies.[399]

Pike received Hindman's communication of May 31 late in the afternoon
of June 8 and he replied to it that same evening immediately after
he had made arrangements[400] for complying in part with its
requirements.

The reply[401] as it stands in the records today is a strong
indictment of the Confederate management of Indian

[Footnote 396: Pike had fought a duel with Roane, Roane having
challenged him because he had dared to criticize his conduct in
the Mexican War [Hallura, _Biographical and Pictorial History of
Arkansas_, vol. i, 229; _Confederate Military History_, vol.
x, 99].]

[Footnote 397: Maury to Roane, May 11, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 827.]

[Footnote 398: Maury to Pike, May 19, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 399: Pike to Roane, June 1, 1862, Ibid., 935-936.]

[Footnote 400: General Orders, June 8, 1862, Ibid., 943.]

[Footnote 401: Pike to Hindman, June 8, 1862, Ibid., 936-943.]

affairs in the West and should be dealt with analytically, yet also as
a whole; since no paraphrase, no mere synopsis of contents could ever
do the subject justice. From the facts presented, it is only too
evident that very little had been attempted or done by the Richmond
authorities for the Indian regiments. Neither officers nor men had
been regularly or fully paid. And not all the good intentions, few as
they were, of the central government had been allowed realization.
They had been checkmated by the men in control west of the
Mississippi. In fact, the army men in Arkansas had virtually exploited
Pike's command, had appropriated for their own use his money, his
supplies, and had never permitted anything to pass on to Indian
Territory, notwithstanding that it had been bought with Indian funds,
"that was fit to be sent anywhere else." The Indian's portion was the
"refuse," as Pike so truly, bitterly, and emphatically put it, or, in
other words of his, the "crumbs" that fell from the white man's table.

Pike's compliance with Hindman's orders was only partial and he
offered not the vestige of an apology that it was so. What he did send
was Dawson's[402] infantry regiment and Woodruff's battery which went
duly on to Little Rock with the requisite thirty days' subsistence and
the caution that not a single cartridge was to be fired along the way.
The caution Pike must have repeated in almost ironical vein; for the
way to Little Rock lay through Indian Territory and cartridges like
everything else under Pike's control had been collected solely for its
defense.

Respecting the forward movement of the Indian troops, Pike made not
the slightest observation in his

[Footnote 402: C.L. Dawson of the Nineteenth Regiment of Arkansas
Volunteers had joined Pike at Fort McCulloch in April [_Fort Smith
Papers_].]

reply. His silence was ominous. Perhaps it was intended as a warning
to Hindman not to encroach too far upon his department; but that is
mere conjecture; inasmuch as Pike had not yet seen fit to question
outright Hindman's authority over himself. As if anticipating an echo
from Little Rock of criticisms that were rife elsewhere, he ventured
an explanation of his conduct in establishing himself in the extreme
southern part of Indian Territory and towards the west and in
fortifying on an open prairie, far from any recognized base.[403] He
had gone down into the Red River country, he asserted, in order to be
near Texas where supplies might be had in abundance and where, since
he had no means of defence, he would be safe from attack. He deplored
the seeming necessity of merging his department in another and larger
one. His reasons were probably many but the one reason he stressed
was, for present purposes, the best he could have offered. It
was, that the Indians could not be expected to render to him as a
subordinate the same obedience they had rendered to him as the chief
officer in command. Were his authority to be superseded in any degree,
the Indians would naturally infer that his influence at Richmond had
declined, likewise his power to protect them and their interests.

During the night Pike must have pondered deeply

[Footnote 403: His enemies were particularly scornful of his work
in this regard. They poked fun at him on every possible occasion.
Edwards, in _Shelby and His Men_, 63, but echoed the general
criticism,

"Pike, also a Brigadier, had retreated with his Indian contingent out
of North West Arkansas, unpursued, through the Cherokee country, the
Chickasaw country, and the country of the Choctaws, two hundred and
fifty miles to the southward, only halting on the 'Little Blue', an
unknown thread of a stream, twenty miles from Red river, where he
constructed fortifications on the open prairie, erected a saw-mill
remote from any timber, and devoted himself to gastronomy and poetic
meditation, with elegant accompaniments..."]

over things omitted from his reply to Hindman and over all that was
wanting to make his compliance with Hindman's instructions full and
satisfactory. On the ninth, his assistant-adjutant, O.F. Russell,
prepared a fairly comprehensive report[404] of the conditions in and
surrounding his command. Pike's force,[405] so the report stated, was
anything but complete. With Dawson gone, there would be in camp, of
Arkansas troops, one company of cavalry and one of artillery and, of
Texas, two companies of cavalry. When men, furloughed for the wheat
harvest, should return, there would be "in addition two regiments
and one company of cavalry, and one company of artillery, about 80
strong."[406] The withdrawal of white troops from the Territory would
be interpreted by the Indians to mean its abandonment.

Of the Indian contingent, Russell had this to say:

    The two Cherokee regiments are near the Kansas line, operating on
    that frontier. Col. Stand Watie has recently had a skirmish there,
    in which, as always, he and his men fought gallantly, and were
    successful. Col. D.N. McIntosh's Creek Regiment is under orders to
    advance up the Verdigris, toward the Santa Fé road. Lieut. Col.
    Chilly McIntosh's Creek Battalion, Lieut. Col. John Jumper's
    Seminole Battalion, and Lieut. Col. J.D. Harris' Chickasaw
    Battalion are under orders, and part of them now in motion toward
    the Salt Plains, to take Fort Larned, the post at Walnut Creek,
    and perhaps Fort Wise, and intercept trains going to New Mexico.
    The First Choctaw (new)[407] Regiment, of Col. Sampson Folsom,
    and the Choctaw Battalion (three companies), of Maj. Simpson (N.)
    Folsom, are at Middle Boggy, 23 miles northeast of this point.
    They were under orders to march northward to

[Footnote 404: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 943-945.]

[Footnote 405: For tabulated showing of Pike's brigade, see
Ibid., 831.]

[Footnote 406: Compare Russell's statement with Hindman's
[Ibid., 30]. See also Maury to Price, March 22, 1862
[Ibid., vol. viii, 798].]

[Footnote 407: The parentheses appear here as in the original.]

    the Salt Plains and Santa Fé road; but the withdrawal of Colonel
    Dawson's regiment prevents that, and the regiment is now ordered
    to take position here, and the battalion to march to and take
    position at Camp McIntosh, 17 miles this side of Fort Cobb, where,
    with Hart's Spies, 40 in number, it will send out parties to
    the Wichita Mountains and up the False Wichita, and prevent, if
    possible, depredations on the frontier of Texas.

    The First Choctaw and Chickasaw Regiment, of Col. Douglas H.
    Cooper, goes out of service on the 25th and 26th of July. It is
    now encamped 11 miles east of here.... The country to the westward
    is quiet, all the Comanches this side of the Staked Plains being
    friendly, and the Kiowas[408] having made peace, and selected
    a home to live at on Elk Creek, not far from the site of Camp
    Radziwintski, south of the Wichita Mountains.

    The Indian troops have been instructed, if the enemy[409] invades
    the country, to harass him, and impede his progress by every
    possible means, and, falling back here as he advances, to assist
    in holding this position against him.

Included in Russell's report there might well have been much
interesting data respecting the condition of the troops that Pike
was parting with; for it can scarcely be said that he manifested any
generosity in sending them forth. He obeyed the letter of his order
and ignored its spirit. He permitted no guns to be taken out of the
Territory that had been paid for with money that he had furnished.
Dawson's regiment had not its full quota of men, but that was scarcely
Pike's fault. Neither was it his fault that its equipment was so
sadly below par that it could make but very slow progress on the nine
hundred mile march between Fort McCulloch and Little Rock. Moreover,
the health of the

[Footnote 408: Pike had just received assurances of the friendly
disposition of the Kiowas [Bickel to Pike, June 1, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 936].]

[Footnote 409: The enemy in mind was the Indian Expedition. Pike had
heard that Sturgis had been removed "on account of his tardiness in
not invading the Indian country...." [Ibid., 944].]

men was impaired, their duties, especially the "fort duties, throwing
up intrenchments, etc.,"[410] had been very fatiguing. Pike had no
wagons to spare them for the trip eastward. So many of his men had
obtained furloughs for the harvest season and every company, in
departing, had taken with it a wagon,[411] no one having any thought
that there would come a call decreasing Pike's command.

So slowly and laboriously did Dawson's regiment progress that Hindman,
not hearing either of it or of Woodruff's battery, which was slightly
in advance, began to have misgivings as to the fate of his orders of
May 31. He, therefore, repeated them in substance, on June 17, with
the additional specific direction that Pike should "move at once to
Fort Gibson." That order Pike received June 24, the day following his
issuance of instructions to his next in command, Colonel D.H. Cooper,
that he should hasten to the country north of the Canadian and there
take command of all forces except Chief Jumper's.

The receipt of Hindman's order of June 17 was the signal for Pike
to pen another lengthy letter[412] of description and protest.
Interspersed through it were his grievances, the same that were
recited in the letter of June 8, but now more elaborately dwelt upon.
Pike was getting irritable. He declared that he had done all he could
to expedite the movement of his troops. The odds were unquestionably
against him. His Indians were doing duty in different places. Most
of the men of his white cavalry force were off on furlough. Their
furloughs would not expire until the

[Footnote 410: Dawson to Hindman, June 20, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 945-946.]

[Footnote 411: Dawson had allowed his wagons to go "of his own motion"
[Pike to Hindman, June 24, 1862, Ibid., 947].]

[Footnote 412:--Ibid., 947-950.]

twenty-fifth and not until the twenty-seventh could they be
proceeded against as deserters. Not until that date, too, would the
reorganization, preliminary to marching, be possible. He was short of
transportation and half of what he had was unserviceable.

Of his available Indian force, he had made what disposition to
him seemed best. He had ordered the newly-organized First Choctaw
Regiment, under Colonel Sampson Folsom, to Fort Gibson and had
assigned Cooper to the command north of the Canadian, which meant,
of course, the Cherokee country. Cooper's own regiment was the First
Choctaw and Chickasaw, of which, two companies, proceeding from
Scullyville, had already posted themselves in the upper part of the
Indian Territory, where also were the two Cherokee regiments, Watie's
and Drew's. The remaining eight companies of the First Choctaw and
Chickasaw were encamped near Fort McCulloch and would have, before
moving elsewhere, to await the reorganization of their regiment, now
near at hand. However, Cooper was not without hope that he could
effect reorganization promptly and take at least four companies
to join those that had just come from Scullyville. There were six
companies in the Chickasaw Battalion, two at Fort Cobb and four on the
march to Fort McCulloch; but they would all have to be left within
their own country for they were averse to moving out of it and were
in no condition to move. The three companies of the Choctaw Battalion
would also have to be left behind in the south for they had no
transportation with which to effect a removal. The Creek commands,
D.N. McIntosh's Creek Regiment, Chilly McIntosh's Creek Battalion, and
John Jumper's Seminole Battalion, were operating in the west, along

the Santa Fé Trail and towards Forts Larned and Wise.

June 17 might be said to mark the beginning of the real controversy
between Pike and Hindman; for, on that day, not only did Hindman
reiterate the order to hurry that aroused Pike's ire but he encroached
upon Pike's prerogative in a financial particular that was bound,
considering Pike's experiences in the past, to make for trouble.
Interference with his commissary Pike was determined not to brook,
yet, on June 17, Hindman put N. Bart Pearce in supreme control at
Fort Smith as commissary, acting quartermaster, and acting ordnance
officer.[413] His jurisdiction was to extend over northwestern
Arkansas and over the Indian Territory. Now Pike had had dealings
already with Pearce and thought that he knew too well the limits of
his probity. Exactly when Pike heard of Pearce's promotion is not
quite clear; but, on the twenty-third, Hindman sent him a conciliatory
note explaining that his intention was "to stop the operations of the
commissaries of wandering companies in the Cherokee Nation, who"
were "destroying the credit of the Confederacy by the floods of
certificates they" issued and not "to restrict officers acting under"
Pike's orders.[414] All very well, but Pearce had other ideas as to
the functions of his office and lost no time in apprising various
people of them. His notes[415] to Pike's officers were most
impertinently prompt. They were sent out on the twenty-fourth of June
and on the twenty-sixth Pike reported[416] the whole history of his
economic embarrassments to the Secretary of War.[417]

[Footnote 413: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 967.]

[Footnote 414:--Ibid., 946.]

[Footnote 415:--Ibid., 968, 968-969, 969.]

[Footnote 416:--Ibid., 841-844.]

[Footnote 417: George W. Randolph.]

His indignation must have been immense; but whether righteously so or
not, it was for others higher up to decide. That Pike had some sort of
a case against the men in Arkansas there can be no question. The tale
he told Secretary Randolph was a revelation such as would have put
ordinary men, if involved at all, to deepest shame. Hindman, perforce,
was the victim of accumulated resentment; for he, personally, had
done only a small part of that of which Pike complained. In the main,
Pike's report simply furnished particulars in matters, such as the
despoiling him of his hard-won supplies, of which mention has already
been made; and his chief accusation was little more than hinted at,
the gist of it being suggested in some of his concluding sentences:

    ... I struggled for a good while before I got rid of the curse of
    dependence for subsistence, transportation, and forage on officers
    at Fort Smith. I cannot even get from that place the supplies I
    provide myself and hardly my own private stores. My department
    quartermaster and commissary are fully competent to purchase what
    we need, and I mean they shall do it. I have set my face against
    all rascality and swindling and keep contractors in wholesome
    fear, and have made it publicly known by advertisement that I
    prefer to purchase of the farmer and producer and do not want any
    contractors interposed between me and them. My own officers will
    continue to purchase subsistence, transportation, forage, and
    whatever else I need until I am ordered to the contrary by you,
    and when that order comes it will be answered by my resignation.
    Mr. White's[418] contract will not be acted under here. I have
    beef enough on hand and engaged, and do not want any from him. I
    have had to buy bacon at 20 to 26 cents, and he ought to be made
    to pay every cent of the difference between that price and fifteen
    cents. I also strenuously object to receiving mules or anything
    else purchased at Fort Smith.

[Footnote 418: "George E. White, formerly a partner, I believe, of
Senator Oldham of Texas..."--_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 842.]

    I could get up a mule factory now with the skeletons I have,
    and there are a few miles from here 600 or 800 sent up by Major
    Clark[419] in even a worse plight.

    I know nothing about Major Pearce as a quartermaster nor of
    any right Major-General Hindman has to make him one. He is an
    assistant commissary of subsistence, with the rank of major, and
    Major Quesenbury, my brigade or department quartermaster, is major
    by an older commission....

    While I am here there will be no fine contracts for mules, hay,
    keeping of mules, beef on the hoof at long figures, or anything of
    the kind. Fort Smith is very indignant at this, and out of this
    grief grows the anxious desire of many patriots to see me resign
    the command of this country or be removed....[420]

Subsequent communications[421] from Pike to Randolph reported the
continued despoiling of his command and the persistent infringement of
Pearce upon his authority, in consequence of which, the Indians were
suffering from lack of forage, medicines, clothing, and food.[422]
Pearce, in his turn, reported[423] to Hindman Pike's obstinacy and
intractability and he even cast insinuations against his honesty. Pike
was openly defying the man who claimed to be his superior officer,
Hindman. He was resisting his authority at every turn and had already
boldly declared,[424] with special reference to Clarkson, of course,
that

    No officer of the Missouri State Guard, whatever his rank, unless
    he has a command adequate to his rank, can ever exercise or assume
    any military authority in the Indian country, and much less assume
    command of any Confederate troops or

[Footnote 419: George W. Clark, _Official Records_, vol. xiii.]

[Footnote 420: For an equally vigorous statement on this score, see
Pike to Randolph, June 30, 1862 [Ibid., 849].]

[Footnote 421:--Ibid., 846-847, 848-849, 850-851, 852.]

[Footnote 422: Chilly McIntosh to Pike, June 9, 1862, Ibid.,
853; Pike to Chilly McIntosh, July 6, 1862, Ibid., 853-854.]

[Footnote 423: July 5, 1862 [Ibid., 963-965]; July 8, 1862
[Ibid., 965-967].]

[Footnote 424:--Ibid., 844-845.]

    compare rank with any officer in the Confederate service. The
    commissioned colonels of Indian regiments rank precisely as if
    they commanded regiments of white men, and will be respected and
    obeyed accordingly.

With the same confidence in the justness of his own cause, he
called[425] Pearce's attention to an act of Congress which seemed "to
have escaped his observation," and which Pike considered conclusively
proved that the whole course of action of his enemies was absolutely
illegal.

In some of his contentions, General Pike was most certainly on strong
ground and never on stronger than when he argued that the Indians were
organized, in a military way, for their own protection and for the
defence of their own country. Since first they entered the Confederate
service, many had been the times that that truth had been brought home
to the authorities and not by Pike[426] alone but by several of his
subordinates and most often by Colonel Cooper.[427] The Indians had
many causes of dissatisfaction and sometimes they murmured pretty
loudly. Not even Pike's arrangements satisfied them all and his
inexplicable conduct in establishing his headquarters at Fort
McCulloch was exasperating beyond measure to the Cherokees.[428] Why,
if he were really sincere in saying that his supreme duty was the
defence of Indian Territory, did he not place himself where he could
do something, where, for instance, he could take precautions against
invasions from

[Footnote 425: Pike to Pearce, July 1, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 967.]

[Footnote 426: One of the best statements of the case by Pike is to
be found in a letter from him to Stand Watie, June 27, 1862
[Ibid., 952].]

[Footnote 427: For some of Cooper's statements, illustrative of his
position, see his letter to Pike, February 10, 1862 [Ibid.,
896] and that to Van Dorn, May 6, 1862 [ibid., 824].]

[Footnote 428: It was at the express wish of Stand Watie and Drew that
Hindman placed Clarkson in the Cherokee country [Carroll to Pike, June
27, 1862, ibid., 952].]

Kansas? And why, when the unionist Indian Expedition was threatening
Fort Gibson, Tahlequah, and Cherokee integrity generally, did he not
hasten northward to resist it? Chief Ross, greatly aggrieved because
of Pike's delinquency in this respect, addressed[429] himself to
Hindman and he did so in the fatal days of June.

In addressing General Hindman as Pike's superior officer, John Ross
did something more than make representations as to the claims, which
his nation in virtue of treaty guaranties had upon the South. He urged
the advisability of allowing the Indians to fight strictly on the
defensive and of placing them under the command of someone who would
"enjoy their confidence." These two things he would like to have done
if the protective force, which the Confederacy had promised, were not
forthcoming. The present was an opportune time for the preferring
of such a request. At least it was opportune from the standpoint of
Pike's enemies and traducers.[430] It fitted into Hindman's scheme of
things exactly; for he had quite lost patience, granting he had ever
had any, with the Arkansas poet. It was not, however, within his
province to remove him; but it was within his power so to tantalize
him that he could render his position as brigade and department
commander, intolerable. That he proceeded to do. Pike's quick
sensibilities were not proof against such treatment and he soon lost
his temper.

His provocations were very great. As was perfectly

[Footnote 429: Ross to Hindman, June 25, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 950-951. A little while before, Ross had
complained, in a similar manner, to President Davis [Ibid.,
824-825].]

[Footnote 430: Pike had his traducers. The Texans and Arkansans
circulated infamous stories about him. See his reference to the same
in a letter to Hindman, July 3, 1862 [Ibid., 955].]

natural, the Confederate defeat at Locust Grove counted heavily
against him.[431] On the seventh of July, Hindman began a new attack
upon him by making requisition for his ten Parrott guns.[432] They
were needed in Arkansas. On the eighth of July came another attack in
the shape of peremptory orders, two sets of them, the very tone of
which was both accusatory and condemnatory. What was apparently the
first[433] set of orders reached Pike by wire on the eleventh of July
and commanded him to hurry to Fort Smith, travelling night and day,
there to take command of all troops in the Indian Territory and in
Carroll's district.[434] Almost no organization, charged Hindman, was
in evidence among the Confederate forces in the upper Indian country
and a collision between the two Cherokee regiments was impending. Had
he been better informed he might have said that there was only one of
them now in existence.

The second[435] set of orders, dated July 8, was of a tenor much the
same, just as insulting, just as peremptory. The only difference of
note was the substitution of the upper Indian country for Fort Smith
as a point for headquarters. In the sequel, however, the second
set proved superfluous; for the first so aroused Pike's ire that,
immediately upon its receipt, he prepared his resignation and sent it
to Hindman for transmission to Richmond.[436]

Hindman's position throughout this affair was not

[Footnote 431: July 3.]

[Footnote 432: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 854.]

[Footnote 433: First, probably only in the sense that it was the first
to be received.]

[Footnote 434: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 857.]

[Footnote 435:--Ibid., 856-857.]

[Footnote 436: Pike to Hindman, July 15, 1862 [Ibid., 858];
Pike to Secretary of War, July 20, 1862 [Ibid., 856].]

destitute of justification.[437] One has only to read his general
reports to appreciate how heavy was the responsibility that rested
upon him. It was no wonder that he resorted to questionable expedients
to accomplish his purposes, no wonder that he instituted martial
law[438] in a seemingly refractory country, no wonder that he took
desperate measures to force Pike to activity. Pike's leisurely way of
attending to business was in itself an annoyance and his leisurely way
of moving over the country was a positive offence. He had been ordered
to proceed with dispatch to Fort Gibson. The expiration of a month and
a half found him still at Fort McCulloch. He really did not move from
thence until, having sent in his resignation, he made preparations for
handing over his command to Colonel Cooper. That he intended to do at
some point on the Canadian and thither he wended his way.[439] By the
twenty-first of July, "he had succeeded in getting as far as Boggy
Depot, a distance of 25 miles;[440] but then he had not left Fort
McCulloch until that very morning.[441]

Pike's definite break with Hindman was, perhaps, more truly a
consummation of Hindman's wishes than of Pike's own. On the third
of July, as if regretting his previous show of temper, he wrote to
Hindman a long letter,[442] conciliatory in tone throughout. He
discussed the issues between them in a calm and temperate spirit,

[Footnote 437: In September, Hindman declared he had never had any
knowledge of the order creating Pike's department [_Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 978].]

[Footnote 438: He instituted martial law, June 30, 1862 and, although
he believed he had precedent in Pike's own procedure, Pike criticized
him severely. See Pike to J.S. Murrow, Seminole Agent, October 25,
1862, Ibid., 900-902. Hindman had authorized Pearce, June 17,
1862, to exercise martial law in the cities of Fort Smith and Van
Buren and their environs [Ibid., 835].]

[Footnote 439: Pike to Hindman, July 15, 1862.]

[Footnote 440: Hindman's Report [_Official Records_, vol. xiii,
40].]

[Footnote 441: Pike to the Secretary of War, July 20, 1862
[Ibid., 859].]

[Footnote 442:--Ibid., 954-962.]

changing nothing as regarded the facts but showing a willingness to
let bygones be bygones. Considering how great had been his chagrin,
his indignation, and his poignant sense of ingratitude and wrong, he
rose to heights really noble. He seemed desirous, even anxious, that
the great cause in which they were both so vitally interested should
be uppermost in both their minds always and that their differences,
which, after all, were, comparatively speaking, so very petty, should
be forgotten forever. It was in the spirit of genuine helpfulness that
he wrote and also in the spirit of great magnanimity. Pike was a man
who studied the art of war zealously, who knew the rules of European
warfare, and a man, who, even in war times, could read Napier's
_Peninsular War_ and succumb to its charm. He was a classicist
and a student very much more than a man of action. Could those around
him, far meaner souls many of them than he, have only known and
remembered that and, remembering it, have made due allowances for his
vagaries, all might have been well. His generous letter of the third
of July failed utterly of its mission; but not so much, perhaps,
because of Hindman's inability to appreciate it or unwillingness
to meet its writer half-way, as because of the very seriousness
of Hindman's own military situation, which made all compromises
impossible. The things he felt it incumbent upon him to do must be
done his way or not at all. The letter of July 3 could scarcely have
been received before the objectionable orders of July 8 had been
planned.

The last ten days of July were days of constant scouting on the part
of both the Federal and Confederate Indians but nothing of much
account resulted. Colonel W.A. Phillips of the Third Indian Home
Guard,

whose command had been left by Furnas to scout around Tahlequah and
Fort Gibson, came into collision with Stand Watie's force on the
twenty-seventh at Bayou Bernard, seven miles, approximately, from the
latter place. The Confederate Cherokees lost considerably in dead
and prisoners.[443] Phillips would have followed up his victory by
pursuing the foe even to the Verdigris had not Cooper, fearing that
his forces might be destroyed in detail, ordered them all south of the
Arkansas and thereby circumvented his enemy's designs. Phillips
then moved northward in the direction of Furnas's main camp on Wolf
Creek.[444]

Pike had his own opinion of Cooper and Watie's daring methods of
fighting and most decidedly disapproved of their attempting to meet
the enemy in the neighborhood of Fort Gibson. That part of the Indian
Territory, according to his view of things, was not capable of
supporting an army. He discounted the ability of his men to conquer,
their equipment being so meagre. He, therefore, persisted in advising
that they should fight only on the defensive. He advised that,
notwithstanding he had a depreciatory[445] regard for the Indian
Expedition, and, both before and after the retrograde movement
of Colonel Salomon, underestimated its size and strength. He Was
confident that Cooper would have inevitably to fall back to the
Canadian, where, as he said, "the defensible country commences." Pike
objected strenuously to the courting of an open battle and, could he
have followed the bent of his own inclinations, "would have sent only

[Footnote 443: Phillips to Furnas, July 27, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 181-182.]

[Footnote 444: Same to same, August 6, 1862, Ibid., 183-184.]

[Footnote 445: Cooper reported that Pike regarded the Indian
Expedition as only a "jayhawking party," and "no credit due" "for
arresting its career" [Cooper to Davis, August 8, 1862, Ibid.,
vol liii, supplement, 821].]

small bodies of mounted Indians and white troops to the
Arkansas."[446]

No doubt it was in repudiation of all responsibility for what Cooper
and Watie might eventually do that he chose soon to bring himself,
through a mistaken notion of justice and honor, into very disagreeable
prominence. Discretion was evidently not Pike's cardinal virtue. At
any rate, he was quite devoid of it when he issued, July 31, his
remarkable circular address[447] "to the Chiefs and People of the
Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaws, and Choctaws." In that
address, he notified them that he had resigned his post as department
commander and dilated upon the causes that had moved him to action. He
shifted all blame for failure to keep faith with the Indian nations
from himself and from the Confederate government to the men upon whom
he steadfastly believed it ought to rest. He deprecated the plundering
that would bring its own retribution and begged the red men to be
patient and to keep themselves true to the noble cause they had
espoused.

    Remain true, I earnestly advise you, to the Confederate States
    and yourselves. Do not listen to any men who tell you that the
    Southern States will abandon you. They will not do it. If the
    enemy has been able to come into the Cherokee country it has not
    been the fault of the President; and it is but the fortune of war,
    and what has happened in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee,
    and even Arkansas. We have not been able to keep the enemy from
    our frontier anywhere; but in the interior of our country we can
    defeat them always.

    Be not discouraged, and remember, above all things, that you can
    have nothing to expect from the enemy. They will have no mercy on
    you, for they are more merciless than wolves and more rapacious.
    Defend your country with what help you

[Footnote 446: Pike to the Secretary of War, July 20, 1862,
_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 859-860.]

[Footnote 447:--Ibid., 869-871.]

    can get until the President can send you troops. If the enemy ever
    comes to the Canadian he cannot go far beyond that river. The war
    must soon end since the recent victories near Richmond, and no
    treaty of peace will be made that will give up any part of your
    country to the Northern States. If I am not again placed in
    command of your country some other officer will be in whom you
    can confide. And whatever may be told you about me, you will soon
    learn that if I have not defended the whole country it was because
    I had not the troops with which to do it; that I have cared for
    your interest alone; that I have never made you a promise that I
    did not expect, and had not a right to expect, to be able to keep,
    and that I have never broken one intentionally nor except by the
    fault of others.

The only fair way to judge Pike's farewell address to his Indian
charges is to consider it in the light of its effect upon them,
intended and accomplished.[448] So little reason has the red man had,
in the course of his long experience with his white brother, to trust
him that his faith in that white brother rests upon a very slender
foundation. Pike knew the Indian character amazingly well and knew
that he must retain for the Confederacy the Indian's confidence at all
cost. Were he to fail in that, his entire diplomatic work would have
been done in vain. To stay the Cherokees in their desertion to
the North was of prime necessity. They had already gone over in
dangerously large numbers and must be checked before other tribes
followed in their wake. Very possibly Pike had been made aware

[Footnote 448: Pike gives this as the effect of his proclamation:

"... it effected what I desired. The Choctaw force was immediately
increased to two full regiments; the Creek force to two regiments
and two companies; the Seminole force was doubled; the Chickasaws
reorganized five companies and a sixth is being made up. The Indians
looked to me alone, and for me to vindicate myself was to vindicate
the Government. We lost half the Cherokees solely because their moneys
and supplies were intercepted..."--Ibid., 904-905. See also
Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862. Another effect was, the creation of
a prejudice self-confessed in General Holmes's mind against Pike.]

of Chief Ross's complaint to Hindman. If so, it was all important
that he should vindicate himself. So maligned had he been that his
sensitiveness on the score of the discharge of his duties was very
natural, very pardonable. After all he had done for the Confederacy
and for the Indians, it seemed hardly right that he should be blamed
for all that others had failed to do. His motives were pure and could
not be honestly impugned by anybody. The address was an error of
judgment but it was made with the best of intentions.

And so the authorities at Richmond seem to have regarded it; that is,
if the reference in President Davis's letter[449] to Pike of August 9
is to this affair. Pike wrote to the president on the same day that he
started his address upon its rounds, but that letter,[450] in which
he rehearsed the wrongs he had been forced to endure, also those more
recently inflicted upon him, did not reach Richmond until September
20. His address was transmitted by Colonel D.H. Cooper, who had
taken great umbrage at it and who now charged the author with having
violated an army regulation, which prohibited publications concerning
Confederate troops.[451] Davis took the matter under advisement and
wrote to Pike a mild reprimand. It was as follows:

    Richmond, Va., August 9, 1862.

    Brig. Gen. Albert Pike,

    Camp McCulloch, Choctaw Nation:

    General: Your communication of July 3 is at hand. I regret the
    necessity of informing you that it is an impropriety for an
    officer of the Army to address the President through a printed
    circular.[452] Under the laws for the government of

[Footnote 449: Official Records, vol. liii, supplement, 822.]

[Footnote 450:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 860-869.]

[Footnote 451:--Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 820-821.]

[Footnote 452: It is possible that the printed circular here referred
to was some other one that was directly addressed to the president but
none such has been found.]

    the Army the publication of this circular was a grave military
    offense, and if the purpose was to abate an evil, by making an
    appeal that would be heeded by me, the mode taken was one of the
    slowest and worst that could have been adopted.

    Very respectfully, yours, Jefferson Davis.

The sympathy of Secretary Randolph was conceivably with Pike; for, on
the fourteenth of July, he wrote assuring him that certain general
orders had been sent out by the Adjutant and Inspector General's
Office which were "intended to prevent even the major-general
commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department from diverting from their
legitimate destination (the Department of Indian Territory) munitions
of war and supplies procured by 'him' for that department."[453]
That did not prevent Hindman's continuing his pernicious practices,
however. On the seventeenth he demanded[454] that Pike deliver to
him his best battery and Pike, discouraged and yet thoroughly beside
himself with ill-suppressed rage,[455] sent it to him.[456] At
the same time he insisted that he be immediately relieved of his
command.[457] He could endure the indignities to which he was
subjected no longer. The order for his relief arrived in due course
and also directions for him to report in person at Hindman's
headquarters.[458] He had not then issued his circular; but, as

[Footnote 453: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 903; Pike to
Holmes, December 30, 1862, Pike _Papers_, Library of the
Supreme Council, 33º. Pike did not receive Randolph's letter of July
fourteenth until some time in August and not until after he had had an
interview with Holmes. See Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862.]

[Footnote 454: Official Records, vol. xiii, 970.]

[Footnote 455: This is inferred from the very peculiar _General
Orders_ that issued from Fort McCulloch that selfsame day. They
were sarcastic in the extreme. No general in his right senses would
have issued them. They are to be found, Ibid., 970-973.]

[Footnote 456:--Ibid., 973, 974.]

[Footnote 457:--_Ib id_., 973.]

[Footnote 458: Pike to Hindman, July 31, 1862, Ibid., 973.]

soon as he had, the whole situation changed. He had deliberately put
himself in the wrong and into the hands of his enemies. The address
was, in some respects, the last act of a desperate[459] man. And there
is no doubt that General Pike was desperate. Reports were spreading in
Texas that he was a defaulter to the government and, as he himself in
great bitterness of spirit said, "The incredible villainy of a slander
so monstrous, and so without even any ground for suspicion," was
"enough to warn every honest man not to endeavor to serve his
country."[460]

Not until August 6 did General Pike's circular address reach Colonel
D.H. Cooper, who was then at Cantonment Davis. Cooper wisely
suppressed all the copies he could procure and then, believing Pike to
be either insane or a traitor, ordered his arrest,[461] sending out
an armed force for its accomplishment. Hindman, as soon as notified,
"indorsed and approved" his action.[462] This is his own account of
what he did:

    ... I approved his action, and ordered General Pike sent to Little
    Rock in custody. I also forwarded Colonel Cooper's letter to
    Richmond, with an indorsement, asking to withdraw my approval
    of General Pike's resignation, that I might bring him before a
    court-martial on charges of falsehood, cowardice, and treason. He
    was also liable to the penalties prescribed by section 29 of the
    act of Congress regulating intercourse with the Indians and to
    preserve peace on the frontiers, approved April 8, 1862....

    But his resignation had been accepted....[463]

[Footnote 459: And yet, August 1, 1862, Pike wrote to Davis one of the
sanest papers he ever prepared. It was full of sage advice as to the
policy that ought to be pursued in Indian Territory [_Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 871-874].]

[Footnote 460: Pike to S. Cooper, August 3, 1862, Ibid., 975.
See also Pike to Newton, August 3, 1862, Ibid., 976.]

[Footnote 461: D.H. Cooper to Hindman, August 7, 1862, ibid., 977.]

[Footnote 462: Pike to Anderson, October 26, 1862, Ibid., 903.]

[Footnote 463: Hindman's Report, Ibid., 41.]




VII. ORGANIZATION OF THE ARKANSAS AND RED RIVER SUPERINTENDENCY


The mismanagement of southern Indian affairs of which General Pike so
vociferously complained was not solely or even to any great degree
attributable to indifference to Indian interests on the part of
the Confederate government and certainly not at all to any lack of
appreciation of the value of the Indian alliance or of the strategic
importance of Indian Territory. The perplexities of the government
were unavoidably great and its control over men and measures, removed
from the seat of its immediate influence, correspondingly small.
It was not to be expected that it would or could give the same
earnestness of attention to events on the frontier as to those nearer
the seaboard, since it was, after all, east of the Mississippi that
the great fight for political separation from the North would have to
be made.

The Confederate government had started out well. It had dealt with the
Indian nations on a basis of dignity and lofty honor, a fact to be
accounted for by the circumstance that Indian affairs were at first
under the State Department with Toombs at its head;[464] and, in this
connection, let it be recalled that it was under authority of the
State Department that Pike had

[Footnote 464: Toombs did not long hold the portfolio. Among the
Pickett _Papers_, is a letter from Davis to Toombs, July 24,
1861, accepting with regret his resignation [Package 89].]

entered upon his mission as diplomatic agent to the tribes west of
Arkansas.[465] Subsequently, and, indeed, before Pike had nearly
completed his work, Indian affairs were transferred[466] to the
direction of the Secretary of War and a bureau created in his
department for the exclusive consideration of them, Hubbard receiving
the post of commissioner.[467]

The Provisional Congress approached the task of dealing with Indian
matters as if it already had a big grasp on the subject and intended,
at the outset, to give them careful scrutiny and to establish, with
regard to them, precedents of extreme good faith. Among the

[Footnote 465: In evidence of this, note, in addition to the material
published in Abel, _The American Indian as Slaveholder and
Secessionist_, the following letters, the first from Robert Toombs
to L.P. Walker, Secretary of War, dated Richmond, August 7, 1861;
and the second from William M. Browne, Acting Secretary of State, to
Walker, September 4, 1861:

1. "I have the honor to inform you that under a resolution of
Congress, authorizing the President to send a Commissioner to the
Indian tribes west of Arkansas and south of Kansas, Mr. Albert Pike of
Arkansas was appointed such Commissioner under an autograph letter of
the President giving him very large discretion as to the expenses
of his mission. Subsequent to the adoption of the resolution, above
named, Congress passed a law placing the Indian Affairs under the
control of your Department and consequently making the expenses of
Mr. Pike and all other Indian Agents, properly payable out of
the appropriation at your disposal for the service of the Indian
Bureau."--Pickett _Papers_, Package 106, Domestic Letters,
Department of State, vol. i, p.86.

2. "The accompanying letters and reports from Commissioner Albert Pike
addressed to your Department are respectfully referred to you,
the affairs to which they relate being under your supervision and
control."--Ibid., P-93.]

[Footnote 466: A re-transfer to the State Department was proposed
as early as the next November [_Journal of the Congress of the
Confederate States_, 489].]

[Footnote 467: President Davis recommended the creation of the
bureau, March 12, 1861 [Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the
Confederacy_, vol. i, p. 58: Journal of the Congress of the
Confederate States, vol. i, p. 142]. On the sixteenth, he nominated
David Hubbard of Alabama for commissioner [Pickett Papers, Package
88]. The bill for the creation of the bureau of Indian Affairs was
signed the selfsame day [Journal, vol. i, 151]. S.S. Scott became
Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs before the year was out.]

things[468] it considered and in some cases favorably disposed of
were, the treaties of amity and alliance negotiated by Albert Pike,
the transfer of Indian trust

[Footnote 468: The preliminaries of the negotiations with the Indians
have not been enumerated here, although they might well have been. On
the twentieth of February, 1861, W.P. Chilton of Alabama offered a
resolution to inquire into the expediency of opening negotiations
[_Journal_, vol. i, 70]. March 4, Toombs urged that a special
agent be sent and offered a resolution to that effect [Ibid.,
105]. The day following, Congress passed the resolution [Ibid.,
107]: but left the powers and duties of the special agent, or
commissioner, undefined. Davis appointed Pike to the position and,
after Congress had expressed its wishes regarding the mission in the
act of May 21, 1861, had a copy of the act transmitted to him as his
instructions [Richardson, vol. i, 149].

The act of May 21, 1861, carried a blanket appropriation of $100,000,
which was undoubtedly used freely by Pike for purposes connected
with the successful prosecution of his mission. In December, the
Provisional Congress appropriated money for carrying into effect the
Pike treaties. The following letter is of interest in connection
therewith:

Richmond, Va., 9" December 1861.

Sir: On the 1st or 2nd of August 1861, after I had made Treaties with
the Creeks and Seminoles, I authorized James M.C. Smith, a resident
citizen of the Creek Nation, to raise and command a company of Creek
Volunteers, to be stationed at the North Fork Village, in the Creek
country, on the North Fork of the Canadian, where the great road from
Missouri to Texas crosses that river, to act as a police force, watch
and apprehend disaffected persons, intercept improper communications,
and prevent the driving of cattle to Kansas.

The Company was soon after raised, and has remained in the service
ever since. At my appointment George W. Stidham acted as Quartermaster
and Commissary for it, and without funds from the Government, has
supplied it.

By the Treaty with the Seminoles, made on the 1st of August, they
agreed to furnish, and I agreed to receive, five companies of mounted
volunteers of that Nation. Two companies, and perhaps more, were
raised, and have since been received, I understand, by Col. Cooper,
and with Captain Smith's company employed in putting down the
disaffected party among the Creeks. Under my appointment, Hugh
McDonald has acted as Quartermaster and Commissary for the Seminole
companies, and made purchases without funds from the Government. After
I had made the Treaties with the Reserve Indians and Comanches, in
August 1861, Fort Cobb being about to be abandoned by the Texan
Volunteers who had held it, I authorized M. Leeper, the Wichita
agent, to enlist a small force, of twenty or twenty-five men, under a
Lieutenant, for the security of the Agency. He enlisted, (cont.)]

funds from the United to the Confederate States government,[469] the
payment of Indian troops and their pensioning.[470] Its disposition to
be grateful and generous came out in the honor which it conferred upon
John Jumper, the Seminole chief.[471]

A piece of very fundamental work the Provisional Congress did not have
time or opportunity to complete.

[Footnote 468: (cont.) I learn, only some fifteen, and he has had them
for some time in the service.

I also appointed a person named McKuska, formerly a soldier, to take
charge of what further property remained at Fort Cobb, and employed
another person to assist him, agreeing that the former should be paid
as Ordnance Sergeant, and the latter as private; and directing the
Contractor for the Indians to issue to the former two rations, and to
the latter one.

In consequence of the collection of some force of disaffected Creeks
and others, and an apprehended attack by them, Col. Douglas H. Cooper
called for troops from all the Nations, and I understand that several
companies were organized and marched to join his regiment. I think
they are still in the service.

I am now empowered to receive all the Indians who offer to enter the
service. To induce them to enlist, what is already owing them must be
paid; and I earnestly hope that Congress will pass the bill introduced
for that purpose. Respectfully your obedient servant

Albert Pike, _Brig. Genl Commd Dept of Ind. Terr'y_.
Hon. W. Miles, Chairman Com. on Mil. Affs.

[War Department, Office of the Adjutant-General, Archives Division,
_Confederate Records_.]]

[Footnote 469: Journal, vol. i, 650, 743, 761. The Confederate
government took, in the main, a just, reasonable, and even charitable
view on the subject of the assumption of United States obligations.
Pike had exceeded his instructions in promising the Indians that
monetary obligations would be so assumed. See his letter to Randolph,
June 30, 1862.]

[Footnote 470: This matter went over into the regular Congress,
which began its work, February 18, 1862. For details of the bill for
pensions see _Journal_, vol. i, 43, 79.]

[Footnote 471: "_The Congress of the Confederate States of America
do enact_, That the President of the Confederate States be
authorized to present to Hemha Micco, or John Jumper, a commission,
conferring upon him the honorary title of Lieutenant Colonel of the
army of the Confederate States, but without creating or imposing the
duties of actual service or command, or pay, as a complimentary mark
of honor, and a token of good will and confidence in his friendship,
good faith, and loyalty to this government...."--_Statutes at Large
of the Provisional Government_, 284.]

That work was, the establishment of a superintendency of Indian
Affairs in the west that should be a counterpart, in all essentials,
of the old southern superintendency, of which Elias Rector had been
the incumbent. Elias Rector and the agents[472] under him, all
of whom, with scarcely a single exception, had gone over to the
Confederacy, had been retained, not under authority of law, but
provisionally. The intention was to organize the superintendency
as soon as convenient and give all employees their proper official
status. Necessarily, a time came when it was most expedient for army
men to exercise the ordinary functions of Indian agents;[473] but
even that arrangement was to be only temporary. Without doubt, the
enactment of a law for the establishment of a superintendency of
Indian affairs was unduly delayed by the prolonged character of Pike's
diplomatic mission. The Confederate government evidently did not
anticipate that the tribes with which it sought alliance would be so
slow[474] or so wary in accepting the protectorate it offered. Not
until January 8, 1862, did the Provisional Congress have before it
the proposition for superintendency organization. The measure was
introduced by Robert W. Johnson of Arkansas and it

[Footnote 472: Quite early a resolution was submitted that had in
view "the appointment of agents to the different tribes of Indians
occupying territory adjoining this Confederacy..." [_Journal_,
vol. i, 81.]]

[Footnote 473: _Journal_, vol. i, 245.]

[Footnote 474: Pike was not prepared beforehand for so extended a
mission. In November, he wrote to Benjamin, notifying him that he was
enclosing "an account in blank for my services as commissioner to the
Indian nations west of Arkansas.

"It was not my intention to accept any remuneration, but the great
length of time during which I found it necessary to remain in the
Indian Country caused me such losses and so interfered with my
business that I am constrained unwillingly to present this account. I
leave it to the President or to Congress to fix the sum that shall
be paid me...."--Pike to Benjamin, November 25, 1861, Pickett
_Papers_, Package 118.]

went in succession to the Judiciary and Indian Affairs committees; but
never managed to get beyond the committee stage.[475]

February 18, 1862, saw the beginning of the first session of the
first congress that met under the Confederate constitution. Six
days thereafter, Johnson, now senator from Arkansas, again took
the initiative in proposing the regular establishment of an Indian
superintendency.[476] As Senate Bill No. 3, his measure was referred
to the Committee[477] on Indian Affairs and, on March 11, reported
back with amendments.[478] Meanwhile, the House was considering a
bill of similar import, introduced on the third by Thomas B. Hanly,
likewise from Arkansas.[479] On the eighteenth, it received Senate
Bill No. 3 and substituted it for its own, passing the same on April
Fool's day. The bill was signed by the president on April 8.[480]

The information conveyed by the journal entries is unusually meagre;
nevertheless, from the little that is given, the course of debate on
the measure can be inferred to a certain extent. The proposition as
a whole carried, of course, its own recommendation, since the
Confederacy was most anxious to retain the Indian friendship and it
certainly could not be retained were not some system introduced into
the service. In matters of detail, local interests, as always in
American legislation, had full play. They asserted themselves most
prominently, for example, in the endeavor made

[Footnote 475: _Journal_, vol. i, 640, 672, 743.]

[Footnote 476:--Ibid., vol. ii, 19.]

[Footnote 477: The Committee on Indian Affairs, at the time, consisted
of Johnson, chairman, Clement C. Clay of Alabama, Williamson S. Oldham
of Texas, R.L.Y. Payton of Missouri, and W.E. Simms of Kentucky.]

[Footnote 478: _Journal_, vol. ii, 51-52.]

[Footnote 479: _Journal_, vol. v, 47.]

[Footnote 480:--Ibid., 210.]

to make Fort Smith, although quite a distance from all parts of the
Indian Territory except the Cherokee and Choctaw countries, the
permanent headquarters, also in that to compel disbursing agents to
make payments in no other funds than specie or treasury notes. The
amendment of greatest importance among those that passed muster was
the one attaching the superintendency temporarily to the western
district of Arkansas for judicial purposes. It was a measure that
could not fail to be exceedingly obnoxious to the Indians; for they
had had a long and disagreeable experience, judicially, with Arkansas.
They had their own opinion of the white man's justice, particularly
as that justice was doled out to the red man on the white man's
ground.[481] Taken in connection with regulations[482] made by the War
Department for the conduct of Indian affairs, the Act of April 8 most
certainly exhibited an honest intention on the part of the Confederate
government to carry out the provisions of the Pike treaties. The
following constituted its principal features: With headquarters at
either Fort Smith or Van Buren, as the president might see fit to
direct, the superintendency was to embrace "all the Indian country
annexed to the Confederate States, that lies west of Arkansas and
Missouri, north of Texas, and east of Texas and New Mexico." A
superintendent and six agents were immediately provided for,
individually bonded and obligated to continue resident during the term
of office, to engage in no mercantile pursuit or gainful occupation

[Footnote 481: The Confederacy, as a matter of fact, never did keep
its promise regarding the establishment of a judiciary in Indian
Territory. Note Commissioner Scott's remarks in criticism, December i,
1864 [_Official Records_, vol. xli, part iv, 1088-1089].]

[Footnote 482: The regulations referred to can be found in
_Confederate Records_, chap. 7, no. 48.]

whatsoever, and to prosecute no Indian claims against the government.
In the choice of interpreters, preference was to be given to
applicants of Indian descent. Indian trade privileges were to be
greatly circumscribed and, in the case of the larger nations, the
complete control of the trade was to rest with the tribal authorities.
In the case, also, of those same larger nations, the restrictions
formerly placed upon land alienations were to be removed. Intruders
and spirituous liquors were to be rigidly excluded and all payments
to Indians were to be carefully safeguarded against fraud and graft.
Indian customs of citizenship and adoption were to be respected. No
foreign interference was to be permitted. Foreign emissaries were to
be dealt with as spies and as such severely punished. The Confederate
right of eminent domain over agency sites and buildings, forts, and
arsenals was to be recognized, as also the operation of laws against
counterfeiting and of the fugitive slave law. In default of regular
troops, the Confederacy was to support an armed police for protection
and the maintenance of order. The judicial rights of the Indians were
to be very greatly extended but the Confederacy reserved to itself the
right to apprehend criminals other than Indian.

The intentions of the Confederate government were one thing, its
accomplishments another. The act of April 8 was not put into immediate
execution, and might have been allowed to become obsolete had it not
been for the controversy between Pike and Hindman. On the first of
August, while the subject-matter of the address, which he had so
imprudently issued to the Indians, was yet fresh in his mind, General
Pike wrote a letter of advice, eminently sound advice, to President
Davis.[483] Avoiding all captiousness, he set forth a

[Footnote 483: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 871-874.]

programme of what ought to be done for Indian Territory and for the
Indians, in order that their friendly alliance might be maintained. He
urged many things and one thing very particularly. It was the crux
of them all and it was that Indian Territory should be absolutely
separated from Arkansas, in a military way, and that no troops
from either Arkansas or Texas should be stationed within it. Other
suggestions of Pike's were equally sound. Indeed, the entire letter of
the first of August was sound and in no part of it more sound than in
that which recommended the immediate appointment of a superintendent
of Indian affairs for the Arkansas and Red River Superintendency, also
the appointment of Indian agents for all places that had none.[484] It
was high time that positions in connection with the conduct of Indian
affairs should be something more than sinecures.

Aspirants for the office of superintendent had already made their
wants known. Foremost among them was Douglas H. Cooper. It was not in
his mind, however, to separate the military command from the civil
and he therefore asked that he be made brigadier-general and _ex
officio_ superintendent of Indian affairs in the place of Pike
removed.[485] His own representations of Pike's grievous offence had
fully prepared him for the circumstance of Pike's removal and he
anticipated it in making his own application for office. Subsequent
knowledge of Pike's activities and of his standing at Richmond must
have come to Cooper as a rude awakening.

Nevertheless, Cooper did get his appointment. It

[Footnote 484: In his message of August 18, 1862 [Richardson, vol. i,
238], President Davis remarked upon the vacancies in these offices and
said that, in consequence of them, delays had occurred in the payment
of annuities and allowances to which the Indians were entitled.]

[Footnote 485: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 821.]

came the twenty-ninth of September in the form of special orders from
the adjutant-general's office.[486] Pike was still on the ground, as
will be presently shown, and Cooper's moral unfitness for a position
of so much responsibility was yet to be revealed. The moment was
one when the Confederacy was taking active steps to keep its most
significant promise to the Indian nations, give them a representation
in Congress. The Cherokees had lost no time in availing themselves of
the privilege of electing a delegate, neither had the Choctaws
and Chickasaws. Elias C. Boudinot had proved to be the successful
candidate of the former and Robert M. Jones[487] of the latter. Over
the credentials of Boudinot, the House of Representatives made some
demur; but, as there was no denying his constitutional right, under
treaty guarantee, to be present, they were accepted and he was given
his seat.[488] Provisions had, however, yet to be determined for
regulating Indian elections and fixing the pay and mileage, likewise
also, the duties and privileges of Indian delegates.[489] Perhaps it
is unfair to intimate that the provisions would have been determined
earlier, had congress not preferred to go upon the assumption that
they would never be needed, since it was scarcely likely that the
Indians would realize the importance of their rights and act upon
them.[490]

[Footnote 486: War Department, _Confederate Records, Special Orders
of the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office_, C.S.A., 1862, p.
438; _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 885.]

[Footnote 487: See document of date, October 7, 1861, signed by
Douglas H. Cooper, certifying that Robert M. Jones had received the
"greatest number of votes cast" as delegate in Congress for the
Choctaws and Chickasaws [Pickett _Papers_, Package 118].]

[Footnote 488: _Journal_, vol. v, 513, 514.]

[Footnote 489:--Ibid., vol. ii, 452, 457, 480; vol. v, 514,
523, 561.]

[Footnote 490: Davis had thrown the responsibility of the whole matter
upon Congress, when he insisted that the "delegate" clauses in the
treaties should (cont.)]

While Congress was debating the question of Indian delegate
credentials and their acceptance, a tragedy took place in
Indian Territory that more than confirmed General Pike's worst
prognostications and proved his main contention that Indian affairs
should be considered primarily upon their own merits, as an end in
themselves, and dealt with accordingly. Had the Arkansas and Red River
Superintendency been regularly established, the tragedy referred to
might never have occurred; but it was not yet established and for
many reasons, one of them being that, although Douglas H. Cooper's
appointment had been resolved upon, he had not yet been invested with
the office of superintendent.[491] His commission was being withheld
because charges of incapacity and drunkenness had been preferred
against him.[492]

General Pike's disclosures had aroused suspicion and grave
apprehension in Richmond, so much so, indeed, that the War Department,
convinced that conditions in Indian Territory were very far from being
what they should be, decided to undertake an investigation of its own
through its Indian bureau. Promptly, therefore, S.S. Scott, acting
commissioner, departed for the West. General Pike was in Texas.

Now one of the contingencies that Pike had most constantly dreaded was
tribal disorder on the Leased

[Footnote 490: (cont.) be so modified as to make the admission of the
Indians dependent, not upon the treaty-making power, but upon the
legislative. See his message of December 12, 1861, Richardson, vol. i,
149-151.]

[Footnote 491: Elias Rector, who had been retained as superintendent
under the Confederate government, seems never to have exercised the
functions of the office subsequent to the assumption by Pike of his
duties as commander of the Department of Indian Territory. He
was probably envious of Pike and resigned rather than serve in a
subordinate capacity. He seems to have made some troube for Pike
[_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 964, 976].]

[Footnote 492:--Ibid., 906, 908, 910-911, 927-928.]

District,[493] a disorder that might at any moment extend itself to
Texas and to other parts of the Indian Territory, imperiling the whole
Confederate alliance. So long as there was a strong force at Fort
McCulloch and at the frontier posts of longer establishment,
particularly at Fort Cobb, the Reserve Indians could be held in check
with comparative ease. Hindman, ignorant of or indifferent to the
situation, no matter how serious it might be for others, had ordered
the force to be scattered and most of it withdrawn from the Red River
Valley.

The so-called Wichita, or Reserve, Indians, to call them by a
collective term only very recently bestowed, had ever constituted a
serious problem for the neighboring states as well as for the central
government. It was with the Confederacy as with the old Union. The
Reserve Indians were a motley horde, fragments of many tribes that
had seen better days. They were all more or less related, either
geographically or linguistically. Some of them, it is difficult
to venture upon what proportion, had been induced to enter into
negotiations with Pike and through him had formed an alliance with
the Confederacy. Apparently, those who had done this were chiefly
Tonkawas. Other Reserve Indians continued true to the North. As time
went on hostile feelings, engendered by living in opposite camps,
gained in intensity, the more especially because white men, both north
and south, encouraged them to go upon the war-path, either against
their own associates or others. Reprisals, frequently bloody, were
regularly instituted. With Pike's departure from Fort McCulloch an
opportunity for greater vindictiveness offered, notwithstanding the
fact that the Choctaw and Chickasaw

[Footnote 493: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 868.]

troops had been left behind and were guarding the near-by country,
their own.

Sometime in the latter part of August or the early part of September,
Matthew Leeper, the Wichita agent under the Confederate government, a
left-over from Buchanan's days, went from the Leased District,[494]
frightened away, some people thought, perhaps afraid of the inevitable
results of the mischief his own hands had so largely wrought, and
sojourned in Texas, his old home. The sutler left also and a man named
Jones was then in sole charge of the agency. The northern sympathizers
among the Indians thereupon aroused themselves. They had gained
greatly of late in strength and influence and their numbers had
been augmented by renegade Seminoles from Jumper's battalion and by
outlawed Cherokees. They warned Jones that Leeper would be wise not to
return. If he should return, it would be the worse for him; for they
were determined to wreak revenge upon him for all the misery his
machinations in favor of the Confederacy and for his own gain had cost
them. Presumably, Jones scorned to transmit the warning and, in course
of time, Leeper returned.

The twenty-third of October witnessed one of the bloodiest scenes ever
enacted on the western plains. The northern Indians of the Reserve
together with a lot of wandering Shawnees, Delawares, and Kickapoos,
many of them good-for-nothing or vicious, some Seminoles and Cherokees
attacked Leeper unawares, killed him,[495] as also three white male
employees of the agency.

[Footnote 494: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 828.]

[Footnote 495: On the murder of Agent Leeper, see Scott to Holmes,
November 2, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 919-921; Holmes
to Secretary of War, November 15, 1862, Ibid., 919: F. Johnson
to Dole, January 20, 1863, Abel, _American Indian as Slaveholder and
Secessionist_, 329-330, _footnote_; (cont.)]

They then put "the bodies into the agency building and fired it." The
next morning they made an equally brutal attack upon the Tonkawas and
with most telling effect. More than half of them were butchered. The
survivors, about one hundred fifty, fled to Fort Arbuckle.[496] Their
condition was pitiable. The murderers, for they were nothing less than
that, fled northward, they and their families, to swell the number of
Indian refugees already living upon government bounty in Kansas.

Commissioner Scott then at Fort Washita hurried to the Leased District
to examine into the affair. He had made many observations since
leaving Richmond, had talked with Pike, now returned from Texas,
and had come around pretty much to his way of thinking. His
recommendations to the department commander that were intended to
reach the Secretary of War as well were in every sense a corroboration
of Pike's complaints in so far as the woeful neglect of the Indians
was concerned. Better proof that Hindman's conduct had been highly
reprehensible could scarcely be asked for.

[Footnote 495: (cont.) Moore, _Rebellion Record_, vol. vi, 6;
W.F. Cady to Cox, February 16, 1870, Indian Office _Report Book_,
no. 19, 186-188; Coffin to Dole, September 24, 1863, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1863, 177.]

[Footnote 496: S.S. Scott asked permission of Governor Winchester
Colbert, November 10, 1862, to place the fugitive Tonkawas
"temporarily on Rocky or Clear Creek, near the road leading from Fort
Washita to Arbuckle." Colbert granted the permission, "provided they
are subject to the laws of the Chickasaw Nation, and will furnish
guides to the Home Guards and the Chickasaw Battalion, when called
upon to do so."]




VIII. THE RETIREMENT OF GENERAL PIKE


The tragedy at the Wichita agency brought General Pike again to the
fore. His resignation had not been accepted at Richmond as Hindman
supposed was the case at the time he released him from custody. In
fact, as events turned out, it looked as though Hindman were decidedly
more in disrepute there than was Pike. His arbitrary procedure in the
Trans-Mississippi District had been complained of by many persons
besides the one person whom he had so unmercifully badgered.
Furthermore, the circumstances of his assignment to command were being
inquired into and everything divulged was telling tremendously against
him.

The irregularity of Hindman's assignment to command has been already
commented upon in this narrative. Additional details may now be given.
Van Dorn had hopes, on the occasion of his own summons to work farther
east, that Sterling Price would be the one chosen eventually to
succeed him or, at all events, the one to take the chief command of
the Confederate forces in the West. He greatly wished that upon him
and upon him alone his mantle should fall.[497] The filling of the
position by Hindman was to be but tentative, to last only until
Price,[498] perhaps also Van Dorn,

[Footnote 497: Van Dorn to President Davis, June 9, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 831-832.]

[Footnote 498: Price was preferred to H.M. Rector; because Van Dorn
felt that Rector's influence with the people of Arkansas had greatly
declined. The truth was, Governor Rector had become incensed at the
disregard shown for Arkansas by Confederate commanders. In a recent
proclamation, he had announced that the state would henceforth look
out for herself.]

could discuss matters personally with the president and remove the
prejudice believed to be existing in his mind against Price; but the
War Department had quite other plans developed, a rumor of which soon
reached the ears of Van Dorn. It was then he telegraphed, begging
Davis to make no appointment for the present to the command of the
Trans-Mississippi District and informing him that Hindman had been
sent there temporarily.[499] The request came to Richmond too late. An
appointment had already been resolved upon and made. The man chosen
was John Bankhead Magruder, a major-general in the Army of Northern
Virginia. However, as he was not yet ready to take up his new duties,
Hindman was suffered to assume the command in the West; but Magruder's
rights held over. They were held in abeyance, so to speak, temporarily
waived.[500]

The controversy between Pike and Hindman would seem to have impelled
Secretary Randolph to wish to terminate early Magruder's delay; but
Magruder was loath to depart. His lack of enthusiasm ought to have
been enough to convince those sending him that he

[Footnote 499: The orders for Hindman to repair west, issuing from
Beauregard's headquarters, were explicit, not upon the point of the
temporary character of his appointment, but upon that of its having
been made "at the earnest solicitation of the people of Arkansas."
[_Official Records_, vol. x, part ii, 547].]

[Footnote 500: Price, nothing daunted, continued to seek the position
and submitted plans for operations in the West. His importunities
finally forced the inquiry from Davis as to whether Magruder's
appointment had ever been rescinded and whether, since he seemed in
no hurry to avail himself of it, he really wanted the place. Randolph
reported that Magruder had no objection to the service to which he had
been ordered but desired to remain near Richmond until the expected
battle in the neighborhood should have occurred. Randolph then
suggested that Price be tendered the position of second in command
[Randolph to Davis, June 23, 1862, _Official Records_, vol.
xiii, 837], an arrangement that met with Magruder's hearty approval
[Magruder to R.E. Lee, June 26, 1862, Ibid., 845].]

was hardly the man for the place. His acquaintance with
Trans-Mississippi conditions was very superficial, yet even he found
out that they were of a nature to admonish those concerned of their
urgency, especially in the matter of lack of arms.[501] By the
fourteenth of July his indecision was apparently overcome. At any
rate, on that day Randolph wrote Pike that Magruder, the real
commander of the Trans-Mississippi District, would soon arrive at
Little Rock and that the offences of which Pike had had reason to
complain would not be repeated.

Letters travelled slowly in those days and Randolph's comforting
intelligence did not reach Pike in time to avert the catastrophe of
his proclamation and consequent arrest. And it was just as well, all
things considered, for Magruder never reached Little Rock. He was a
man of intemperate habits and, while _en route_, was ordered back
to Richmond to answer "charges of drunkenness and disobedience of
orders."[502] His appointment was thereupon rescinded. The man
selected in his place, to the total ignoring of Price's prior claims,
was Theophilus H. Holmes, a native of North Carolina.[503] President
Davis was still possessed of the notion that frontier affairs could be
best conducted by men who had no local attachments there. Late events
had all too surely lent weight to his theory. Nevertheless, in holding
it, Davis was strictly inconsistent and illogical; for loyalty to
the particular home state constituted the strongest asset that the
Confederacy had. It was the lode-star that had drawn Lee and

[Footnote 501: Magruder to Randolph, July 5, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 851-852.]

[Footnote 502: Clark to Price, July 17, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. liii, supplement, 816-817.]

[Footnote 503: Wright, _General Officers of C.S.A_., 15-16.]

many another, who cared not a whit for political principles in and
for themselves, from their allegiance to the Union. It was the great
bulwark of the South.

Holmes was ordered west July 16;[504] but, as he had the necessary
preparations to make and various private matters to attend to, August
had almost begun before it proved possible for him to reach Little
Rock.[505] The interval had given Hindman a new lease of official life
and a further extension of opportunity for oppression, which he had
used to good advantage. The new department commander, while yet in
Richmond, had discussed the Pike-Hindman controversy with his superior
officers and had arrived at a conclusion distinctly favorable to Pike.
He frankly confessed as much weeks afterwards. Once in Little Rock,
however, he learned from the Hindman coterie of Pike's Indian
proclamation and immediately veered to Hindman's side.[506] Pike
talked with him, recounted his grievances in a fashion that none could
surpass, but made absolutely no impression upon him. So small a thing
and so short a time had it taken to develop a hostile prejudice in
Holmes's mind, previously unbiased, so deep-seated that it never,
in all the months that followed, knew the slightest diminution.
Conversely and most fortuitously, a friendliness grew up between
Holmes and the man whom he had supplanted that made the former, either
forget the orders given him in Richmond or put so new a construction
upon them that they were rendered nugatory. It was a situation,
exceedingly fortunate for

[Footnote 504: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 855.]

[Footnote 505: He had reached Vicksburg by the thirtieth of July and
from that point he issued his orders assuming the command [ibid.,
860].]

[Footnote 506: Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862 (Appendix);
_Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 121-122.]

the service as a whole, no doubt, but most unhappy for Indian
Territory.

It finally dawned upon Pike that it was useless to argue any longer
upon the matters in dispute between him and Hindman, for Holmes had
pre-judged the case. Moreover, Holmes was beginning to appreciate the
advantage of being in a position where he could, by ignoring Pike's
authority and asserting his own, be much the gainer in a material way.
How he could have reconciled such an attitude with the instructions
he had received from Randolph it is impossible to surmise. The
instructions, whether verbal or written, must have been in full accord
with the secretary's letter to Pike of the fourteenth of July, which,
although Pike was as yet ignorant of it, had explicitly said that no
supplies for Indian Territory should be diverted from their course and
that there should be no interference whatever with Pike's somewhat
peculiar command.[507] All along the authorities in Richmond, their
conflicting departmental regulations to the contrary notwithstanding,
had insisted that the main object of the Indian alliance had been
amply attained when the Indians were found posing as a Home Guard.
Indians were not wanted for any service outside the limits of their
own country. Service outside was to be deprecated, first, last, and
always. Indeed, it was in response to a suggestion from Pike, made in
the autumn of 1861, that the Indian Territory ought to be regarded as
a thing apart, to be held for the Confederacy most certainly but not
to be involved in the warfare outside, that Pike's department had been
created and no subsequent

[Footnote 507: Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862. The same assurance
had apparently been given to Pike in May [_Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 863].]

arrangements for the Trans-Mississippi Department or District,
whichever it may have been at the period, were intended to militate
against that fundamental fact.[508]

Despairing of accomplishing anything by lingering longer in Little
Rock, Pike applied to Holmes for a leave of absence and was granted
it for such time as might have to elapse before action upon his
resignation could be secured.[509] The circumstance of Hindman's
having relieved Pike from duty was thus ignored or passed over in
silence. General Pike had come to Little Rock to see his family[510]
but he now decided upon a visit to Texas. Exactly what he expected to
do there nobody knows; but he undoubtedly had at heart the interests
of his department. He went to Warren first and later to Grayson
County. At the latter place, he made Sherman his private headquarters
and it was from there that he subsequently found it convenient to pass
over again into Indian Territory.

Pike was in Arkansas as late as the nineteenth of August and probably
still there when Randolph's letter of the fourteenth of July, much
delayed, arrived.[511] If angry before, he was now incensed; for he
knew for a certainty at last that Hindman had been a sort of usurper
in the Trans-Mississippi District and, with power emanating from no
one higher than Beauregard, had never legally possessed a flicker of
authority for doing the many insulting things that he had arrogantly
done to him.[512] Next, from some source, came the

[Footnote 508: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 861, 864, 868.]

[Footnote 509: Holmes to the Secretary of War, November 15, 1862
[ibid., 918].]

[Footnote 510: For an account of Pike's movements, see _Confederate
Military History_, vol. x, 126.]

[Footnote 511: Abel, _American Indian as Slaveholder and
Secessionist_, 356.]

[Footnote 512: Pike to Holmes, December 30, 1862, "Appendix."]

news that President Davis had refused positively to accept Pike's
resignation.[513] What better proof could anyone want that Pike was
sustained at headquarters? What that view of the matter may have meant
in emboldening him to his later excessively independent actions must
be left to the reader's conjecture. It never occurred to Pike that if
his resignation had been refused, it had probably been refused upon
the supposition that, with Hindman out of the way, all would be well.
One good reason for thinking that that was the Richmond attitude
towards the affair is the fact that no record of anything like
immediate and formal action upon the resignation is forthcoming.
Pike heard that it had been refused and positively, which was very
gratifying; but it is far more likely that it had been put to one side
and purposely; in order that, since Pike was unquestionably the best
man for Indian Territory, all difficulties might be left to adjust
themselves, the less said about Hindman's autocracy the better it
would be for all concerned.

But it was soon apparent that Hindman was not to be put out of the
way. It was to be still possible for him to work mischief in Indian
Territory. With some slight modifications, the Trans-Mississippi
District had been converted into the Trans-Mississippi Department and,
on the twentieth of August, orders[514] issued from

[Footnote 513: There is something very peculiar about the acceptance
or non-acceptance of Pike's resignation. Randolph wrote to Holmes,
October 27, 1862, these words: "... General Pike's resignation having
been accepted, you will be left without a commanding officer in the
Indian Territory..." [_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 906]. A
letter endorsement, made by Randolph, on or later than September 19th,
was to this effect: "General Pike's resignation has not yet been
accepted" [Ibid., liii, supplement, 821], and another, made by
him, November 5th, to this: "Accept General Pike's resignation, and
notify him of it" [Ibid., 822].]

[Footnote 514: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 877.]

Little Rock, arranging for an organization into three districts, the
Texas, the Louisiana,[515] and the Arkansas. The last-named district
was entrusted to General Hindman and made to embrace Arkansas,
Missouri, and the Indian Territory. Hindman took charge at Fort Smith,
August twenty-fourth and straightway planned such disposition of his
troops as would make for advancing the Confederate line northward of
the Boston Mountains, Fort Smith, and the Arkansas River. The Indian
forces that were concentrated around Forts Smith and Gibson were
shifted to Carey's Ferry that they might cover the military road
southward from Fort Scott. To hold the Cherokee country and to help
maintain order there, a battalion of white cavalry was posted at
Tahlequah and, in each of the nine townships, or districts, of the
country, the formation of a company of home guard, authorized.[516]

The maintaining of order in the Cherokee Nation had come to be
imperatively necessary. John Ross, the Principal Chief, was now
a prisoner within the Federal lines.[517] His capture had been
accomplished by strategy only a short time before and not without
strong suspicion that he had been in collusion with his captors. Early
in August, General Blunt, determined that the country north of the
Arkansas should not be abandoned, notwithstanding the retrograde
movement of Colonel Salomon, had ordered Salomon, now a brigadier in
command of the Indian Expedition, to send

[Footnote 515: Not all of Louisiana was in Holmes's department and
only that part of it west of the Mississippi constituted the District
of Louisiana. Governor Moore had vigorously protested against a
previous division, one that "tacked" "all north of Red River" "onto
Arkansas" [_Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 819].]

[Footnote 516:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 46-47.]

[Footnote 517: Nominally, Ross was yet a prisoner, although, as a
matter of fact, he had started upon a mission to Washington, his
desire being to confer with President Lincoln in person regarding the
condition of the Cherokees [Blunt to Lincoln, August 13, 1862, ibid.,
565-566].]

back certain white troops in support of the Indian.[518] Dr.
Gillpatrick, who was the bearer of the orders, imparted verbal
instructions that the expeditionary force so sent should proceed to
Tahlequah and complete what Colonel Phillips had confessed he had not
had sufficient time for, the making of diplomatic overtures to the
Cherokee authorities.[519]

Blunt's expeditionary force had proceeded to Tahlequah and to Park
Hill and there, under the direction of Colonel William F. Cloud, had
seized John Ross and his family, their valuables, also official papers
and the treasury of the Cherokee Nation.[520] The departure of the
Principal Chief had had a demoralizing effect upon the Cherokees;
for, when his restraining influence was removed, likewise the Federal
support, political factions, the Pins, or full-bloods, and the
Secessionists, mostly half-breeds, had been able to indulge their
thirst for vengeance uninterruptedly.[521] Chaos had well-nigh
resulted.

The departure of the expeditionary force had meant more than mere
demoralization among the Indians. It had meant the abandonment of
their country to the Confederates and the Confederates, once realizing
that, delaying nothing, took possession. The secessionist Cherokees
then called a convention, formally deposed John Ross, and elected
Stand Watie as Principal Chief in his stead.[522] Back of all such
revolutionary work, was General Hindman and it was not long before
Hindman himself was in Tahlequah.[523] Once there, he proceeded to set
his stamp upon things with customary

[Footnote 518: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 531-532.]

[Footnote 519:--Ibid., 182.]

[Footnote 520:--Ibid., 552.]

[Footnote 521:--Ibid., 623, 648.]

[Footnote 522: _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 129.]

[Footnote 523: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 42.]

vigor and order was shortly restored both north and south of the
Arkansas. Guerrilla warfare was summarily suppressed, marauding
stopped, and the perpetrators of atrocities so deservedly punished
that all who would have imitated them lost their taste for such
fiendish sport. As far north as the Moravian Mission, the Confederates
were undeniably in possession; but, at that juncture, Holmes called
Hindman to other scenes. A sort of apathy then settled like a cloud
upon the Cherokee Nation[524]. Almost lifeless, it awaited the next
invader.

One part of the programme, arranged for at the time of the
re-districting of the Trans-Mississippi Department, had called for a
scheme to reënter southwest Missouri. Hindman was to lead but Rains,
Shelby, Cooper, and others were to constitute a sort of outpost and
were to make a dash, first of all, to recover the lead mines at
Granby. The Indians of both armies were drawn thitherward, the one
group to help make the advance, the other to resist it. At Newtonia on
September 30 the first collision of any moment came and it came and it
ended with victory for the Confederates[525]. Cooper's Choctaws and
Chickasaws fought valiantly but so also did Phillips's Cherokees. They
lost heavily in horses[526], their own poorly shod ponies; but they
themselves stood fire well. To rally them after defeat proved,
however, a difficult matter. Their

[Footnote 524: Report of M.W. Buster to Cooper, September 19, 1862,
_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 273-277.]

[Footnote 525: For detailed accounts of the Battle of Newtonia, see
Ibid., 296-307; Edwards, _Shelby and his Men_, 83-89;
Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 355-363; Anderson,
_Life of General Stand Watie_, 20; Crawford, _Kansas in the
Sixties_, 54; _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 132.]

[Footnote 526: Evan Jones to Dole, January 8, 1864, Indian Office
General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, J 401.]

disciplining had yet left much to be desired.[527] Scalping[528] of
the dead took place as on the battle-field of Pea Ridge; but, in other
respects, the Indians of both armies acquitted themselves well and far
better than might have been expected.

The participation of the Indians in the Battle of Newtonia was
significant. Federals and Confederates had alike resorted to it for
purposes other than the red man's own. The Indian Expedition had now
for a surety definitely abandoned the intention for which it was
originally organized and outfitted. As a matter of fact, it had long
since ceased to exist. The military

[Footnote 527: "Since leaving the Fugitive Indians on Dry Wood Creek,
nothing has occurred of material interest other than you will receive
through official Dispatches from the Officers of our Army. The Indians
under Col. Phillips fought well at the Battle Newtonia, they have at
all times stood fire. The great difficulty of their officers is in
keeping them together in a retreat, and should such be necessary on
the field in presence of an enemy in their present state of discipline
it would be almost impossible to again return them to the attack in
good order--Another Battle was fought at this place in which the enemy
were defeated with considerable loss, four of their guns being taken
by a charge of the 2d Kansas.

"In this Contest the Indians behaved well, the officers and soldiers
of our own regiments now freely acknowledge them to be valuable Allies
and in no case have they as yet faltered, untill ordered to retire,
the prejudice once existing against them is fast disappearing from our
Army and it is now generaly conceded that they will do good service
in our border warfare. This we have never doubted and confident as we
have been of their fitness for border warfare we have been content to
await, untill they had proven to the country not only their loyalty
but their ability to fight. Since their organization they have been
engaged in several battles and in every case successfully, one of us
will start in a day or two for Tahlequah and may find something of
interest on the march. We are now in the Cherokee Nation. An effort
is now being made by Gen'l Blunt to punish plundering in the country.
Union People have suffered from this as much as rebels. We have before
called the attention of our Army Officers to this fact; with our
Fifteen Hundred Cherokee Warriors in the service of our government--we
feel that every possible protection should be extended to them as a
people" [Carruth to Coffin, October 25, 1862, enclosed in Coffin to
Dole, November 16, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_ 1859-1862].]

[Footnote 528: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 894.]

organization, of which the Indian regiments in the Federal service now
formed a part, was Blunt's division of the Army of the Frontier and
it had other objects in view, other tasks to perform, than the simple
recovery of Indian Territory.

It is true General Blunt had set his heart upon that particular
accomplishment but he was scarcely a free agent in the matter. Men
above him in rank had quite other aims and his, perforce, had to be
subordinated to theirs. In August, Blunt had planned a kind of second
Indian Expedition to go south to Fort Gibson and to restore the
refugees to their homes.[529] It had started upon its way when the
powers higher up interposed.

General Schofield, anticipating the renewed endeavor of the
Confederates to push their line forward, had called upon Blunt for
assistance and Blunt had responded with such alacrity as was possible,
considering that many of the troops he summoned for Schofield's use
were those that had been doing hard service within and on the border
of the Indian country for full two months. During all that time their
horses had been deprived entirely of grain feed and had been compelled
to subsist upon prairie grass. They were in a bad way.[530] Once
outside the Indian Territory, the Indian regiments, begrudging the
service demanded of them, were kept more fully occupied than were the
white; for there was

[Footnote 529: "Orders have been given by General Blunt for the Indian
Expedition to go South soon; he says the families of the Indians may
go"--CARRUTH to Coffin, August 29, 1862, enclosed in Coffin to
Mix, August 30, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Southern
Superintendence_, 1859-1862.

"Enclosed you will find an order from General James G. Blunt in
regard to the removal of the Indian families to their homes. I start
to-morrow for Fort Scott, Kansas, to overtake the second Indian
expedition, commanded by General Blunt in person."--Carruth to Coffin,
September 19, 1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p.
166.]

[Footnote 530: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 337.]

always scouting[531] for them to do and frequently skirmishing. On
Cowskin River, Phillips's Third Indian and, near Shirley's Ford on
Spring River, Ritchie's Second had each engaged the Confederates with
success, although not entirely with credit. Ritchie had allowed his
men to run amuck even to the extent of attacking their comrades in
Colonel Weer's brigade, which was the second in Blunt's reorganized
army. On account of his lack of control over his troops, Ritchie was
reported upon for dismissal from the service.[532]

The Battle of Newtonia was inconclusive. Subsequent to it, the
Federals were greatly reënforced and, in the first days of October,
Schofield and Blunt, who had both arrived recently upon the scene,
coming to the aid of Salomon, who had been the vanquished one at
Newtonia, were able, in combination with Totten, to deprive Cooper of
all the substantial fruits of victory. He was obliged to fall back
into Arkansas, whither a part of Blunt's division pursued him and
encamped themselves on the old battle-field of Pea Ridge.[533]

Cooper was far from being defeated, however, and, under orders from
Rains, soon made plans for attempting an invasion of Kansas; but
Blunt, ably seconded by Crawford of the Second Kansas, was too quick
for him. He followed him to Maysville and then a little beyond the
Cherokee border to old Fort Wayne in the present Delaware District of
the Nation. There, on the open prairie, a battle was fought,[534] on
October 22, so

[Footnote 531: Phillips to Blunt, September 5, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 614-615.]

[Footnote 532: Weer to Moonlight, September 12, 1862, ibid., 627; Weer
to Blunt, September 24, 1862, ibid., 665-666; Britton, _Civil War on
the Border_, vol. i, 352.]

[Footnote 533: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 366;
Crawford, _Kansas in the Sixties_, 54.]

[Footnote 534: Anderson, _Life of General Stand Watie_, 20;
Crawford, _Kansas in the_ (cont.)]

disastrous to the Confederates, who, by the by, were greatly
outnumbered, that they fled, a demoralized host, by way of Fort Gibson
across the Arkansas River to Cantonment Davis,[535] Stand Watie and
his doughty Cherokees covering their retreat. The Federals had then
once again an undisputed possession of Indian Territory north of the
Arkansas.[536]

Such was the condition of affairs when Pike emerged from his
self-imposed retreat in Texas. The case for the Confederate cause
among the Indians was becoming desperate. So many things that called
for apprehension were occurring. Cooper and Rains were both in
disgrace, the failure of the recent campaign having been attributed
largely to their physical unfitness for duty. Both were now facing an
investigation of charges for drunkenness. Moreover, the brutal attack
upon and consequent murder of Agent Leeper had just shocked the
community. Hearing of that murder and considering that he was still
the most responsible party in Indian Territory, General Pike made
preparations to proceed forthwith to the Leased District. His plans
were frustrated by his own arrest at the command of General Holmes.

His unfriendliness to Pike was in part due to Holmes's own
necessities. It was to his interest to assert authority over the man
who could procure supplies for Indian Territory and when occasion
offered, if that man should dare to prove obdurate, to ignore his
position altogether. Nevertheless, Holmes had not seen fit in early
October to deny Pike his title of

[Footnote 534: (cont.) _Sixties_, 56-62; Edwards, _Shelby and
his Men, 90; Official Records, vol. xiii, 43, 324. 325, 325-328,
329-331, 331-332, 332-336, 336-337, 759_; Britton, _Civil War on
the Border_, vol. i, _364-375_.]

[Footnote 535: _Official Records, vol. xiii, 765_.]

[Footnote 536: Blunt was ordered "to clean out the Indian country"
[Ibid., 762].]

commander and had personally addressed him by it.[537] Yet all the
time he was encroaching upon that commander's prerogatives, was
withholding his supplies, just as Hindman had done, and was exploiting
Indian Territory, in various ways, for his own purposes. Rumors came
that Pike was holding back munition trains in Texas and then that
he was conspiring with Texan Unionists against the Confederacy. To
further his own designs, Holmes chose to credit the rumors and
made them subserve the one and the same end; for he needed Pike's
ammunition and he wanted Pike himself out of the way. He affected to
believe that Pike was a traitor and, when he reappeared as brigade
commander, to consider that he had unlawfully reassumed his old
functions. Accordingly, he issued an order to Roane,[538] to whom
he had entrusted the Indians, for Pike's arrest; but he had already
called Pike to account for holding back the munition trains and had
ordered him, if the charge were really true, to report in person at
Little Rock.[539]

The order for General Pike's arrest bore date of November 3. Roane,
the man to whom the ungracious task was assigned, was well suited to
it. He had been adjudged by Holmes himself as absolutely worthless
as a commander and, being so, had been sent to take care of the
Indians,[540] a severe commentary upon Holmes's own fitness for
the supreme control of anything that had to do with them or their
concerns. Others had an equally poor opinion of Roane's generalship
and character. John S. Phelps, indeed, was writing at this very time,
the autumn of 1862, to Secretary

[Footnote 537: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 924.]

[Footnote 538:--Ibid., 923, 980, 981.]

[Footnote 539:--Ibid., 904.]

[Footnote 540:--Ibid., 899.]

Stanton in testimony of Roane's unsavory reputation.[541]

The arrest of Pike took place November 14 at Tishomingo in the
Chickasaw country and a detachment of Shelby's brigade was detailed
to convey him to Little Rock.[542] Then, as once before, his reported
resignation saved him from long confinement and from extreme
ignominy. On the fifth of November, President Davis instructed the
adjutant-general to accept Pike's resignation forthwith and five days
thereafter,[543] before the arrest had actually taken place, Holmes
advised Hindman that he had better let Pike go free so soon as he
should leave the Indian country; inasmuch as his resignation was now
an assured thing.[544] Holmes evidently feared to let the release take
place within the limits of Pike's old command; for some of the Indians
were still devotedly attached to him and were still pinning their
faith upon his plighted word. John Jumper and his Seminole braves were
among those most loyal to Pike; and Holmes was afraid that wholesale
desertions from their ranks would follow inevitably Pike's
degradation. Many desertions had already occurred, ostensibly because
of lack of food and raiment. Commissioner Scott had complained to
Holmes of the Indian privations[545] and Holmes had been forced to
concede, although only at the eleventh hour, the Indian claim to some
consideration. He had arbitrarily shared tribal quota of supplies,
bought with tribal money, with white troops and had lamely excused
himself by saying that he had done it to prevent

[Footnote 541: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 752.]

[Footnote 542:--Ibid., 921.]

[Footnote 543:--Ibid., vol. liii, supplement, 821.]

[Footnote 544:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 913.]

[Footnote 545:--Ibid., 920.]

grumbling[546] and the charge of favoritism. One other offence of
which Holmes was guilty he did not attempt to palliate, the taking of
the Indians out of their own country without their consent. To the
very last Pike had expostulated[547] against such violation of treaty
promises; but Holmes and Hindman were deaf alike to entreaty and to
reprimand.

General Pike, poet and student, was now finally deprived of his
command and the Indians left to their own devices or at the mercy of
men, who could not be trusted or were not greatly needed elsewhere. No
one attempted any longer to conceal the truth that alliance with the
Indians was a supremely selfish consideration, and nothing more,
on the part of those who coveted Indian Territory because of its
geographical position, its strategic and economic importance. For a
little while longer, Pike contended with his enemies by means of the
best weapon he had, his facile pen. His acrimonious correspondence
with the chief of those enemies, Hindman and Holmes, reached its
highest point of criticism in a letter of December 30 to the latter.
That letter summed up his grievances and was practically his last
charge. Having made it, he retired from the scene, not to reappear
until near the close of the war, when Kirby Smith found it
advantageous to reëmploy him for service among the red men.

[Footnote 546: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 928.]

[Footnote 547:--Ibid., 905, 963.]




IX. THE REMOVAL OF THE REFUGEES TO THE SAC AND FOX AGENCY


General Blunt's decision to restore the Indian refugees in Kansas to
their own country precipitated a word war of disagreeable significance
between the civil and military authorities. The numbers of the
refugees had been very greatly augmented in the course of the summer,
notwithstanding the fact that so large a proportion of the men had
joined the Indian Expedition. It is true they had not all stayed with
it. The retrograde movement of Colonel Salomon and his failure later
on to obey Blunt's order to the letter[548] that he should return
to the support of the Indians had disheartened them and many of the
enlisted braves had deserted the ranks, as chance offered, and had
strayed back to their families in the refugee camps of southern
Kansas.[549]

[Footnote 548: Blunt to Caleb Smith, November 21, 1862 [Indian Office
General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, I 860].]

[Footnote 549: One of the first notices of their desertion was the
following:

"We are getting along well, very well. The Indians seem happy and
contented, and seemingly get enough to eat and wear. At least I hear
no complaint. For the last two or three days the Indian soldiers have
been stragling back, until now there are some three or four hundred
in, and they are still coming. I held a council with them to-day to
try and find out why they are here. But they don't seem to have any
idea themselves. All I could learn was that Old George started and the
rest followed. The Col. it seems told them to go some where else. I
shall send an express to Col. Furness in the morning to find out if
possible what it means. It seems to me it will not do to give the
provisions purchased for the women and children to the soldiers....

"The soldiers look clean and hearty, and complain of being
treated like dogs, starved etc, which I must say their looks
belie...."--GEO.A. CUTLER to Wm. G. Coffin, August 13, 1862,
Ibid.]

Then the numbers had been augmented in other ways. The Quapaws, who
had been early driven from their homes and once restored,[550] had
left them again when they found that their country had been denuded of
all its portable resources. It was exposed to inroads of many sorts.
Even the Federal army preyed upon it and, as all the able-bodied male
Quapaws were gradually drawn into that army, there was no way of
defending it. Its inhabitants, therefore, returned as exiles to the
country around about Leroy.[551]

It was much the same with near neighbors of the Quapaws, with the
Senecas and the Seneca-Shawnees. These Indians had been induced to
accept one payment of their annuities from the Confederate agent[552]
but had later repented their digression from the old allegiance to
the United States and had solicited its protection in order that they
might remain true. Some of them stayed with Agent Elder near Fort
Scott,[553] others moved northward and lived upon the charity of the
Shawnees near Lawrence.[554] But those Shawnees were doomed themselves
to be depredated upon, especially that group of them known as Black
Bob's Band, a band that had been assigned a settlement in Johnson

[Footnote 550: Coffin to Elder, August 9, 1862; Coffin to Mix, August
16, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Neosho_, C 1745 of 1862.]

[Footnote 551: Some of the Quapaws that went to Leroy were not _bona
fide_ refugees. Elder reported them as lured thither by the idea
of getting fed [Elder to Dole, July 9, 1862, Ibid., E 114 of
1862].]

[Footnote 552: Coffin to Dole, May 31, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Neosho_.]

[Footnote 553: Coffin to Mix, July 30, 1862, Ibid., C 1732 of
1862.]

[Footnote 554: J.J. Lawler to Mix, August 2, 1862, Ibid.,
_Shawnee_, 1855-1862; Abbott to Branch, July 26, 1862,
Ibid. Some of the Senecas, about one hundred twenty-three, went
as far as Wyandot City. For them and their relief, the Senecas in
New York interceded. See Chief John Melton to Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, September 2, 1862, Ibid., _Neosho_, H 541; Mix to
Coffin, September 11, 1862, Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 69,
99.]

County, adjoining the Missouri border.[555] In August[556] and again
in the first week of September[557] guerrillas under Quantrill,[558]
crossed over the line and raided the Black Bob lands, robbing the
Indians of practically everything they possessed, their clothing,
their household goods, their saddles, their ponies, their provisions,
and driving the original owners quite away. They fired upon them as
they fled and committed atrocities upon the helpless ones who lagged
behind. They then raided Olathe.[559] Somewhat earlier, guerrillas
had similarly devastated the Kansas Agency, although not to the same
extent.[560] The Black Bob Shawnees found a refuge in the western part
of the tribal reserve.[561]

[Footnote 555: This group of Shawnee refugees must be distinguished
from the so-called _Absentee Shawnees_, who also became refugees.
The Shawnees had been very much molested and disturbed during the
period of border strife following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill. Black Bob's Band was then exceedingly desirous of going south to
dwell with the Seneca-Shawnees [Rector to Greenwood, January 6, 1860,
enclosing Dorn to Greenwood, December 30, 1859, Indian Office General
Files, _Neosho_, R 463 of 1860]. The Absentee Shawnees had
taken refuge in Indian Territory prior to the war, but were expelled
immediately after it began. They obtained supplies for a time from the
Wichita Agent and lived as refugees on Walnut Creek [Paschal Fish and
other Shawnee delegates to Cooley, December 5, 1865, Indian Office
Land Files, _Shawnee_, 1860-1865]. Later on, they seem, at least
some of them, to have gone up to the Shawnee Reserve [Dole to Coffin,
July 27, 1863, Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 71, 195; Dole
to Usher, July 27, 1863, Ibid., _Report Book_, no. 13,
208-209].]

[Footnote 556: H.B. Branch to Dole, June 19, 1863, enclosing
various letters from Agent Abbott, Indian Office General Files,
_Shawnee_, 1863-1875, B 343.]

[Footnote 557: Branch to Dole, October 3, 1862, transmitting
letter from Abbott to Branch, September 25, 1862, Ibid.,
_Shawnee_, 1855-1862, B 1583.]

[Footnote 558: Connelley, _Quantrill and the Border Wars_, 269,
says that, from' August 15, 1863, the Confederate government was
directly responsible for the work of Quantrill. From that day, the
guerrillas were regular Confederate soldiers. They were not generally
regarded as such, however; for, in November, 1863, Price was trying
to prevail upon Quantrill and his men to come into the regular army
[_Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 907-908].]

[Footnote 559: Governor Robinson issued a proclamation, on the
occasion of this emergency for volunteers against guerrillas.]

[Footnote 560: Farnsworth to Dole, July 23, 1862 [Indian Office
General Files, _Kansas_, 1855-1862, F 386].]

[Footnote 561: Letter of Agent Abbott, June 5, 1863, Ibid.,
_Shawnee_, 1863-1875, B 343.]

Some Wyandot Indians, who before the war had sought and found homes
among the Senecas,[562] were robbed of everything they possessed by
secessionist Indians,[563] who would not, however, permit them to go
in search of relief northward.[564] When all efforts to induce them to
throw in their lot with the Confederacy proved unavailing, the strict
watch over them was somewhat relaxed and they eventually managed to
make their escape. They, too, fled into Kansas. And so did about one
hundred Delawares, who had been making their homes in the Cherokee
country. In the spring of 1862, they had begun to return destitute to
the old reservation[565] but seem not to have been counted refugees
until much later in the year.[566] The Delaware Reservation on the
northern bank of the Kansas River and very near to Missouri was
peculiarly exposed

[Footnote 562: Indian Office General Files, _Neosho_, I 81 of
1860.]

[Footnote 563: Lawrence and others, Wyandots, to Dole, December 23,
1862, ibid., Land Files, _Shawnee_, 1860-1865, L 12 of 1862. This
letter was answered January 20, 1863, and, on the same day, Coffin was
instructed to relieve their distress.]

[Footnote 564: "Being personally acquainted with the condition of the
Wyandots ... would here state, that a portion of them are living among
the Senecas bordering on the Cherokee Country, and they are in a
suffering condition. The rebel portion of the Senecas and Cherokees
have robbed them of all of their ponies, and in fact all the property
they had, and will not allow them to leave to come to Wyandott, which
is about 2 hundred miles in distance, and their friends in Wyandott
are unable to relieve them (on account of the rebel forces) without
protection of our armies. The Wyandotts that are here are anxious to
go and relieve their friends, and would respectfully request that they
be allowed to form into a military company and be mustered into Gov'nt
service and go with the expedition south to relieve their friends and
assist in reclaiming the rebel Indians. A few of the Wyandotts are in
service ... They are all very anxious to be transferred into a company
by themselves for the purpose above stated...."--CHARLES MOORE to
Dole, February 9, 1862, Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, D 576.]

[Footnote 565: Johnson to Dole, April 2, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Delaware_, 1862-1866.]

[Footnote 566: Johnson to Dole, November 5, 1862, ibid., _Southern
Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

to ravages, horses and cattle being frequently stolen.[567] For that
reason and because so much urged thereto by Agent Johnson,[568] who
was himself anxious for service, the Delawares were unusually eager to
enlist.

The Osages had been induced by Ritchie and others to join the Indian
Expedition or to serve as independent scouts.[569] Their families,
consequently, found it safe and convenient to become refugees.[570]
In July, they formed much the larger part of some five hundred from
Elder's agency, who sought succor at Leroy. That did not deter the
Osages, however, from offering a temporary abiding-place, within their
huge reserve, to the homeless Creeks under Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la.[571]

[Footnote 567: Johnson to Dole, May 28, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Delaware_, I 667 of 1862.]

[Footnote 568: Johnson wished to retain his agency and also hold a
commission as colonel of volunteers, Department of the Interior,
_Register of Letters Received_, no. 4, pp. 214, 357. James H.
Lane endorsed his request and it was granted.]

[Footnote 569: The Osages rendered occasionally some good service.
They and the Comanches plundered the Chickasaws very considerably
[Holmes Colbert to N.G. Taylor, April 14, 1868, Indian Office
Consolidated Files, _Chickasaw_, C 716 of 1868. See also Office
letter to Osage treaty commissioners, May 4, 1868]. In October, the
Osage force advanced as far as Iola and then retreated [Henning to
Blunt, October 11, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 726].
Soon after that they were mustered out and in a very disgruntled
condition. They claimed that the government had used them very badly
and had never paid them anything [Henning to Chipman, November 13,
1862, Ibid., 790]. They knew little of the discipline of war
and left the army whenever they had a mind to.]

[Footnote 570: The Osages joined the Indian Expedition only upon
condition that their families would be supported during their absence
[Coffin to Dole, June 4, 1862, Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Neosho_, C 1662 of 1862]. The families were soon destitute.
Coffin ordered Elder to minister to them at Leroy; but he seems to
have distrusted the southern superintendent and to have preferred to
keep aloof from him. Coffin then appointed a man named John Harris as
special Osage agent [Coffin to Dole, July 7, 1862, Ibid., C
1710]. Elder tried to circumvent Coffin's plans for the distribution
of cattle [Coffin to Elder, July 16, 1862, ibid., C 1717] and Coffin
lodged a general charge of neglect of duty against him [Coffin to
Dole, July 19, 1862, Ibid.].]

[Footnote 571: The invitation was extended by White Hair and Charles
Mograin [Coffin to Dole, November 16, 1862, Ibid., C 1904].
Coffin was anxious for (cont.)]

During the summer the wretched condition of the Indian refugees
had, thanks to fresh air, sunlight, and fair weather, been much
ameliorated. Disease had obtained so vast a start that the medical
service, had it been first-class, which it certainly was not, would
otherwise have proved totally inadequate. The physicians in attendance
claimed to have from five to eight thousand patients,[572] yet one
of them, Dr. S.D. Coffin, found it possible to be often and for
relatively long periods absent from his post. Of this the senior
physician, Dr. William Kile, made complaint [573] and that
circumstance marked the beginning of a serious estrangement between
him and Superintendent Coffin.[574]

In August, General Blunt announced his intention of returning the
Indian families to their homes.[575] He was convinced that some of the
employees of the Indian Office and of the Interior Department were
personally profiting by the distribution of supplies to the refugees
and that they were conniving with citizens of Kansas in perpetrating
a gigantic fraud against the government. The circumstances of the
refugees had been well aired

[Footnote 571: (cont.) Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la who had been rather
obstreperous, to accept [Coffin to Dole, November 14, 1862, Indian
Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862].]

[Footnote 572: Dr. S.D. Coffin, to Dole, July 5, 1862, ibid., General
Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862; J.C. Carter to Dole July
22, 1862, ibid.]

[Footnote 573: Kile to Dole, ibid.]

[Footnote 574: The estrangement resulted in the retirement of Kile
from the service. In September, Dr. Kile asked for a leave of absence.
Shortly afterwards, Secretary Smith instructed Charles E. Mix, the
acting commissioner, that the services of Kile were no longer
needed, since the superintendent could attend to the purchasing and
distributing of supplies [Smith to Mix, September 22, 1862, Indian
Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862]. Mix
promptly informed Kile that his resignation was accepted [Mix to Kile,
September 22, 1862, ibid., Letter Book, no. 69, p. 133].]

[Footnote 575: "Orders have been given by General Blunt for the Indian
Expedition to go South soon; he says the families of the Indians may
go. They wish to do so but no provision is made for their
subsistence or conveyance. We wish immediate instructions in this
particular."--Carruth to Coffin, August 29, 1862, ibid., General
Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862.]

in Congress, first in connection with a Senate resolution for their
relief.[576] On July fifth, Congress had passed an act suspending
annuity appropriations to the tribes in hostility to the United States
government and authorizing the president to expend, at discretion,
those same annuities in behalf of the refugees.[577] At once, the
number[578] of refugees increased and white men rushed forward to
obtain contracts for furnishing supplies.

There was a failure of the corn crop in southern Kansas that year and
Dr. Kile, appreciating certain facts, that the Indian pony is dear,
as is the Arabian horse, to his master, that the Indian ponies were
pretty numerous in spite of the decimation of the past winter, and
that they would have to be fed upon corn, advised a return to Indian
Territory before the cold weather should set in.[579] He communicated
with Blunt[580] and found Blunt of the same opinion, so also
Cutler[581] and Coleman.[582] Contrariwise was Superintendent
Coffin,[583] whose view of the case was strengthened by E.H. Carruth,
H.W. Martin,[584] and A.C. Ellithorpe.[585]

[Footnote 576: _U.S. Congressional Globe_, 37th congress, second
session, part i, 815, 849, 875, 891, 940.]

[Footnote 577: _U.S. Statutes at Large_, vol. xii, 528.]

[Footnote 578: In October, Coffin put the number of refugees,
inclusive of the Cherokees on Drywood Creek, at almost seven thousand
five hundred [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_ 1862,
p. 137] and asked for sixty-nine thousand dollars for their support
during the third quarter of 1862 [Coffin to Mix, September 16,
1862, Indian Office General Files, _Southern Superintendency_,
1859-1862].]

[Footnote 579: Kile to Dole, July 25, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 580: Kile to Blunt, September 2, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 581: Cutler to Coffin, September 30, 1862, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, 139.]

[Footnote 582: Coleman to Coffin, September 30, 1862, Ibid.,
141.]

[Footnote 583: Coffin to Mix, August 30, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862: same to same,
September 13, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 584: Carruth and Martin to Coffin, September 28, 1862,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, 167.]

[Footnote 585: "In replying to the several interrogatorys contained in
your letter of the 11th inst, I shall base my answer entirely upon my
own (cont.)]

In the contest that ensued between the military and civil authorities
or between Blunt and Coffin,[586] Coffin triumphed, although Blunt
made no concealment of his

[Footnote 585: (cont.) observations and experience, obtained during a
six months campaign with the Indians, and in the Creek and Cherokee
countries. Taking a deep interest in the welfare of these loyal
refugee Indians, who have sacrificed _all_, rather than fight
against our Flag, I shall be cautious and advise no policy but that
which will insure their safe restoration to their homes.

"The important question in your letter and that which embodies the
whole subject matter is the following--'Would it be safe in the
present condition of the country to restore the southern refugee
Indians now in southern Kansas, the women and children, the old,
feeble and infirm to their homes in the Indian country?'

"I answer--It would not be safe to take the women and children to the
Creek or Cherokee countries this fall for the following reasons, 1st
The corn and vegetable crop north of the Arkansas River will not
afford them subsistence for a single month. The excessive drouth has
almost completely destroyed it, and what little would have matured is
laid waste by the frequent foraging parties of our own Army, or those
of the Rebels.

"The amount of Military force necessary to restore and safely protect
this people in their homes would far exceed what is at present at the
disposal of the Department of Kansas; and should they be removed to
the Indian country, and our forces again be compelled to fall back for
the protection of Missouri or Kansas, it would again involve their
precipitate flight, or insure their total destruction.

"Again--the effectiveness of our troops would be materially embarased
by the presence of such a vast number of timid and helpless
creatures--I base my judgment upon the following facts--viz.:

"The expedition which I have been with during the summer, exploring
this country, consisted of three Brigades but containing actually only
about 6 thousand men. We routed, captured, and pursued the fragments
of several Rebel commands, driving them south of the Arkansas River,
opposite to, and in the vicinity of Fort Gibson. This done, we found
the whole of Western Arkansas alive, and the numerous rebel squads
were at once reinforced from the guerila parties of Missouri,
Arkansas, Texas, and the various rebel Indian tribes, until they now
number a force of from 30 to 40 thousand strong, under the command of
Pike, Drew, McIntosh, Rains, Stand Watie and others, ready to contest
the passage of the Arkansas River at any point and in fact capable of
crossing to the north side of the river and possessing the country we
have twice passed over. Why did our command fall back? Simply because
we had not force sufficient to cross the Arkansas River and maintain
our position and because we were to remote from our dipo of supplies.

"The Creek country west of the Verdigris River is almost destitute
(cont.)]

[Footnote 586: A dispute between Blunt and Coffin had been going on
for some time. In August, Coffin wrote to Mix that "The contrariness
and (cont.)]

suspicions of graft and peculation[587] and the moment, following the
defeat of the Confederates at old Fort Wayne, seemed rather auspicious
for the return of the refugees. In reality, it was not, however; for
the Federals were far from possessing Indian Territory and they had no
force that they could devote to it exclusively.

[Footnote 585: (cont.) of forage for man or beast, owing to the
drouth--Hence to remove these families would involve to the gov't
great additional expense, not only to subsist but to protect
them--Where they are they need no military protection and food is
abundant.

"You will bear in mind that a large portion of the Indian country is
south of the Arkansas River and is at present the stronghold of the
Rebels. Many portions of it mountainous and rugged, affording secure
retreats that will require a powerful army to dislodge."--A.C.
ELLITHORPE to Coffin, September 12, 1862, Indian Office General Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 586: (cont.) interference manifested by the military
authorities in the Indian Country towards those who are having
charge of the Indians within the Cherokee Nation is so annoying and
embarrassing that it has become unpleasant, difficult, and almost
impossible for them to attend to the duties of their official
capacities with success. If the Military would only make it
their business to rid the Indian Territory of Rebels instead of
intermeddling with the affairs of the Interior Department or those
connected with or acting for the same, the Refugee Indians in
Kansas might have long since been enabled to return to their homes
..."--Indian Office General Files, _Southern Superintendency_,
1863-1864, C 466.]

[Footnote 587: It was not long before the Indians were complaining
of the very things that General Blunt suspected. For instance, in
December, the Delawares begged President Lincoln to remove Agent
Johnson because of his peculations and ungovernable temper. They also
asked that the store of Thomas Carney and Co. be ordered away from
their reservation. The latter request had been made before, the
Delawares believing that Leavenworth and Lawrence were sufficiently
near for them to trade independently [Indian Office General Files,
_Delaware_, 1862-1866]. Coffin made a contract with Stettaner
Bros. November 29, 1862, and Dole confirmed it by letter, December 13,
1862 [ibid., _Southern Superintendency_, 1863-1864]. Secretary
Smith was not very well satisfied with the Stettaner bids. They were
too indefinite [Ibid., 1859-1862, 1837]. Nevertheless, Dole,
who was none too scrupulous himself, recommended their acceptance
[Dole to Smith, December 11, 1862]. Number 201 of Indian Office
_Special Files_ is especially rich in matter relating to
transactions of Stettaner Bros., Carney and Stevens, and Perry
Fuller, so also are the files of the Indian Division of the Interior
Department, and also, to some extent, the House Files in the Capitol
Building at Washington, D.C.]

Aside from pointing out the military inadequacy, Coffin had chiefly
argued that provisions could easily be obtained where the refugees
then were; but his opposition to Blunt's suggestion was considerably
vitiated by recommendations of his own, soon given, for the removal of
the refugees to the Sac and Fox Agency upon the plea that they could
not be supported much longer to advantage in southern Kansas. The
drouth was the main reason given; but, as Kile had very truly said,
the settlers were getting pretty tired of the Indian exiles, whose
habits were filthy and who were extremely prodigal in their use of
timber. The Sac and Fox Agency was headquarters for the Sacs and Foxes
of Mississippi, for the Ottawas, and for the confederated Chippewas
and Munsees. C.C. Hutchinson was the agent there and there Perry
Fuller, Robert S. Stevens, and other sharpers had their base of
operations.

The removal northward was undertaken in October and consummated in a
little less than two months; but at an expense that was enormous and
in spite of great unwillingness on the part of most of the Indians,
who naturally objected to so greatly lengthening the distance between
them and their own homes.[588] The refugees were distributed in tribal
groups rather generally over the reserves included within the Sac and
Fox Agency. At the request of Agent Elder, the Ottawas consented to
accommodate the Seneca-Shawnees and the Quapaws, although not without
expressing their fears that the dances and carousals of the Quapaws
would demoralize their young men[589] and, finally, not without
insisting upon a mutual agreement that no

[Footnote 588: Coffin to Dole, November 14, 1862, Ibid., Indian
Office General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 589: C.C. Hutchinson to Dole, August 21, 1863, Indian Office
General Files, _Ottawa_, 1863-1872, D 236.]

spirituous liquors should be brought within the limits of their
Reserve under any circumstances whatsoever.[590] The Creeks, Choctaws,
and Chickasaws found a lodgment on the Sac and Fox Reservation and the
Seminoles fairly close at hand, at Neosho Falls. That was as far north
as they could be induced to go.

Of the Cherokees, more needs to be said for they were not so easily
disposed of. At various times during the past summer, Cherokees,
opposed to, not identified with, or not enthusiastic in the
Confederate cause, had escaped from Indian Territory and had collected
on the Neutral Lands. Every Confederate reverse or Federal triumph,
no matter how slight, had proved a signal for flight. By October, the
Cherokee refugees on the Neutral Lands were reported to be nearly two
thousand in number, which, allowing for some exaggeration for the sake
of getting a larger portion of relief, was a goodly section of the
tribal population.[591] At the end of October, Superintendent Coffin
paid them a visit and urged them to remove to the Sac and Fox Agency,
whither the majority of their comrades in distress were at that very
moment going.[592] The Cherokees refused; for General Blunt had given
them his word that, if he were successful in penetrating the Indian
Territory, they should at once go home.[593] Not long after Coffin's
departure, their camp on Drywood

[Footnote 590: J.T. Jones to Dole, December 30, 1862, Indian Office
General Files, _Sac and Fox_, 1862-1866. The precautions proved
of little value. Whiskey was procured by both the hosts and their
guests and great disorders resulted. Agent Hutchinson did his best
to have the refugees removed, but, in his absence, the Ottawas were
prevailed upon by Agent Elder to extend their hospitality for a while
longer.]

[Footnote 591: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
137.]

[Footnote 592:--Ibid., 1863, 175.]

[Footnote 593: Coffin to Dole, November 10, 1862, enclosing copies of
a correspondence between him and a committee of the Cherokee refugees,
October 31, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Cherokee_,
1859-1865, C 1892.]

Creek, about twelve miles south of Fort Scott, was raided by
guerrillas;[594] but even that had no effect upon their determination
to remain. The Neutral Lands, although greatly intruded upon by white
people, were legally their own and they declined to budge from them at
the instance of Superintendent Coffin.

Arrangements were undertaken for supplying the Cherokee refugees with
material relief;[595] but scarcely had anything been done to that end
when, to Coffin's utter surprise, as he said, the military authorities
"took forcible possession of them" and had them all conveyed to
Neosho, Missouri, presumably out of his reach. But Coffin would
not release his hold and detailed the new Cherokee agent, James
Harlan,[596] and Special Agent A.G. Proctor to follow them there.

John Ross, his family, and a few friends were, meanwhile, constituting
another kind of refugee in the eastern part of the United States.[597]
and were criticized by some

[Footnote 594: Coffin to Dole, November 14, 1862, Indian Office
General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 595: Coffin to Mix, August 31, 1863, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1863-1864, C 466. A.M. Jordan,
who acted as commissary to the Cherokees at Camp Drywood, reported to
Dole, December 6, 1862, that he was feeding about a thousand who were
then there [ibid., _Cherokee_, I 847 of 1862].]

[Footnote 596: Charles W. Chatterton, of Springfield, Illinois, who
had been appointed Cherokee agent in the place of John Crawford,
removed [Dole to Coffin, March 18, 1862, ibid., _Letter Book_,
no. 67 pp. 492-493] had died, August 31, at the Sac and Fox Agency
[Hutchinson to Mix September 1, 1862, Ibid., General Files,
_Cherokee_, H 538 of 1862]; [Coffin to Dole, September 13,
1862, Ibid., C 1827: W.H. Herndon to Dole, November 15, 1862,
Ibid., H 605]. Harlan was not regularly commissioned as
Cherokee agent until January, 1863 [Coffin to Dole, April 7, 1863,
Ibid., C 143 of 1863; Harlan to Dole, January 26, 1863,
Ibid., H 37 of 1863].]

[Footnote 597: John Ross asked help for his own family and for the
families of various relations, thirty-four persons in all. He wanted
five hundred dollars for each person [Ross to Dole, October 13, 1862,
Ibid., R 1857 of 1862]. Later, he asked for seventeen thousand
dollars, likewise for maintenance [Ross to Dole, November 19, 1862,
Ibid.]. The beginning of the next year, he notified the
department that some of his party were about to return home (cont.)]

of their opponents for living in too sumptuous a manner.[598]

The removal, under military supervision, of the Cherokee refugees,
had some justification in various facts, Blunt's firm conviction that
Coffin and his instigators or abettors were exploiting the Indian
service, that the refugees at Leroy were not being properly cared for,
and that those on the Neutral Lands had put themselves directly under
the protection of the army.[599] His then was the responsibility. When
planning his second Indian Expedition, Blunt had discovered that the
Indian men were not at all inclined to accompany it unless they could
have some stronger guarantee than any yet given that their families
would be well looked after in their absence. They had returned from
the first expedition to find their women and children and aged men,
sick, ill-fed, and unhappy.

It was with knowledge of such things and with the hope that they would
soon be put a stop to and their repetition prevented by a return of
the refugees to Indian Territory, that John Ross, in October, made a
personal appeal to President Lincoln and interceded with him to send
a military force down, sufficient to over-awe the Confederates and to
take actual possession

[Footnote 597: (cont.) [Ibid., R 14 of 1863] and requested that
transportation from Leavenworth and supplies be furnished them [Indian
Office General Files, _Cherokee_, R 13 of 1863]. Dole informed
Coffin that the request should be granted [see Office letter of
January 6, 1863] and continued forwarding to John Ross his share of
the former remittance [Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 69, 503].
To make the monetary allowance to John Ross, Cherokee chief, the
Chickasaw funds were drawn upon [Second Auditor, E.B. Trench, to Dole,
June 19, 1863, Ibid., General Files, _Cherokee_, A 202 of
1863; Office letter of June 20, 1863].]

[Footnote 598: Ross and others to Dole, July 29, 1864 [Ibid.,
General Files, _Cherokee_, 1859-1865, R 360]; Secretary of the
Interior to Ross, August 25, 1864 [Ibid., I 651]; John Ross
and Evan Jones to Dole, August 26, 1864 [Ibid., R 378]; Office
letter of October 14, 1864; Coffin's letter of July 8, 1864.]

[Footnote 599: Blunt to Smith, November 21, 1862.]

of the land. Lincoln's sympathies and sense of justice were
immediately aroused and he inquired of General Curtis, in the
field, as to the practicability of occupying "the Cherokee country
consistently with the public service."[600] Curtis evaded the direct
issue, which was the Federal obligation to protect its wards, by
boasting that he had just driven the enemy into the Indian Territory
"and beyond" and by doubting "the expediency of occupying ground so
remote from supplies."[601]

General Blunt's force continued to hold the northeastern part of the
Cherokee country until the end of October when it fell back, crossed
the line, and moved along the Bentonville road in order to meet its
supply train from Fort Scott.[602] Blunt's division finally took its
stand on Prairie Creek[603] and, on the twelfth of November, made its
main camp on Lindsay's prairie, near the Indian boundary.[604] The
rout of Cooper at Fort Wayne had shaken the faith of many Indians in
the invincibility of the Confederate arms. They had disbanded and gone
home, declaring "their purpose to join the Federal troops the first
opportunity" that presented itself.[605] To secure them and to
reconnoitre once more, Colonel Phillips had started out near the
beginning of November and, from the third to the fifth, had made his
way down through the Cherokee Nation, by way of Tahlequah and Park
Hill, to Webber's Falls on the Arkansas.[606] His return was by

[Footnote 600: Lincoln to Curtis, October 10, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 723.]

[Footnote 601: Curtis to Lincoln, October 10, 1862, Ibid.]

[Footnote 602: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i,
376-377.]

[Footnote 603:--Ibid., 379.]

[Footnote 604:--Ibid., 380; Bishop, _Loyalty on the
Frontier_, 56.]

[Footnote 605: Blunt to Schofield, November 9, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 785.]

[Footnote 606: H.W. Martin to Coffin, December 20, 1862, Indian Office
General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1950.]

Dwight's Mission. His view of the country through which he passed must
have been discouraging.[607] There was little to subsist upon and the
few Indians lingering there were in a deplorable state of deprivation,
little food, little clothing[608] and it was winter-time.

So desolate and abandoned did the Cherokee country appear that General
Blunt considered it would be easily possible to hold it with his
Indian force alone, three regiments, yet he said no more about the
immediate return of the refugees,[609] but issued an order for their
removal to Neosho. The wisdom of his action might well be questioned
since the expense of supporting them there would be immeasurably
greater than in Kansas[610] unless, indeed, the military authorities
intended to assume the entire charge of them.[611] Special Agent
Martin regarded some talk that was rife of letting them forage upon
the impoverished people of Missouri as

[Footnote 607: It was not discouraging to Blunt, however. His letter
referring to it was even sanguine [_Official Records_, vol. xiii,
785-786].]

[Footnote 608: Martin to Coffin, December 20, 1862.]

[Footnote 609: The Interior Department considered it, however, and
consulted with the War Department as late as the twenty-sixth. See
_Register of Letters Received_, vol. D., p. 155.]

[Footnote 610: Coffin to Henning, December 28, 1862, Indian Office
Consolidated Files, _Cherokee_, C 17 of 1863.]

[Footnote 611: Coffin's letter to Dole of December 20 [Indian Office
General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1950]
would imply that the superintendent expected that to be the case. He
said, having reference to Martin's report, "... The statement of facts
which he makes, from all the information I have from other sources, I
have no doubt are strictly true and will no doubt meet your serious
consideration.

"If the Programme as fixed up by the Military Officers, and which I
learn Dr. Gillpatrick is the bearer to your city and the solicitor
general to procure its adoption is carried out, the Indian Department,
superintendent, and agents may all be dispensed with. The proposition
reminds me of the Fable of the Wolves and the Shepherds, the wolves
represented to the shepherds that it was very expensive keeping dogs
to guard the sheep, which was wholly unnecessary; that if they would
kill off the dogs, they, the wolves, would protect the sheep without
any compensation whatever."]

sheer humbug. The army was not doing that and why should the
defenceless Indians be expected to do it. As it was, they seem to
have been reduced to plundering in Kansas.[612] On the whole, it
is difficult to explain Blunt's plan for the concentration of the
Cherokee refugees at Neosho, since there were, at the time, many
indications that Hindman was considering another advance and an
invasion of southwest Missouri.

The November operations of the Federals in northeastern Arkansas
were directed toward arresting Hindman's progress, if progress were
contemplated. Meanwhile, Phillips with detachments of his Indian
brigade was continuing his reconnoissances and, when word came that
Stand Watie had ventured north of the Arkansas, Blunt sent him to
compel a recrossing.[613] Stand Watie's exploit was undoubtedly
a preliminary to a general Confederate plan for the recovery of
northwestern Arkansas and the Indian Territory, a plan, which Blunt,
vigorous and aggressive, was determined to circumvent. In the action
at Cane Hill,[614] the latter part of November, and in the Battle of
Prairie Grove,[615] December seventh, the mettle of the Federals was
put to a severe test which it stood successfully and Blunt's cardinal
purpose was fully accomplished.[616] In both engagements, the Indians
played a part and played it

[Footnote 612: These Indians must have been the ones referred to in
Richard C. Vaughn's letter to Colonel W.D. Wood, December i, 1862
[_Official Records_, vol. xxii, part i, 796].]

[Footnote 613: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, p.
382.]

[Footnote 614:--Ibid., vol. i, chapter xxix.]

[Footnote 615:--Ibid., vol. i, chapter xxx; _Official
Records_, vol. xxii, part i, 66-82, 82-158, vol. liii, supplement,
458-461, 866, 867; Livermore, _The Story of the Civil War_, part
iii, bk. 1, 84-85.]

[Footnote 616: One opinion is to the effect that the result of
the Battle of Prairie Grove, Fayetteville, or Illinois Creek, was
virtually to end the war north of the Arkansas River [Ibid., p.
85; _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part i, 82]. (cont.)]

conspicuously and well, the northern regiments so well,[617] indeed,
that shortly afterwards two additional ones, the Fourth and the Fifth,
were projected.[618] Towards the end of the year, Phillips, whom Blunt
had sent upon another excursion into Indian Territory,[619] could
report

[Footnote 616: (cont.) Bishop wrote, "After the battle of Prairie
Grove, and the gradual retrogression of the Army of the Frontier into
Missouri, Fayetteville was still held as a military post, and those of
us who remained there were given to understand that the place would
not be abandoned ... The demoralized enemy had fallen back to Little
Rock, with the exception of weak nomadic forces that, like Stygian
ghosts, wandered up and down the Arkansas from Dardanelle to Fort
Smith...." [_Loyalty on the Frontier_, 205]. Schofield was of
the opinion, however, that the Battle of Prairie Grove was a hard-won
victory. "Blunt and Herron were badly beaten in detail, and owed
their escape to a false report of my arrival with re-enforcements."
[_Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, p. 6].]

[Footnote 617: And yet it was only a short time previously that Major
A.C. Ellithorpe, commanding the First Regiment Indian Home Guards, had
had cause to complain seriously of the Creeks of that regiment. On
November 7, he wrote from Camp Bowen that Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la was
enticing the Indians away from the performance of their duties. "You
will now perceive that we are on the border of the Indian country and
a very large portion of the Indians are now scouting through their own
Territory. What I now desire is that every man who was enlisted as a
soldier shall at once return to his command by the way of Fort Scott
unless otherwise ordered by competent authority...." [Indian Office
Land Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870, C 1933].
Coffin, as usual, appeared as an apologist for the Indians and
attempted to exonerate Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la from all blame [Letter to
Dole, December 3, 1862, Ibid.]. He called the aged chief, "that
noble old Roman of the Indians," and the chief himself protested
against the injustice and untruth of Ellithrope's accusation
[Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la to Coffin, November 24, 1862, Ibid.].]

[Footnote 618: Officers for these two regiments were appointed by the
president, December 26, 1862, and ordered to report to Blunt, who, in
turn ordered them to report to Phillips. When the officers arrived in
Indian Territory, they found no such regiments as the Fourth and Fifth
Indian [_U.S. Senate Report_, 41st congress, third session, no.
359]. They never did materialize as a matter of fact; but the officers
did duty, nevertheless, and were regularly mustered out of the service
in 1863. In 1864, Congress passed an act for the adjudication of their
claim for salary [_U.S. Statutes at Large_, vol. xiii, 413]. It
is rather surprising that the regiments were not organized; inasmuch
as many new recruits were constantly presenting themselves.]

[Footnote 619: Phillips to Blunt, December 25, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. xxii, part i, 873-874].]

that Stand Watie and Cooper had been pushed considerably below
the Arkansas, that many of the buildings at Fort Davis had been
demolished,[620] that one of the Creek regiments was about to retire
from the Confederate service, and that the Choctaws, once so deeply
committed, were wavering in their allegiance to the South.[621]

[Footnote 620: The buildings at Fort Davis were burnt, and
deliberately, by Phillips's orders. [See his own admission,
Ibid., part ii, 56, 62].]

[Footnote 621: Blunt to Weed, December 30, 1862, Ibid., part i,
168.]




X. NEGOTIATIONS WITH UNION INDIANS


As though the Indians had not afflictions enough to endure merely
because of their proximity to the contending whites, life was made
miserable for them, during the period of the Civil War, as much as
before and after, by the insatiable land-hunger of politicians,
speculators, and would-be captains of industry, who were more often
than not, rogues in the disguise of public benefactors. Nearly all
of them were citizens of Kansas. The cessions of 1854, negotiated
by George W. Manypenny, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, were but a
prelude to the many that followed. For years and years there was in
reality never a time when some sort of negotiation, _sub rosa_
or official, was not going on. The order of procedure was pretty much
what it had always been: a promise that the remaining land should be
the Indian's, undisturbed by white men and protected by government
guarantee, forever; encroachment by enterprising, covetous, and
lawless whites; conflict between the two races, the outraged and the
aggressive; the advent of the schemer, the man with political capital
and undeveloped or perverted sense of honor, whose vision was such
that he saw the Indian owner as the only obstacle in the way of
vast material and national progress; political pressure upon the
administration in Washington, lobbying in Congress; authorization of
negotiations with the bewildered Indians; delimitation of the meaning
of the solemn and grandly-sounding word, _forever_.

When the war broke out, negotiations, begun in the

border warfare days, were still going on. This was most true as
regarded the Osages, whose immense holding in southern Kansas
was something not to be tolerated, so the politicians reasoned,
indefinitely. Petitions,[622] praying that the lands be opened to
white settlement were constantly being sent in and intruders,[623] who
intended to force action, becoming more and more numerous and more
and more recalcitrant. One of the first official communications of
Superintendent Coffin embodied a plea for getting a treaty of cession
for which the signs had seemed favorable the previous year.
Coffin, however, discredited[624] a certain Dr. J.B. Chapman, who,
notwithstanding he represented white capitalists,[625] had yet found
favor with the Osages. To their

[Footnote 622: For example, take the petitions forwarded by M.W.
Delahay, surveyor-general of Kansas [Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Neosho_, D 455 of 1861]. One of the petitions contains this
statement: "... The lands being largely settled upon and improved and
those adjacent being all claimed and settled upon by residents--while
a large emigration from Texas and other rebellious States are forced
to seek homes in a more northern and uncongenial climate greatly
against their interests and inclinations...."]

[Footnote 623: Intruders upon the Osage lands, as upon the Cherokee
Neutral, were numerous for years before the war. Agent Dorn was
continually complaining of them, chiefly because they were free-state
in politics. He again and again asked for military assistance in
removing them. See his letter to Greenwood, February 26, 1860,
_Neosho_, 1833-1865, D 107. Buchanan's administration had
conceived the idea of locating other Kansas Indians upon the huge
Osage Reserve. See Dorn to Greenwood, March 26, 1860, Ibid., D
119. Apparently, the fragments of tribes in the northeastern corner of
Indian Territory had been approached on the same subject, but they did
not favor it and Agent Dorn was doubtful if the Osages would [Dorn to
Greenwood, April 17, 1860, Ibid., D 129].]

[Footnote 624: He described him as a self-appointed guardian of the
Osages, as a scamp and a nuisance [Coffin to Dole, June 17, 1861,
Ibid., C 1223 of 1861].]

[Footnote 625: Chapman, August 26, 1860, inquired of Greenwood whether
there was any prospect of a treaty being negotiated with the Osages
and whether the capitalists he represented would be likely to secure
railroad rights to the South by it. He asserted that the Delawares had
been "humbugged" by their treaty, it having been negotiated "in the
interests of the Democrats at Leavenworth" [Ibid., C 702 of
1860].]

everlasting sorrow and despoliation, the Indians have been fated to
place a child-like trust in those least worthy.

The defection of portions of the southern tribes offered an undreamed
of opportunity for Kansas politicians to accomplish their purposes.
They had earlier thought of removing the Kansas tribes, one by one,
to Indian Territory; but the tribes already there had a lien upon
the land, titles, and other rights, that could not be ignored. Their
possession was to continue so long as the grass should grow and the
water should run. It was not for the government to say that they
should open their doors to anybody. An early intimation that the
Kansans saw their opportunity was a resolution[626] submitted by James
H. Lane to the Senate, March 17, 1862, proposing an inquiry into "the
propriety and expediency of extending the southern boundary of Kansas
to the northern boundary of Texas, so as to include within the
boundaries of Kansas the territory known as the Indian territory."
Obviously, the proposition had a military object immediately in view;
but Commissioner Dole, to whom it was referred, saw its ulterior
meaning and reported[627] adversely upon it as he had upon an earlier
proposition to erect a regular territorial form of government in the
Indian country south of Kansas.[628] He was "unable to perceive any
advantage to be derived from the adoption of such a measure, since the
same military power that would be required to enforce the authority
of territorial officers is all-sufficient to protect and enforce the
authority of such officers as are required in the management of our
present system

[Footnote 626: _United State Congressional Globe_, 37th congress,
second session, part ii, p. 1246.]

[Footnote 627: Dole to Smith, April 2, 1862, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 353-354.]

[Footnote 628: Dole to Smith, March 17, 1862, Ibid., 335-337.]

of Indian relations."[629] And he insisted that the whole of the
present Indian country should be left to the Indians.[630] The honor
of the government was pledged to that end. Almost coincidently he
negatived[631] another suggestion, one advocated by Pomeroy for the
confiscation of the Cherokee Neutral Lands.[632] For the time being,
Dole was strongly opposed to throwing either the Neutral Lands or the
Osage Reserve open to white settlers.

Behind Pomeroy's suggestion was the spirit of retaliation, of meting
out punishment to the Indians, who, because they had been so basely
deserted by the United States government, had gone over to the
Confederacy; but the Kansas politicians saw a chance to kill two birds
with one stone, vindictively punish the southern Indians for their
defection and rid Kansas of the northern Indians, both emigrant and
indigenous. The intruders upon Indian lands, the speculators and the
politicians, would get the spoils of victory. Against the idea of
punishing the southern Indians for what after all was far from being
entirely their fault, the friends of justice marshaled their forces.
Dole was not exactly of their number; for he had other ends to serve
in resisting measures advanced by the Kansans, yet, to his credit be
it said that he did always hold firmly to the notion that tribes like
the Cherokee were more sinned against than sinning. The government
had been the first to shirk responsibility and to violate sacred
obligations. It had failed to give the protection guaranteed by
treaties and it was not giving it yet adequately.

[Footnote 629: Dole to Smith, March 17, 1862, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 335.]

[Footnote 630: Report of April 2, 1862.]

[Footnote 631: Dole to Smith, March 20, 1862, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 343-344.]

[Footnote 632: _Daily Conservative_, May 10, 1862. Note the
arguments in favor of confiscation as quoted from the _Western
Volunteer_.,]

The true friends of justice were men of the stamp of W.S.
Robertson[633] and the Reverend Evan Jones,[634] who went out of
their way to plead the Indian's cause and to detail the extenuating
circumstances surrounding his lamentable failure to keep faith.
Supporting the men of the opposite camp was even the Legislature of
Kansas. In no other way can a memorial from the General Assembly,
urging the extinguishment of the title of certain Indian lands in
Kansas, be interpreted.[635]

It is not easy to determine always just what motives did actuate
Commissioner Dole. They were not entirely above suspicion and his
name is indissolubly connected with some very nefarious Indian
transactions; but fortunately they have not to be recounted here. At
the very time when he was offering unanswerable arguments against
the propositions of Lane and Pomeroy, he was entertaining something
similar to those propositions in his own mind. A special agent,
Augustus Wattles, who had been sufficiently familiar and mixed-up with
the free state and pro-slavery controversy to be called upon to give
testimony before the Senate

[Footnote 633: Robertson wrote to the Secretary of the Interior,
January 7, 1862, asking most earnestly "that decisive measures be
not taken against the oppressed and betrayed people of the Creek and
Cherokee tribes, until everything is heard about their struggle in the
present crisis" [Department of the Interior, _Register of Letters
Received_, "Indians," no. 4]. The letter was referred to the
Indian Office and Mix replied to it, February 14, 1862 [Indian Office
_Letter Book_, no. 67, p. 357]. The concluding paragraph of
the letter is indicative of the government feeling, "... In reply
I transmit herewith for your information the Annual Report of this
Office, which will show ... what policy has governed the Office as to
this matter, and that it is in consonance with your wish...."]

[Footnote 634: Jones wrote frequently and at great length on the
subject of justice to the Cherokees. One of his most heartfelt appeals
was that of January 21, 1862 [Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Cherokee_, J 556 of 1862].]

[Footnote 635: Cyrus Aldrich, representative from Minnesota and
chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs referred the
memorial to the Indian Office [_Letters Registered_, vol. 58,
_Southern Superintendency_, A. 484 of 1862].]

Harper's Ferry Investigating Committee[636] and who had been on the
editorial staff of the New York Tribune,[637] had, in 1861, been sent
by the Indian Office to inspect the houses that Robert S. Stevens had
contracted to build for the Sacs and Foxes of Mississippi and for the
Kaws.[638] The whole project of the house-building was a fraud upon
the Indians, a scheme for using up their funds or for transferring
them to the pockets of promoters like Stevens[639] and M.C.
Dickey[640] without the trouble of giving value received.

From a letter[641] of protest, written by Stevens against Wattles's
mission of inspection, it can be inferred that there was a movement on
foot to induce the Indians to emigrate southward. Stevens, not wholly
disinterested, thought it a poor time to attempt changes in tribal

[Footnote 636: Robinson, _Kansas Conflict_, 358.]

[Footnote 637:--Ibid., 370. For other facts touching Wattles
and his earlier career, see Villard, _John Brown_, index; Wilson,
_John Brown: Soldier of Fortune_, index.]

[Footnote 638; On the entire subject of negotiations with the Indians
of Kansas, see Abel, _Indian Reservations in Kansas and the
Extinguishment of Their Titles_. The house-building project is
fully narrated there.]

[Footnote 639: For additional information about Stevens, see _Daily
Conservative_, February 11, 12, 13, 28, 1862. Senator Lane
denounced him as a defaulter to the government in the house-building
project. See _Lane_ to Dole, April 22, 1862; Smith to Dole, May
13 1862; Dole to Lane, May 5, 1862, _Daily Conservative_, May 21,
1862. In July, Lane, hearing that certificates of indebtedness were
about to be issued to Stevens on his building contract for the
Sacs and Foxes, entered a "solemn protest against such action" and
requested that the Department would let the matter lie over until the
assembling of Congress [Interior Department, _Register of Letters
Received_, January 2, 1862 to December 27, 1865, "Indians," no. 4].
Governor Robinson's enemies regarded him as the partner of Stevens
[_Daily Conservative_, November 22, 1861] in the matter of some
other affairs, and that fact may help to explain Senator Lane's bitter
animosity. The names of Robinson and Stevens were connected in the
bond difficulty, which lay at the bottom of Robinson's impeachment.]

[Footnote 640: Dickey's interest in the house-building is seen in
the following: Dickey to Greenwood, February 26, 1861, Indian Office
General Files, _Kansas_, 1855-1862, D250; same to same, March 1,
1861, Ibid., D 251.]

[Footnote 641: Stevens to Mix, August 24, 1861, Indian Office Special
Files, no. 201, _Sac and Fox_, S439 of 1861.]

policy. His conclusions were right, his premises, necessarily
unrevealed, were false. Wattles became involved in the emigration
movement, if he did not initiate it, and, subsequent to making his
report upon the house-building, received a private communication from
Dole, asking his opinion "of a plan for confederating the various
Indian tribes, in Kansas and Nebraska, into one, and giving them
a Territory and a Territorial Government with political
privileges."[642] This was in 1861, long before any scheme that Lane
or Pomeroy had devised would have matured. Wattles started upon a tour
of observation and inquiry among the Kansas tribes and discovered
that, with few exceptions, they were all willing and even anxious to
exchange their present homes for homes in Indian Territory. Some had
already discussed the matter tentatively and on their own account
with the Creeks and Cherokees. On his way east, after completing his
investigations, Wattles stopped in New York and "consulted with our
political friends" there "concerning this movement, and they not only
gave it their approbation, but were anxious that this administration
should have the credit of originating and carrying out so wise and so
noble a scheme for civilizing and perpetuating the Indian race."
Would Wattles and his friends have said the same had they been fully
cognizant of the conditions under which the emigrant tribes had been
placed in the West?

In February of 1862, the House of Representatives called[643] for the
papers relating to the Wattles mission[644] and, in March, Wattles
expatiated upon the

[Footnote 642: Wattles to Dole, January 10, 1862, Indian Office
Special Files, no. 201, _Central Superintendency_, W 528 of
1862.]

[Footnote 643: Department of the Interior, _Register of Letters
Received_, "Indians," no. 4, p. 439.]

[Footnote 644: The papers relating to the mission are collected in
Indian Office Special Files, no. 201.]

emigration and consolidation scheme in a report to Secretary
Smith.[645] Then, yet in advance of congressional authorization, began
a systematic course of Indian negotiation, all having in view the
relieving of Kansas from her aboriginal encumbrance. No means were too
underhand, too far-fetched, too villainous to be resorted to. Every
advantage was taken of the Indian's predicament, of his pitiful
weakness, political and moral. The reputed treason of the southern
tribes was made the most of. Reconstruction measures had begun for the
Indians before the war was over and while its issue was very far from
being determined in favor of the North.

As if urged thereto by some influence malign or fate sinister, the
loyal portion of two of the southern tribes, the Creeks and the
Seminoles, took in April, 1862, a certain action that, all unbeknown
to them, expedited the northern schemes for Indian undoing. The action
referred to was tribal reörganization. Each of the two groups of
refugees elected chiefs and headmen and notified the United States
government that it was prepared to do business as a nation.[646] The
business in mind had to do with annuity payments[647] and other dues
but the Indian Office soon extended it to include treaty-making.

[Footnote 645: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Central
Superintendency_, W 528 of 1862; Department of the Interior,
_Register of Letters Received_, "Indians," no. 4, p. 517.]

[Footnote 646: Ok-ta-ha-ras Harjo and others to Dole, April 5, 1862,
Indian Office General Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869, O 45; Coffin to
Dole, April 15, 1862, transmitting communication of Billy Bowlegs
and others, April 14, 1862 ibid., _Seminole_, 1858-1869, C1594;
_Letters Registered_, vol. 58.]

[Footnote 647: On the outside of the Seminole petition, the office
instruction for its answer of May 7, 1862, reads as follows: "Say that
by resolution of Congress the annuities were authorized to be used to
prevent starvation and suffering amongst them and that being the only
fund in our hands must not be diverted from that purpose at present."]

Negotiations with the Osages had been going on intermittently all this
time. No opportunity to press the point of a land cession had ever
been neglected and much had been made, in connection with the project
for territorial organization, of the fact that the Osages had
memorialized Congress for a civil government, they thinking by means
of it to prevent further frauds and impositions being practiced upon
them.[648] Coffin and Elder, suspicious of each other, jealously
watched every avenue of approach to Osage confidence. On the ninth of
March, Elder inquired if Coffin had been regularly commissioned to
open up negotiations anew and asked to be associated with him if he
had.[649] A treaty was started but not finished for Elder received a
private letter from Dole that seemed to confine the negotiations to
a mere ascertaining of views.[650] Then the Indians grown weary of
uncertainty took matters into their own hands and appointed several
prominent tribesmen for the express purpose of negotiating a treaty
that would end the "suspense as to their future destiny."[651] From
the treaty of cession that Coffin drafted, he having taken a miserably
unfair advantage of Osage isolation and destitution, the Osages turned
away in disgust.[652] In November, some of their leading men journeyed
up to Leroy to invite the dissatisfied Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la to winter
with them.[653] Coffin seized the occasion to reopen the subject of a
cession and the Indians manifested

[Footnote 648: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, A
476 of 1862. See also Indian Office report to the Secretary of the
Interior, May 6, 1862. The Commissioner's letter and the memorial were
sent to Aldrich, May 9, 1862.]

[Footnote 649: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, E 94.
of 1862.]

[Footnote 650: Coffin to Dole, April 5, 1862, Ibid., C 1583.]

[Footnote 651: Communication of April 10, 1862, transmitted by Chapman
to Dole, Ibid., C 1640.]

[Footnote 652: Elder to Coffin, July 9, 1862, Ibid., E 114.]

[Footnote 653: Coffin to Dole, November 16, 1862, Ibid., C
1904.]

a willingness to sell a part of their Reserve; but again Coffin was
too grasping and another season of waiting intervened.

With slightly better success the Kickapoos were approached. Their
lands were coveted by the Atchison and Pike's Peak Railway Company
and Agent O.B. Keith used his good offices in the interest of that
corporation.[654] Good offices they were, from the standpoint of
benefit to the grantees, but most disreputable from that of the
grantors. He bribed the chiefs outrageously and the lesser men
among the Kickapoos indignantly protested.[655] Rival political and
capitalistic concerns, emanating from St. Joseph, Missouri, and from
the northern tier of counties in Kansas,[656] took up the quarrel and
never rested until they had forced a hearing from the government. The
treaty was arrested after it had reached the presidential proclamation
stage and was in serious danger of complete invalidation.[657] It
passed muster only when a Senate amendment had rendered it reasonably
acceptable to the Kickapoos.

Not much headway was made with Indian treaty-making in 1862.[658] In
March, 1863, an element

[Footnote 654: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Kickapoo_, I
655 of 1862 and I 361 of 1864.]

[Footnote 655:--Ibid., B 355 of 1863 and I 361 of 1864.]

[Footnote 656: Albert W. Horton to Pomeroy, June 20, 1863 and O.B.
Keith to Pomeroy, June 20, 1863, Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Kickapoo_, G 59 and P 64 of 1863.]

[Footnote 657: Lane and A.C. Wilder requested the Interior Department,
September 1, 1863, "that no rights be permitted to attach to R.R.
Co. until charges of fraud in connection with Kickapoo Treaty are
settled." Their request was replied to, September 12, 1863 [Interior
Department, _Register of Letters Received_, January 2, 1862 to
December 27, 1865, "Indians," no. 4, 361].]

[Footnote 658: Dole, however, seems to have become thoroughly
reconciled to the idea. He submitted his views upon the subject once
more in connection with a memorial that Pomeroy referred to the
Secretary of the Interior "for the concentration of the Indian tribes
of the West and especially those of Kansas, in the Indian country ...
" [Dole to Smith, November 22, 1862, Indian Office _Report Book_,
no. 12, pp. 505-506; Department of the Interior, _Register of
Letters Received_, vol. D, November 22, 1862]. (cont.)]

conditioning a greater degree of success was introduced into the
government policy.[659] That was by the Indian appropriation act,
which, in addition to continuing the practice of applying tribal
annuities to the relief of refugees, authorized the president to
negotiate with Kansas tribes for their removal from Kansas and with
the loyal portion of Indian Territory tribes for cessions of land
on which to accommodate them.[660] As Dole pertinently remarked to
Secretary Usher, the measure was all very well as a policy in prospect
but it was one that most certainly could not be carried out until
Indian Territory was in Federal possession. Blunt was still striving
after possession or re-possession but his force was not "sufficient to
insure beyond peradventure his success."[661]

Scarcely had the law been enacted when John Ross and other Cherokees,
living in exile and in affluence, offered to consider proposals for
a retrocession to the United States public domain of their Neutral
Lands. The Indian Office was not yet prepared to treat and not until
November did Ross and his associates[662] get any

[Footnote 658: (cont.) December 26, 1862, Dole wrote to Smith thus:
"... It being in contemplation to extinguish the Indian title to lands
... in Kansas and provide them with homes in the Indian Territory ...
I would recommend that a commissioner should be appointed to negotiate
... I would accordingly suggest that Robt. S. Corwin be appointed ..."
[Indian Office _Report Book_, no. 13, pp. 12-13]. Now Corwin's
reputation was not such as would warrant his selection for the post.
He was not a man of strict integrity. His name is connected with many
shady transactions in the early history of Kansas.]

[Footnote 659: Presumably, Lane was the chief promoter of it. See
Baptiste Peoria to Dole, February 9, 1863, Indian Office General
Files, _Osage River_, 1863-1867.]

[Footnote 660: _U.S. Statutes at Large_, vol. xii, 793.]

[Footnote 661: Dole to Usher, July 29, 1863, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 13, p. 211.]

[Footnote 662: His associates were then the three men, Lewis Downing,
James McDaniel, and Evan Jones, who had been appointed delegates with
him, (cont.)]

real encouragement[663] to renew their offer, yet the Cherokees had
as early as February repudiated their alliance with the southern
Confederacy. That the United States government was only awaiting a
time most propitious for itself is evident from the fact that, when,
in the spring following, refugees from the Neutral Lands were given
an opportunity to begin their backward trek, they were told that they
would not be permitted to linger at their old homes but would have to
go on all the way to Fort Gibson, one hundred twenty miles farther
south.[664] That was one way of ridding Kansas of her Indians and a
way not very creditable to a professed and powerful guardian.

Almost simultaneously with Ross's first application came an offer from
the oppressed Delawares to look for a new home in the far west, in
Washington Territory. The majority preferred to go to the Cherokee
country.[665] Some of the tribe had already lived there and wanted to
return. Had the minority gained their point, the Delawares would have
traversed the whole continent within the space of about two and a half
centuries. They would have wandered from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
from the Susquehanna River to the Willamette, in a desperate effort to
escape the avaricious pioneer, and, to their own chagrin, they would
have found him on the western coast also. Never again would there be
any place for them free from his influence.

In the summer of 1863, negotiations were undertaken

[Footnote 662: (cont.) by the newly-constructed national council, for
doing business with the United States government [Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1863, p. 23].]

[Footnote 663: See Office letter of November 19, 1863.]

[Footnote 664: David M. Harlan to Dole, December 20, 1864, Indian
Office General Files, Cherokee 1859-1865, H 1033.]

[Footnote 665: Johnson to Dole, May 24, 1863, ibid., _Delaware_,
1862-1866.]

in deadly earnest. A commencement was made with the Creeks in May,
Agent Cutler calling the chiefs in council and laying before them
the draft of a treaty that had been prepared, upon the advice
of Coffin,[666] in Washington and that had been entrusted for
transmission to the unscrupulous ex-agent, Perry Fuller.[667] The
Creek chiefs consented to sell a tract of land for locating other
Indians upon, but declared themselves opposed to any plan for
"sectionizing" their country and asked that they might be consulted as
to the Indians who were to share it with them. The month before they
had prayed to be allowed to go back home. Well fed and clothed though
they were, and quite satisfied with their agent, they were terribly
homesick.[668] Might they not go down and clean out their country for
themselves? It seemed impossible for the army to do it.[669]

Coffin next came forward with a suggestion that Indian colonization in
Texas would be far preferable to colonization elsewhere, although if
nothing better could be done, he would advocate the selection of the
Osage land on the Arkansas and its tributaries.[670] Why he wanted to
steer clear of the Indian Territory is not

[Footnote 666: "... I would most respectfully suggest that a Treaty be
gotten up by you and the Sec. of the Interior, and sent to me and Gov.
Carney and some other suitable com. to have ratified in due form and
returned. And you will pardon me for saying that the Treaty should
be a model for all that are to follow with the broken and greatly
reduced, and fragmental tribes in the Indian Territory, and may
be made greatly to promote the interests of the Indians and the
Government especially in view of the removal of the Indians
from Kansas and Nebraska as contemplated by recent Act of
Congress."--COFFIN to Dole, March 22, 1863, Ibid., Land Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870, C 117.]

[Footnote 667: Cutler to Dole, May, 1863, Ibid., General Files,
_Creek_, 1860-1869, C 240.]

[Footnote 668: Ok-ta-ha-ras Harjo and others to "Our Father," April 1,
1863, (Indian Office General Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869).]

[Footnote 669: Same to same, May 16, 1863, Ibid., O 6.]

[Footnote 670: Coffin to Dole, May 23, 1863, Ibid., Land Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870.]

evident. The Pottawatomies[671] asked to be allowed to settle on the
Creek land,[672] but the Creeks were letting their treaty hang fire.
They wanted it made in Washington, D.C., and they wanted one of their
great men, Mik-ko-hut-kah, then with the army, to assist in its
negotiation.[673] Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la had died in the spring[674] and
they were seemingly feeling a little helpless and forlorn.

Thinking to make better progress with the treaties and better terms
if he himself controlled the government end of the negotiations,
Commissioner Dole undertook a trip west in the late summer.[675] By
the third of September the Creek treaty was an accomplished fact.[676]
Aside from the cession of land for the accommodation of Indian
emigrants, its most important provision was a recognition of the
binding force of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In due course,
the treaty went to the Senate and, in March, was accepted by that body
with amendments.[677] It went back to the

[Footnote 671: A treaty had been made with the Pottawatomies by W.W.
Ross, their agent, November 15, 1861 [ibid., _Pottawatomie_,
I 547 of 1862]. Its negotiation was so permeated by fraud that the
Indians refused to let it stand [Dole to Smith, January 15, 1862].
At this time, 1863, Superintendent Branch, against whom charges of
gambling, drunkenness, licentiousness, and misuse of annuity funds
had been preferred by Agent Ross [Indian Office General Files,
_Pottawatomie_, R 21 and 143 of 1863], was endeavoring to
persuade Father De Smet to establish a Roman Catholic Mission on their
Reserve. De Smet declined because of the exigencies of the war. His
letter of January 5, 1863, has no file mark.]

[Footnote 672: Cutler to Dole, June 6, 1863, Indian Office General
Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869.]

[Footnote 673:--Ibid.]

[Footnote 674: Coffin to Dole, March 22, 1863.]

[Footnote 675: Proctor's letter of July 31, 1863 would indicate that
Dole went to the Cherokee Agency before the Sac and Fox. Proctor was
writing from the former place and he said, "Mr. Dole leaves to-day
for Kansas ..." [Indian Office General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, 1863-1864, C 466].]

[Footnote 676: Indian Office Land Files, _Treaties_, Box 3,
1864-1866.]

[Footnote 677: Usher to Dole, March 23, 1864, Ibid.,]

Indians but they rejected it altogether.[678] The Senate amendments
were not such as they could conscientiously and honorably submit
to and maintain their dignity as a preëminently loyal and
semi-independent people.[679] One of the amendments was particularly
obnoxious. It affected the provision that deprived the southern Creeks
of all claims upon the old home.[680] Dole's Creek treaty of 1863 was
never ratified.

Other treaties negotiated by Dole were with the Sacs and Foxes of
Mississippi,[681] the Osages, the Shawnees,[682]

[Footnote 678: Its binding force upon them was, however, a subject
of discussion afterwards and for many years [Superintendent Byers
to Lewis V. Bogy, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, February 7, 1867,
Ibid., General Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869, B 94].]

[Footnote 679: For an interpretation of the treaty relative to the
claims of the loyal Creeks, see Dole to Lane, January 27, 1864
[ibid., _Report Book_, no. 13, pp. 287-291]. It is interesting to
note that a certain Mundy Durant who had been sixty years in the Creek
Nation, put in a claim, February 23, 1864, in behalf of the "loyal
Africans." He asked "that they have guaranteed to them equal rights
with the Indians ..." "All of our boys," said he, "are in the army and
I feel they should be remembered ..." [Ibid., General Files,
_Creek_, 1860-1869, D 362].]

[Footnote 680: Article IV. Both the Creeks and the Seminoles, in
apprising the Indian Office of the fact that they had organized as a
nation, had voiced the idea that the southern Indians had forfeited
all their rights "to any part of the property or annuities ..."]

[Footnote 681: The Sacs and Foxes brought forward a claim against
the southern refugees, for the "rent of 204 buildings," amounting to
$14,688.00 [Indian Office Land Files, _Southern Superintendency_,
1855-1870, Letter of May 14, 1864. See also Dole to Usher, March 25,
1865, Ibid., also I 952, C 1264, and C 1298, Ibid.,].
Coffin thought the best way to settle their claim was to give them a
part of the Creek cession [Coffin to Martin, May 23, 1864, and Martin
to Dole, May 26, 1864, Ibid., General Files, _Sac and
Fox_, 1862-1866, M 284]. The Sac and Fox chiefs were willing to
submit the case to the arbitrament of Judge James Steele. Martin was
of the opinion that should their treaty, then pending, fail it would
be some time before they would consent to make another. This treaty
had been obtained with difficulty, only by Dole's "extraordinary
exertions with the tribe" [Martin to Dole, May 2, 1864, Ibid.,
M 270].]

[Footnote 682: Negotiations with the Shawnees had been undertaken in
1862. In June, Black Bob, the chief of the Shawnees on the Big Blue
Reserve in Johnson County, Kansas, protested against a treaty then
before Congress. He claimed it was a fraud (cont.)]

and the New York Indians. He attempted one with the Kaws but
failed.[683] The Osages, who had

[Footnote 682: (cont.) [Telegram, A.H. Baldwin to Dole, June 4, 1862,
ibid., _Shawnee_, 1855-1862, B 1340 of 1862], which was the red
man's usual appraisement of the white man's dealings. A rough draft
of another treaty seems to have been sent to Agent Abbott for the
Shawnees on July 18 and another, substantially the same, December 29.
One of the matters that called for adjustment was the Shawnee contract
with the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Dole affirming that "as the
principal members of that corporation, and those who control it are
now in rebellion against the U.S. Government, the said contract is
to be regarded as terminated...." [Indian Office Land Files,
_Shawnee_, 1860-1865, I 865]. Usher's letter to Dole of December
27, 1862 was the basis of the instruction. Dole's negotiations of 1863
were impeached as were all the previous, Black Bob and Paschal Fish,
the first and second chiefs of the Chillicothe Band of Shawnees,
leading the opposition. Agent Abbott was charged with using
questionable means for obtaining Indian approval [Ibid.,
General Files, _Shawnee_, 1863-1875]. Conditions at the Shawnee
Agency had been in a bad state for a long time, since before the
war. Guerrilla attacks and threatened attacks had greatly disturbed
domestic politics. They had interfered with the regular tribal
elections.

"Last fall (1862), owing to the constant disturbance on the border of
Mo., the election was postponed from time to time, until the 12th of
January. Olathe had been sacked, Shawnee had been burned, and the
members of the Black Bob settlement had been robbed and driven from
their homes, and it had not been considered safe for any considerable
number to congregate together from the fact that the Shawnees usually
all come on horseback, and the bushwhackers having ample means to know
what was going on, would take the opportunity to make a dash among
them, and secure their horses.

"De Soto was designated as the place to hold the election it being
some twenty miles from the border ..."--Abbott to Dole, April 6, 1863,
Ibid., Land Files, _Shawnee_, 1860-1865, A 158. In the
summer, the Shawnees made preparations for seeking a new home. Their
confidence in Abbott must have been by that time somewhat restored,
since the prospecting delegation invited him to join it [ibid.,
_Shawnee_, A 755 of 1864]. A chief source of grievance against him
and cause for distrust of him had reference to certain depredation
claims of the Shawnees [Ibid., General Files, _Shawnee_,
1855-1862, I 801].]

[Footnote 683: The Kaw lands had been greatly depredated upon and
encroached upon [Ibid., Land Files, _Kansas_, 1862]. Dole
anticipated that troubles were likely to ensue at any moment. He,
therefore, desired to put the Kaws upon the Cherokee land just as soon
as it was out of danger [Dole to H.W. Farnsworth, October 24, 1863,
ibid., _Letter Book_, no. 72, p. 57]. Jeremiah Hadley, the agent
for a contemplated Mission School among the Kaws, was much exercised
as to how a removal might affect his contract and work. See his letter
to Dole, November 17, 1863.

An abortive treaty was likewise made with the Wyandots, whom Dole
(cont.)]

recently[684] so generously consented to receive the unwelcome

[Footnote 683: (cont.) designed to place upon the Seneca-Shawnee
lands. Both the Wyandots and the Seneca-Shawnees objected to the
ratification of the treaty [Coffin to Dole, January 28, 1864, Indian
Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, C 639 of 1864].]

[Footnote 684: They had recently done another thing that, at the time
of occurrence, the Federals in Kansas deemed highly commendable. They
had murderously attacked a group of Confederate recruiting officers,
whom they had overtaken or waylaid on the plains. The following
contemporary documents, when taken in connection with Britton's
account [_Civil War on the Border_, vol. ii, 228], W.L. Bartles's
address [Kansas Historical Society, _Collections_, vol. viii,
62-66], and Elder's letter to Blunt, May 17, 1863, _Official
Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 286, amply describe the affair:

(a)

"I have just returned to this place from the Grand Council of the
Great and Little Osage Indians. I found them feeling decidedly fine
over their recent success in destroying a band of nineteen rebels
attempting to pass through their country. A band of the Little Osages
met them first and demanded their arms and that they should go with
them to Humboldt (as we instructed them to do at the Council at
Belmont). The rebels refused and shot one of the Osages dead. The
Osages then fired on them. They ran and a running fight was kept up
for some 15 miles. The rebel guide was killed early in the action.
After crossing Lightning Creek, the rebels turned up the creek toward
the camp of the Big Hill Camp. The Little Osages had sent a runner
to aprise the Big Hills of the presence of the rebels and they were
coming down the creek 400 strong, and met the rebels, drove them to
the creek and surrounded them. The rebels displayed a white flag but
the Indians disregarded it. They killed all of them as they supposed;
but afterwards learned that two of them, badly wounded, got down a
steep bank of the creek and made their escape down the creek. They
scalped them all and cut their heads off. They killed 4 of their
horses (which the Indians greatly regretted) and captured 13, about 50
revolvers, most of the rebels having 4 revolvers, a carbine and
saber. There were 3 colonels, one lieutenant-colonel, one major and 4
captains. They had full authority to organise enroll and muster into
rebel service all the rebels in Colorado and New Mexico where they
were doubtless bound. Major Dowdney [Doudna] in command of troops at
Humboldt went down with a detachment and buried them and secured the
papers, letting the Indians keep all the horses, arms, etc. I have no
doubt that this will afford more protection to the frontiers of Kansas
than anything that has yet been done and from the frequency and
boldness of the raids recently something of the kind was very much
needed. The Indians are very much elated over it. I gave them all
the encouragement I could, distributed between two and three hundred
dollars worth of goods amongst them. There was a representative at the
Council from the Osages that have gone South, many of them now in the
army. He stated that they were all now very anxious to get back, and
wished to know if they should meet the loyal Osages on the hunt on the
Plains and come in with them if they could be suffered to stay. I gave
him a letter to them promising them if they returned immediately and
(cont.)]

refugees on the Ottawa Reserve,[685] were distinctly overreached by
the government representatives, working in the interest of corporate
wealth. In August, the chief men of the Osages had gone up to the Sac
and Fox Agency to confer with Dole,[686] but Dole was being

[Footnote 684: (cont.) joined their loyal brethren in protecting the
frontiers, running down Bushwhackers, and ridding the country of
rebels, they should be protected. I advised them to come immediately
to Humboldt and report to Major Dowdney and he would furnish them
powder and lead to go on the hunt. This seemed to give great
satisfaction to all the chiefs as they are exceedingly desirous to
have them back and the representative started immediately back with
the letter, and the Indians as well as the Fathers of the Mission have
no doubt but they will return. If so, it will very materially weaken
the rebel force now sorely pressing Col. Phillips' command at Fort
Gibson.

"The Osages are now very desirous to make a treaty are willing to sell
25 miles in width by 50 off the east end of their reservation and 20
miles wide off the north side, but I will write more fully of this
in a day or two."--COFFIN to Dole, June 10, 1863, Indian Office
Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, C 299 of 1863.

(b)

"It will be remembered that sometime in the month of May last a party
consisting of nineteen rebel officers duly commissioned and authorised
to organise the Indians and what rebels they might find in Colorado
and New Mexico against the Government of the United States while
passing through the country of the Great and Little Osages were
attacked and the whole party slaughtered by these Indians. As an
encouragement to those Indians to continue their friendship and
loyalty to our Government, I would respectfully recommend that medals
be given to the Head Chief of the combined tribes, White Hair, and the
Head Chief of the Little Bear and the chiefs of the Big Hill bands,
Clarimore and Beaver, four in all who were chiefly instrumental in the
destruction of those emissaries.

"I believe the bestowal of the medals would be a well deserved
acknowledgment to those chiefs for an important service rendered and
promotive of good."--COFFIN to Dole, Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Neosho_. C 596.]

[Footnote 685: Coffin to Dole, July 13, 1863, Ibid., General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1863-1864. Coffin had been
directed, by an office letter of June 24 to have the refugees removed.
See also, Dole to Hutchinson, June 24, 1863, ibid., _Letter
Book_, no. 71, p. 69. Other primary sources bearing upon this
matter are, Hutchinson to ?, June 11, 1863, ibid., _Ottawa_,
1863-1873, H 230; Elder to Dole, August 10, 1863, _Neosho_, E 22
of 1863; Hutchinson to Dole, August 21, 1863, _Ottawa_, D 236 of
1863; Mix to Elder, September 11, 1863, ibid., _Letter Book_, no.
71, p. 383.]

[Footnote 686: "About 100 of the Osages with their Chiefs and headmen
visited the Sac and Fox agency to meet me on the 20th to Council and
probably make a treaty to dispose of a part of their reserve. I was
detained with the Delawares and Quantrels raid upon Lawrence and did
not reach the reserve (cont.)]

unavoidably detained by the Delawares and by Quantrill's raid upon
Lawrence,[687] so, becoming impatient, they left. The commissioner
followed them to Leroy and before the month was out, he was able to
report a treaty as made.[688] It was apparently done over-night and
yet

[Footnote 686: (cont.) until the 25th and found the Osages had left
that day for their homes. I followed them to this place [Leroy] 40
miles south of the Sac and Fox agency and have been in Council with
them for two days. I have some doubt about succeeding in a treaty as
the Indians do not understand parting with their lands in trust. I
could purchase all we want at present for not exceeding 25 cts pr acre
but doubt whether the Senate would ratify such a purchase--as they
have adopted the Homestead policy with the Gov't lands and would not
wish to purchase of the Indians to give to the whites. I propose to
purchase 25 miles by 40 in the S.E. corner of their reserve @ 5 pr.
ct making a dividend of 10,000 annually. I have two reasons for this
purchase. 1st I want the land for other Kansas tribes and 2nd The
Indians are paupers now and must have this much money any way or
starve. Then I propose to take in trust the north half of their
reserve--to be sold for their benefit as the Sac and Fox and other
tribes dispose of their lands. To this last the Indians object they
want to sell outright and I may fail in consequence. We shall not
differ much about the details--if we can agree on the main points--I
shall know to-day--

"From here I return to the Sac and Fox agency where I have some hopes
of making a treaty with them or at least agree upon the main points so
soon as they can be provided with another home--The fact that we have
failed to drive the traitors out of the Indian Country interfers very
much with my operations here--from the Sac and Fox Reserve I may go to
the Pottawatamies but rather expect that I will return to Leavenworth
where I shall again council with the Delawares and from there go to
the Kickapoos--Senator Pomeroy is here with me and will probably
remain with me--Judge Johnston is also with me and assisting me as
Clerk since Mr. Whiting left. This is not considered as a very safe
country as Bush Whackers are plenty and bold--You may show this to Sec
Usher--"--Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, D 195 of
1863.]

[Footnote 687: Connelley, _Quantrill and the Border Wars_,
335-420.]

[Footnote 688: "I arrived here last night from Leroy, after having
succeeded in effecting a treaty with the Osage Indians by which the
Govt. obtain of them by purchase thirty miles in extent off the East
end of their reserve (at a cost of 300,000$ to remain on interest
_forever_ at _5 pr ct_--which gives them an annuity of
15000$ annually)--They also cede to the U.S. _in trust_ twenty
miles off the North side of the Bal. of their reserve the full extent
east and west--to be disposed of as the Sec. Int. shall direct for
their benefit--with the usual reserves to half breeds--provision for
schools etc.--I have been all this afternoon in Council with the
Delewares who have to the No. of 30 or 40 followed me out here for the
purpose of again talking over (cont.)]

it was not a conclusive thing; for, in October, the Osage chiefs were
still making propositions[689] and

[Footnote 688: (cont.) the proposed treaty with them. They had trouble
after I left them at Leavenworth, but our council today has done good
and they have just left for home with the agreement to call a council
and send a delegation to the Cherokees to look up a new home--When
will Jno. Ross leave for his people. I wish he could be there when the
Delaware delegation goes down--as I am exceedingly anxious that they
get a home of the Cherokees.

"I think there is but little doubt but I shall make a treaty with the
Sac and Foxes as they say they are _satisfied_ to remove to a
part of the Land I have purchased of the Osages--on the line next the
Cherokees--I can make a treaty with the Creeks and may do so but I
think I will make it _conditional_ upon the signatures of some of
the Chiefs now in the army--Those here are very anxious to treat and
sell us a large tract of the country The trouble with the Southern
Indians is their claims for losses by the war I will have to put in
a clause of some kind to satisfy them on that subject--That they are
entitled to it I have no doubt--but what view Congress will take
of it--or the Senate in ratifying the treaty of course I cannot
tell--Some of the Wyandots are here--

"I have just closed a Council with the Sac and Foxes and have heard
many fine speeches. We meet again day after tomorrow--as tomorrow
must be appropriated to the Creeks--I think I shall have a success
here--The Sack and Foxes to the No of say two hundred have a dance out
on the green They are dressed and painted for the occasion and as it
is in honor of my visit I must go out and witness it * * * Well we
have had an extensive dance which cost me a beef and while waiting for
a Chipaway Chief who comes as I learn to complain of his agent I go on
with my Letter--The New York Indians are tolerably well represented
and I shall talk with them tonight--This is a grand jubilee amongst
the Indians here. So many tribes and parts of tribes or their Chiefs
gathered here to see the Comr. Paint and feathers are in great demand
and singing, whooping--and the Drum is constantly ringing in my
ears. I am satisfied that it is a good arrangement to have them here
together it is cheaper and better and saves much time.

"I made a great mistake that I did not bring maps of the reserves
and especially of the Indian Territory--I do the best I can from the
Treaties.

"I have had no mail for Eight Days as my mail is at Leavenworth. I
expect my letters day after tomorrow when I hope to have a late letter
from you as well as one from the Sec.--Will you please send Hutchinson
some money he must have funds to pay for surveying and alloting the
Ottawa reserve The survey is finished and pay demanded."

[Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, D 198 of 1863].]

[Footnote 689: The propositions were in the form of a memorandum,
drawn up by White Hair, principal chief of the Great and Little
Osages, and Little Bear, principal chief of the Little Osages, who, in
conjunction with Charles Mograin, assistant head chief of the Great
and Little Osages, had been (cont.)]

making them after the fashion of the Creeks long before at Indian
Springs.[690] Dole had finally to be told that the rank and file of
the Osages would not allow their chiefs to confer with him except
in general council.[691] As a matter of fact, not one of the Dole
treaties could run the gauntlet of criticism and, consequently, the
whole project of treaty-making in 1862 and 1863 accomplished nothing
beneficial. It only served to complicate a situation already serious
and to forecast that when the great test should come, as come it
surely would, the government would be found wanting, lacking in
magnanimity, lacking in justice, and all too willing to sacrifice its
honor for big interests and transient causes.

[Footnote 689: (cont.) solicited by their people, when in council at
Humboldt, July 4, to proceed to Washington and interview their Great
Father [Coffin to Dole, July 16, 1863, Indian Office Consolidated
Files, _Neosho_, C 365 of 1863]. The propositions were to the
effect that the Osages would gladly sell thirty miles by twenty miles
off the southeast corner of their Reserve and one-half of the Reserve
on the north for $1,350,000, which should draw six per cent interest
until paid [Ibid., D 239 of 1863]. John Schoenmaker of the
Osage Mission was apprehensive that the Roman Catholic interests would
be disregarded as in the Potawatomi Treaty. See letter to Coffin, June
25th.]

[Footnote 690: Abel, _Indian Consolidation West of the
Mississippi_.]

[Footnote 691: Charles Mograin warned Dole of this.]




XI. INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1863, JANUARY TO JUNE INCLUSIVE


As with the war as a whole, so with that part of it waged on the
Arkansas frontier, the year 1863 proved critical. Its midsummer season
saw the turning-point in the respective fortunes of the North and the
South, both in the east and in the west. The beginning of 1863 was a
time for recording great depletion of resources in Indian Territory,
as elsewhere, great disorganization within Southern Indian ranks, and
much privation, suffering, and resultant dissatisfaction among the
tribes generally. The moment called for more or less sweeping changes
in western commands. Those most nearly affecting the Arkansas frontier
were the establishment of Indian Territory as a separate military
entity[692] and the detachment of western Louisiana

[Footnote 692: The establishment of a separate command for Indian
Territory was not accomplished all at once. In December, 1862, Steele
had been ordered to report to Holmes for duty and, in the first
week of January, he was given the Indian Territory post, subject to
Hindman. On or about the eighth, he assumed command [_Official
Records_, vol. xxii, part i, 28] at Fort Smith. In less than a
week thereafter, his command was separated from that of Hindman
[Ibid., part ii, 771]. The following document shows exactly
what had been the previous relation between the two:

  Head Qrs. Dept. Indn. Terry.
  Ft. Smith, Jan. 31st, 1863.

COLONEL: Your special No. 22, par. viii has been recd. I would
respectfully suggest that when assigned to this command by Maj. Gen'l
Hindman the command was styled in orders, "1st Div'n 1st Corps Trans.
Miss. Army." The special order referred to, it is respectfully
suggested, may be susceptible of misconstruction as there are under my
command two separate Brigades, one under the command (cont.)]

and Texas from the Trans-Mississippi Department.[693] Both were
accomplished in January and both were directly due to a somewhat tardy
realization of the vast strategic importance of the Indian country.
Unwieldy, geographically, the Trans-Mississippi Department had long
since shown itself to be. Moreover, it was no longer even passably
safe to leave the interests of Indian Territory subordinated to those
of Arkansas.[694]

The man chosen, after others, his seniors in rank, had declined the
dubious honor,[695] for the command of Indian Territory was William
Steele, brigadier-general, northern born, of southern sympathies. Thus
was ignored whatever claim Douglas H. Cooper might have been thought
to have by reason of his intimate and long acquaintance with Indian
affairs and his influence, surpassingly great, with certain of the
tribes. Cooper's unfortunate weakness, addiction to intemperance, had
stood more or less in the way of his promotion right along just as
it had decreased his military efficiency on at least one memorable
occasion and had hindered the confirmation of his appointment as
superintendent of Indian affairs in the Arkansas and Red River
constituency. In this narrative, as events are divulged, it will be
seen that the preference for Steele exasperated Cooper, who was not a
big enough man to put love of country before the gratification of his
own

[Footnote 692: (cont.) of Gen'l D.H. Cooper and one under command of
Col. J.W. Speight.

I am, Col., Very Res'py W. STEELE, _Brig. Gen'l_.,
Col. S.S. Anderson, A.A.G.

P.S. Please find enclosed printed Gen. Order, no. 4, which I have
assumed the responsibility of issuing on receipt of Lt. Gen'l Holmes'
order declaring my command in the Ind'n country independent.

(Sd) W. STEELE, _Brig. Gen'l_.

[A.G.O., _Confederate Records_, chap. 2, no. 270, p. 65].]

[Footnote 693: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 771-772.]

[Footnote 694:--Ibid., 771.]

[Footnote 695:--Ibid., 843; _Confederate Records_, chap.
2, no. 270, pp. 25-27.]

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF MONTHLY INSPECTION REPORT OF THE SECOND
CREEK REGIMENT OF MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS.]

ambition, consequently friction developed between him and his rival
highly detrimental to the service to which each owed his best thought,
his best endeavor.[696]

Conditions in Indian Territory, at the time Steele took command, were
conceivably the worst that could by any possibility be imagined. The
land had been stripped of its supplies, the troops were scarcely
worthy of the name.[697] Around Fort Smith, in Arkansas, things
were equally bad.[698] People were clamoring for protection against
marauders, some were wanting only the opportunity to move themselves
and their effects far away out of the reach of danger, others were
demanding that the unionists be cleaned out just as secessionists had,
in some cases, been. Confusion worse confounded prevailed. Hindman
had resorted to a system of almost wholesale furloughing to save
expense.[699] Most of the Indians had taken advantage of it and
were off duty when Steele arrived. Many had preferred to subsist at
government cost.[700] There was so little in their own homes for them
to get. Forage was practically non-existent and Steele soon had it
impressed [701] upon him that troops in the Indian Territory ought, as
Hindman had come to think months before,[702] to be all unmounted.

Although fully realizing that it was incumbent upon him to hold Fort
Smith as a sort of key to his entire command, Steele knew it would be
impossible to

[Footnote 696: It might as well be said, at the outset, that Cooper
was not the ranking officer of Steele. He claimed that he was
[_Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 1037-1038]; but the
government disallowed the contention [Ibid., 1038].]

[Footnote 697:--Ibid., part i, 28; part ii, 862, 883, 909.]

[Footnote 698: _Confederate Records_, chap. 2, no. 270, pp.
29-30.]

[Footnote 699: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 895, 909.]

[Footnote 700:--Ibid., part i, 30.]

[Footnote 701: _Confederate Records_, chap. 2, no. 270, p. 31.]

[Footnote 702: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 51.]

maintain any considerable force there. He, therefore, resolved to
take big chances and to attempt to hold it with as few men as his
commissary justified, trusting that he would be shielded from attack
"by the inclemency of the season and the waters of the Arkansas."[703]
The larger portion of his army[704] was sent southward, in the
direction of Red River.[705] But lack of food and forage was, by no
manner of means, the only difficulty that confronted Steele. He was
short of guns, particularly of good guns,[706] and distressingly short
of money.[707] The soldiers had not been paid for months.

The opening of 1863 saw changes, equally momentous, in Federal
commands. Somewhat captiously, General Schofield discounted recent
achievements of Blunt and advised that Blunt's District of Kansas
should be completely disassociated from the Division of the Army of
the Frontier,[708] which he had, at Schofield's own earlier request,
been commanding. It was another instance of personal jealousy,
interstate rivalry, and local

[Footnote 703: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part i, 30.]

[Footnote 704: Perhaps the word, _army_, is inapplicable here.
Steele himself was in doubt as to whether he was in command of an army
or of a department [_Confederate Records_, chap. 2, no. 270, p.
54].]

[Footnote 705: _Confederate Records_, chap. 2, no. 270, p. 36.
See also, Steele to Anderson, January 22, 1863 [ibid., 50-51], which
besides detailing the movements of Steele's men furnishes, on the
authority of "Mr. Thomas J. Parks of the Cherokee Nation," evidence
of brutal murders and atrocities committed by Blunt's army "whilst
on their march through the northwestern portion of this State in the
direction of Kansas."]

[Footnote 706: Crosby's telegram, February first, to the Chief of
Ordnance is sufficient attestation,

"Many of Cooper's men have inferior guns and many none at all. Can you
supply?" [Ibid., 65-66].]

[Footnote 707: The detention and the misapplication of funds by
William Quesenbury seem to have been largely responsible for Steele's
monetary embarrassment [ibid., 28, 63-64, 75, 76, 77, 79-81, 101,
147]. Cotton speculation in Texas was alluring men with ready money
southward [ibid., 94, 104].]

[Footnote 708: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 6.]

conflict of interests.[709] So petty was Schofield and so much in a
mood for disparagement that he went the length of condemning the work
of Blunt and Herron[710] in checking Hindman's advance as but a series
of blunders and their success at Prairie Grove as but due to an
accident.[711] General Curtis, without, perhaps, having any particular
regard for the aggrieved parties himself, resented Schofield's
insinuations against their military capacity, all the more so, no
doubt, because he was not above making the same kind of criticisms
himself and was not impervious to them. In the sequel, Schofield
reorganized the divisions of his command, relieved Blunt altogether,
and personally resumed the direction of the Army of the Frontier.[712]
Blunt went back to his District of Kansas and made his headquarters at
Fort Leavenworth.

In some respects, the reorganization decided upon by Schofield proved
a consummation devoutly to be wished; for, within the reconstituted
First Division was placed an Indian Brigade, which was consigned to
the charge of a man the best fitted of all around to have it, Colonel
William A. Phillips.[713] And that was not all; inasmuch as the Indian
Brigade, consisting of the three regiments of Indian Home Guards, a
battalion of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, and a four-gun battery that had
been captured at the Battle of Old

[Footnote 709: It seems unnecessary and inappropriate to drag into the
present narrative the political squabbles that disgraced Missouri,
Kansas, Arkansas, and Colorado during the war. Lane was against
Schofield, Gamble against Curtis.]

[Footnote 710: Yet both Blunt and Herron were, at this very time, in
line for promotion, as was Schofield, to the rank of major-general
[_Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, II, 95.]]

[Footnote 711:--Ibid., 6, 12, 95; _Confederate Military
History_, vol. x, 195.]

[Footnote 712:--Ibid., 22.]

[Footnote 713: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_ vol. ii,
18-19.]

Fort Wayne,[714] was almost immediately detached from the rest of
Schofield's First Division and assigned to discretionary "service in
the Indian Nation and on the western border of Arkansas."[715] It
continued so detached even after Schofield's command had been deprived
by Curtis of the two districts over which the brigade was to range,
the eighth and the ninth.[716] Thus, at the beginning of 1863, had the
Indian Territory in a sense come into its own. Both the Confederates
and the Federals had given it a certain measure of military autonomy
or, at all events, a certain opportunity to be considered in and for
itself.

Indian Territory as a separate military entity came altogether too
late into the reckonings of the North and the South. It was now a
devastated land, in large areas, desolate. General Curtis and many
another like him might well express regret that the red man had to be
offered up in the white man's slaughter.[717] It was unavailing regret
and would ever be. Just as with the aborigines who lay athwart the
path of empire and had to yield or be crushed so with the civilized
Indian of 1860. The contending forces of a fratricidal war had little
mercy for each other and none at all for him. Words of sympathy were
empty indeed. His fate was inevitable. He was between the upper and
the nether mill-stones and, for him, there was no escape.

Indian Territory was really in a terrible condition. Late in 1862, it
had been advertised even by southern men as lost to the Confederate
cause and had been

[Footnote 714: It is not very clear whether or not the constituents of
the Indian Brigade were all at once decided upon. They are listed as
they appear in Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. ii,
3. Schofield seems to have hesitated in the matter [_Official
Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 26].]

[Footnote 715:--Ibid., 33.]

[Footnote 716: On the subject of the reduction of Schofield's command,
see Ibid., 40.]

[Footnote 717: Curtis to Phillips, February 17, 1863, Ibid.,
113-114.]

practically abandoned to the jayhawker. Scouting parties of both
armies, as well as guerrillas, had preyed upon it like vultures.
Indians, outside of the ranks, were tragic figures in their utter
helplessness. They dared trust nobody. It was time the Home Guard was
being made to justify its name. Indeed, as Ellithorpe reported, "to
divert them to any other operations" than those within their own gates
"will tend to demoralize them to dissolution."[718]

The winter of 1862-1863 was a severe one. Its coming had been long
deferred; but, by the middle of January, the cold weather had set
in in real earnest. Sleet and snow and a constantly descending
thermometer made campaigning quite out of the question. Colonel
Phillips, no more than did his adversary, General Steele, gave any
thought to an immediate offensive. Like Steele his one idea was to
replenish resources and to secure an outfit for his men. They had been
provided with the half worn-out baggage train of Blunt's old division.
It was their all and would be so until their commander could
supplement it by contrivances and careful management. Incidentally,
Phillips expected to hold the line of the Arkansas River; but not to
attempt to cross it until spring should come. It behooved him to look
out for Marmaduke whose expeditions into Missouri[719] were cause for
anxiety, especially as their range might at any moment be extended.

The Indian regiments of Phillips's brigade were soon reported[720]
upon by him and declared to be in a sad state. The first regiment was
still, to all intents and purposes, a Creek force, notwithstanding
that its fortunes had been varied, its desertions, incomparable.

[Footnote 718: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 49.]

[Footnote 719: _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 161, 162.]

[Footnote 720: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 56-58.]

The second regiment, after many vicissitudes, and after having gotten
rid of its unmanageable elements, notably, the Osages and the Quapaws,
had become a Cherokee and the third was largely so. That third
regiment was Phillips's own and was the only one that could claim the
distinction of being disciplined and even it was exposed occasionally
to the chronic weakness of all Indian soldiers, absence without leave.
The Indian, on his own business bent, was disposed to depart whenever
he pleased, often, too, at times most inopportune, sometimes, when he
had been given a special and particular task. He knew not the usages
of army life and really meant no offence; but, all the same, his utter
disregard of army discipline made for great disorder.

It was not the chief cause of disorder, however, for that was the
unreliability of the regimental officers. The custom, from the first,
had been to have the field officers white men, a saving grace; but the
company officers, with few exceptions, had been Indians and totally
incompetent. Strange as it may seem, drilling was almost an unknown
experience to the two regiments that had been mustered in for the
First Indian Expedition. To obviate some of the difficulties already
encountered, Phillips had seen to it that the third regiment had
profited by the mistakes of its forerunners. It had, therefore, been
supplied with white first lieutenants and white sergeants, secured
from among the non-commissioned men of other commands. The result had
fully justified the innovation. After long and careful observation,
Phillips's conclusion was that it was likely to be productive of
irretrievable disaster and consequently an unpardonable error of
judgment "to put men of poor ability in an Indian regiment." Primitive
man has an inordinate respect for a strong

character. He appreciates integrity, though he may not have it among
his own gifts of nature. "An Indian company improperly officered" will
inevitably become, to somebody's discomfiture, "a frightful mess."

If any one there was so foolish as to surmise that the independent
commands, northern and southern, would be given free scope to
solve the problems of Indian Territory, unhampered by contingent
circumstances, he was foreordained to grevious disappointment.
Indian Territory had still to subserve the interests of localities,
relatively more important. It would be so to the very end. In and for
herself, she would never be allowed to do anything and her commanders,
no matter how much they might wish it otherwise--and to their lasting
honor, be it said, many of them did--would always have to subordinate
her affairs to those of the sovereign states around her; for even
northern states were sovereign in practice where Indians were
concerned. General Steele was one of the men who endeavored nobly to
take a large view of his responsibilities to Indian Territory. Colonel
Phillips, his contemporary in the opposite camp, was another; but both
met with insuperable obstacles. The attainment of their objects was
impossible from the start. Both men were predestined to failure.

Foraging or an occasional scouting when the weather permitted was the
only order of the winter days for Federals and Confederates. With
the advent of spring, however, Phillips became impatient for
more aggressive action. He had been given a large programme, no
insignificant part of which was, the restoration of refugees to their
impoverished homes; but his first business would necessarily have to
be, the occupancy of the country. Not far was he allowed to venture
within

it during the winter; because his superior officers wished him to
protect, before anything else, western Arkansas. Schofield and, after
Schofield's withdrawal from the command of southwestern Missouri,
Curtis had insisted upon that, while Blunt, to whom Phillips, after a
time, was made immediately accountable, was guardedly of another way
of thinking and, although not very explicit, seemed to encourage
Phillips in planning an advance.

Phillips's inability to progress far in the matter of occupancy of
Indian Territory did not preclude his keeping a close tab on Indian
affairs therein, such a tab, in fact, as amounted to fomenting an
intrigue. It will be recalled that on the occasion of his making
the excursion into the Cherokee Nation, which had resulted in his
incendiary destruction of Fort Davis, he had gained intimations of
a rather wide-spread Indian willingness to desert the Confederate
service. He had sounded Creeks and Choctaws and had found them
surprisingly responsive to his machinations. They were nothing loath
to confess that they were thoroughly disgusted with the southern
alliance. It had netted them nothing but unutterable woe. Among
those that Phillips approached, although not personally, was Colonel
McIntosh, who communicated with Phillips through two intimate friends.
McIntosh was persuaded to attempt no immediate demonstration in favor
of the North; for that would be premature, foolhardy; but to bide the
time, which could not be far distant, when the Federal troops would be
in a position to support him.[721] The psychological moment was not
yet. Blunt called Phillips back for operations outside of Indian

[Footnote 721: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 61-62.]

Territory; but the seed of treason had been sown and sown in fertile
soil, in the heart of a McIntosh.[722]

In January, 1863, Phillips took up again the self-imposed task of
emissary.[723] The unionist Cherokees, inclusive of those in the
Indian Brigade, were contemplating holding a national council on
Cowskin Prairie, which was virtually within the Federal lines.
Secessionist Cherokees, headed by Stand Watie, were determined that
such a council should not meet if they could possibly prevent it and
prevent it they would if they could only get a footing north of the
Arkansas River. Their suspicion was, that the council, if assembled,
would declare the treaty with the Confederate States abrogated. To
circumvent Stand Watie, to conciliate some of the Cherokees by making
reparation for past outrages, and to sow discord among others,
Phillips despatched Lieutenant-colonel Lewis Downing on a scout
southward. He was just in time; for the Confederates were on the
brink of hazarding a crossing at two places, Webber's Falls and Fort
Gibson.[724] Upon the return of Downing, Phillips himself moved across
the border with the avowed intention of rendering military support,
if needed, to the Cherokee Council, which convened on the fourth of
February.[725] From Camp Ross, he continued to send out scouting
parties, secret agents,[726] and agents of distribution.

The Cherokee Council assembled without the preliminary formality of a
new election. War conditions

[Footnote 722: This remark would be especially applicable if the
Colonel McIntosh, mentioned by Phillips, was Chilly, the son of
William McIntosh of Indian Springs Treaty notoriety.]

[Footnote 723: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 100.]

[Footnote 724:--Ibid., 85.]

[Footnote 725:--Ibid., 96-97.]

[Footnote 726:--Ibid., 100, 108.]

had made regular pollings impossible. Consequently, the council that
convened in February, 1863 was, to all intents and purposes, the
selfsame body that, in October, 1861, had confirmed the alliance with
the Confederate States. It was Phillips's intention to stand by, with
military arm upraised, until the earlier action had been rescinded.
While he waited, word came that the harvest of defection among the
Creeks had begun; for "a long line of persons"[727] was toiling
through the snow, each wearing the white badge on his hat that
Phillips and McIntosh had agreed should be their sign of fellowship.
Then came an order for Phillips to draw back within supporting
distance of Fayetteville, which, it was believed, the Confederates
were again threatening.[728] Phillips obeyed, as perforce, he had to;
but he left a detachment behind to continue guarding the Cherokee
Council.[729]

The legislative work of the Cherokee Council, partisan body that it
was, with Lewis Downing as its presiding officer and Thomas Pegg as
acting Principal Chief, was reactionary, yet epochal. It comprised
several measures and three of transcendant importance, passed between
the eighteenth and the twenty-first:

1. An act revoking the alliance with the Confederate States and
re-asserting allegiance to the United States.

2. An act deposing all officers of any rank or character whatsoever,
inclusive of legislative, executive, judicial, who were serving in
capacities disloyal to the United States and to the Cherokee Nation.

[Footnote 727: _Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 101.]

[Footnote 728:--Ibid., 111-112.]

[Footnote 729:--Ibid., 115.]

3. An act emancipating slaves throughout the Cherokee country.[730]

His detention in Arkansas was not at all to Phillips's liking. It
tried his patience sorely; for he felt the crying need of Indian
Territory for just such services as his and, try as he would, he could
not visualize that of Arkansas. Eagerly he watched for a chance to
return to the Cherokee country. One offered for the fifth of March but
had to be given up. Again and yet again in letters[731] to Curtis
and Blunt he expostulated against delay but delay could not well be
avoided. The pressure from Arkansas for assistance was too great.
Blunt sympathized with Phillips more than he dared openly admit and
tacitly sanctioned his advance. Never at any time could there
have been the slightest doubt as to the singleness of the virile
Scotchman's purpose. In imagination he saw his adopted country
repossessed of Indian Territory and of all the overland approaches to
Texas and Mexico from whence, as he supposed, the Confederacy expected
to draw her grain and other supplies. Some regard for the Indian
himself he doubtless had; but he used it as a means to the greater
end. His sense of justice was truly British in its keenness.

[Footnote 730: Ross to Dole, April 2, 1863 [Indian Office General
Files, _Cherokee_, 1859-1865, R 87]; Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, _Report_, 1863, p. 23; Britton, _Civil War on the
Border_, vol. ii, 24-25; Moore, _Rebellion Record_, vol. vi,
50; Eaton, _John Ross and the Cherokee Indians_, 196.]

[Footnote 731: Britton [_Civil War on the Border_, vol. ii, 27]
conveys the idea that, while Phillips, truly enough, wished to enter
the Indian country at the earliest day practicable, he did not care to
go there before the Indian ponies could "live on the range." He knew
that the refugees at Neosho would insist upon following in his wake.
It would be heartless to expose them to starvation and to the ravages
of diseases like the small-pox. Nevertheless, the correspondence of
Phillips, scattered through the _Official Records_, vol. xxii,
part ii, 121-367, shows conclusively that the weeks of waiting were
weary ones.]

His Indian soldiers loved him. They believed in him. He was able to
accomplish wonders in training them. He looked after their welfare and
he did his best to make the government and its agents of the Indian
Office keep faith with the refugees. Quite strenuously, too, he
advocated further enlistments from among the Indians, especially from
among those yet in Indian Territory. If the United States did not take
care, the Confederates would successfully conscript where the Federals
might easily recruit. In this matter as in many another, he had
Blunt's unwavering support; for Blunt wanted the officers of the
embryo fourth and fifth regiments to secure their commands. Blunt's
military district was none too full of men.

March was then as now the planting season in the Arkansas Valley and,
as Phillips rightly argued, if the indigent Indians were not to be
completely pauperized, they ought to be given an opportunity to be
thrown once more upon their own resources, to be returned home in time
to put in crops. When the high waters subsided and the rivers became
fordable, he grew more insistent. There was grass in the valley of the
Arkansas and soon the Confederates would be seizing the stock that
it was supporting. He had held the line of the Arkansas by means of
scouts all winter, but scouting would not be adequate much longer. The
Confederates were beginning, in imitation of the Federals, to attach
indigents to their cause by means of relief distribution and the
"cropping season was wearing on."

At the end of March, some rather unimportant changes were made by
Curtis in the district limits of his department and coincidently
Phillips moved over the border. The first of April his camp was at
Park Hill. His great desire was to seize Fort Smith; for he

realized that not much recruiting could be done among the Choctaws
while that post remained in Confederate hands. Blunt advised caution.
It would not even do to attempt as yet any permanent occupation south
of the Arkansas. Dashes at the enemy might be made, of course,
but nothing more; for at any moment those higher up might order a
retrograde movement and anyhow no additional support could be counted
upon. Halleck was still calling for men to go to Grant's assistance
and accusing Curtis of keeping too many needlessly in the West. The
Vicksburg campaign was on.

The order that Blunt anticipated finally came and Curtis called for
Phillips to return. La Rue Harrison, foraging in Arkansas,[732] was
whining for assistance. Phillips temporized, having no intention
whatsoever of abandoning his appointed goal. His arguments were
unanswerable but Curtis like Halleck could never be made to appreciate
the plighted faith that lay back of Indian participation in the war
and the strategic importance of Indian Territory. The northern Indian
regiments, pleaded Phillips, were never intended for use in Arkansas.
Why should they go there? It was doubtful if they could ever be
induced to go there again. They had been recruited to recover the
Indian Territory and now that they were within it they were going to
stay until the object had been attained. Phillips solicited Blunt's
backing and got it, to the extent, indeed, that Blunt informed Curtis
that if he wanted Indian Territory given up he must order it himself
and take the consequences. It was not given up but Phillips suffered
great embarrassments in holding it. The only support Blunt could
render him was to send a negro regiment to Baxter Springs to protect
supply

[Footnote 732: _Confederate Military History_, vol. x, 166-168.]

trains. Guerrillas and bushwhackers were everywhere and Phillips's
command was half-starved. Smallpox[733] broke out and, as the men
became more and more emaciated, gained ground. Phillips continued to
make occasional dashes at the enemy and in a few engagements he was
more than reasonably successful. Webber's Falls was a case in point.

As May advanced, the political situation in Missouri seemed to call
loudly for a change in department commanders and President Lincoln,
quite on his own initiative apparently, selected Schofield to succeed
Curtis,[734] Curtis having identified himself with a faction opposed
to Governor Gamble. The selection was obnoxious to many and to none
more than to Herron and to Blunt, whose military exploits Schofield
had belittled. The former threatened resignation if Schofield were
appointed but the latter restrained himself and for a brief space all
went well, Schofield even manifesting some sympathy for Phillips at
Fort Gibson, or Fort Blunt, as the post, newly fortified, was now
called. He declared that the Arkansas River must be secured its
entire length; but the Vicksburg campaign was still demanding men and
Phillips had to struggle on, unaided. Indeed, he was finally told
that if he could not hold on by himself he must fall back and let
the Indian Territory take care of itself until Vicksburg should have
fallen.

[Footnote 733: Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. ii, 26.]

[Footnote 734: A change had been resolved upon in March, E.V. Sumner
being the man chosen; but he died on the way out [Livermore, _Story
of the Civil War_, part iii, book i, 256]. Sumner had had a wide
experience with frontier conditions, first, in the marches of the
dragoons [Pelzer, _Marches of the Dragoons in the Mississippi
Valley_] later, in New Mexico [Abel, _Official Correspondence of
James S. Calhoun_], and, still later, in ante-bellum Kansas. His
experience had been far from uniformly fortunate but he had learned a
few very necessary lessons, lessons that Schofield had yet to con.]

The inevitable clash between Schofield and Blunt was not long
deferred. It came over a trifling matter but was fraught with larger
meanings.[735] It was probably as much to get away from Schofield's
near presence as to see to things himself in Indian Territory that led
Blunt to go down in person to Fort Gibson. He arrived there on the
eleventh of July, taking Phillips entirely by surprise. Vicksburg had
fallen about a week before.

The difficulties besetting Colonel Phillips were more than matched by
those besetting General Steele. He, too, struggled on unaided, nay,
more, he was handicapped at every turn. Scarcely had he taken command
at Fort Smith when he was apprised of the fact that the chief armorer
there had been ordered to remove all the tools to Arkadelphia.[736]
Steele was hard put to it to obtain any supplies at all.[737] Many
that he did get the promise of were diverted from their course,[738]
just as were General Pike's. This was true even in the case of
shoes.[739] He tried to fit his regiments out one by one with the
things the men required in readiness for a spring campaign[740] but it
was up-hill work. And what was perfectly incomprehensible to him was,
that when his need was so great there was yet corn available for
private parties to speculate in and to realize enormous profits
on.[741] In April, the Indian regiments, assembling and reforming
in expectation of a call to action, made special demands upon his
granaries but they were

[Footnote 735: June 9, orders issued redistricting Schofield's
Department of Missouri [_Official Records_, vol. xxii, part ii,
315].]

[Footnote 736: _Confederate Records_, chap. 2, no. 270, p. 34.]

[Footnote 737: Steele to Blair, February 10, 1863, Ibid.,
87-88.]

[Footnote 738: Steele to Anderson, February 8, 1863, Ibid.,
81-82.]

[Footnote 739: Duval to Cabell, May 15, 1863, Ibid., 244-245.]

[Footnote 740: Steele to Cabell, March 19, 1863, Ibid., 148.]

[Footnote 741: Steele to Anderson, March 22, 1863, Ibid., 158.]

nearly empty.[742] It was not possible for him to furnish corn for
seed or, finally, the necessaries of life to indigent Indians. Indian
affairs complicated, his situation tremendously.[743] He could get no
funds and no

[Footnote 742: Steele to Anderson, April 3, 1863, _Confederate
Records_, 179-180.]

[Footnote 743: For instance the officers of the First Cherokee
regiment had a serious dispute as to the ranking authority among
them [Ibid., Letter from Steele, March 14, 1863, p. 143]. The
following letters indicate that there were other troubles and other
tribes in trouble also:

(a)

"Your communication of 13 Inst. is to hand. I am directed by the
Commanding Gen'l to express to you his warmest sympathy in behalf of
your oppressed people, and his desire and determination to do all
that may be in his power to correct existing evils and ameliorate the
condition of the loyal Cherokees. The Gen'l feels proud to know that a
large portion of your people, actuated by a high spirit of patriotism,
have shown themselves steadfast and unyielding in their allegiance to
our Government notwithstanding the bitter hardships and cruel ruthless
outrages to which they have been subjected.

"It is hoped that the time is not very far distant, when your people
may again proudly walk their own soil, exalted in the feeling, perhaps
with the consciousness that our cruel and cowardly foe has been
adequately punished and humiliated.

"Your communication has been ford. to Lt Gen'l Holmes with the urgent
request that immediate steps be taken to bring your people fully
within the pale of civilized warfare.

"It is hoped that there may be no delay in a matter so vitally
important.

"We are looking daily for the arrival of Boats from below with corn,
tis the wish of the Gen'l that the necessitous Indians sh'd be
supplied from this place. Boats w'd be sent farther up the river, were
we otherwise circumstanced. As it is the Boats have necessarily to run
the gauntlet of the enemy--The Gen'l however hopes to be able to keep
the River free to navigation until a sufficient supply of corn to
carry us through the winter can be accumulated at this place.

"You will receive notice of the arrival of corn so that it may
be conveyed to the Indians needing it."--CROSBY to Stand Watie,
commanding First Cherokee Regiment, February 16, 1863, Ibid.,
pp. 91-93.

(b)

"I am directed by Gen'l Steele to say that a delegation from the
Creeks have visited him since your departure and a full discussion has
been had of such matters as they are interested in.

"They brought with them a letter from the Principal Chief Moty Kennard
asking that the Cattle taken from the refugee Creeks be turned over to
the use of the loyal people of the nation. The Gen. Com'dg has ordered
a disposition of these Cattle to be made in accordance with the wishes
of the chief. If necessary please give such instructions as will
attain this object. (cont.)]

instructions from Richmond so he dealt with the natives as best he
could.[744] Small-pox became epidemic

[Footnote 743: (cont.) No Boats yet. Will endeavor to send one up the
river should more than one arrive."--Crosby to D.H. Cooper, February
19, 1863, Ibid., p. 97.

(c)

"I enclose, herewith, a letter from the agent of the Seminoles. You
will see from that letter the danger we are in from neglecting the
wants of the Indians. I have never had one cent of money pertaining
to the Indian superintendency, nor have I received any copies of
treaties, nor anything else that would give me an insight into the
affairs of that Department. I wrote, soon after my arrival at this
place, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs but have received
no reply. If you have any knowledge of the whereabouts of the
superintendent who has been lately appointed I hope you will urge
upon him the necessity of coming at once and attending to these
matters."--STEELE to Anderson, April 6, 1863, Ibid., 180.

(d)

"I have today received a long letter from the Chief of the Osages,
which I enclose for your perusal. Maj. Dorn came in from Texas a few
days since, and has, I understand, gone down to Little Rock on the
steamer 'Tahlequah.' It is certainly represented that a portion of
the funds in his hands is in specie. Please have the latter surely
delivered. Please return Black Dog's letter unless you wish to forward
it."--STEELE to Holmes, May 16, 1863, Ibid., 249.

(e)

"Letters, received today, indicate a great necessity for your presence
with the tribe for whom you are Agent. I wish you, therefore, to visit
them, and relieve the discontent, as far as the means in your hands
will permit. The Osage Chief, 'Black Dog,' now acting as 1st Chief,
claims that certain money has been turned over to you for certain
purposes, for which they have received nothing."--STEELE to A.J. Dorn,
May 16, 1863, Ibid., 249.]

[Footnote 744: "Your letter of May 6th, with letter of Black Dog
enclosed, has been received and the enclosure forwarded to Lieut. Gen.
Holmes for his information. The General Com'dg desires me to express
his regrets that the affairs of the Osage and Seminole tribes should
be in such a deplorable condition, but he is almost powerless, at
present, to remedy the evils you so justly complain of. He has written
again and again to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Richmond
requesting instructions in the discharge of his duties as ex-officio
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, but not a word has ever been
received in reply to his reiterated requests, owing probably to the
difficulty of communication between this point and the Capital. He has
also requested that funds be sent him to liquidate the just demands of
our Indian Allies, but from the same cause his requests have met with
no response. You must readily appreciate the difficulties under which
Gen. Steele necessarily labors. In fact his action is completely
paralized by the want of instructions and funds. In connection with
this he has been compelled to exert every faculty in defending the
lin