[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 assumed 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].]
[Footnote 293: The idea seems to have obtained among Missourians that
Doubleday was all this time inactive. They were either ignorant of or
intent upon ignoring the Indian Expedition. June 4, Governor Gamble
wrote to Secretary Stanton asking that the Second Ohio and the Ninth
Wisconsin, being at Fort Scott and unemployed, might be ordered to
report to Schofield [Ibid., 414, 438], who at the instance of
politicians and contrary to the wishes of Halleck [Ibid., 368]
had been given an independent command in Missouri.]
[Footnote 294: Doubleday to Weer, June 8, 1862 [Ibid., 102].]
[Footnote 295: Doubleday reported to Weer that it was a pronounced
success, so did Blunt to Schofield [Ibid., 427]; but subsequent
events showed that it was (cont.)]
cover of the darkness. Had unquestioned success crowned Doubleday's
efforts, all might have been well; but, as it did not, Weer, who had
arrived at Fort Scott[296] a few days before and had been annoyed
to find Doubleday gone, ordered him peremptorily to make no further
progress southward without the Indians. The Indian contingent had in
reality had a set-back in its preparations. Its outfit was incomplete
and its means for transportation not forthcoming.[297] Under such
circumstances, Weer advised the removal of the whole concern to Fort
Scott, but that was easier said than done, inasmuch, as before any
action was taken, the stores were _en route_ for Humboldt.[298]
Nevertheless, Weer was determined to have the expedition start before
Stand Watie could be reinforced by Rains.[299] Constant and insistent
were the reports that the enemy was massing its forces to destroy the
Indian Expedition.[300]
[Footnote 295: (cont.) anything but that and the _Daily
Conservative_ tried to fix the blame upon Weer [Weer to Moonlight,
June 23, 1862, Ibid., 446]. The newspaper account of the whole
course of affairs may be given, roughly paraphrased, thus: Doubleday,
knowing, perhaps, that Weer was to supersede him and that his time for
action was short, "withdrew his detachment from Missouri, concentrated
them near Iola, Kansas, and thence directed them to march to the
mouth of Shoal Creek, on Spring River, himself taking charge of the
convoying of a train of forty days supplies to the same place ..." He
arrived June 4. Then, "indefatigible in forwarding the preparations
for a blow upon the camp of organization which the rebels had occupied
unmolested on Cowskin Prairie," he made his plans for further advance.
At that moment came the news that Weer had superseded him and had
ordered him to stop all movement south. He disregarded the order and
struck, even though not fully prepared [_Daily Conservative_,
June 13, 1862].]
[Footnote 296: Weer to Moonlight, June 5, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 418.]
[Footnote 297:--Ibid.; Weer to Doubleday, June 6, 1862,
Ibid., 418-419.]
[Footnote 298: Weer to Moonlight, June 13, 1862, Ibid., 430.]
[Footnote 299: Same to same, June 7, 1862, Ibid., 422.]
[Footnote 300: The destruction of the Indian Expedition was most
certainly the occasion for the massing, notwithstanding the fact that
Missourians were apprehensive for the safety of their state only and
wanted to have Weer's white troops diverted to its defence. Curtis,
alone, of the commanders in Missouri seems to have surmised rightly in
the matter [Curtis to Schofield, Ibid., 432].]
Weer, therefore, went on ahead to the Osage Catholic Mission and
ordered the Fort Scott troops to meet him there. His purpose was to
promote the enlistment of the Osages, who were now abandoning the
Confederate cause.[301] He would then go forward and join Doubleday,
whom he had instructed to clear the way.[302]
Weer's plans were one thing, his embarrassments, another. Before the
middle of June he was back again at Leroy,[303] having left Salomon
and Doubleday[304] at Baxter Springs on the west side of Spring
River in the Neutral Lands, the former in command. Weer hoped by his
presence at Leroy to hurry the Indians along; for it was high time the
expedition was started and he intended to start it, notwithstanding
that many officers were absent from their posts and the men of
the Second Indian Regiment not yet mustered in. It was absolutely
necessary, if anything were going to be done with Indian aid, to get
the braves away from under the influence of their chiefs, who were
bent upon delay and determent. By the sixteenth he had the warriors
all ready at Humboldt,[305] their bullet-proof medicine taken, their
grand war dance indulged in. By the twenty-first, the final packing
up began,[306] and it was not long thereafter before the Indian
Expedition, after having experienced so many vicissitudes, had
definitely materialized and was on its way south. Accompanying Weer
were the Reverend Evan Jones, entrusted with
[Footnote 301: Weer to Moonlight, June 13, 1862.]
[Footnote 302: Weer to Doubleday, June 6, 1862.]
[Footnote 303: Weer to Moonlight, June 13, 1862.]
[Footnote 304: On the twentieth, General Brown requested Salomon to
send Doubleday to southwest Missouri [_Official Records_, vol.
xiii, 440] and Salomon so far complied with the request as to post
some companies of Doubleday's regiment, under Lieutenant-colonel
Ratliff, at Neosho [Ibid., 445, 459].]
[Footnote 305:--Ibid., 434.]
[Footnote 306:--Ibid., 441.]
a confidential message[307] to John Ross, and two special Indian
agents, E.H. Carruth, detailed at the instance of the Indian Office,
and H.W. Martin, sent on Coffin's own responsibility, their particular
task being to look out for the interests and welfare of the Indians
and, when once within the Indian Territory, to take careful stock of
conditions there, both political and economic.[308] The Indians were
in fine spirits and, although looking
[Footnote 307: The message, addressed to "Mutual Friend," was an
assurance of the continued interest of the United States government
in the inhabitants of Indian Territory and of its determination to
protect them [Coffin to Ross, June 16, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1684].]
[Footnote 308: "... You will assure all loyal Indians in the Indian
Territory of the disposition and the ability of the Government of the
United States to protect them in all their rights, and that there is
no disposition on the part of said government to shrink from any of
its Treaty Obligations with all such of the Indian Tribes, who
have been, are now, and remaining loyal to the same. Also that the
government will, at the earliest practicable period, which is
believed not to be distant, restore to all loyal Indians the rights,
privileges, and immunities, that they have enjoyed previous to the
present unfortunate rebellion.
"If, during the progress of the Army you should find Indians in a
suffering condition whose loyalty is _beyond doubt_, you will,
on consultation with the officers, render such assistance, as you may
think proper, with such aid as the officers may render you.
"You will carefully look into the condition of the country, ascertain
the quantity of Stock, Hogs, and Cattle, also the quantity of Corn,
wheat etc. which may be in the hands of the loyal Indians, and the
amount of the crops in the ground the present season, their condition
and prospects.
"You are requested to communicate with me at this office at every
suitable opportunity on all the above mentioned points, in order to
enable me to keep the Hon. Com'r of Indian Aff'rs well advised of the
condition of affairs in the Indian Territory, and that the necessary
steps may be taken at the earliest possible moment, consistent with
safety and economy, to restore the loyal Indians now in Kansas to
their homes.
"Should any considerable number of the Indians, now in the Army,
remain in the Indian Territory, or join you from the loyal Indians,
now located therein you will very probably find it best, to remain
with them, until I can get there with those, who are now here. But of
these matters you will be more able to judge on the ground."--Extract
from Coffin's instructions to Carruth, June 16, 1862, Ibid.,
Similar instructions, under date of June 23, 1862, were sent to H.W.
Martin.]
somewhat ludicrous in their uniforms,[309] were not much behind their
comrades of the Ninth and Tenth Kansas[310] in earnestness and in
attention to duty.[311] Nevertheless, they had been very reluctant to
leave their families and were, one and all, very apprehensive as to
the future.
[Footnote 309: "I have just returned from Humboldt--the army there
under Col. Weer consisting of the 10th Kansas Regiment 4 Companys of
the 9th Kansas Aliens Battery of Six Tenths Parrot Guns and the first
and second Indian Regements left for the Indian Territory in good
stile and in fine spirits the Indians with their new uniforms and
small Military caps on their Hugh Heads of Hair made rather a Comecal
Ludecrous apperance they marched off in Columns of 4 a breast singing
the war song all joining in the chourse and a more animated seen is
not often witnessed. The officers in command of the Indian Regements
have labored incessantly and the improvement the Indians have made in
drilling is much greater than I supposed them capabell of and I think
the opinion and confidence of all in the eficency of the Indian
Regements was very much greater when they left than at any previous
period and I have little doubt that for the kind of service that will
be required of them they will be the most efecient troops in the
Expedition."--COFFIN to Dole, June 25, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1684.]
[Footnote 310: Weer took with him as white anxiliary "the Tenth
Kansas, Allen's battery, three companies Ninth Kansas..." [_Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 441]. It seems to have been his intention to
take the Second Kansas also; but that regiment was determined to stay
at Humboldt until it had effected a change in its colonels in favor of
Owen A. Bassett [Ibid., 434].]
[Footnote 311: Weer was disgusted with conditions surrounding his
white force. This is his complaint, on the eve of his departure:
"Commissions to officers from the Governor are pouring in daily. I am
told that the Tenth is rapidly becoming a regiment of officers. To add
to these difficulties there are continual intrigues, from colonels
down, for promotions and positions of command. Officers are leaving
their posts for Fort Leavenworth and elsewhere to engage in these
intrigues for more prominent places. The camps are filled with rumors
of the success of this or that man. Factions are forming, and a
general state of demoralization being produced..."--WEER to Moonlight,
June 21, 1862, Ibid., 441-442.]
V. THE MARCH TO TAHLEQUAH AND THE RETROGRADE MOVEMENT OF THE "WHITE
AUXILIARY"
Towards the end of June, the various elements designed to comprise the
First Indian Expedition had encamped at Baxter Springs[312] and two
brigades formed. As finally organized, the First Brigade was put under
the command of Colonel Salomon and the Second, of Colonel William
R. Judson. To the former, was attached the Second Indian Regiment,
incomplete, and, to the latter, the First. Brigaded with the Indian
regiments was the white auxiliary that had been promised and that the
Indians had almost pathetically counted upon to assist them in their
straits. Colonel Weer's intention was not to have the white and red
people responsible for the same duties nor immediately march together.
The red were believed to be excellent for scouting and, as it would
be necessary to scout far and wide all the way down into the Indian
Territory, the country being full of bushwhackers, also, most likely,
of the miscellaneous forces of General Rains, Colonel Coffee, and
Colonel Stand Watie, they were to be reserved for that work.
The forward movement of the Indian Expedition began at daybreak on the
twenty-eighth of June. It was then that the First Brigade started, its
white contingent, "two sections Indiana Battery, one battalion of
[Footnote 312: Baxter Springs was a government post, established on
Spring River in the southwest corner of the Cherokee Neutral Lands,
subsequent to the Battle of Pea Ridge [Kansas Historical Society,
_Collections_, vol. vi, 150].]
Second Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and six companies of Ninth Wisconsin
Volunteer Infantry,"[313] taking the military road across the Quapaw
Strip and entering the Indian Territory, unmolested. A day's journey
in the rear and travelling by the same route came the white contingent
of the Second Brigade and so much of the First Indian as was
unmounted.[314] Beyond the border, the cavalcade proceeded to Hudson's
Crossing of the Neosho River, where it halted to await the coming of
supply trains from Fort Scott. In the meantime, the Second Indian
Regiment, under Colonel John Ritchie, followed, a day apart, by the
mounted men of the First under Major William A. Phillips,[315] had
also set out, its orders[316] being to leave the military road and to
cross to the east bank of Spring River, from thence to march southward
and scour the country thoroughly between Grand River and the Missouri
state line.
The halt at Hudson's Crossing occupied the better part of two days and
then the main body of the Indian Expedition resumed its forward march.
It crossed the Neosho and moved on, down the west side of Grand River,
to a fording place, Carey's Ford, at which point, it passed over to
the east side of the river and camped, a short distance from the ford,
at Round Grove, on Cowskin Prairie, Cherokee ground, and the scene of
Doubleday's recent encounter with the enemy. At this
[Footnote 313: Salomon to Weer, June 30, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 458.]
[Footnote 314: James A. Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862 [_Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 456].]
[Footnote 315: William A. Phillips, a Scotsman by birth, went out to
Kansas in the autumn of 1855 as regular staff correspondent of the New
York _Tribune_ [Kansas Historical Society _Collections_,
vol. v, 100, 102]. He was a personal friend of Dana's [Britton,
_Memoirs_, 89], became with Lane an active Free State man and
later was appointed on Lane's staff [_Daily Conservative_,
January 24, 31, 1862]. He served as correspondent of the _Daily
Conservative_ at the time when that newspaper was most guilty of
incendiarism.]
[Footnote 316: James A. Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 456.]
place it anxiously awaited the return of Lieutenant-colonel Ratliff,
who had been despatched to Neosho in response to an urgency call from
General E.B. Brown in charge of the Southwestern Division of the
District of Missouri.[317]
The Confederates were still in the vicinity, promiscuously wandering
about, perhaps; but, none the less, determined to check, if possible,
the Federal further progress; for they knew that only by holding the
territorial vantage, which they had secured through gross Federal
negligence months before, could they hope to maintain intact the
Indian alliance with the Southern States. Stand Watie's home farm was
in the neighborhood of Weer's camp and Stand Watie himself was even
then scouting in the Spavinaw hills.[318]
In the latter part of May, under directions from General
Beauregard[319] but apparently without the avowed knowledge of the
Confederate War Department and certainly without its official[320]
sanction, Thomas C.
[Footnote 317: Weer to Moonlight, June 23, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 445, and same to same, July 2, 1862,
Ibid., 459-461.]
[Footnote 318: Anderson, _Life of General Stand Watie_, 18.]
[Footnote 319: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 28.]
[Footnote 320: The emphasis should be upon the word, _official_,
since the government must assuredly have acquiesced in Hindman's
appointment. Hindman declared that the Secretary of War, in
communicating on the subject to the House of Representatives, "ignored
facts which had been officially communicated to him," in order to
convey the impression that Hindman had undertaken to fill the post
of commander in the Trans-Mississippi Department without rightful
authority [Hindman to Holmes, February 8, 1863, Ibid., vol.
xxii, part 2, p. 785]. The following telegram shows that President
Davis had been apprised of Hindman's selection, and of its tentative
character.
BALDWIN, June 5, 1862.
(Received 6th.)
THE PRESIDENT:
Do not send any one just now to command the Trans-Mississippi
District. It will bring trouble to this army. Hindman has been sent
there temporarily. Price will be on to see you soon.
EARL VAN DORN, Major-General.
[Ibid., vol. lii, part 2, supplement, p. 320.]]
Hindman had assumed the command of the Trans-Mississippi
Department.[321] As an Arkansan, deeply moved by the misfortunes and
distress of his native state, he had stepped into Van Dorn's place
with alacrity, intent upon forcing everything within his reach to
subserve the interests of the Confederate cause in that particular
part of the southern world. To the Indians and to their rights,
natural or acquired, he was as utterly indifferent as were most other
American men and all too soon that fact became obvious, most obvious,
indeed, to General Pike, the one person who had, for reasons best
known to himself, made the Indian cause his own.
General Hindman took formal command of the Trans-Mississippi
Department at Little Rock, May 31. It was a critical moment and he was
most critically placed; for he had not the sign of an army, Curtis's
advance was only about thirty-five miles away, and Arkansas was yet,
in the miserable plight in which Van Dorn had left her in charge of
Brigadier-general J.S. Roane, it is true, but practically denuded of
troops. Pike was at Fort McCulloch, and he had a force not wholly to
be despised.[322] It was to him, therefore, that Hindman
[Footnote 321: _Department_ seems to be the more proper word
to use to designate Hindman's command, although _District_ and
_Department_ are frequently used interchangeably in the records.
In Hindman's time and in Holmes's, the Trans-Mississippi Department
was not the same as the Trans-Mississippi District of Department No.
2 [See Thomas Jordan, Chief of Staff, to Hindman, July 17, 1862,
_Official Records_, vol. xiii, 855]. On the very date of
Hindman's assignment, the boundaries of his command were defined as
follows:
"The boundary of the Trans-Mississippi Department will embrace the
States of Missouri and Arkansas, including Indian Territory, the
State of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, and the State of
Texas."--Ibid., 829.]
[Footnote 322: Yet Hindman did, in a sense, despise it and, from the
start, he showed a tendency to disparage Pike's abilities and efforts.
On the nineteenth of June, he reported to Adjutant-general Cooper,
among other things, that he had ordered Pike to establish his
headquarters at Fort Gibson and added, "His force does not amount to
much, but there is no earthly need of its (cont.)]
made one of his first appeals for help and he ordered him so to
dispose of his men that some of the more efficient, the white, might
be sent to Little Rock and the less efficient, the red, moved upward
"to prevent the incursions of marauding parties," from Kansas.[323]
The orders were repeated about a fortnight later; but Pike had already
complied to the best of his ability, although not without protest[324]
for he had collected his brigade and accoutered it by his own energies
and his own contrivances solely. Moreover, he had done it for the
defence of Indian Territory exclusively.
Included among the marauders, whose enterprises General Hindman was
bent upon checking, were Doubleday's men; for, as General Curtis
shrewdly surmised,[325] some inkling of Doubleday's contemplated
maneuvers had most certainly reached Little Rock. Subsequently, when
the Indian Expedition was massing at Baxter Springs, more vigorous
measures than any yet taken were prepared for and all with the view
of delaying or defeating it. June 23, Pike ordered Colonel Douglas H.
Cooper to repair to the country north of the Canadian River and to
take command of all troops, except Jumper's Seminole battalion, that
should be there or placed there.[326] Similarly, June 26, Hindman, in
ignorance of Pike's action, assigned Colonel J.J. Clarkson[327] to the
supreme command, under
[Footnote 322: (cont.) remaining 150 miles south of the Kansas line
throwing up intrenchments." [_Official Records_, vol. xiii,
837].]
[Footnote 323: Hindman to Pike, May 31, 1862 [Ibid., 934].]
[Footnote 324: Pike to Hindman, June 8, 1862 [Ibid., 936-943].]
[Footnote 325:--Ibid., 398, 401.]
[Footnote 326: General Orders, Ibid., 839, 844-845.]
[Footnote 327: Of Clarkson, Pike had this to say: "He applied to me
while raising his force for orders to go upon the Santa Fe' road and
intercept trains. I wrote him that he could have such orders if
he chose to come here, and the next I heard of him he wrote for
ammunition, and, I learned, was going to make (cont.)]
Pike, "of all forces that now are or may hereafter be within the
limits of the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole countries."[328] As fate
would have it, Clarkson was the one of these two to whom the work in
hand first fell.
The Indian Expedition was prepared to find its way contested; for its
leaders believed Rains,[329] Coffey, and Stand Watie to be all in the
immediate vicinity, awaiting the opportunity to attack either singly
or with combined forces; but, except for a small affair between a
reconnoitering party sent out by Salomon and the enemy's pickets,[330]
the march was without incident worth recording until after Weer had
broken camp at Cowskin Prairie. Behind him the ground seemed clear
enough, thanks to the very thorough scouting that had been done by the
Indians of the Home Guard regiments, some of whom, those of Colonel
Phillips's command, had been able to penetrate Missouri.[331] Of
conditions ahead of him, Weer was not so sure and he was soon made
aware of the near presence of the foe.
Colonel Watie, vigilant and redoubtable, had been on the watch for the
Federals for some time and, learning of their approach down the east
side of Grand River, sent two companies of his regiment to head off
their advance guard. This was attempted in a surprise movement at
Spavinaw Creek and accomplished with some measure of success.[332]
Colonel Clarkson was at
[Footnote 327: (cont.) forays into Missouri. I had no ammunition for
that business. He seized 70 kegs that I had engaged of Sparks in Fort
Smith, and soon lost the whole and Watie's also. Without any notice
to me he somehow got in command of the northern part of the Indian
country over two colonels with commissions nine months older than
his."--Pike to Hindman, July 15, 1862, _Official Records_, vol.
xiii, 858.]
[Footnote 328: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 845-846.]
[Footnote 329: Rains had made Tahlequah the headquarters of the Eighth
Division Missouri State Guards.--PIKE to Hindman, July 15, 1862,
Ibid., 858.]
[Footnote 330:--Ibid., vol. xiii, 458, 460.]
[Footnote 331:--Ibid., 460.]
[Footnote 332: Anderson, _Life of General Stand Watie_, 18. This
incident is most (cont.)]
Locust Grove and Weer, ascertaining that fact, prepared for an
engagement. His supplies and camp equipage, also an unutilized part of
his artillery he sent for safety to Cabin Creek, across Grand River
and Lieutenant-colonel Lewis R. Jewell of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry
he sent eastward, in the direction of Maysville, Arkansas, his
expectation being--and it was realized--that Jewell would strike
the trail of Watie and engage him while Weer himself sought out
Clarkson.[333]