Note (return) — IV. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST INDIAN EXPEDITION

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. Jennison216 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