[Footnote 718:  Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 49.]

[Footnote 719:  Confederate Military History, vol. x, 161, 162.]

[Footnote 720:  Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 56-58.]

The second regiment, after many vicissitudes, and after having gotten rid of its unmanageable elements, notably, the Osages and the Quapaws, had become a Cherokee and the third was largely so.  That third regiment was Phillips’s own and was the only one that could claim the distinction of being disciplined and even it was exposed occasionally to the chronic weakness of all Indian soldiers, absence without leave.  The Indian, on his own business bent, was disposed to depart whenever he pleased, often, too, at times most inopportune, sometimes, when he had been given a special and particular task.  He knew not the usages of army life and really meant no offence; but, all the same, his utter disregard of army discipline made for great disorder.

It was not the chief cause of disorder, however, for that was the unreliability of the regimental officers.  The custom, from the first, had been to have the field officers white men, a saving grace; but the company officers, with few exceptions, had been Indians and totally incompetent.  Strange as it may seem, drilling was almost an unknown experience to the two regiments that had been mustered in for the First Indian Expedition.  To obviate some of the difficulties already encountered, Phillips had seen to it that the third regiment had profited by the mistakes of its forerunners.  It had, therefore, been supplied with white first lieutenants and white sergeants, secured from among the non-commissioned men of other commands.  The result had fully justified the innovation.  After long and careful observation, Phillips’s conclusion was that it was likely to be productive of irretrievable disaster and consequently an unpardonable error of judgment “to put men of poor ability in an Indian regiment.”  Primitive man has an inordinate respect for a strong

character.  He appreciates integrity, though he may not have it among his own gifts of nature.  “An Indian company improperly officered” will inevitably become, to somebody’s discomfiture, “a frightful mess.”

If any one there was so foolish as to surmise that the independent commands, northern and southern, would be given free scope to solve the problems of Indian Territory, unhampered by contingent circumstances, he was foreordained to grevious disappointment.  Indian Territory had still to subserve the interests of localities, relatively more important.  It would be so to the very end.  In and for herself, she would never be allowed to do anything and her commanders, no matter how much they might wish it otherwise—­and to their lasting honor, be it said, many of them did—­would always have to subordinate her affairs to those of the sovereign states around her; for even northern states were sovereign in practice where Indians were concerned.  General Steele was one of the men who endeavored nobly to take a large view of his responsibilities to Indian Territory.  Colonel Phillips, his contemporary in the opposite camp, was another; but both met with insuperable obstacles.  The attainment of their objects was impossible from the start.  Both men were predestined to failure.