IX. THE REMOVAL OF THE REFUGEES TO THE SAC AND FOX AGENCY
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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.
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
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · Footnote 588: (return) Coffin to Dole, November 14, 1862, ibid., Indian Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862.Note 2 · Footnote 589: (return) C.C. Hutchinson to Dole, August 21, 1863, Indian Office General Files, Ottawa, 1863-1872, D 236.Note 3 · The removal northward was undertaken in October and consummated in a little less than two months; but at an expense that was enormous and inNote 4 · Footnote 590: (return) J.T. Jones to Dole, December 30, 1862, Indian Office General Files, Sac and Fox, 1862-1866. The precautions proved ofNote 5 · Footnote 591: (return) Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, 137.Note 6 · Footnote 592: (return) —Ibid., 1863, 175.Note 7 · Footnote 593: (return) Coffin to Dole, November 10, 1862, enclosing copies of a correspondence between him and a committee of the Cherokee rNote 8 · spirituous liquors should be brought within the limits of their Reserve under any circumstances whatsoever.590 The Creeks, Choctaws, and ChiNote 9 · Of the Cherokees, more needs to be said for they were not so easily disposed of. At various times during the past summer, Cherokees, opposedNote 10 · Footnote 594: (return) Coffin to Dole, November 14, 1862, Indian Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862.Note 11 · Footnote 595: (return) Coffin to Mix, August 31, 1863, Indian Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1863-1864, C 466. A.M. Jordan,Note 12 · Footnote 596: (return) Charles W. Chatterton, of Springfield, Illinois, who had been appointed Cherokee agent in the place of John Crawford,Note 13 · Footnote 597: (return) John Ross asked help for his own family and for the families of various relations, thirty-four persons in all. He wanNote 14 · Creek, about twelve miles south of Fort Scott, was raided by guerrillas;594 but even that had no effect upon their determination to remain. Note 15 · Arrangements were undertaken for supplying the Cherokee refugees with material relief;595 but scarcely had anything been done to that end whNote 16 · John Ross, his family, and a few friends were, meanwhile, constituting another kind of refugee in the eastern part of the United States.597 Note 17 · Footnote 598: (return) Ross and others to Dole, July 29, 1864 [ibid., General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, R 360]; Secretary of the Interior Note 18 · Footnote 599: (return) Blunt to Smith, November 21, 1862.Note 19 · of their opponents for living in too sumptuous a manner.598Note 20 · The removal, under military supervision, of the Cherokee refugees, had some justification in various facts, Blunt's firm conviction that CofNote 21 · Footnote 600: (return) Lincoln to Curtis, October 10, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 723.Note 22 · Footnote 601: (return) Curtis to Lincoln, October 10, 1862, ibid.Note 23 · Footnote 602: (return) Britton, Civil War on the Border, vol. i, 376-377.Note 24 · Footnote 603: (return) —Ibid., 379.Note 25 · Footnote 604: (return) —Ibid., 380; Bishop, Loyalty on the Frontier, 56.Note 26 · Footnote 605: (return) Blunt to Schofield, November 9, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 785.Note 27 · Footnote 606: (return) H.W. Martin to Coffin, December 20, 1862, Indian Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C 1950.Note 28 · 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 pNote 29 · General Blunt's force continued to hold the northeastern part of the Cherokee country until the end of October when it fell back, crossed thNote 30 · Footnote 607: (return) It was not discouraging to Blunt, however. His letter referring to it was even sanguine [Official Records, vol. xiii,Note 31 · Footnote 608: (return) Martin to Coffin, December 20, 1862.Note 32 · Footnote 609: (return) The Interior Department considered it, however, and consulted with the War Department as late as the twenty-sixth. SeNote 33 · Footnote 610: (return) Coffin to Henning, December 28, 1862, Indian Office Consolidated Files, Cherokee, C 17 of 1863.Note 34 · Footnote 611: (return) Coffin's letter to Dole of December 20 [Indian Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C 1950] wouNote 35 · 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 fNote 36 · So desolate and abandoned did the Cherokee country appear that General Blunt considered it would be easily possible to hold it with his IndiNote 37 · Footnote 612: (return) These Indians must have been the ones referred to in Richard C. Vaughn's letter to Colonel W.D. Wood, December i, 186Note 38 · Footnote 613: (return) Britton, Civil War on the Border, vol. i, p. 382.Note 39 · Footnote 614: (return) —Ibid., vol. i, chapter xxix.Note 40 · Footnote 615: (return) —Ibid., vol. i, chapter xxx; Official Records, vol. xxii, part i, 66-82, 82-158, vol. liii, supplement, 458-461, 866,Note 41 · Footnote 616: (return) One opinion is to the effect that the result of the Battle of Prairie Grove, Fayetteville, or Illinois Creek, was virNote 42 · 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 redNote 43 · The November operations of the Federals in northeastern Arkansas were directed toward arresting Hindman's progress, if progress were contempNote 44 · Footnote 617: (return) And yet it was only a short time previously that Major A.C. Ellithorpe, commanding the First Regiment Indian Home GuaNote 45 · Footnote 618: (return) Officers for these two regiments were appointed by the president, December 26, 1862, and ordered to report to Blunt, Note 46 · Footnote 619: (return) Phillips to Blunt, December 25, 1862 [Official Records, vol. xxii, part i, 873-874].Note 47 · conspicuously and well, the northern regiments so well,617 indeed, that shortly afterwards two additional ones, the Fourth and the Fifth, weNote 48 · Footnote 620: (return) The buildings at Fort Davis were burnt, and deliberately, by Phillips's orders. [See his own admission, ibid., part iNote 49 · Footnote 621: (return) Blunt to Weed, December 30, 1862, ibid., part i, 168.Note 50 · that Stand Watie and Cooper had been pushed considerably below the Arkansas, that many of the buildings at Fort Davis had been demolished,62Note 51 · Footnote 597: (return) (cont.) [ibid., R 14 of 1863 and requested that transportation from Leavenworth and supplies be furnished them [India