[Footnote 346:  J.A.  Phillips to Ross, June 26, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 450.]

[Footnote 347:  Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862, Ibid., 456.  Orders, almost identically the same, were issued to Salomon.  See Phillips to Salomon, June 27, 1862, Ibid., 452.]

his camp on Wolf Creek, therefore, he addressed a conciliatory communication[348] to the Cherokee chief, begging the favor of an interview and offering to make full reparation for any outrages or reprisals that his men, in defiance of express orders to the contrary, might have made upon the Cherokee people through whose country they had passed.[349] Weer had known for several days, indeed, ever since he first crossed the line, that the natives were thoroughly alarmed at the coming of the Indian Expedition.  They feared reprisals and Indian revenge and, whenever possible, had fled out of reach of danger, many of them across the Arkansas River, taking with them what of their property they could.[350] Weer had done his best to restrain his troops, especially the Indian, and had been very firm in insisting that no “outrages perpetrated after Indian fashion” should occur.[351]

Weer’s message to Ross was sent, under a flag of truce, by Doctor Gillpatrick, a surgeon in the Indian Expedition, who had previously served under Lane.[352] Ross’s reply,[353] although prompt, was scarcely satisfactory from Weer’s standpoint.  He refused pointblank the request for an interview and reminded Weer that the Cherokee Nation, “under the sanction and authority of the whole Cherokee people,” had made a formal alliance with the Confederate government and

[Footnote 348:  Weer to Ross, July 7, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 464.]

[Footnote 349:  That there had been outrages and reprisals, Carruth and Martin admitted but they claimed that they had been committed by white men and wrongfully charged against Indians [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, 162-163].]

[Footnote 350:  Weer to Moonlight, July 2, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 460.]

[Footnote 351:—­Ibid., 452, 456, 461.]

[Footnote 352:  Daily Conservative, December 27, 1861.]

[Footnote 353:  Ross to Weer, July 8, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 486-487; Moore, Rebellion Record, vol. v, 549.]

proposed to remain true, as had ever been its custom, to its treaty obligations.  To fortify his position, he submitted documents justifying his own and tribal actions since the beginning of the war.[354] Weer was naturally much embarrassed.  Apparently, he had had the notion that the Indians would rush into the arms of the Union with the first appearance of a Federal soldier; but he was grievously mistaken.  None the less, verbal reports that reached his headquarters on Wolf Creek restored somewhat his equanimity and gave him the impression that Ross, thoroughly anti-secessionist at heart himself, was acting diplomatically and biding his time.[355] Weer referred[356] the matter to Blunt for instructions at the very moment when Blunt, ignorant that he had already had communication with Ross, was urging[357] him to be expeditious, since it was “desirable to return the refugee Indians now in Kansas to their homes as soon as practicable.”