Included among the marauders, whose enterprises General Hindman was bent upon checking, were Doubleday’s men; for, as General Curtis shrewdly surmised,[325] some inkling of Doubleday’s contemplated maneuvers had most certainly reached Little Rock.  Subsequently, when the Indian Expedition was massing at Baxter Springs, more vigorous measures than any yet taken were prepared for and all with the view of delaying or defeating it.  June 23, Pike ordered Colonel Douglas H. Cooper to repair to the country north of the Canadian River and to take command of all troops, except Jumper’s Seminole battalion, that should be there or placed there.[326] Similarly, June 26, Hindman, in ignorance of Pike’s action, assigned Colonel J.J.  Clarkson[327] to the supreme command, under

[Footnote 322:  (cont.) remaining 150 miles south of the Kansas line throwing up intrenchments.” [Official Records, vol. xiii, 837].]

[Footnote 323:  Hindman to Pike, May 31, 1862 [Ibid., 934].]

[Footnote 324:  Pike to Hindman, June 8, 1862 [Ibid., 936-943].]

[Footnote 325:—­Ibid., 398, 401.]

[Footnote 326:  General Orders, Ibid., 839, 844-845.]

[Footnote 327:  Of Clarkson, Pike had this to say:  “He applied to me while raising his force for orders to go upon the Santa Fe’ road and intercept trains.  I wrote him that he could have such orders if he chose to come here, and the next I heard of him he wrote for ammunition, and, I learned, was going to make (cont.)]

Pike, “of all forces that now are or may hereafter be within the limits of the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole countries."[328] As fate would have it, Clarkson was the one of these two to whom the work in hand first fell.

The Indian Expedition was prepared to find its way contested; for its leaders believed Rains,[329] Coffey, and Stand Watie to be all in the immediate vicinity, awaiting the opportunity to attack either singly or with combined forces; but, except for a small affair between a reconnoitering party sent out by Salomon and the enemy’s pickets,[330] the march was without incident worth recording until after Weer had broken camp at Cowskin Prairie.  Behind him the ground seemed clear enough, thanks to the very thorough scouting that had been done by the Indians of the Home Guard regiments, some of whom, those of Colonel Phillips’s command, had been able to penetrate Missouri.[331] Of conditions ahead of him, Weer was not so sure and he was soon made aware of the near presence of the foe.

Colonel Watie, vigilant and redoubtable, had been on the watch for the Federals for some time and, learning of their approach down the east side of Grand River, sent two companies of his regiment to head off their advance guard.  This was attempted in a surprise movement at Spavinaw Creek and accomplished with some measure of success.[332] Colonel Clarkson was at

[Footnote 327:  (cont.) forays into Missouri.  I had no ammunition for that business.  He seized 70 kegs that I had engaged of Sparks in Fort Smith, and soon lost the whole and Watie’s also.  Without any notice to me he somehow got in command of the northern part of the Indian country over two colonels with commissions nine months older than his.”—­Pike to Hindman, July 15, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 858.]