(b).

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, C.N.  PARK HILL, April 10th, 1862.

SIR:  I beg leave to thank you for your kind response to my letter of the 22nd ulto and your order stationing Col.  Drew’s Regiment in this vicinity.  Though much reduced by furloughs in number it will be useful for the particular purposes for which it was ordered here.  The unprotected condition of the country however is a source of general anxiety among the People, who feel that they are liable to be overrun at any time by small parties from the U.S.  Army which remains in the vicinity of the late Battle Ground.  This is more particularly the case since the removal of the Confederate Forces under your command and those under Major Gen’l Price.  Without distrusting the wisdom that has prompted these movements, or the manifestation of any desire on my part to enquire into their policy it will be nevertheless a source of satisfaction to be able to assure the people of the country that protection will not be withheld from them and that they will not be left to their own feeble defense.  Your response is respectfully requested, I have the honor to be Sir with high regards, Your Obt Servt.  JOHN ROSS, Prin’l Chief, Cherokee Nation.

To Brig.  Gen’l A. Pike Com’dg, Department Indian Territory, Head Qrs. 
Choctaw Nation.]

skirmishing.  So kindly did the Indians take to that work that Colonel Cooper recommended[264] their employment as out-and-out guerrillas.  That was on May 6 and was probably suggested by the fact that, on April 21, the Confederate government had definitely authorized the use of partisan rangers.[265] A good understanding of Indian military activity, at this particular time, is afforded by General Pike’s report[266] of May 4,

...  The Cherokee[267] and Creek troops are in their respective countries.  The Choctaw troops are in front of me, in their country, part on this side of Boggy and part at Little Boggy, 34 miles from here.  These observe the roads to Fort Smith and by Perryville toward Fort Gibson.  Part of the Chickasaw battalion is sent to Camp McIntosh, 11 miles this side of the Wichita Agency, and part to Fort Arbuckle, and the Texan company is at Fort Cobb.

I have ordered Lieutenant-colonel Jumper with his Seminoles to march to and take Fort Larned, on the Pawnee Fork of the Arkansas, where are considerable stores and a little garrison.  He will go as soon as their annuity is paid.

The Creeks under Colonel McIntosh are about to make an extended scout westward.  Stand Watie, with his Cherokees, scouts along the whole northern line of the Cherokee country from Grand Saline to Marysville, and sends me information continually of every movement of the enemy in Kansas and Southwestern Missouri.

The Comanches, Kiowas, and Reserve Indians are all peaceable and quiet.  Some 2,000 of the former are encamped about three days’ ride from Fort Cobb, and some of them come in at intervals to procure provisions.  They have sent to me to know

[Footnote 264:  Cooper to Van Dorn, May 6, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 823-824.]