[Footnote 735:  June 9, orders issued redistricting Schofield’s Department of Missouri [Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 315].]

[Footnote 736:  Confederate Records, chap. 2, no. 270, p. 34.]

[Footnote 737:  Steele to Blair, February 10, 1863, Ibid., 87-88.]

[Footnote 738:  Steele to Anderson, February 8, 1863, Ibid., 81-82.]

[Footnote 739:  Duval to Cabell, May 15, 1863, Ibid., 244-245.]

[Footnote 740:  Steele to Cabell, March 19, 1863, Ibid., 148.]

[Footnote 741:  Steele to Anderson, March 22, 1863, Ibid., 158.]

nearly empty.[742] It was not possible for him to furnish corn for seed or, finally, the necessaries of life to indigent Indians.  Indian affairs complicated, his situation tremendously.[743] He could get no funds and no

[Footnote 742:  Steele to Anderson, April 3, 1863, Confederate Records, 179-180.]

[Footnote 743:  For instance the officers of the First Cherokee regiment had a serious dispute as to the ranking authority among them [Ibid., Letter from Steele, March 14, 1863, p. 143].  The following letters indicate that there were other troubles and other tribes in trouble also: 

(a)

“Your communication of 13 Inst. is to hand.  I am directed by the Commanding Gen’l to express to you his warmest sympathy in behalf of your oppressed people, and his desire and determination to do all that may be in his power to correct existing evils and ameliorate the condition of the loyal Cherokees.  The Gen’l feels proud to know that a large portion of your people, actuated by a high spirit of patriotism, have shown themselves steadfast and unyielding in their allegiance to our Government notwithstanding the bitter hardships and cruel ruthless outrages to which they have been subjected.

“It is hoped that the time is not very far distant, when your people may again proudly walk their own soil, exalted in the feeling, perhaps with the consciousness that our cruel and cowardly foe has been adequately punished and humiliated.

“Your communication has been ford. to Lt Gen’l Holmes with the urgent request that immediate steps be taken to bring your people fully within the pale of civilized warfare.

“It is hoped that there may be no delay in a matter so vitally important.

“We are looking daily for the arrival of Boats from below with corn, tis the wish of the Gen’l that the necessitous Indians sh’d be supplied from this place.  Boats w’d be sent farther up the river, were we otherwise circumstanced.  As it is the Boats have necessarily to run the gauntlet of the enemy—­The Gen’l however hopes to be able to keep the River free to navigation until a sufficient supply of corn to carry us through the winter can be accumulated at this place.

“You will receive notice of the arrival of corn so that it may be conveyed to the Indians needing it.”—­CROSBY to Stand Watie, commanding First Cherokee Regiment, February 16, 1863, Ibid., pp. 91-93.