Note (return) — XII. INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1863, JULY TO DECEMBER INCLUSIVE
Reading edition
Had the Federal Cherokees been authoritatively apprised of the real situation in the Indian Territory farther south, they need never have been anxious as to the safety of Fort Gibson. Steele's situation was peculiarly complex. As private personage and as commander he elicits commiseration. Small and incapable was his force,873 intriguing and intractable were his
Footnote 869:
(return)
(cont.) and Blunt, like Lane, Wilder, and others, to that of the Extremists, or Radicals. Of the Extremists the "Red Legs" were the active wing, those who indulged in retaliatory and provocative outrages. Schofield's animosity against Blunt, to some extent richly deserved, amounted almost to a persecution. He instituted an investigation of the District of the Frontier and it was upon the basis of the findings of the committee of investigation that he ordered Blunt's retirement [Schofield to Townsend, October 3, 1863, Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 595-597; Blunt to Curtis, November 30, 1864, ibid., vol. xli, part iv, 727-729]. For evidence of continued animosity see the correspondence of Champion Vaughan, ibid., vol. xxii, part ii, 738, 742.