Note (return) — XII. INDIAN TERRITORY IN 1863, JULY TO DECEMBER INCLUSIVE

To protect its own supplies and to recuperate, the strength of the Confederate Indian brigade was directed toward Red River, notwithstanding that Steele had still the hope of dislodging the Federals north of the Arkansas.802 His difficulties803 were no less legion than before, but he thought it might be possible to accomplish the end desired by invading Kansas,804 a plan that seemed very feasible after S.P. Bankhead assumed command of the Northern Sub-District of Texas.805 Steele himself had "neither the artillery nor the kind of force necessary to take a place" fortified as was Gibson; but to the westward of the Federal stronghold Bankhead might move. He might attack Fort Scott, Blunt's headquarters but greatly weakened now, and possibly also some small posts in southwest Missouri, replenishing his resources from time to time in the fertile and well settled Neosho River Valley. Again