Part 15 (1/2)

[Footnote 276: Office letter of June 5, 1861.]

[Footnote 277: Mix to Branch, March 1, 1862, Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 67.]

[Footnote 278: Coffin to Dole, February 28, 1862, Ibid., General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1541 of 1862.]

[Footnote 279: Elder to Dole, May 16, 1862, Ibid., Neosho, E 106 of 1862.]

[Footnote 280: Coffin was spending a good deal of his time at Leroy.

Leroy was one hundred twenty-five miles, so Elder computed, from Leavenworth, where he (cont.)]

of Coffin[281] were equally plausible and the request for transfer refused.

The outfit for the Indians of the Home Guard was decidedly inferior.

Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la wanted batteries, ”wagons that shoot.”[282] His braves, many of them, were given guns that were worthless, that would not shoot at all.[283] In such a way was their eagerness to learn the white man's method of fighting and to acquire his discipline rewarded.

The fitting out was done at Humboldt, although Colonel William Weer[284] of the Tenth Kansas Infantry, who was the man finally selected to command the entire force, would have preferred it done at Fort Scott.[285] The Indians had a thousand and one excuses for not expediting matters. They seemed to have a deep-seated distrust of what the Federal intentions regarding them might be when

[Footnote 280: (cont.) directed his mail, and sixty or seventy from Fort Scott. His communications were held up until Coffin happened to go to Leavenworth. Moreover, Coffin was then expecting to go soon ”into the Indian country.”]

[Footnote 281: Coffin complained that Elder neglected his duties. It was Coffin's intention to remove the headquarters of the Southern Superintendency from Fort Scott to Humboldt. It would then be very convenient for Elder to report to him, especially if he would go back to his own agency headquarters and not linger, as he had been doing, at Fort Scott [Coffin to Dole, June 10, 1862, Ibid., C 1668 of 1862.]]

[Footnote 282: _Daily Conservative_, May 10, 1862.]

[Footnote 283: Weer to Doubleday, June 6, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 418; Coffin to Dole, June 17, 1862, Indian Office General Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 284: Weer was one of the men in disfavor with Governor Robinson [_Daily Conservative_, May 25, 1862]. He had been arrested and his reinstatement to command that came with the appearance of Blunt upon the scene was doubtless the circ.u.mstance that afforded opportunity for his appointment to the superior command of the Indian Expedition. Sturgis had refused to reinstate him. In December, 1861, a leave of absence had been sought by Weer, who was then with the Fourth Kansas Volunteers, in order that he might go to Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., and be a witness in the case involving Lane's appointment as brigadier-general [Thomas to Hunter, December 12, 1861, _Congressional Globe_, 37th congress, second session, part i, 128].]

[Footnote 285: Weer to Moonlight, June 6, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 419.]

once they should be back in their own country. They begged that some a.s.surance be given them of continued protection against the foe and in their legal rights. And, in the days of making preparations, they asked again and again for tangible evidence that white troops were really going to support them in the journey southward.

The main portion of the Indian Expedition auxiliary white force had all this time been more or less busy, dealing with bushwhackers and the like, in the Cherokee Neutral Lands and in the adjoining counties of Missouri. When Blunt took command of the Department of Kansas, Colonel Frederick Salomon[286] of the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was in charge at Fort Scott and the troops there or reporting there were, besides eight companies of his own regiment, a part of the Second Ohio Cavalry under Colonel Charles Doubleday, of the Tenth Kansas Infantry under Colonel William F. Cloud, and the Second Indiana Battery.[287] Blunt's first thought was to have Daubleday[288] lead the Indian Expedition, the auxiliary white force of which was to be selected from the regiments at Fort Scott. Doubleday accordingly made his plans, rendezvoused his men, and arranged that the mouth of Shoal Creek should be a rallying point and temporary headquarters;[289] but events were already in train for Colonel

[Footnote 286: Salomon was born in Prussia in 1826 [Rosengarten, _The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States_, 150]. He had distinguished himself in some of the fighting that had taken place in Missouri in the opening months of the war and, when the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry, composed solely of German-Americans, had been recruited, he was called to its command [Love, _Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion_, 578].]

[Footnote 287: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 371-372, 377.]

[Footnote 288: for an account of Doubleday's movements in April that very probably gained him the place, see Britton, _Civil War on the Border_, vol. i, 296.]

[Footnote 289: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 397, 408.]

Weer to supersede him and for his own a.s.signment to the Second Brigade of the expedition.

Previous to his supersedure by Weer, Doubleday conceived that it might be possible to reach Fort Gibson with ease,[290] provided the attempt to do so should be undertaken before the various independent secessionist commands could unite to resist.[291] That they were planning to unite there was every indication.[292] Doubleday[293] was especially desirous of heading off Stand Watie who was still hovering around in the neighborhood of his recent adventures, and was believed now to have an encampment on Cowskin Prairie near Grand River.

Accordingly, on the morning of June 6, Doubleday started out, with artillery and a thousand men, and, going southward from Spring River, reached the Grand about sundown.[294] Watie was three miles away and, Doubleday continuing the pursuit, the two forces came to an engagement. It was indecisive,[295] however, and Watie slipped away under

[Footnote 290: Doubleday to Moonlight, May 25, 1862, _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 397.]

[Footnote 291: Doubleday to Blunt, June 1, 1862, Ibid., 408.]

[Footnote 292: General Brown reported on this matter, June 2 [Ibid., 409] and June 4 [Ibid., 414], as did also General Ketchum, June 3 [Ibid., 412]. They all seem to have had some intimation that General Pike was to unite with Stand Watie as well as Coffee and others, and that was certainly General Hindman's intention. On May 31, the very day that he himself a.s.sumed command, Hindman had ordered Pike to advance from Fort McCulloch to the Kansas border. The order did not reach Pike until June 8 and was repeated June 17 [Ibid., 40].]