[Footnote 362:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 473.]

afterwards, that the whole affair had been arranged for beforehand and that victor and victim had been in collusion with each other all the way through.

Up to this point the Indian Expedition can be said to have met with more than a fair measure of success; but its troubles were now to begin or rather to assert themselves; for most of them had been present since the very beginning.  Fundamental to everything else was the fact that it was summer-time and summer-time, too, in a prairie region.  Troops from the north, from Wisconsin and from Ohio, were not acclimated and they found the heat of June and July almost insufferable.  There were times when they lacked good drinking water, which made bad matters worse.  The Germans were particularly discontented and came to despise the miserable company in which they found themselves.  It was miserable, not so much because it was largely Indian, but because it was so ill-equipped and so disorderly.  At Cowskin Prairie, the scouts had to be called in, not because their work was finished, but because they and their ponies were no longer equal to it.[363] They had played out for the simple reason that they were not well fitted out.  The country east of Grand River was “very broken and flinty and their ponies unshod.”  It has been claimed, although maybe with some exaggeration, that not “a single horse-shoe or nail” had been provided for Colonel Salomon’s brigade.[364]

The supplies of the Indian Expedition were insufficient and, although at Spavinaw Creek Colonel Watie’s entire commissary had been captured[365] and Clarkson’s at Locust Grove, there was great scarcity.  Weer had

[Footnote 363:  Official Records, vol. xiii, 460.]

[Footnote 364:  Love, Wisconsin in the War of Rebellion, 580.]

[Footnote 365:  Anderson, Life of General Stand Watie, 19.]

been cautioned again and again not to cut himself off from easy communication with Fort Scott.[366] He had shown a disposition to wander widely from the straight road to Fort Gibson; but Blunt had insisted that he refrain altogether from making excursions into adjoining states.[367] He had himself realized the shortness of his provisions and had made a desperate effort to get to the Grand Saline so as to replenish his supply of salt at the place where the Confederates had been manufacturing that article for many months.  He had known also that for some things, such as ordnance stores, he would have to look even as far as Fort Leavenworth.[368]

The climax of all these affairs was reached July 18, 1862.  On that day, Frederick Salomon, colonel of the First Brigade, took matters into his own hands and arrested his superior officer.  It was undoubtedly a clear case of mutiny[369] but there was much to be said in extenuation of Salomon’s conduct.  The reasons for his action, as stated in a pronunciamento[370] to his associates in command and as submitted to General Blunt[371] are here given.  They speak for themselves.