Viewed in the light of subsequent events, the journey was productive of more evil than good.  With Steele absent, the command in Indian Territory devolved upon Cooper[863] and Cooper employed the occasion to ingratiate himself with the Indians, to increase his influence with them, and to undermine the man who he still insisted had supplanted him.  When Steele returned from Texas he noticed very evident signs of insubordination.  There were times when he found it almost impossible to locate Cooper within the limits of the command or to keep in touch with him.  Cooper was displaying great activity, was making plans to recover Fort Smith, and conducting himself generally in a very independent way.  October had, however, brought a change in the status of Fort Smith; for General Smith had completely detached the commands of Indian Territory and Arkansas from each other.[864] It was not to Holmes that Steele reported thenceforth but to Smith direct.  Taken in connection with the need that soon arose, on account of the chaos in northern Texas, for McCulloch[865] to become absorbed in home affairs, the

[Footnote 862 His destination was apparently to be Shreveport, the department headquarters [Crosby to Bankhead, September 23, 1863. Confederate Records, chap. 2, no. 268. p. 251].]

[Footnote 863:  Cooper’s headquarters, in the interval, were to be at Fort Washita [Ibid.,], where a company of Bass’s regiment had been placed in garrison [Duval to Cooper, July 15, 1863, Ibid., p. 145].]

[Footnote 864:  Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 1045.]

[Footnote 865:  McCulloch was being greatly embarrassed by the rapid spread of unionist sentiment and by desertions from his army.  The expedient of furloughing was restarted to.  To his credit, be it said, that no embarrassments, no dawning of the idea that he was fighting in a failing cause, could make him forget the ordinary dictates of humanity.  His scornful repudiation of Quantrill and his methods was characteristic of the man.  For that repudiation, see, particularly, McCulloch to Turner, October 22, 1863, Ibid., vol. xxvi. part ii, 348.]

separation from Arkansas left Indian Territory stranded.

Fort Smith, moreover, was about to become Blunt’s headquarters and it was while he was engaged in transferring his effects from Fort Scott to that place that the massacre of Baxter Springs occurred, Blunt arriving upon the scene too late to prevent the murderous surprise having its full effect.  The Baxter Springs massacre was another guerrilla outrage, perpetrated by Quantrill and his band[866] who, their bloody work accomplished at the Federal outpost, passed on down through the Cherokee Nation, killing outright whatever Indians or negroes they fell in with.  It was their boast that they never burdened themselves with prisoners.  The gang crossed the Arkansas about eighteen miles above Fort Gibson[867] and arrived at Cooper’s camp on the Canadian, October twelfth.[868]