[Footnote 265:  Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States, vol. v, 285.]

[Footnote 266:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 819-823.]

[Footnote 267:  This situation, so eminently satisfactory to John Ross, did not continue long, however, and on May 10, the Cherokee Principal Chief had occasion to complain that his country had been practically divested of a protecting force and, at the very moment, too, when the Federals were showing unwonted vigor near the northeastern border [Ross to Davis, May 10, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 824-825].]

if they can be allowed to send a strong party and capture any trains on their way from Kansas to New Mexico, to which I have no objection.  To go on the war-path somewhere else is the best way to keep them from troubling Texas ...

Stand Watie’s scouting had brought him, April 26,[268] into a slight action with men of the First Battalion First Missouri Cavalry at Neosho, in the vicinity of which place he lingered many days and where his men[269] again fought, in conjunction with Colonel Coffee’s, May 31.[270] The skirmish of the later date was disastrous to the Federals under Colonel John M. Richardson of the Fourteenth Missouri State Militia Cavalry and proved to be a case where the wily and nimble Indian had taken the Anglo-Saxon completely by surprise.[271] From Neosho, Stand Watie moved down, by slow and destructive stages, through Missouri and across into Indian Territory.  His next important engagement was at Cowskin Prairie, June 6.

Meanwhile, the organization of the Indian Expedition, or Indian Home Guard, as it was henceforth most commonly styled, was proceeding apace.[272] The

[Footnote 268:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 61-63; Britton, Civil War on the Border, vol. i, 281-282.]

[Footnote 269:  Stand Watie’s whole force was not engaged and he, personally, was not present.  Captain Parks led Watie’s contingent and was joined by Coffee.]

[Footnote 270:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 90-92, 94-95.]

[Footnote 271:—­Ibid., 92-94, 409.  Watie, although not present, seems to have planned the affair [Ibid., 95].  Lieutenant-colonel Mills, who reported upon the Neosho engagement, was of the opinion that “the precipitate flight” of the Federals could be accounted for only upon the supposition that the “screaming and whooping of the Indians” unnerved them and “rendered their untrained horses nearly unmanageable.”—­Ibid., 93.]

[Footnote 272:  The progress in organization is indicated by these communications to the Indian Office: 

(a).

The enrollment, organizing etc. etc. of the Indians, and preparations for their departure, are progressing satisfactorily, though as I anticipated, it will be difficult to raise two Regiments, and I have some fears of our success in getting the full number for the 2nd Regiment.  But if we get one full company of Delawares and Shawnees, (cont.)]