[Footnote 844:  Blunt to Schofield, August 27, 1863, Ibid., part i, 597.  He thought, however, that Stand Watie was with Steele but he was not.  He was absent on a scout [Steele to Boggs, August 30, 1863, Ibid., part ii, 984].]

[Footnote 845:  Steele to Snead, September 11, 1863, Ibid., part ii, 1012.]

towards Fort Smith.[846] It was Fort Smith that now engaged Blunt’s attention and thither he directed his steps, Colonel W.F.  Cloud[847] of the Second Kansas Cavalry, who, acting under orders from General McNeil,[848] had cooeperated with him at Perryville, being sent on in advance.  Fort Smith surrendered with ease, not a blow being struck in her defence;[849] but there was Cabell yet to be dealt with.

Steele’s conduct, his adoption of the Fabian policy, severely criticized in some quarters, in Indian Territory, in Arkansas, in Texas, had yet been condoned and, indeed, approved[850] by General Kirby Smith, the

[Footnote 846:  Cabell’s brigade, as already indicated, had had to be sent back “to avoid the contagion of demoralization.” [Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 983; Steele to Snead, September 11, 1863, Ibid., 1012].]

[Footnote 847:  Cloud had arrived at Fort Gibson, August 21 [Cloud to McNeil, August 22, 1863, Ibid., 466].]

[Footnote 848:  John McNeil was commanding the District of Southwestern Missouri.  The orders originated with Schofield [Ibid., part i, 15].]

[Footnote 849:  Cabell had taken a position on the Poteau.  Steele had been much averse to his running the risk of having himself shut up in Fort Smith [Steele to Cabell, September 1, 1863, Ibid., part ii, 987].]

[Footnote 850:  “The general commanding is satisfied that the Fabian policy is the true one to adopt when not well satisfied that circumstances warrant a different course...” [G.M.  Bryan to Steele, September 8, 1863, Ibid., 999].  Smith believed in “abandoning a part to save the whole” [Letter to General R. Taylor, September 3, 1863, Ibid., 989]; but President Davis and men of the states interested had impressed it upon him that that would never do.  It must have been with some idea of justifying Steele’s procedure in mind that Smith wrote to Stand Watie, September 8th [Ibid., 999-1000].  Watie had lodged a complaint with him, August 9th, against the Confederate subordination of the Indian interests.  To that Smith replied in words that must have made a powerful appeal to the Cherokee chief, who had already, in fact on the selfsame day that he wrote to Smith, made an equally powerful one to his own tribe and to other tribes.  Watie’s appeal will be taken up later, the noble sounding part of Smith’s may as well find a place for quotation here.

“I know that your people have cause for complaint.  Their sufferings and the apparent ill-faith of our Government would naturally produce dissatisfaction.  That your patriotic band of followers deserve the thanks of our Government I know.  They have won the respect and esteem of our people (cont.)]