Note (return) — II. LANE'S BRIGADE AND THE INCEPTION OF THE INDIAN

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 announced161 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