INDEX (continued 4)

[417] The alien influence extended itself even to the wild Indians of the Plains. On the sixth of August, 1861 [General Files, Pottawatomie, 1855-1861, B704], Branch reported bad news that he had received from Agent Ross regarding the hostile approach of these Indians and remarked,

I think there can be little doubt but what emissaries of the Rebels have been and are actively engaged in creating dissatisfaction against the government with every tribe of Indians that they dare approach on that subject.

As soon as I can get the business of this office in a shape so I can conveniently leave my office duties I propose visiting the most of the tribes under this superintendency with a view to reconciling them and enjoining peace....

Similarly Captain Elmer Otis from Fort Wise, August 27, 1861, and A. G. Boone from the Upper Arkansas Agency, September 7, 1861, reported the Texans’ tampering with the Kiowas [Land Files, Upper Arkansas, 1855-1865, O40, B772], who seem successfully to have resisted their threats and their blandishments. The Comanches of Texas were also approached but they fled rather than yield [Boone to Mix, October 19, 1861, ibid., B361]. They, however, importunately demanded a treaty from the United States government in return for their loyalty. They were poor, they said, and had lost their hunting-grounds. Boone made good use of them as scouts and spies against the Texans [Letter of December 14, 1861, ibid., B1006]. They were of the Comanches who had treated with Pike and who had solemnly pledged themselves, under duress and temporary excitement, to amity and allegiance. Secret agents from the South went also among the Blackfeet and Agent Thomas G. McCulloch sent an ex-employee of the American Fur Company, named Alexander Culbertson and married to the daughter of the Blackfeet chief, as a secret agent to counteract their influence [General Files, Central Superintendency, 1860-1862].

[418] Letter to Walker, July 18, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 611].

[419] The scarcity of arms proved to be a serious matter. On the thirtieth of July, the assistant-quartermaster general, George W. Clark, telegraphed to Walker that arms had not yet arrived and that the Indians, encamped at the Old Choctaw Agency, were, in consequence, showing signs of discontent [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 620].

[420] Cooper probably spoke the truth, for the Choctaws and Chickasaws together had a population of twenty-three thousand.

In 1861, the Indian population of the Southern Superintendency was, as reported by Dole upon inquiry from Hon. J. S. Phelps of Missouri [John C. G. Kennedy, of the Census Office, to Dole, August 9, 1861]:

Chickasaws 5,000

Choctaws 18,000

Cherokees 21,000

Creeks 13,550

Seminoles (of which 1,247 were males) 2,267

[Dole’s answer, August 10, 1861].

In April, the report from the Indian Office had been:

Choctaws 18,000

Chickasaws 5,000

Total 23,000

Creeks 13,550

Cherokees 17,530

Seminoles 2,267

Neosho Agency 4,863

Leased District 2,500

Total 63,710

[Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12].

[421] Letter to President Davis [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 614].

[422] Identical with Article I of both the Cherokee and the Choctaw and Chickasaw, but different from the Seminole in that the Seminole provided simply for “perpetual peace and friendship.”

[423] The corresponding Choctaw and Chickasaw Article [XLIX] stipulated that the colonel of the regiment should be appointed by the president. Of course, Douglas H. Cooper, was at this time, the one and only candidate for the place and there is no doubt that the exception was made for his especial benefit. However, Pike objected to his holding, in addition to the colonelcy, the office of Indian agent [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 614].

Agent Garrett wanted the position of colonel in the Creek regiment and Pike recommended him, but McCulloch objected saying,

I hope the appointment will not be made, for Colonel Garrett is in no way qualified for the position, and from what I know of his habits, I am satisfied that a worse appointment could not be made.—Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 597.

This was before the treaty had been negotiated and, after it had been negotiated, Pike wrote to Walker as follows:

When I recommended the appointment of William H. Garrett, the present agent for the Creeks, to be colonel of the Creek regiment, I had not sufficiently estimated the ambition and desire for distinction of the leading men of that nation, and I also supposed that Mr. Garrett, popular with them as an agent, would be acceptable as colonel of their regiment; but when I concluded with them the very important treaty of July 10, instant, they strenuously insisted that the colonel of the regiment to be raised should be elected by the men. As the public interest did not require I should insist upon a contrary provision, by which I might have jeoparded the treaty, I yielded, and the consequence is that by the treaty, as signed and ratified by the Creek council, the field officers are all to be elected by the men of the regiment.

This being the case, I have this day written Colonel Garrett, requesting him to inform the Creeks immediately, as I have already done, that notwithstanding his appointment they will elect their colonel. If he should not do so he will cause much mischief, and would deserve severe censure; but I do not doubt he will promptly do it....—Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 623-624.

On the twenty-fourth of August, the matter was settled at Richmond by Walker’s writing to Pike,

In order that there shall be no misunderstanding with the friendly Indians west of Arkansas, this Department is anxious that the article in the treaty made by you, guaranteeing to them the right of selecting their own field officers, shall be carried out in good faith. The name of Mr. Garrett will therefore be dropped as colonel of the Creek regiment, and that regiment will proceed to elect its own officers. The regiment being formed among the Seminoles will exercise the same right. Reassure the tribes of the perfect sincerity of this Government toward them.—Ibid., 671.

The corresponding Cherokee Article [XL] differed slightly from the Creek. It seems to have taken certain things, like the choice of officers, both company and field, for granted. It reads thus:

In consideration of the common interest of the Cherokee Nation and the Confederate States, and of the protection and rights guaranteed to the said nation by this treaty, the Cherokee Nation hereby agrees that it will raise and furnish a regiment of ten companies of mounted men, with two reserve companies, if allowed, to serve in the armies of the Confederate States for twelve months; the men shall be armed by the Confederate States, receive the same pay and allowances as other mounted troops in the service, and not be moved beyond the limits of the Indian country west of Arkansas without their consent.

[424] Identical with Article LI of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty and with Article LXI of the Cherokee.

[425] Identical with Article L of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, with Article XLII of the Cherokee, and with Article XXXVI of the Seminole.

[426] Identical with Article LII of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty and with Article XLIII of the Cherokee.

[427] Frémont reported to Townsend, August 13, 1861, that Cherokee half-breeds, judging from the muster roll and from the corroborating testimony of prisoners, were with McCulloch in this battle, fought about ten miles south of Springfield, August 10, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 54]. Connelley says, in 1861, Quantrill, returning from Texas, lingered in the Cherokee Nation with a half-breed Cherokee, Joel Mayes,

Who, many years after the war, was elected Head Chief of the Nation. Mayes espoused the cause of the Confederacy and was captain of a company or band of Cherokees who followed General Ben McCulloch to Missouri.—Quantrill and the Border Wars, 198.

A letter, written by McCulloch to Colonel John Drew, September 1, 1861, seems to indicate that individual Cherokees had joined him [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 691].

[428] The Federal defeat was believed by contemporaries to have been due to mismanagement, to army friction, to the incompetency and sloth of Sigel, and to Frémont’s failure to reinforce the redoubtable Lyon, who fell in the engagement. An investigation into Sigel’s conduct was subsequently made by Halleck, Sigel’s bitter enemy. Halleck hated Sigel, because Sigel so greatly admired Frémont, whom Halleck supplanted; and because Sigel was the hero of the Germans, and one of them. For the Germans, Halleck had a great antipathy. Many of them were “pfälzisch-badischen Revolutionäre” and Halleck regarded them as adventurers or as refugees from justice. They in turn referred to Halleck as one of the West Point “bunglers” who were so numerous in the northern army, the really efficient and capable West Pointers, so they said, having all gone with the South [Kaufmann’s “Sigel und Halleck” in Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblätter, Band, 210-216, October 1910].

[429] Even in the latter part of May, these were so serious as to threaten a Cherokee civil war [Letter of John Crawford, May 21, 1861, General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865; Mix to Crawford, June 4, 1861, Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 66, pp. 15-16].

[430] Ben McCulloch to Walker, September 2, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 692]; Pike to Benjamin, December 25, 1861 [ibid., vol. viii, 720].

[431] “Meetings and Proceedings of the Executive Council of the Cherokee Nation, July 2, 1861” [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515].

[432] See “Meetings and Proceedings of the Cherokee Executive Council, August 1, 1861” [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515].

[433] Pike to Ross, August 1, 1861 [ibid.].

[434]

A general meeting of the Cherokee people was held at Tahlequah on Wednesday, the 21st day of August, 1861. It was called by the executive of the Cherokee Nation for the purpose of giving the Cherokee people an opportunity to express their opinions in relation to subjects of deep interest to themselves as individuals and as a nation. The number of persons in attendance, almost exclusively adult males, was about 4,000, whose deportment was characterized by good order and propriety, and the expression of whose opinions and feelings was frank, cordial, and of marked unanimity.—Report of the Proceedings at Tahlequah, August 21, 1861, transmitted to General McCulloch by the Executive Council, August 24, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 673].

[435] Evan Jones of the Baptist Mission, Cherokee Nation, to Dole, dated Lawrence, Kansas, November 2, 1861 [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, J503].

[436] W. S. Robertson, who for twelve years had been “teaching in the Tullahassee Manual Labor School in the Creek Nation under the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions” [Robertson’s Letter of September 30, 1861, General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, R1615].

Robertson says, that

Having witnessed the whole struggle between the Loyal & War parties, when the latter prevailed, I was on the 25^th of August ordered by a party of the “Creek Light Horse” acting under the written orders of Moty Kenard and Jacob Derrysaw, Chief of the Creeks, to leave within twenty-four hours from the Creek country. I retired to my friends at Park Hill in the Cherokee where the same struggle was going on.

At Park Hill I enjoyed every facility for knowing the feelings of the people, the designs of the Executive.

When at last the Rebel flag flaunted over the council ground at Tahlequah, I left the Cherokee country with my family, and after encountering many dangers, succeeded in reaching Rolla, on the 23^rd Sept. without giving any pledge to the enemy.

Having written to the Sec. of the Interior (from St. Louis, Oct. 1^st) stating my long residence among the Creeks and Cherokees, my means of information, and my desire to give any information that would benefit our Gov’t or my loyal friends among the Indians—and having forwarded all the printed correspondence between the Rebels and Chief Ross (except the last letter of the Rebel commissioner, Albert Pike) together with Chief Ross’ speech at the Cherokee Convention at Tahlequah, on the 21^st of Aug. and the resolutions passed at said Convention, without receiving any answer, I concluded that Col. Humphrey’s (of Tenn.) mysterious movements were all right, that he was loyal, and kept our Gov’t well informed as to the Rebel doings among the Indians. That I had redeemed my pledge to loyal Creeks & Cherokees.

Recent letters from St. Louis, & New York stating that “Gov’t agents are seeking information everywhere,” and urging me to write to “Gen. Hunter” & Washington, induce me to send you my address, to urge you in the name of humanity and justice not to take decisive measures against the betrayed and oppressed people, until you have heard all that can be said in their behalf.—Letter to Department of the Interior and referred to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated January 7, 1862 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, R1664].

Mix answered it February 14, 1862 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, P. 357].

In a somewhat earlier letter, the one from which the extract, in the body of the text was taken, Robertson had said,

I am ... deeply interested in their welfare, acquainted with the feelings of the people, well informed as to the men and measures which have detached these nations from their allegiance to the U. S.

Chief among the traitors were not only the Superintendent of that District, and the Agents under him appointed by the late Administration but others claiming to have received commissions as Indian Agents “since the 4^th of March last” from the U. S. Gov’t.

On the 21^st of Aug. last I was in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, at a convention of the Cherokee people called by their Chief Jno. Ross....—Robertson to President Lincoln, dated Winneconne, Wisconsin, December 12, 1861 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, R1658].

Concerning the responsibility attaching to government agents for Indian defection, E. C. Boudinot and W. P. Adair wrote, January 19, 1866, to Cooley,

The Southern Indians have repeatedly repudiated the idea that they were induced by the machinations of any persons to ally themselves with the rebellion, but accept the full responsibility of their acts without such excuse.

The passage above quoted [meaning one from Coffin’s report of September 24, 1863—“They resisted the insidious influences which were brought to bear upon them by Rector, Pike, Cooper, Crawford and other rebel emissaries for a long time.”] however does great injustice to all the parties named, particularly to Genl Cooper, who had no earthly connection with the Cherokees until several months after. Mr. John Ross made the treaty with the so-called Confederate States.—General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, B60.

[437] “Ross was overborne. It is said that his wife was more staunch than her husband and held out till the last. When an attempt was made to raise a Confederate flag over the Indian council house, her opposition was so spirited that it prevented the completion of the design.”—Howard, My life and experiences among our hostile Indians, 100.

[438] For the entire address of John Ross, see Official Record, first ser., vol. iii, 673-675.

[439] Official Record, first ser., vol. iii, 675-676. A slightly incorrect copy of these same resolutions is to be found in vol. xiii, 499-500.

[440] John Ross and others to McCulloch, August 24, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 673].

[441] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865. The Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to President Johnson, February 25, 1866, in answer to the Cherokee protest against Chief Ross’s deposition contains this statement:

As early as June or July, the exact date is not known, John Ross authorized the raising of Drew’s Regiment, for the Southern army....

[442] McCulloch to Ross, September 1, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 690].

[443] —Ibid.; McCulloch to John Drew, September 1, 1861 [ibid., 691].

[444] In the course of the war, both inside and outside of Kansas, many instances occurred of Indians’ expressing a wish to fight or of their services being earnestly solicited. In late April of 1861, a deputation, headed by White Cloud, came east and tendered to the United States government the services of some three hundred warriors, Sioux and Chippewas [Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. i, 43].

Agent Burleigh, in charge of the Yancton Sioux, asked permission to garrison Fort Randall with Indians [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 118]. The Omahas manifested great interest in the war, so their agent, O. H. Irish, reported [ibid., p. 65]. Towards the end of the struggle a young recruiting officer, who went among them, persuaded about thirty youths, mostly students at the Mission School, to enlist. Their terms had not expired when the war closed, so they were sent out as scouts to protect the Union Pacific Railroad, in course of construction from Denver to Salt Lake City, against the Sioux who were attacking workmen and emigrants. Even Senecas from the far away Cattaraugus Reservation, New York, offered to enlist [Dole to Strong, December 7, 1861, Indian Office Letter Book, no. 67, p. 129]; and so did the Pawnees from the great plains. The United States government, however, refused to accept the Pawnees for anything but scouts and, in that capacity, they proved exceedingly useful [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1869, p. 472]. Winnebagoes were in the United States employ [Indian Office, Report Book, no. 13, pp. 276-277], as were also many individuals from other tribes. Some Indians became commissioned officers and a number were at the head of companies. Captain Dorion of Company B, Regiment Fourteenth Kansas Volunteers was an Iowa [ibid., 261] and Eli S. Parker on General Grant’s staff was a Seneca.

After the Enrollment Act of March 3, 1863 [United States Statutes at Large, vol. xii, 731-737] was passed, several attempts were made to force the Indians to serve in the army but Mix, the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, declared they were exempt from the draft [Letter to Agent D. C. Leach, September 4, 1863, Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 71, p. 354]. On the sixteenth of July, 1863, the United States War Department inquired very particularly as to the Indian eligibility for enrollment and Secretary Usher took occasion to instruct Mix that the respective agents should be

Directed to offer no resistance to the enrolling officers, after notifying said officers of the fact, that the tribe or tribes under their charge are composed of Indians who have not acquired the rights of Citizenship, but immediately upon being informed of the drafting of any member of his tribe, he will report the case to the Com^r of Indian Affairs, for such action as may be necessary to procure the exemption of the Indians from military service.—Letter of Secretary Usher, September 12, 1863, Miscellaneous Files, 1858-1863.

[445]

The bearer has a train of goods at this point en route for the Indians on the western border of the State, containing quite a quantity of arms & ammunition.

There is great excitement in the community with reference to arming the Indians at the present time, as for several days past reports have come to us that our frontier settlements are in danger of attack from hostile Indians who are collecting in the neighborhood. I am daily importuned to send them aid. Also, report says, and it seems very reliable, that the Indians on our southern border are arming themselves against our citizens. In addition to these Indian rumors it is believed by many that these arms are in danger of falling into the hands of secessionists, before reaching their destination. Quite a number of that class of men have recently passed up this way (Topeka) and through Riley County. In this condition of affairs I do not think these arms & ammunition can be taken west without an escort, as the rabble will be almost certain to waylay them as soon as they get on the Pottawatomie Reserve. I can protect them while in this county & will do so, but cannot follow them. Would it not be well, if you have the authority, to direct the bearer to leave that part of his freight in charge of the U. S. Marshal, or in my charge, until there shall be a change of circumstances, or until further orders from Washington?

Although I would not undertake to oppose the action of Government in the matter and would not interfere unless it should be to prevent the property from falling into the hands of a mob, yet I do think under the circumstances it is very bad policy to arm the Indians on the border. I feel very sure from what I learn, they will be used against our citizens within three months time. I am ready to co-operate at all times with the U. S. authorities....—General Files, Central Superintendency, 1860-1862, B479. See also Branch’s reply, May 23, ibid.

[446] H. B. Branch to Mix, September 16, 1861, transmitting a letter from Agent Farnsworth of September 16, 1861, enclosing communications from Senator Lane, Captain Price, and others, “relative to organizing the Indians for the defense of the Government” [General Files, Kansas, 1855-1862, B774].

Headquarters K.B. Ft. Lincoln, Aug. 22^d 1861.

To Indian Agents Sac and Foxes—Shawnees—Delawares—Kickapoos—Potawatomies—and Kaws—Tribes of Indians

Gents: For the defence of Kansas I have determined to use the loyal Indians of the Tribes above named. To this end I have appointed Augustus Wattles, Esq to confer with you and adopt such measures as will secure the early assembling of the Indians at this point.

If you have the means within your control I would like to have you supply them when they march with a sufficient quantity of powder, lead & subsistence for their march to this place, where they will be fed by the Government.

You can assure them for the Govt that they will not be marched out of Kansas without their consent—that they will be used only for the defence of Kansas.

I enjoin each of you to be prompt and energetic that an early assembling of said Indians at this point may thereby be secured.

J. H. Lane, Commanding Kansas Brigade. By Abram Cutler, Acting assistant Adgt-Gen.

The danger is imminent. Hordes of whites & half breeds in the Indian country are in arms driving out & killing Union men. They threaten to overrun Kansas and exterminate both whites & Indians. It it rumored that John Ross, the Cherokee Chief is likely to be overcome unless he is assisted.

The Osages also need assistance. Gen. Lane intends to establish a strong Indian camp near the neutral lands as a guard to prevent forage into Kansas. He is very solicitous that you should come if possible with the Chiefs & see him at Ft. Lincoln on the Little Osage 10 miles south of Mound City.

If you do come, please bring all the fighting men you can, of all Kinds. Men are needed.

If you do not come, please authorise some responsible man to lead the Indians as far as Ft. Lincoln where Gen. Lane will receive them and give them a big war talk. Bring an interpreter. Expenses will be paid.

Congress will undoubtedly make suitable acknowledgements to the Kaws, as an independent nation, for any valuable services which they may render....

P.S. A Captain’s wages will be given to any competent man whom you may appoint to take the lead of the band, provided there are fifty or more.—Augustus Wattles to Major Farnsworth, dated Sac and Fox Agency, Kansas, August 25, 1861.

Wattles had evidently not yet heard of the Tahlequah mass-meeting. Postal connections with Indian Territory were, of necessity, very poor. Dole had recommended, May 29, 1861, to Secretary Smith a new postal route through southwest Missouri or southern Kansas instead of the old route through Arkansas [Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12, p. 170].

The Confederates were similarly embarrassed. On the twenty-seventh of May, the postmaster at Fort Smith had complained to the postmaster-general J. H. Reagan,

Enclosed please find letter of G. B. Hester (a Choctaw who was made quarter-master and commissary in the First Choctaw Regiment and, in 1865, “cotton agent for the Creek Indians who were at that time squatting in the Chickasaw Nation.” See O’Beirne’s Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory) at Boggy Depot, C. N. You will see they are without mails in that country. For three weeks the mails for the Indian country have been accumulating in this office. I sent forward all the mail that could be packed on a single horse.... I cannot get men to carry the mail. They say they are afraid of being robbed or murdered.... Our neighbours, the Indians must suffer great inconvenience on account of the stoppage of mail facilities. All tribes are in favor of the South except the Cherokees. A little good talk would do them good, perhaps a little powder and lead might help the cause. Ross and his party are not to be relied on.—Fort Smith Papers.

Mayers wrote Reagan in a similar vein a month later, on June 26, 1861,

Our mails throughout the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw & Creek nations have all been stopped by the old mail carriers....—Ibid.

[447] On August 26, 1861, Wattles wrote Farnsworth from Lawrence,

I wrote you a few days ago concerning the employment of the Indians in the defence of our frontier.

The necessity seemed imperative. But on hearing that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was in Kansas and will probably see you—I think it best to say nothing to the Indians till he is consulted in the matter.

Gen. Lane has 60 miles of the Missouri border to guard, and an army of at least double his to hold in check, which employs all his force night & day.

Besides this, he has the Indian frontier on the south of about 100 miles. This he intends to intrust to the loyal Indians—I will add, if the Commissioner agrees to it.

The stay of execution was not of long duration, however; for, September 10, 1861, J. E. Prince sent Farnsworth from Fort Leavenworth a circular requesting immediate enrollment and an estimate of the strength of the loyal Indians.

[448] The conduct of Lane was presumptuous, arrogant, dictatorial; but he had interfered in yet other ways in Indian concerns. He must have had quite a hold, political or otherwise, over several of the agents and they appealed to him in matters that ought, in the first instance, to have been referred to the Indian Office and left there. Thus, in July, Agent F. Johnson had approached Lane on the subject of having Charles Journeycake appointed Delaware chief in place of Rock-a-to-wa deceased. Both Pomeroy and Lane endorsed the appointment but it was unquestionably entirely out of their province to do so. Tribal politics were assuredly no concern of the Kansas delegation in Congress.

[449] Dole had gone to Kansas in the latter part of August “to submit in person the amendments, made by the Senate at its last session, to the Delaware treaty of May 30, 1860” [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 11].

[450]

I find here your letter to the Agent of the Delaware, requesting Fall Leaf to organize a party of 50 men for the service of your Department. Mr. Johnson the Agent called the tribe together before I arrived here, and found the Chiefs unwilling that their young men should enter the service as you desired. Since my arrival I have seen the Chiefs and stated to them that the Government was not asking them to enter the war as a tribe but that we wished to employ some of the tribe for Special Service and wished the Chiefs to make no objection. I could not however get their consent even to acquiesce in their men Volunteering for the service as you desired, & Fall Leaf and several of the tribe are here and determined to tender you their Services, with my consent. I have advised them that they are at Liberty to join you if they choose. Fall Leaf says he will be able to report at Fort Leavenworth in a very few days with twenty to twenty five men. Should you require more men, you will have probably to call on some other tribe. Those men who volunteer against the advice of their Chiefs should be particularly remembered by the Gov’t.—Dole to Frémont, dated Leavenworth City, September 13, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 66, p. 485].

[451] —Ibid.

[452]

I am instructed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th inst., and to state that the Commanding General will accept with pleasure the services of Fall Leaf and his men.

Other tribes will be applied to immediately. I have written to the same effect to Mr. Johnson, at the Deleware Agency.—John R. Howard, captain and secretary, to William P. Dole, dated Headquarters, Western Department, at St. Louis, September 20, 1861 [General Files, Central Superintendency, 1860-1862].

[453] F. Johnson to Dole, June 6, 1862 [General Files, Delaware, 1862-1866].

[454] Dole to Captain Fall Leaf, November 22, 1863 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 72, p. 109].

[455] Report to Dole, October 22, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 50]; Report to Dole, September 17, 1862 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 98].

[456]

I send you a letter to General Fremont open that you may read and understand its object. Fall Leaf will call upon you probably this afternoon and receive from you such information as you see proper to give him. I am disinclined to encourage the Indians to engage in this war except in extreme cases, as guides. I have in this case used my influence in favor of the formation of this Company, without any knowledge of the views of Gov’t, supposing Gen^l Fremont was a special need of them or he would not have made the request....—Dole to Captain Price, dated Leavenworth, September 13, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 66, pp. 485-486].

[457] Letter of August 15, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 39].

[458] General Orders, no. 23 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 539].

[459] Villard says, as early as 1856, rivalry had developed between Robinson and Lane [John Brown, 108].

[460] Thomas to Frémont, October 14, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 533].

[461] Lane to Lincoln, October 9, 1861 [ibid., 529].

[462] It would seem as if Lane were remotely responsible for the division of the Western Department into the Department of Kansas and the Department of Missouri. In his letter to President Lincoln of October 9, 1861, he described the good work that his Kansas Brigade had done and asked that, in order that it might be enabled to continue to do effective work, a new military department be created, one that should group together Kansas, Indian Territory, and so much of Arkansas and the territories as should be advisable [ibid.].

[463] Ross’s Address to Drew’s Regiment, December 19, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 355]; Letter of Albert Pike to D. N. Cooley, February 17, 1866.

[464]

“Chisholm” the well known interpreter has been sent to the Comanches, Creeks to the Osages—Matthews to the Senecas Quapaws &c. ...—Robertson in a letter, dated St. Louis, September 30, 1861 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, R1615].

... In the fall of the same year Albert Pike called a General Council of the same tribes to meet at Talloqua and in order to secure their attendance stated that John Ross was to make a speech ... he sent Dorn late U. S. Indian Agent to notify the Osages, Quapaws Senecas & Shawnees that there was to be a Council at Talloqua and that Ross was going to talk at the same time to tell them that the U. S. Government was breaking up—that they would get no more money and that they were about to send an Army to take their Negroes and drive them from the country and pointed to Missouri in proof of it, when the Council met at Talloqua instead of Ross the council was opened by Pike who told them “We are here to protect our property and to save our Country.”...—Baptiste Peoria.

Baptiste Peoria, in the spring and summer of 1862, went around as a secret agent of the United States government among the southern Indians finding out their real sentiments respecting the war. The report from which the above extract is taken is dated May 1, 1862, and is in General Files, Osage River, 1855-1862, B1430.

[465]

Fort Smith, Arkansas, September 19^th 1865.

In a talk held at the rooms of the Commission, with Commissioners Sells and Parker, the following statement was this day voluntarily made by Shon-tah-sob-ba (“Black Dog”) the Chief of the Black Dog band of the Osage Indians, relating to a treaty with the so-called Confederate States. In answer to a question by Commissioner Sells, “How did you happen to be in this Southern Country?” Shon-tah-sob-ba (Black Dog) replied “I am glad you have asked that question, for I wish to make some statements in explanation. We came down here upon the invitation of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, who sent us a letter asking us to attend a Council for the purpose of making a treaty with Albert Pike”—

Comm^r Sells—Have you that letter now in your possession?

Answer: We don’t know where the letter is. It was sent to Clermont, whose son had it in his possession when he died & we suppose it was buried with him. But I have it here in my head & will never forget it. John Ross, the Cherokee Chief, said in that letter, “My Bros. the Osages, there is a distinguished gentleman sent by the Confederate States who is here to make treaties with us. He will soon be ready to treat, and I want you to come here in order that we may all treat together with him. My Brothers, there is a great black cloud coming from the North, about to cover us all, and I want you to come here so that we can counsel each other & drive away the black cloud.” This is all that he said & signed his name. All the Osages went. We were all there together, Pike, John Ross and I, sitting as you are. Pike told us he was glad that we had come to make peace & a treaty. All your other brothers have made treaties & shook hands, & if you want to, you can do so too. I will tell you what John Ross said at the time. John Ross told us, “My Red Bros. you have come here as I asked you & I am glad to see you & hope you will do what the Commissioner wants you to do. The talk the Commissioner has made is a good talk & I want you to listen to it & make friends with the Confederate States. You can make a treaty or not, but I advise you, as your older brother, to make a treaty with them. It is for your interest & your good.” After he finished talking, John Ross told us we could consult among ourselves over there (pointing to our camp near his residence) & decide among ourselves. We consulted on the matter, & on the request of John Ross we signed the treaty. He asked us to do it. He was the man that made us make that treaty, and that’s how we came to be away from our country.

The above statement was endorsed by Wah-tah-in-gah, Chief Counselor of the Black Dog & Clermont bands of the Osage Indians.

The above is a correct statement as interpreted.

E. S. Parker Com^r Geo. L. Cook Ass’t Sec^y. Elijah Sells Com^r

Papers relating to the Council at Fort Smith, September, 1865, Indian Office Files.

[466] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, pp. 353-354.

[467] These Creeks, of course, were the Upper Creeks, the anti-McIntosh Creeks, the following of Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la. Some of the confidence that Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la seems to have had in John Ross, in his discretion and in his integrity, may have dated from the days when John Ross had refused, as he must have refused, to share in the plan for a betrayal of his country, at the instance of William McIntosh. The following document will explain that circumstance:

Newtown 21th October 1823

My Friend: I am going to inform you a few lines as a friend. I want you to give me your opinion about the treaty wether the chiefs will be willing or not. If the chiefs feel disposed to let the United States have the land part of it, I want you to let me know. I will make the United States commissioner give you two thousand dollars, A. McCoy the same and Charles Hicks $3000 for present, and no body shall know it, and if you think the land wouldent sold, I will be satisfied. If the land should be sold, I will get you the amount before the treaty sign, and if you got any friend you want him to Receive it, they shall recd the same. nothing moore to inform you at present. I remain your affectionate Friend

Wm McIntosh

John Ross—an answer return

NB. the whole amount is $12000. you can divide among your friends. exclusive $7000.

This letter is on file in the United States Indian Office and bears the following endorsement:

rec^d on the 23^rd Oct. 1823.

M^r John Ross President N. Committee

Letter from Wm McIntosh to Mr John Ross read & exposed in open Council in the presence of Wm McIntosh Oct 24^th 1823

J Ross

[468] Letters to Dole, October 31, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 42] and November 2, 1861 [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, J503].

[469] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, pp. 353, 354.

[470] Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 669-687.

[471] —Ibid., 636-646.

[472] —Ibid., 659-666.

[473] —Ibid., 647-658.

[474] The Senecas of the mixed band of Senecas and Shawnees were not originally parties to the treaty, but provision was duly made for their becoming so.

[475] Ka-hi-ke-tung-ka for Clermont’s Band, Pa-hiu-ska for White Hair’s, Shon-tas-sap-pe for Black Dog’s, and Chi-sho-hung-ka for the Big Hill.

[476] For information concerning Washbourne [Washburne or Washburn] and charges against him, see Dean to Manypenny, December 28, 1855, December 31, 1855 [Dean’s Letter Book, Indian Office]; and Elias Rector to Secretary Thompson, October 1, 1859 [Rector’s Letter Book, Indian Office]. Rector’s letter was as follows:

An important sense of my duty as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Superintendency compells me to recommend, most earnestly, the immediate removal of the present incumbent of the Seminole Agency,

The performance of this unpleasant duty is forced upon me by the following consideration,—

1st The neglect of duty and disregard of the orders and Regulations of the Department in absenting himself repeatedly and for protracted periods, from his Agency without authority for so doing; to the prejudice of the public interests entrusted to him,—

On this point I presume it is not necessary for me to enlarge, or to urge upon the Department my views of the paramount necessity of Indian Agents residing at their Agencies and being at all times present at their Stations as well to cultivate the respect and confidence, and a just knowledge of the character and wants of the people entrusted to their care, as to be in position to execute promptly the orders, and to promote the views of the Department,—

2nd I consider him unworthy of the trust reposed in him from certain facts connected with the late payment of money to the Indians under his charge, which have come to my knowledge—

Of the $90,000 recently paid to those Indians, appropriated by Congress expressly to pay such of them as should remove under the late Treaty; for their improvements and to assist in defraying their removal expences I have ascertained, and it is notorious, that thirteen thousand Dollars or more passed into the hands of Mr Washbourne, through Collusion with the principal Chiefs, $5000 of which he received under a private Contract with Senator Yulee of Florida for services in obtaining the consent of the Chiefs to the payment of thirty thousand dollars of this money to Senator Yulee on an old claim presented by him of long standing in behalf of one Gov Humphreys of Florida. The balance of the $13000 received by Mr Washbourne was probably awarded him in consideration of his permitting the Chiefs to appropriate certain portions of the money they paid over to them in trust for the legetimate claimants, to their own use and benefit,

I have informed you in a late letter of the pains I took to make the Chiefs acquainted with the true object of the appropriations. Having been instructed to pay over the whole amount to the authorities of the Nation, this was all I could do in furtherance of the intentions of Congress; my efforts to accomplish which were thus frustrated by Mr Washbourne and his advances.—

3d The breach of good faith in the Chiefs towards the Indians, prompted by Mr Washbourne in the distribution of this $90.000 as explained in my late letter, has incensed the Indians to such degree that bloodshed has been threatened and is seriously to be apprehended,—

4th The influence of Mr Washbourne over the Chiefs acquired through his Collusion with them in this swindling the intended legal recipients of this money is such that, the Chiefs have intimated that they will not send a delegation to Florida unless Mr Washbourne shall accompany them, and I have reason to believe that in case he is not permited to accompany them, he is prepared to throw every obstacle in the way of the accomplishment of this, so much desired measure of the Government,

The conduct of the Chiefs and their Agent in the distribution of the $90000 and the enclosed letter from Mr Jacoway U S Marshal of this District, whose acquaintance you have made, taken in connection with the declarations of the Chiefs, that they will not go without him (or that they desire that he should go with and have charge of them) justifies the apprehension that there is another scheme in embryo between them to perpetrate another swindle. Should circumstances favour its accomplishment; and if it is the intention of the Department to charge me with conducting the negotiations of a Delegation to Florida, I must decline the performance of this duty if one in whom I have so little confidence is permited to accompany the Delegation in the capacity of Agent; for I hesitate not to say, that if disappointed in his hopes of making a profitable employment of his influence he would exert himself to defeat any negotiations that might be set on foot, and there is good reason to fear that he might be successful,—

For these reasons I beg leave respectfully to urge upon the Department the immediate removal of Mr Washbourne and the appointment in his stead of some gentleman who will perform the duties of the office with a high appreciation of the trust confided to him and with a view, rather to the honest discharge of this trust, than to his own profit,

I make this communication direct to the Sec’t of Interior instead of sending it through the Indian office for the reason that I learn that the Comr Ind Affrs is absent on official acct.

[477] Agent Elder to Coffin, September 30, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 37]; Coffin to Dole, October 2, 1861 [ibid., p. 38]; Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. iii, 33.

[478] We the loyal Cherokee Delegation acknowledge the execution of the treaty of Oct. 7, 1861. But we solemnly declare that the execution of the Treaty was procured by the coercion of the rebel army [Land Files, Indian Talks, Councils, etc., Box 4, 1865-1866].

[479] Hon. J. S. Phelps to C. B. Smith, dated Rolla, Mo., October 3, 1861 [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, P44].

[480] A difference of opinion seems to exist as to the original object of the organization of Drew’s regiment. When Ross wrote his despatches to McCulloch concerning the proceedings at Tahlequah, he sent them for transmission to the C. S. A. quartermaster at Fort Smith, Major George W. Clark, to whom he imparted the information that the Cherokees were going to raise a regiment of mounted men immediately and place it under the command of Colonel John Drew, “to meet any emergency that may arise.” “Having espoused,” said he, “the cause of the Confederate States, we hope to render efficient service in the protracted war which now threatens the country, and to be treated with a liberality and confidence becoming the Confederate States.”—Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. iii, 155, Document 63½.

Those, who afterwards wanted to put the Cherokee position in the best possible light, declared repeatedly that Drew’s regiment had no sectional bias in the work mapped out for it, that it was nothing more than a home guard. Writing to Dole, January 21, 1862, the Reverend Evan Jones said,

A regiment of Cherokees was raised for home protection, composed of one company for each of eight Districts, and either two or three companies for the District of Tahlequah. But these were altogether separate and distinct from the rebel force.... The great majority of officers and men, in this case, being decidedly loyal Union men Four of the Captains and four hundred men, gave evidence of their loyalty, in the part they acted, at the battle in which Opothleyoholo was attacked by the Texan rangers & rebel Creeks & Choctaws, under Cooper....—General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, J556.

[481] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 355.

[482] Cooley’s Report to President Johnson, February 25, 1866. This letter was found in the loose files of the Indian Office and is not to be found in Indian Office, Report Book, no. 15, where it would properly belong.

[483] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 321.

[484] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 35: Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12, p. 176.

[485]

Enclosed pleaz find a coppy of a Commission given by General Lane to E. H. Carruth together with coppies of Letters sent by him to the various Tribes in the Indian Territory. I had an interview with Mr. Carruth yesterday. I find him a very Inteligent man and thougherly posted as to all matters relating to the Southern Indians he is very confident that most if not all the Southern Indians written to will Send deligations to Fort Scott as requested there ware three Creek Indians came up to se General Lane who came to Iola for Caruthe to go with them to General Lane which he did and they ware the barers of letters of which the enclosed are coppies. I am going to Fort Scott today and will make arrangements with Agent Elder to give the notice imediately on their arrival or Bring them to Humboldt. I shall try to secure the assistance of Mr. Caruthe tho he is now a voluntear in the Home Guards for protection. I very much feer the service required of me at the Sacks & Fox and Kaw agencies will take me to far off but will try to attend to all if possible—General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1348.

[486] Manypenny to Dean, April 9, 1855 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 51, pp. 232-233].

[487] Extract from commission, dated Fort Scott, August 30, 1861, issued to Carruth by authority of J. H. Lane, Commanding the Kansas Brigade [ibid.].

[488] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 328.

[489] The loyal Creeks testified, in 1865, that they sent their “chief” and others to Washington and leave the reader to infer that the chief meant was “Sands;” but the accredited delegates were most certainly Mik-ko Hut-kee, Bob Deer, and Jo Ellis. These three men signed their names, or rather attached their mark, to an address to the president of which the following is a certified copy:

Shawnee Agency, Lexington, September 18, 1861.

Sir, we the Chiefs, Head Men, and Warriors, of the Creek Nation of Indians, in the Indian Territory, through our delegates, the undersigned desire to state to your excellency the condition of our people. Owing to the want of correct information as to condition of the Country and Government our people are in great distress. Men have come among us, who claim to represent a New Government, who tell us that the Government represented by Our Great Father at Washington, has turned against us and intends to drive us from our homes and take away our property, they tell us that we have nothing to hope from our old Father and that all the Friends of the Indian have joined the New Government. And that the New Government is ready to make treaties with the Indians and do all and more for them than they can claim under their old treaties. they ask us to join their armies and help sustain the Government that is willing to do so much for us. But we doubted their statements and promises and went to talk with the Agent and Superintendent which Our father has always kept among us but they were both gone and then some of our people began to think that Our Great Father had forsaken us and a very few joined the Army of the New Government and our people were in great trouble and we called a Grand Council of the Chiefs of Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Shawnees, Senecas, Quapaws, Kickapoos, Delawares, Weas, Peankeshaws, Witchetaws Tribes and bands of Comanches, Seminoles, and Cadoes. And after a long discussion of the source of their troubles, decided to remain loyal to our Government and if possible neutral. The Chiefs went among their people (and as a general thing) counteracted the influence of the emissaries of the New Government. But these emissaries are still among us giving us great trouble, while our Government has no one who can officially represent itself. And we most earnestly ask that some person shall be sent here who shall meet the Chiefs of the above mentioned tribes in Council at some suitable place, and then make known to them the condition, policy and wishes of the Government so far as the interests of the Indians are concerned. If your Excellency should deem it best to comply with our request, we would suggest that Humboldt Allen County Kansas be the place for holding the Council. A notice sent to the Agent of the Shawnees, will immediately be forwarded by a messinger to the Chiefs. Very Respectfully, your Obedient Servants

White Chief X his mark Bobb Deer X his mark Joseph Ellis X his mark Interpreter

P.S. The Choctaws were not present at the Council and we have reason to feer that they have gone with the Southern Confederacy. It will take near forty days to notify the Chiefs and get them together after the notice gets at this place.

White Chief X his mark

[490] They also saw Agent Abbot [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 330] and received new assurances from him.

[491] Perchance the same letter, either the original or a copy of which, Superintendent Branch transmitted to Dole along with an explanatory letter from Agent Abbott. The “talk” of the Creek chiefs was accompanied by a sort of Seminole and Chickasaw endorsement. Dole replied to the Creek and Seminole delegate appeals, November 16, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, pp. 78-79]. This is what the Creek chiefs said:

Creek Nat. Aug 15, 1861.

Now I write to the President our Great Father who removed us to our present homes, & made a treaty, and you said that in our new homes we should be defended from all interference from any people and that no white people in the whole world should ever molest us unless they come from the sky but the land should be ours as long as grass grew or waters run, and should we be injured by anybody you would come with your soldiers & punish them, but now the wolf has come, men who are strangers tread our soil, our children are frightened & the mothers cannot sleep for fear. This is our situation now. When we made our Treaty at Washington you assured us that our children should laugh around our houses without fear, & we believed you. Then our Great Father was strong. And now we raise our hands to him we want his help to keep off the intruder & make our homes again happy as they used to be....

I was at Washington when you treated with us, and now White People are trying take our people away to fight against us and you. I am alive. I well remember the treaty. My ears are open & my memory is good. This is the letter of Your Children by

Opothlehoyola Ouktahnaserharjo

The Seminoles also send the same word & the full Indians of the Chickasaws too send to the P—

The reply to this letter was made by Dole, November 56, 1862. See Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, pp. 79-80.

Pascofar the chief of Seminoles was present, he was not able to come with us now but sent word. And if our Great Father want us we will come to see him.

Miceo Hulka Jo Ellis Rob Deer

General Files, Creek, 1860-1869, B787.

[492]

There is a delegation of the Creeks now at Gen’l Lanes Head Quarters.

We wish to see delegations from the tribes loyal to the U. S. Government. You will send us a delegation who will report to the Head Quarters of the Kansas Brigade where commissioners of the Government will meet and confer with them.

You are probably aware of the falsehoods resorted to by the enemies of the U. S. to induce the Indians to withdraw their allegiance from the Government. Could you come in person it would be grattifying to the Commissioners.—Letter of September 11, 1861 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1348].

[493]

Your letter by Micco Hutka is received. You will send a delegation of your best men to meet the Commissioners of the United States Government in Kansas.

I am authorized to inform you that the President will not forget you. Our armies will soon go south and those of your people who are true and loyal to the Government will be treated as friends—Your rights & property will be respected. The Commissioners from the Confederate States have deceived you they have two tongues.

They wanted to get the Indians to fight and they will rob and plunder you if they can get you into trouble. But the President is stil alive his soldiers will soon drive these men who have treacherously violated your homes from the land they have entered. When your Delegates Return to you they will be able to inform you when and where your monies will be paid those who stole your orphan funds will be punished and you will learn that the people who are tru to the Government which has so long protected you are your Friends.—Letter to Opoth-le-ho-yo-ho, Ho-so-tau-hah-sas Hayo, dated Barnesville, September 11, 1861.—General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1348.

The author’s opinion is that the mistakes in spelling were made by the illiterate Coffin, who probably made a copy of Carruth’s letters for transmission to the Indian Office. He may also have made a slight alteration in the date of the letter to the Creeks; for the original of the letter, bearing the date of September 10, 1861, was found in Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la’s camp after the Battle of Chustenahlah, December 26, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 25].

[494] Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 26.

[495] In his letter to the Seminole chiefs and headmen, Carruth reminds them that he was with them when letters came from Pike and that Pike “is the man who has tried so hard to get your lands sectionalized” and asks, “who brought up a bill in Congress to bring your tribes under Territorial laws, Johnson of Arkansas....”

[496] —Ibid., 26.

[497] Coffin to Dole, October 2, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, pp. 38-39].

[498] Evan Jones wrote, October 31, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, pp. 41-43] that he had found it impossible to get anyone who would undertake to carry a message to John Ross. The risk was too great.

[499] Dole to Hunter, November 16, 1861 [ibid., p. 44].

[500]

On consultation with Gen’l Jas. H. Lane he thinks an auxiliary Regiment of Indians are necessary to the service and could be used to great advantage in this department. If it meets with your approbation I would like and ask the privilege of Raising such Regt which I think I could do in thirty days. I have made my estimate of the number of men which I think would be furnished by each tribe as follows

Iowas & Kickapoos 225

Delawares 125

Potawatomies 250

Shawnees, Miamies, & Weas 100

Sacks & Foxes 250

Senecas & Wyandotts 125

1075

This will be laid before you by Gen^l Lane in person I hope it will meet with your approval and that you will grant the permission to raise the Regt and if necessary I have no doubt but a Brigade of Indians could be organized by embracing the Osages and Loyal Creeks and Cherokees.—Letter of October 10, 1861 [General Files, Delaware, 1855-1861].

[501] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 553.

[502] I am not certain of the exact date of Lane’s departure for Washington. Spring says [Kansas, 279] that he went there in November. When an Indian delegation reached Fort Scott, seeking him, some time about the middle of the month, he had already handed over his command to Colonel James Montgomery and “had gone to Washington” [Cutler to Coffin, September 30, 1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 138]. Yet Dole’s letter to General Hunter would convey the impression that Lane was still in Kansas the middle of the month and expected to be there on the twenty-fourth. I am also in doubt as to when Hunter reached his post. He communicated with Agent Cutler from St. Louis, November 20, 1861 [ibid., 1861, p. 44]. Hunter and Lane may very well have met even outside of Kansas and have exchanged views and opinions that would have given a basis for the representations that Lane must have made to Lincoln and Cameron regarding Hunter’s approval of the “Jayhawking Brigade.” McClellan seems to have advised the forward movement in the direction of the Indian Territory; for he says, when writing to Hunter, December 11, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 428]:

Immediately after you were assigned to your present department I requested the Adjutant-General to inform you that it was deemed expedient to organize an expedition under your command to secure the Indian territory west of Arkansas, as well as to make a descent upon Northern Texas, in connection with one to strike at Western Texas from the Gulf. The general was to invite your prompt attention to this subject, and to ask you to indicate the necessary force and means for the undertaking.

It is only fair to say that Lane had always advocated a more southern concentration of forces. He more than any other northern man seems to have appreciated fully the importance of Indian Territory. He continually recommended using Fort Scott as a base for such military operations as had the protection of Kansas as their main object.

[503] Hunter to Thomas, dated Leavenworth, January 15, 1862 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862].

[504] In January, 1862, Hunter deplored the fact that his request had not been acceded to and said,

Had this permission been promptly granted, I have every reason to believe that the present disastrous state of affairs, in the Indian country west of Arkansas, could have been avoided. I now again respectfully repeat my request—Ibid.

[505] Dole to Hunter, November 16, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, PP. 80-82; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, pp. 43-44].

[506] Lane’s proposed conference called for the assembling of representatives of Kansas tribes as well as of Indian Territory tribes. Judging from Hunter’s letter to Agent Cutler of November 20, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, pp. 44-45], I infer that Hunter’s conference was to be confined to the southern Indians. The purpose of Lane’s must have been represented to the Kansas Indians as Creek needs [Shawnee “talk” to the Creeks, November 15, 1861, ibid., p. 45]. Hunter intended to hold his conference at his headquarters, Fort Leavenworth, which was making the southern Indians come a pretty long way [Hunter to Cutler, November 20, 1861, ibid., p. 44; Dole to Cutler, December 3, 1861, Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, p. 107].

[507] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 567.

[508] Major-general H. W. Halleck was to command the sister department of Missouri.

[509] Abraham Lincoln, vol. v, 81-82.

[510]

I earnestly request and recommend the establishment of a new military department, to be composed of Kansas, the Indian country, and so much of Arkansas and the Territories as may be thought advisable to include therein.—Lane to Lincoln, dated Leavenworth City, Kansas, October 9, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 529].

[511] By the end of July, the First Regiment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles had been completely organized [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 620, 624] and eight companies of a prospective Creek regiment [ibid., 624]. By October twenty-second, when McCulloch ordered him [ibid., 721] to take up a position in the Cherokee Neutral Lands, Stand Watie’s battalion had apparently reached the proportions of a regiment, the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles. On the twenty-seventh of November, Pike who was then in Richmond informed Benjamin,

We have now in the service four regiments, numbering in all some 3,500 men, besides the Seminole troops and other detached companies, increasing the number to over 4,000. An additional regiment has been offered by the Choctaws and another can be raised among the Creeks. If I have the authority I can enlist even the malcontents among that people. I can place in the field (arms being supplied) 7,500 Indian troops, not counting the Comanches and Osages, whom I would only employ in case of an invasion of the Indian country....—Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 697.

A supposed report of Agent Garrett, sent to the United States Indian Office under the following endorsement, is not without interest as bearing upon the strength of the Confederacy within the Indian country:

The copy of a letter herewith, is without signature, but is said to be in the handwriting of the late Col. Garret, who at that date, was U. S. Indian Agent of the Creeks. It is not of much importance, but yet, as historical and statistical, is nor without some interest. I obtained it a few weeks ago, found among other papers at the Agency, and I presume is a retained copy of the original.

Creek Agency C. N. Dec. 16th 1861.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d ultimo, requiring certain information from me in regard to the number of Creek Indians; and their relations or feelings towards the Confederate States. Owing to the great irregularity of the mails, I did not receive your communication as soon as I ought. The difficulty at the time I received your letter in regard to answering it properly, caused me to delay a few days, so that I might answer it definitely. Incidental to the confusion here, I could not state to you who were reliable, and who were not, for I did not know myself, and believing that a battle would be fought in a few days where every one would have to show his hand, I thought I could give you more reliable information: and from the valor and fidelity of the Creeks engaged then I can give you reliable information.

The Creeks number in all 14630, a portion of whom reside in Alabama, Texas and Missouri, leaving about 13000 within the limits of the Creek Nation:—From the best information I can get, there are among the lower Creeks 1650 warriors, 375 of them are unfriendly—Among the Upper Creeks there are 1600 warriors—only 400 of them are friendly—to sum up the whole matter there are 1675 Creek warriors friendly to the Confederate States and 1575 unfriendly—Of those friendly there are in the service of the Confederate States 1375—One Regiment is commanded by Col. Chilly McIntosh, numbering 400—and an independent company commanded by Capt. J. M. C. Smith numbering 75 men, all in the service, and armed with a very few exceptions, and I think from recent indications are willing to do service wherever ordered, and circumstances justify it.

The Regiment, Battalion and Company were all mustered into service for twelve months. This comprises nearly all the friendly warriors in the Nation. I cannot answer you in regard to the number that are willing to serve during the war. My opinion is, though, that the number now in the service, and perhaps more, are willing to remain in the service as long as they may be wanted. The Hostiles are headed by Ho path ye ho lo who has engaged in his cause portions of several tribes viz a portion of the Seminoles, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Delawares, Wichitas, Comanches, and Cherokees—400 of whom deserted a few days before the recent battle from Col. John Drews Regiment Cherokee Volunteers and joined Hopathyeholo who is in communication with the federal forces in Kansas, and has received goods and ammunition from them: His force is estimated from 2500 to 3000—I would give you a more detailed account of the battle, but I do nor think it proper in this communication and I presume the commanding officer Col. Cooper has made his report of the Battle to the Secretary of War—I may be mistaken to some extent, in regard to the friendly and hostile Creeks, but I think I am not, and it is correct from the best information I can get, and my own knowledge of the facts. It will afford me much pleasure, to communicate to you at any time anything of importance to the Confederate States. Very Respectfully Your Obt Servt.

Hon. David Hubbard, Com. Indian Affairs Richmond Va.

[512] Therein lay the whole difficulty. It was simply impossible for the Confederate government to honor all requisitions for arms.

[513] The matter must have been even earlier under advisement; for, on the twenty-sixth of October, J. P. Benjamin, Acting Secretary of War, sent this notion to “General Albert Pike, Little Rock, Ark.:”

I cannot assign to your command any Arkansas troops at this moment. Governor Rector is applying for return of the regiments in Tennessee.—Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 727.

[514] —Ibid., vol. viii, 690.

[515] Daily State Journal (Little Rock), Nov. 8, 1861.

[516] Colonel D. H. Cooper’s “Report” [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 5].

[517] Colonel D. H. Cooper’s “Report” [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 7, 709].

[518] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, pp. 355-357.

[519] Extract from John Ross’s address to Drew’s regiment [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 356].

[520] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 357.

[521] —Ibid.

[522] McIntosh, at the time, was in charge of McCulloch’s brigade, McCulloch having gone to Richmond to explain to the authorities there why he had persistently laid himself open to the charge of refusing to coöperate with Sterling Price in his many Missouri ventures, planned subsequent to the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. McCulloch’s orders from the Confederate War Department were that he should guard the Indian Territory. Price’s great idea was to occupy the Missouri River country. Had McCulloch gone northward with Price, he would, as he ably argued, have removed himself altogether from his base.

[523] Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 11.

[524] —Ibid., 22.

[525] Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 23-24.

[526] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 136.

[527] The agents were, George A. Cutler, Creek, Charles W. Chatterton, Cherokee, Isaac Coleman, Choctaw and Chickasaw, G. C. Snow, Seminole, and Peter P. Elder, Neosho River. Agent Elder did not report for duty.

[528] The Indian agents usually referred to it as “Fort Roe” but the military men, with a few possible exceptions, when meaning identically the same locality, spoke of “Roe’s Fork.” There is no such place as Fort Roe given in the Lists of Military Posts, etc., established in the United States from its earliest settlement to the present time, published by the United States War Department, 1902. That list, however, is far from being complete.

[529] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 138.

[530]

In compliance with instructions from Major-General Hunter, contained in your order of the 22d. ultimo, I left this place on the 22d. and proceeded to Burlington, where I learned that the principal part of the friendly Indians were congregated, and encamped on the Verdigris river, near a place called Roe’s Fork, from twelve to fifteen miles south of the town of Belmont. I proceeded there without delay. By a census of the tribes taken a few days before my arrival, there was found to be of the Creeks, 3,168; slaves of the Creeks, 53; free negroes, members of the tribe, 38; Seminoles, 777; Quapaws, 136; Cherokees, 50; Chickasaws, 31; some few Kickapoos and other tribes, about 4,500 in all. But the number was being constantly augmented by the daily arrival of other camps and families....—A. B. Campbell, surgeon, U. S. A., to James K. Barnes, surgeon, U. S. A., medical director, Department of Kansas, dated Fort Leavenworth, February 5, 1862.

[531] These were purchased by Coffin, acting under the advice of Hunter [Dole to Smith, June 5, 1862, Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12, pp. 392-396].

[532] Extracts from Agent Cutler’s Report, September 30, 1862. Various reports, more or less detailed, descriptive of the intense sufferings of Indian refugees in the first weeks of their sojourn in Kansas may be found in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1862, pp. 135-175. Those of Turner, Campbell, Cutler, and George W. Collamore are particularly good. Some of the reports originally accompanied Dole’s Report of June 5, 1862 [Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12, pp. 392-396; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, pp. 147-149; House Executive Documents, 37th congress, second session, vol. x, no. 132], which was prepared in answer to a House resolution, calling for information on the southern refugee Indians.

Collamore’s Report of April 21, 1862 is to be found in manuscript form in General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1602. Another report, most excellent in character, issued from the pen of special agent, William Kile, February 21, 1862. It is in Land Files, Southern Superintendency, 1855-1870, K107. There are also a few good accounts of the Creek exodus of 1861. One of them is a sworn statement, presented by Holmes Colbert in a letter, dated March 25, 1868, and authoritatively cited by Mix in an office letter to Secretary Browning, June 8, 1868 [Indian Office, Report Book, no. 17, p. 308].

Another account came from John T. Cox to W. G. Coffin under date of March 28, 1864, and, while not in the least detailed, is worth quoting because of its tribute of respect to the loyal Indians. It runs thus:

Herewith I enclose a map of the route of retreat of the early Loyal Refugee Indians, under Apoth yo-ho-lo, in the Winter of 1861.

With the facilities within my reach, for obtaining facts connected with that remarkable exodus, I am fully warrented in saying, that the history of the War does not furnish a parallel of patriotic devotion to the Union.

The Rebels had managed so adroitly during the administration of Buchanan, as to secure the appointment of, or favor of every Government Official, or Employee, within the limits of the South Indian Country, all sources of information were corrupted or poisoned. Postmasters deplored the fall of the Old Government, as already taken place, Indian Agents, and all others holding business relations with the several tribes, used every means in their power to discourage them and destroy their confidence in the Old Government, resorting to the grossest Misrepresentations, Bribery of Chiefs, Headmen, &c., Malfeasance and Robbery—Military Posts, Government Stores, Ordnance &c. &c. were surrendered or abandoned under color of the most dire military necessity, and the apparent tardiness of the Old Government to render them timely assistance, or in any way counteract those influences, left them without counsel, and without friends, and implied a total abandonment of the Indians. Yet under all the discouraging surroundings a large portion of the Creeks, Cherokees, Seminoles and others maintained their loyalty. The Chickasaws were divided in their Councils, and the Choctaws went over almost entirely to the Rebel Government.

In the month of March 1861, international councils were held, first at the Creek Agency, next at North Fork, without affecting very materially the fidelity of the Indians. But in the latter part of April, the Choctaws and Chickasaws gave in full adhesion to the Confederate Government. The remaining tribes were alternating between the Counsels of Apoth-yo-ho-lo, McDaniel and others on the one hand, and a swarm of Rebel Commissioners on the other.

The Rebel Government was pushing forward the organization of Indian Regiments, under the McIntoshes, Stan Watie, Adair, Jumper, Smith and others, while the Conservative element, forming a Cherokee Regiment under Col. Drew, for armed neutrality, but in truth loyal to the Union, while Apoth-yo-ho-lo headed the hostiles, as they were termed by the Rebels.

In a Report dated Creek Agency C. N. Dec. 16th., 1861, addressed to the Hon. David Hubbard, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Richmond, Va., the Creek Agent, Col. Garrett says, See Copy marked “A” (Garrett’s report to Hubbard appears in another connection in the present work. It seems to have come into the Indian Office from two independent sources). I have noted this to show the attitude of the several tribes at the beginning of the Rebellion.

The principal object of this report is to call attention to the real claims of the Indians upon the Government, not only to sympathy, but compensation for services from the time they abandoned their homes and all they possessed, and took up arms in support of the Government.

Although they claim nothing of the kind, yet the moral effect of such a tangible recognition of their early services, would insure fidelity of all other tribes against any other future rebellion or disaffection against our Government.

The history of their destitution, and terrible sufferings in their pilgrimage of three hundred miles in mid-winter, is familiar to you and not necessary here to relate [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1863-1864, C824].

[533] Others had reached that decision likewise. On the tenth of December, McClellan had written to Halleck, “I shall send troops to Hunter to enable him to move into the Indian Territory west of Arkansas and upon Northern Texas. That movement should relieve you very materially”—Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 419. See also the letter of December 11, 1861 [ibid., 428].

[534] It was to this delegation, I have no doubt, that the Shawnees sent their note of encouragement. It bears date November 15, 1861 and was issued from the Shawnee Agency, Johnson County, Kansas. Its inspiring passages are these:

Brothers, hold fast to the Union! Hold to your treaties! And now call upon the United States government to fulfill their treaty stipulations with you by protecting you in this your time of need, and save your country to you first, and then, by so doing, save the whole of the Indian country to the Union.

... And now our advice to you is, go immediately to Washington City, lay your case before President Lincoln, state everything, and we assure you that he will protect you, and that immediately; we think that delay on your part will be ruinous to your people; we believe that your agent ought to conduct you there. Put your confidence only in the Union and you will be safe....—Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 45.

[535] Report of Agent Cutler, September 30, 1862 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 138].

[536] Montgomery to Lincoln, November 19, 1861 [ibid., 1861, p. 461].

[537] Hunter to Dole, December 1, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 49].

[538] Note that Hunter, when writing to McClellan, December 19, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 450], professed that, previous to the receipt of McClellan’s letter of the eleventh, he had not known that it was expected of him that he should undertake an expedition for the defense of Indian Territory. He declared that Thomas’ communication of November twenty-sixth, touching the matter, had been vague in the extreme.

[539] Extract from letter of Carruth to Hunter, November 26, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 49].

[540] It seems a little surprising that they did depart from Fort Leavenworth in such good spirits; for, while there, they surely must have heard rumors of the final attack upon Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la. Agent Cutler tells us that he heard of the exodus a few days after his return to Kansas with the delegation. He had then left Leavenworth, however, for he says farther on in his letter that he went back there to confer with Coffin as to what should be done.

[541] Extract from letter of Coffin to Dole, December 28, 1861 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862].

[542] See letter of Mix to F. Johnson at the Delaware Agency, Quindaro, Kansas, dated January 22, 1862, acknowledging Johnson’s letter of January fourth, which enclosed

A copy of the reply of the Delaware Chiefs in Council to the letter of the Creek Chief O-poeth-lo-yo-ho-la, inviting their coöperation against the rebel States....—Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, pp. 271-272.

[543]

On the 1st inst., I mailed you the letter of Opoth-la-yar-ho-la Muscogee Chief to the Delawares asking for men and ammunition. On the 2nd inst. the Delaware chiefs in Council returned the following letter in answer to Opoth-la-ho-la....—F. Johnson to Dole, dated Quindaro, Kansas, January 4, 1862 [General Files, Delaware, 1862-1866, J543].

[544]

John Connor, Head Chief, Ne-con-he-con, Sur-cox-ie, Chas. Journeycake, Assistant Chiefs, to Oputh-la-yar-ho-la, Muscogee Chief Warrior and our loyal Grand Children dated Delaware Nation, Kansas Jan. 3rd 1861.

[545] James McDaniel seems to have been a Cherokee. On April 2, 1862, Agent Johnson reported to Dole that forty-one Delaware Indians had returned destitute from the Cherokee country and that he had given them assistance and also “a refugee Cherokee chief, James McDaniel.” This idea is further borne out by the following letter:

Office of U. S. Agent for Cherokees Tahlequah, Ind. Ter. April 7, 1873

Hon. H. R. Clum, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affs

Sir: I beg leave to call your attention to the fact that in the fall and winter of 1861 Opothleyoholo a Creek and James McDaniel a Cherokee placed themselves at the head of the loyal Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees & others. Unsustained by any U. S. forces they gathered on Bird Creek, in this Nation, to resist rebel conscription into their army. They tried to avoid a fight, to make their way peacably to the union army in Kansas, by a far western route. But Gen. Douglas H. Coopper, & Gen. Stand Watie, with troops from Texas, & Arkansas, & with rebel Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws &c. pressed upon them, & attempted to bring them into subjection to the Southern Confederacy. They adhered to their loyalty. Fought the rebel forces in three or four battles. At first vanquishing the rebel forces, but finally were overcome, & compelled to flee to Kansas in mid-winter, with women & children. In Kansas these men were organized into regiments, & on arriving in the Cherokee Nation were largely reinforced by their friends here, & in the Creek & Seminole Nations.

I have made this statement so that you may see the situation in which these men are placed, & judge intelligently.

Now I wish to know if men wounded in those engagements, under Opothleyoholo & James McDaniel, while fighting against the rebels, & the widows of those who were killed, & those who were otherwise disabled in those fights, & in the subsequent flight, are entitled to the benefits of pension laws. Can they be pensioned under existing laws?

If not, can you, through the Secretary of the Interior, prevail on the President to have the matter presented to the next Congress, with a view to having these persons placed on the rolls of the pension office. I need say nothing of the propriety of the Government rewarding as far as possible, such acts of loyalty & voluntary fighting for the Government by full blood Indians—when all the influence & power of faithless Indian Agents, & Superintendants, & the Southern army from Texas & Arkansas, & the more wealthy & educated mixed blood Indians, were arrayed against them. It should be rewarded, as far [as] practicable, as an incentive to like faithfulness in any emergency that may arise in the future. I have the honor to be Very Respectfully Your Obdt. Servant

John B. Jones, U. S. Agent for Cherokees

[546] Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 576.

[547]

Washington, D. C. January 3, 1862.

Major-general Hunter, Commanding Kansas Department:

It is the intention of the Government to order me to report to you for an active winter’s campaign. They have ordered General Denver to another department. They have ordered to report to you eight regiments cavalry, three of infantry, and three batteries, in addition to your present force. They have also ordered you, in conjunction with the Indian Department, to organize 4,000 Indians. Mr. Doles, Commissioner, will come out with me.

J. H. Lane.

Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 482.

[548]

It being the intention of the Gov’t of the United States to take into its military service 4000 Indians from the borders of Kansas and Missouri, to be organized under Major Gen^l Hunter, you are hereby made acquainted therewith. The different Agents in your superintendency will be instructed direct from this Office to use their best endeavors to engage the above number of Indians, taking care that those so engaged are capable of good service and are well affected towards this Government.

All the operations in this behalf should be conducted with dispatch and as much secrecy as the nature of the measure will admit of.

I understand that the Government proposes to equalize the pay of these Indian volunteers with that of other volunteers, but giving the chiefs an additional compensation. Each man will receive a blanket, and those not having arms of their own will be provided by the Government. Their subsistence will be the same as that provided in Revised Regulations No. 5, Section 39 of this Bureau, or the army subsistence, whatever that may be. Where any of the Indians, thus engaged, shall die or be killed whilst in service, their pay will be given over to their families—Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, pp. 211-212.

[549] —Ibid., 215-216.

[550] Farnsworth wrote on the 21st, acknowledging Dole’s letter of the sixth and saying,

Its contents has been explained to two trusty Indians, who will keep the matter entirely secret until the time for public action comes. I have sent for the Indians to come in. I think they will all be here by the 30th or 31st of this month. I will enroll them as soon as possible. I think I shall be able to enlist about 150 vigorous warriors....—General Files, Kickapoo, 1855-1862, F335.

[551]

Your communication to this office of the 31st December last has been received enclosing a letter which was brought to you by a messenger from the South, as you were holding a Council with the Delaware Chiefs of your Agency, and which letter you desired to be laid before the President of the United States. Your communication also represented the readiness of the Delawares and all the other Western tribes to engage in military service on the side of the Government against the rebel States.

With reference to all these Subjects, you will have an opportunity of conferring with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (who has perused your letter in person) at Leavenworth City, for which destination he left this City on Sunday last on public business.—Charles E. Mix, acting commissioner, to F. Johnson, January 21, 1862 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, p. 268].

[552] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, pp. 26, 147-148.

[553]

I have the honor to inform you that Capt. J. W. Turner, Chief Commissary of Subsistence of the Department, has just returned from the encampments of the loyal Indians, on the Verdigris river, and in its vicinity. Having made arrangements for subsisting these unfortunate refugees until the 15th day of the present month.

In the neighborhood of Belmont and Roe’s Fort, there were, at the time Capt. Turner left, about four thousand five hundred Indians, chiefly Creeks and Seminoles. But their number was being constantly augmented by the arrival of fresh camps, tribes and families.

Their condition is pictured as most wretched—destitute of clothing, shelter, fuel, horses, cooking utensils and food. This last named article was supplied by Capt. Turner in quantities sufficient to last until the 15th instant after which time, I doubt not, you will have made further arrangements for their continued subsistence.

In taking the responsibility of supplying their wants until the Indian Department could make provision for their necessities I but fulfilled a duty due to our common humanity and the cause in which the Indians are suffering. I now trust and have every confidence that under your energetic and judicious arrangements these poor people may be supplied with all they need after the 15th instant, on which day the supplies furnished by Capt. Turner will be exhausted.

I make no doubt that provision should be made for feeding, clothing and sheltering not less than six thousand Indians, and possibly as high as ten thousand, on this point however, you are doubtless better prepared to judge than myself. I only wish to urge upon you the necessity for prompt measures of relief.

P.S. Copies of the reports made by Capt. Turner and Brigade Surgeon Campbell will be furnished to you by tomorrow’s post, in view of the urgency of this case, and the fact that these Indians cannot be supplied any further than have been done from the supplies of the army, I send one copy of this letter to Topeka and the other to Leavenworth City. Fearful suffering must ensue amongst the Indians unless the steps necessary are promptly taken.

This letter was forwarded by Edw. Wolcott, at Dole’s request, to the Indian Office [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, W513].

[554] Coffin to Dole, dated Fort Roe, Verdigris River, Kansas, February 13, 1862 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1526]; Snow to Coffin, February 13, 1862 [General Files, Seminole, 1858-1869].

[555] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 148.

[556] —Ibid.

[557] Dole to Dr. Kile, February 10, 1862. [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, pp. 450-452].

[558] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 148.

[559] Congressional Globe, 37th congress, second session, p. 815.

[560] United States Statutes at Large, vol. xiii, 562.

[561] It was, however, the beginning of a great deal of graft and misuse of government funds. Citizens of Kansas, otherwise reputable, prepared to reap a rich harvest, and government officials were not at all behindhand in the undertaking. Presumably, immediately upon the departure of Hunter’s commissary from Fort Roe, the Indians began to get into the debt of the settlers and the sum of the indebtedness soon mounted up tremendously. Coffin again and again urged payment [Coffin to Dole, May 12, 1862], so did Colonel C. R. Jennison of the Seventh Regiment Kansas Volunteers, and so did General Blunt.

The act of March 3, 1862, reinforced by that of July 5, 1862 [United States Statutes at Large, vol. xii, 528] was re-enacted, in whole or in part, each year of the war [Act of March 3, 1863, United States Statutes at Large, vol. xii, 793; Act of June 25, 1864, ibid., vol. xii, 180]. In addition, special appropriations were made, like that of May 3, 1864, for the refugees.

[562] Hunter to Thomas, December 11, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 428]; McClellan to Hunter, December 11, 1861, [ibid.].

[563] Halleck to McClellan, January 20, 1862 [ibid., 509-510].

[564] Thomas to Hunter, January 24, 1862 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 525-526].

[565] —Ibid., 529-530.

[566] —Ibid.

[567] Stanton had become Secretary of War, January 15, 1862. On the real reasons for Cameron’s retirement, see Welles’ Diary, vol. i, 57.

[568] Lincoln to Stanton, January 31, 1862 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 538].

[569] Lincoln to Hunter and Lane, February 10, 1862 [ibid., 551].

[570] Hunter to Halleck, February 8, 1862 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 829-831]; Halleck to Hunter, February 13, 1862 [ibid., 554-555]; McClellan to Halleck, February 13, 1862 [ibid., 555].

[571]

My object more particularly in writing to you to-night is on account of the orders that we learn here to-night from General Gennison to General Hunter that no Indians are to be mustered into the Service we have taken greate paines and have made flattering progress in enrooling them according to the orders of your Selfe and General Hunter nearly all of them set apart 10 Dollars out of their wages pr month for their families and many that have no families leave it in the hands of the Agents for their benefit after the war is over and they are burning with revenge and spiling for a fight and I have no dout at all but they would doo good Service there are two amongst them at least perhaps many more that I think would make good Commanders Billy Bowlegs & Little Captain the latter a Creek that commands in all the Late Battles and they suposed that he was killed but he got in a few days sinc Billy has also recently arivd I am fully of the opinion that these Indians at least two Thousand of them for such a campaigne as they are designed for or the one is suposed to be that is to go South from here are as well calculated for as any Troops that could be selected and it will make great trouble with them as they have their harts set upon it and will be most cruelly disappointed if not permettd to go and they should be got back as soon as posabl to their homes as the planting season is near and if they do not get there in time for putting in a crop the present Spring it looks like they will have to be suportd by the Government til August 1863 or til a crop can be maturd nex year which could not be sooner than August this would entail a heavy expense upon the Indian department that I would like to be avoidd I have had an Interview with General Gennison and he is very sure that if they would arm these Indians and give him three thousd other Troops he could put those Indians into their homes in time for a crop this year all here are very much disappointed and mortified at the course things are for their families will be no small Item in lessening the expense of Subsisting them which with all the Economy we can use will be very large.—Coffin to Dole, dated Humboldt, Kansas, February 28, 1862 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1541].

Since writing you from Humboldt Dr. Kile & my selfe have visited Fort Roe to make arrangements for moving the Indians to the Neosho on getting there we found that about 1500 of them had left for this place they left Saturday noon it turned cold Saturday night and commenced snowing and snowed hard most of the day Sunday and last night was the coldest of the season the Indians all got to timber Saturday night to camp and remained in camp Sunday but most of them ware on the Road to day tho it was too coald to travel in the fix they are in I saw many of them barefooted and many more that the feett was a small part of them that was bare, these people realy seem to be doomd to suffer for this Loyalty beyond measure, the goods and shoes ordered by Dr. Kile and an order sent by myselfe before Kile’s arival have not yet reached here. Kile remained at Fort Roe to Settle and close up business there and assist in the araingements for starting them from there and I came on to se to those on the way and make araengments for taking care of them when they get here I found many of them Sick and not able to leave camp till teams are sent to them to aid them. We find that we cannot move them with less than about three Teams to the Hundred and it may overrun that the weather is moderating now and we shall make a vigorous effort to move them as quick as possible, we find it very dificult to get Teams on government vouchers and may not be able to move them in a reasonable time on that account the funds I brot down three Thousand Dollars was nearly exausted before Kile arived we are now nearly destitute of money if I find it as dificult around here to get teams as I have between here and the fort I shall make an effort to raise some funds for that purpose tomorrow with what success remains to be seen we have kept them pretty well suplied with Something to eat so far but that is all we can bost of, iff we ware to say they ware well clothed there would be ten thousand square ft of nakedness gaping forth its contradiction; they have been out of Tobacco for Several days and I doo think one days experience in camp would convince the most skeptical that with Indians at least the weed is a necessity, the Indians of all tribs held a grand council last Thursday at Fort Roe in regard to the war, at which they determined with great unanimity to gather up and arm as best they could, all there able bodied men and go down with the army on their own hook and aid in driving out the Rebels from their homes in time to plant a crop for this season and then gather all the Ponies they can and they think they can capture enough from the Rebels with what they have to come up for their families. Cannot the Government aid so Laudible an enterprise as that at least with a few guns and some amunition they appear to be in good earnest and are feeding up the best of their Ponies for the Trip....—Coffin to Dole, dated Leroy, March 3, 1862 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1544].

[572] Letter of January 28, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 534].

[573]

I have a despatch from Secretary Smith saying that the Secretary of War is opposed to mustering the Indians into the service, and that he would see the President and settle the matter that day (Feb. 6).

This as you will see disarranges all my previous arrangements, and devolves upon me the necessity of revoking my orders to you to proceed with the agents, to organize the loyal Indians in your Superintendency into companies preparatory to their being mustered into the service by Gen. Hunter. I have now to advise that you explain fully to the Chiefs that no authority has yet been received from Washington authorizing their admission into the army of the United States; but I would, at the same time advise that you proceed to ascertain what number are able and willing to join our army, and that you so far prepare them for the service as you can consistently do, without committing the Government to accept them, as I still hope for the power to get these refugees if no others, into the service, it being one, and as I think, the best means of providing for their necessities....—Dole to Coffin, February 11, 1862 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, p. 448].