Note (return) — XI. INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1863, JANUARY TO JUNE INCLUSIVE

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 army704 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.