[Footnote 280:  (cont.) directed his mail, and sixty or seventy from Fort Scott.  His communications were held up until Coffin happened to go to Leavenworth.  Moreover, Coffin was then expecting to go soon “into the Indian country.”]

[Footnote 281:  Coffin complained that Elder neglected his duties.  It was Coffin’s intention to remove the headquarters of the Southern Superintendency from Fort Scott to Humboldt.  It would then be very convenient for Elder to report to him, especially if he would go back to his own agency headquarters and not linger, as he had been doing, at Fort Scott [Coffin to Dole, June 10, 1862, Ibid., C 1668 of 1862.]]

[Footnote 282:  Daily Conservative, May 10, 1862.]

[Footnote 283:  Weer to Doubleday, June 6, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 418; Coffin to Dole, June 17, 1862, Indian Office General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 284:  Weer was one of the men in disfavor with Governor Robinson [Daily Conservative, May 25, 1862].  He had been arrested and his reinstatement to command that came with the appearance of Blunt upon the scene was doubtless the circumstance that afforded opportunity for his appointment to the superior command of the Indian Expedition.  Sturgis had refused to reinstate him.  In December, 1861, a leave of absence had been sought by Weer, who was then with the Fourth Kansas Volunteers, in order that he might go to Washington, D.C., and be a witness in the case involving Lane’s appointment as brigadier-general [Thomas to Hunter, December 12, 1861, Congressional Globe, 37th congress, second session, part i, 128].]

[Footnote 285:  Weer to Moonlight, June 6, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 419.]

once they should be back in their own country.  They begged that some assurance be given them of continued protection against the foe and in their legal rights.  And, in the days of making preparations, they asked again and again for tangible evidence that white troops were really going to support them in the journey southward.

The main portion of the Indian Expedition auxiliary white force had all this time been more or less busy, dealing with bushwhackers and the like, in the Cherokee Neutral Lands and in the adjoining counties of Missouri.  When Blunt took command of the Department of Kansas, Colonel Frederick Salomon[286] of the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was in charge at Fort Scott and the troops there or reporting there were, besides eight companies of his own regiment, a part of the Second Ohio Cavalry under Colonel Charles Doubleday, of the Tenth Kansas Infantry under Colonel William F. Cloud, and the Second Indiana Battery.[287] Blunt’s first thought was to have Daubleday[288] lead the Indian Expedition, the auxiliary white force of which was to be selected from the regiments at Fort Scott.  Doubleday accordingly made his plans, rendezvoused his men, and arranged that the mouth of Shoal Creek should be a rallying point and temporary headquarters;[289] but events were already in train for Colonel